She laughs, but she looks tired of all of a sudden, “Can I tell you something?”

“Definitely.”

“I have a daughter.”

All I could do was nod. Her admission had obliterated my comprehensive vocabulary.

“And right now she’s living with her father in San Diego.”

“Do you see her?”

“No, um…my ex, her father won’t let me see her.”

“Why?”

“It’s a long story. But I know I have a legal battle ahead of me, you know? And it’s going to take a lot of money to fight for her.”

“So that’s why you’re saving up?”

“Exactly. I can’t do this forever…but I can do it as long as it takes. For her.”

I grabbed her hand, seeing that the tears could come any second, “You’ll get her, Ash.”

“I hope so. I really, really miss her. She’s really…you know, she’s all I have.”

We were silent for a few minutes, until my desire to touch her made me reach for her face. She flinched, but she allowed it and I took advantage of the opportunity to feel the softness of her skin under my fingertips. She surprises me by moving her face against my hand—eyes closed.

“Ash…”

As soon as she hears my voice, she pulls away.

“Let’s go. It’s really late, Spencer.”

I could only watch as she dropped a twenty on the table and walked out.

Eric picked us up within fifteen minutes. I swear this guy’s job was three or four times more demanding than mine. The ride back with Ashley was relatively quiet and it made me think we had regressed since the beginning of this evening. But this time I couldn’t take it. The silence just fueled my thoughts and at this particular point in time, my thoughts were just too much to deal with.

“Will Aiden be mad?”

“Aiden won’t care.”

“Why not?”

“He just won’t.”

“Well he should. It’s bad for business.”

“Not that it should concern you at all, but David and I have a very good business relationship.”

“So he won’t care that you jumped ship tonight?”

“I’ll make it up to him. Trust me.”

“Ashley?”

“What?!” she said, obviously annoyed with me now.

“I wish you had stayed.”

She looked confused, “Why?”

I wanted to tell her. I wanted to tell her that even though the thought of touching her made me ache everywhere, in places that I hadn’t even thought about for a really long time, there was still nothing I wanted more. I wanted to tell her how good it felt to want that again.

But I couldn’t. Not yet.

“Because Mrs. Pierce is a lot of work.”

She laughs, “I tried to warn you.”