GRIT: A Spartan Riders Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

she’d probably like it if you drew her a picture instead. You color better than me.”
    Twisting the last bit of noodles into a knot around his fork, Ash nodded as if agreeing with him. “You could give her flowers. Girls like flowers.”
    “I’m not giving her flowers.”
    “But flowers are a girl’s best friend.”
    Blake chuckled. “That’s diamonds, buddy.”
    “Then get her those instead.”
    Stacking Ash’s empty plate on his own, Blake rose to his feet and carried their dishes to the sink. “I don’t think so, bud.”
    “Why not?” Ash asked as he got up and dragged his step stool over, placing it beside Blake’s stocking feet and climbing up so he stood chest-high. Turning on the tap, he waited for Blake to scrub a plate and hand it over, then rinsed it under the cool water.
    “Son,” Blake said, picking up the conversation again, “I know you like Miss Gabby, but we don’t know her.”
    “I do. She’s nice and she’s pretty and she helps everybody.”
    “Okay, I don’t know her,” he clarified.
    “Then you should talk to her, silly.”
    Good Lord …Blake shut off the water and toweled his hands dry, unsure how to respond. He couldn’t very well tell him that he had talked to her and, aside from making his dick twitch, he thought she had a stick shoved up her ass so far it must be the reason her nose practically touched the clouds. Judgment and ridicule was practically tattooed across her forehead; it was so plainly written on her face. So did he want to get to know her? No. No, he didn’t.
    But he kind of did.
    He could sense where Ash was going with this, though. Choosing to ignore it, Blake scooped him under his arms, lifted him, and set him back on his feet on the floor. “Time for a bath.”
    “Awwww, but I just took one last night,” Ash whined.
    “Try two nights ago,” Blake corrected him.
    “But—”
    “No buts. Have you even looked at yourself today?” Blake motioned to his dirt encrusted, food-stained clothes that promised to become his own personal nightmare come laundry day. “You look like you took a roll in a pig trough.”
    Tilting his head, Ash asked, “What’s a pig trough?”
    Shaking his head, Blake grabbed the top of his son’s head in one large hand and turned him toward the hallway. “From the looks of it, it’s your bedroom. How do you expect to get that girl to marry you if you smell like a monkey’s butt?”
    Ash’s peals of laughter lit his heart. “You’re silly, Daddy.”
    “I’m also right.”
    Pursing his lips, Ash finally relented. “Okay. But then can I ask Marybeth to marry me?”
    Hell, who was he to stand in the way of true love? Blake chuckled to himself. “Sure, buddy, why not. Carpe diem.”
    “Carpe what?”
    “It means seize the day, but right now, I want you to seize a bath. Now go pick out some clean pajamas, and I’ll meet you in the bathroom.”
    Giving him a swift swat on the butt with the hand towel, he sent him on his way. Man, kids. Blake had only been going it alone for a few months, and already he was wondering if he’d be able to make it through the next thirteen years. Ash was a handful and a half. Between work, the club, and the kid, he was running on fumes and there was no gas station in sight. Now he finally understood why the old ladies sat around bitching so damned much about their men. Shit, it almost made him want to sit down at their table and air a few grievances of his own, but if the brothers caught wind of that, he’d never hear the end of it.
    After wiping down the dining table and turning out all the lights, Blake spent an hour drawing pictures on the bathroom tiles with soap crayons, and another hour reading bedtime stories before finally crawling into bed himself. The moment his head hit the pillow, he was out.

FOUR
     
    Grocery shopping with parents, particularly her mother, was sheer torture. It was akin to a root canal. Actually, that would have been preferable to spending the last hour and