Page 31 of Don't Leave Me
“There you are,” he said softly.
“I have a fucking kid!” I exploded.
“I know.”
“Ash is fucking alive and she fucking runs a bakery!”
“Crazy, isn’t it?” George muttered.
I stopped as it all started to overwhelm me. My heart was racing, my hands were shaking. George was right. It was like I’d put myself in some self-induced coma because I couldn’t handle either reality. That she was alive. Or that she’d had my kid.
I turned to him. “I’m going to Florida to get my family back.”
He nodded. “I’ll be down there as soon as I can sell this place. Good luck.”
I tossed the duffel bag over my shoulder. The same words I’d told Benfield. He’d said he didn’t need luck because he was a billionaire.
Neither did I. Because I knew a fundamental truth. Ashleigh Landen was mine. She had been since I was twelve years old.
I didn’t need luck. I had her love.
* * *
Three days later
Ashleigh
I was in the back of the bakery, icing the cake I’d made for a custom order. A regular was hosting a birthday party for his wife and asked if I would do the cake.
My choice. Anything I wanted to bake. So I’d gone a little crazy with a new red velvet recipe I’d found online. For so long, I’d stuck to Helga’s play book because that’s what I knew. It was only recently, I started to have the confidence in my own skills to branch out.
I smiled at the results of my effort. “Not bad,” I said to myself.
I heard the bell over the door chime, and listened as Candy greeted the customer.
“You’re back,” she said. “Looks like we’ve got a new regular.”
I didn’t hear the customer’s response, but Candy replied, “Yeah, sure, she’s just in the kitchen.”
The door to my work area swung open and Candy popped her head inside. “Hey, Marie, hot guy from a couple of weeks ago is back and wants to chat with the baker.”
Hot guy from a couple of weeks ago?
A tingle of anticipation rippled through me, and I fought against it. He wasn’t coming. I’d all but told him I didn’t want him in my life. He had to hate me for everything I’d done. There was no reason for him to come.
Then why did I have the weird hope he would behave the way he’d always behaved when it came to me, and do his own thing, despite what I’d said?
This is why I hadn’t left. Why I couldn’t make myself run away again.
I brushed off my apron, although it was fairly clean, and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. I’d recently changed the color back to blond. It made me feel more like myself when I looked in the mirror.
I swung open the door, and there he was. Candy wasn’t wrong. He was a hot guy. My son was going to grow up to look just like him.
“Hi,” he said gruffly. “Can we talk for a minute?”
“Wait,” Candy said, looking between us. “Do you two already know each other?”
“We knew each other once upon a time,” I told her. “Can you handle the store for me?”
