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

weren’t even there.
    “The party,” Ash said. “Everyone’s gonna be there, and Daddy said I can bring a friend. So will you come?”
    Gabby blinked, her mouth gaping open. She was at a loss for words. “Well…I…uh.” She glanced up at Blake, unsure how to respond to such a sweet but entirely unexpected offer. But her unspoken plea was met with a wall of silence. “What kind of party is it?”
    “A barbeque. So are you comin’?”
    A barbeque. The mental picture Gabby got when she thought of a typical barbeque was one made up of close friends and family. And when she pictured one that involved the likes of Blake Mahone, she thought of leather, burly, uncouth men with rap sheets a mile long, and women with fake boobs and flexible legs. It wasn’t a place she imagined herself being comfortable at. Not by a long shot.
    “That’s very nice of you to invite me, Ash, but I think your dad meant for you to invite one of your friends,” she said, attempting to let him down gently.
    Ash’s expression dropped, the corners of his mouth turning down. “But you are my friend.”
    Gabby’s heart clenched, and she was fairly certain it might have cracked just a bit. Her gaze cut to Blake, unsure how to handle the situation.
    Stepping forward, Blake took his son by the shoulder and drew him back until he was once again standing at the head of the cart. “Miss Morgan is right, buddy. I meant one of your friends from school.”
    “But she is from school,” he bemoaned, which was a total dichotomy to her initial, old soul impression of him.
    “Someone more your age,” Blake clarified.
    “But you always say age is just a number, and I like her. And besides, I don’t have any friends.”
    Shoot. Gabby rose to her feet, feeling ten shades of crappy for letting the boy down, but she was already dancing the line when it came to Ash, and the less involved she was in his personal life, the better it would be for everyone involved.
    Looking over her shoulder, she caught her mother’s assessing gaze just before she turned back to the carton of Breyer’s in her hand that she was pretending to read.
    The look reminded her that he was the kind of man she’d been raised to stay far away from. The kind she’d promised herself she’d steer clear of.
                  “You can make friends at the party,” Blake assured him.
    “But they’re all babies.”
    “Jonah’s not a baby. You can hang out with him.”
    “No, I can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because Jonah’s got a girlfriend now and he says I’m a baby. I don’t even wear diapers anymore.”
    Gabby observed their exchange with interest while simultaneously wondering what the chances were that she could quietly back away unnoticed. Would that be rude? It’d probably hurt Ash’s feelings if he turned around to find her gone, especially since revealing that she was his only friend. Man, talk about tugging at the heartstrings.
    With his hands on his hips, his expression drawn, Blake wore the look of defeat as he stared down at his son. For a moment, in the absence of his hard mask, Gabby saw the look of a man who wasn’t so much impervious as he was weary. Tired. She got to wondering what his story was. Whether he was the man he presented—a tough, rugged, devil-may-care biker—or someone else entirely.
    With a heavy sigh, Blake’s head tipped back and he gazed up at the ceiling muttering something that sounded like, “I’m going to regret this.” With a stony expression he directed his clipped words to Gabby. “Miss Morgan, would you like to come to the barbeque tomorrow?”
    He couldn’t look any more pained than if he was suffering a heart attack. Gabby almost laughed out loud but just managed to hold it back. She wouldn’t want to be in his shoes, so she was choosing to be polite. “Oh, no, Mr. Mahone. I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
    The relief that washed over him was short-lived. All it took was one round-eyed, innocent look from Ash,