Ruthless Love (Ash and Innocence 1)

He had brown hair that was graying at the temples, as well as a beard that was salted with gray. He had Kennedy’s eyes and her crooked smile, but the similarities seemed to stop there.

“Kennedy?” he choked out.

“Dad?”

They stared at each other for a few seconds as something unspoken passed between them. As if in silent agreement, they both rushed forward and hugged tightly. Her dad was crying, and I was pretty sure Kennedy was too, even though I couldn’t see her face.

I took a few steps back, waiting by a tree where I could keep an eye on them, but not so close that I was eavesdropping.

I watched them talk, unable to help from smiling. For a long time, he talked, and Kennedy listened, nodding and occasionally wiping at her eyes. They hugged again, and then their conversation must’ve taken a less serious turn, because they were laughing about something moments later.

After a while—I wasn’t sure how long—Kennedy got up and came to me, bouncing on her toes and smiling giddily. “He wants to thank you.” She gestured to her dad, who was still waiting on the bench.

I tried to head toward him, but Kennedy roped me into a tight hug, squeezing like she wanted to pop me. “Thank you,” she whispered into my chest. “Thank you.”

I kissed the top of her head, pulling her back so I could get a look at her. “This is about as heroic as it gets from me, Wheels. So cherish this moment.”

She gave me that crooked, half smile of hers and toyed with my shirt. “Somehow, I doubt that.”

“I won’t stop you from having an inflated opinion of me. I just wanted to give you fair warning.”

She chewed the corner of her lip, then pulled me down by the neck to kiss me. “One of these days, I’m going to help you see what a good guy you actually are. When you see yourself like I do, I think you’ll understand why it was so hard not to fall in love with you.”

I wanted to laugh her words off, but I found they struck some inner chord in me that made it hard to speak. I smiled, hoping she wouldn’t be able to tell. “I better go let your old man sing my praises, huh?”

Her dad stood and hugged me too. I rolled my eyes, patting his back awkwardly as he gave me a few tight squeezes. Apparently, spontaneous hugging was a genetically inherited trait in the Stills family.

“Alright, alright,” I said, pushing him back.

He was grinning wide. “Thank you for being there to protect my girl. She told me about what you did.”

“You don’t need to thank me. It’s not like I did it for you.”

He was still smirking. “She said you were a little bit of an asshole. But that’s okay. As long as you’re good to her, you can say whatever you want to me.”

I thought about that. It was refreshing to meet an adult who wasn’t so up their own ass that they could handle me being a dick. I had let him do almost all the talking over the phone until now, so refraining from being a jerk wasn’t as much of a challenge. After a short, internal deliberation, I decided he had won a few points with his response. “Fair enough,” I said. “And as long as you don’t turn out to be the abusive creep her mom said you were, then we can probably coexist.”

He nodded. “I know I have a lot to prove, and I don’t care how long it takes. I want to be back in her life. Yours, too, if you’re still around.”

I hadn’t been expecting that. There was an admittedly kind glint in his eye, and I couldn’t help thinking it reminded me of the way Kennedy was—the way she’d probably pick up a rabid raccoon and not worry about how many times she might get bit. She’d win it over by sheer force of will, patience, and an unwillingness to give up on it.

“Yeah,” I said distractedly. “Sounds good.”45KennedyIt was past midnight, and the sound of crunching dirt outside woke me. I sat up in bed, blinking through the grogginess and straining my ears to hear. There was a whisper of metal, a grunt, and then a noise like rocks being thrown and scattering.

Carefully, I crept toward the window, looking down on the back yard. I could just see a hint of a tall, broad figure with a shovel in the moonlight.

Tristan.

He was digging a hole in my back yard, and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know why. Actually, that was a lie. I’d always been curious to a fault, and tonight, I decided to add a little naughty adventurousness to the mix, too. I stepped out onto my roof in nothing but a bra and panties, making a careful way across the sloped surface toward him for a better look. My foot slid on one of the shingles, making a scraping noise that drew Tristan’s attention.