Quiet Man: A Dream Man Novella - Kristen Ashley Page 0,1
think on what they say about it. And only when you’re super, double, extra sure do you do it.”
“I’ve got the money—”
Smithie shook his head. “It isn’t the money, Mac. But even if you think you got the money, you don’t got the money. It’s not about the food in their bellies or the roof over their heads. It isn’t about keepin’ up with all the latest phones and kicks. It isn’t even about saving for college tuition. It’s all the shit times in life that are gonna rise up and bite you in the ass that you didn’t count on. They’re your kid. They’re gonna roll with the punches. But are you ready to say you’re in the spot you’re good to make them do that if that shit happens?”
Mac said nothing, looked to the side, then took a step that way and sat her ass down in one of the two chairs in front of his desk.
She was not ready.
At all.
She was something else.
And Smithie needed to get to the bottom of it and not to save her fantastic tits.
To save her from jumping too soon into something for which she was not ready.
He leaned forward in his chair and dropped his voice.
“There’s gonna be a mean kid in class that gets in their face. There’s gonna be a health situation that’s probably the croup or a flu that you’re not gonna understand and it’s gonna scare you shitless. Girls’ll get their hearts broken by an asshole. Boys need to learn not to be assholes. You gotta have it together, Mac. No one can be fully prepared for being a parent. But you gotta know you’re as ready as you’ll ever be.”
She held his eyes and said, “I’m ready, Smithie.”
“You’re watchin’ your sister and her man make babies and you’re so in love with your nephews you can’t see straight so you’re feelin’ the time tick by and doin’ that, the itch is comin’ on to one you can’t help but scratch,” he returned.
“This has nothing to do with Jet and Eddie,” she returned.
“Okay, then, how often does Jet go out with those Rock Chicks? Answer me that, Mac. How often?”
“She sees her crew all the time,” Mac told him.
“Right, and she can do that because her husband is home, lookin’ after their boys.”
She got his point.
This was why she shut her mouth before opening it and saying, “Or Blanca looks after them.”
“Blanca looks after them when Jet and Eddie are out together. Unless he’s workin’, no one looks after his boys but him if their momma ain’t around to do it.”
Mac turned her head and studied the wall.
It wasn’t that interesting.
But she kept doing it.
“Mac, look at me,” he ordered.
She did, that stubborn lift in her chin.
Smithie took his voice to soft. “You’re gonna find him, darlin’.”
She got his point on that too.
“I don’t need a man,” she bit out.
“No. But you want one and you’re gonna find him. You just need to be patient.”
She was losing patience sitting right there. “This is not about finding a man, Smithie.”
“How many of the Rock Chicks don’t got a warm body in their bed?” he pushed.
“I can get a man whenever I want.”
She absolutely could do that.
She wasn’t beautiful. But she was pretty. Crazy pretty.
Her sister, Jet, had the quiet, shy, girl-next-door vibe going for her.
Mac couldn’t be more different.
She lived life large and loud. She was sexy, but not brash, instead ballsy. She had an opinion, she stated it. She loved you, she showed it. You were toxic, she scraped you off. She identified a goal, she worked to it.
If she wanted it, she got it.
Except a man.
She was a serial dater, not because she liked to play the field, but because most men were motherfuckers and she had zero tolerance for that.
Not that she should.
She just didn’t.
As far as Smithie was concerned, that Rock Chick posse had lucked out. Found the best men there were in Denver. Claimed them (or got claimed, whatever). Game over.
Then again, Lee Nightingale had essentially vetted them for his woman’s friends, so he’d already taken the guesswork out of it.
“Havin’ a kid is a lot easier when you got someone to help,” he pointed out.
“Havin’ a kid is all on the woman,” she retorted.
“Okay then, smart girl, raisin’ a kid is a lot easier, you got someone to help,” he revised, and before she could get anything out of her mouth, he went on, “and you can’t argue that. You had a