Page 10 of Daddy's Secret (Stonebridge Daddies 3)

CHAPTER6

Something New, Something Blue~Blue

It wasmid-afternoon when I fell asleep in Hunter’s arms, and I must not have been asleep long since the sun was still hovering above the Pacific when I woke up. Hunter’s warmth was gone, but I found myself wrapped in a soft blanket that smelled slightly of cedarwood, just like Hunter, with a hint of something beachy. I pulled it up to my face to sniff it deeply and noticed that I recognized the blanket. I couldn’t believe it was here. After Ashley died, I put all her things into storage. He couldn’t bear having them in the house, but he couldn’t bring himself to sell them either.

I didn’t see any other remnants of her while I was cleaning earlier, but there was no question in my mind that this was the blanket. It was the one that Hunter always kept in his truck for Ashley and me to use on movie nights. Every Thursday, she and I would drive the truck down to the beach, pull this blanket into the bed, and curl up while they projected the movie on the big screen by the water. Hunter always said he wanted us to take the truck and the blanket so we could be comfortable and not cramped in Ashley’s little car.

But that was Hunter. He was protective and warm, which I felt even more strongly after what happened earlier. The way he took control, how he talked to me, how he touched me, and how he looked at me when he touched himself.

I thought again about the movie nights and how Ashley would have felt if she knew I was beginning a relationship with her dad, if that’s even what this was. My gut twisted with guilt, but I couldn’t banish the memory of Hunter’s hands and lips all over me. I couldn’t stop reliving the feeling of him pressing his face between my legs and sending me into spasms of ecstasy. I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t already imagining how things would go the next time he had me exposed and willing. Trying to ignore the fact that I wanted nothing more in the world than for Hunter to walk through the door, force me down onto his bed, and make me come until my body had nothing left to give was a hard feeling to shake.

I hugged the blanket to my chest one more time before climbing out of bed. Once I was dressed I walked into the hall, ready to find him, but my feet had their own plans.

I turned at the first bedroom on the left and opened the door. Bare walls greeted me, like a dorm room that hadn’t been lived in, but, as though through a filter, I could still see the homemade corkboard covered in photos of family and friends and magazine covers with her favorite celebrities.

I could see the dresser we painted together one summer with a beach scene, including a two-inch self-portrait of each of us lying on the beach–one girl with thick chestnut brown curls and the other with a delightfully frizzy mess of light brown hair. I could see the coral-pink curtains over the closet in place of a door and the designer pieces Ashely had saved up to afford with her allowance. And I could see the best friend I ever had and likely would never have again lying on her ocean-blue comforter in her bathing suit, waving at me as I walked in, ready to hit the beach.

I stood in the middle of the room, looking around at the stripped furniture and walls. It was void of all color like Hunter was afraid that leaving even a shred of Ashley in here would summon her ghost to haunt him. Not that he was doing a great job of living when he was alone. To be honest, I was surprised he was even functional. I’d expected to be holding his hair out of the toilet while he tried unsuccessfully to detox again.

But he was different this time, and I couldn’t help but think it had to do with why he asked me here, which I now knew loud and clear.

I wasn’t ready to leave her room, but I couldn’t look around at the graveyard of her life anymore, so I let my eyes drift to the window and the ocean beyond. The water was calm today, with almost no waves that I could see. It was a direct contrast to how I felt inside, with all the turmoil I was dealing with about Hunter, Ashley, and me and what it all meant.

A knock on the door startled me out of my daze, and I turned to find Hunter standing in the doorway. He was still wearing the same shirt and jeans he had on earlier, but his hair was pulled back into a bun with loose strands falling on the sides of his face. My heart began to pound in my chest, both from desire and worry. He hated the door being open at all, let alone having anyone in here, and I thought I was about to get yelled at like the little girl I used to be.

But he didn’t yell. He had a half-finished beer in one hand, which he took a slow sip of before brushing his hair back from his forehead with a small smile.

“Can you drive?”

The question was so random that I almost wasn’t sure I heard him right.

“Can I drive?” I repeated.

“Well, I know you can’t drink,” he said, laughter in his eyes for the first time in months. “Just making sure I wasn’t robbing even more from the cradle than I thought.”

I rolled my eyes but returned his grin. I opened my mouth to say something clever, but nothing came out amidst my wild and racing thoughts and feelings.

“Come with me,” Hunter said, making a beckoning gesture with two fingers, a gesture that had me thinking about what those two fingers would feel like inside me.

He was out of sight before I found my legs again, and I rushed after him. Once I caught up, he reached down and took my hand. His grip was tight like he was holding onto something precious he wasn’t willing to let go of. But the way he traced his thumb across the back of my hand was gentle and loving.

Crap. I’m done for.

My heart fluttered as he walked me outside and past his truck to the garage. He never used it for parking because the monster was too big to fit. I wasn’t sure what it was he was going to show me. Bags of cement? A new stack of two-by-fours? A bucket of shiny nails?

The door cranked upward with creaks and groans. It faced away from the setting sun, so a dark shadow blocked my view. Hunter dropped my hand and walked into the darkness. When he flipped on the light switch, he was staring expectantly at me, but my gaze was immediately drawn to the large vehicle parked in the middle of the garage.

Tears stung at the corners of my eyes. The Jeep Wrangler was a few years old but was in pristine condition. The bright blue paint job was my favorite color, and something Ashely used to tease me about incessantly.

Nothing is quite as self-absorbed as having your name match your favorite color.

She never meant it, of course. That was just her sense of humor, and you always knew when she was teasing versus when she was being genuine. She was an open book, unlike me.

“How?” I started to ask him another question, but it got lost on its way out of my mouth. “What is this?”

He smirked and drained the last of his beer.

“It’s your new car.”

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