His Little Runaway Read Free

should get it in his head to ask questions of a girl who came from Westchester.
    Wes wasn’t surprised to find that the emerging brat in Ashley brought out his instinctive desire to set her straight. He decided to keep that desire in check at least for the moment. Maybe she just needed sleep, and would be kinder when she’d had a few hours of it. He had to say that the hard expression on her face seemed a little too well-practiced for that, though.
    “You can call your folks when you’ve had some sleep,” he said, wrapping a bandage around her hand.
    “Why not now?” Ashley asked sharply. Definitely bratty.
    “No phone. I’ll have to walk you up to the top of the driveway to get cell reception, and then you can use my cell.”
    She looked at him suspiciously. “I want to call now. I… want them to know I’m alright.”
    Her lies seemed to be coming less smoothly. Wasn’t there a juvenile facility around that place where he had picked her up?
    “You can barely keep your eyes open, honey,” Wes said in a reassuring voice. “You won’t be able to make it up the driveway.”
    “Can’t you drive me?”
    “You need sleep, Ashley. A couple of hours won’t make a difference.” Now he spoke in a more authoritative way, even letting some of his daddy side come out in his tone and the way he looked at her.
    Ashley’s brow furrowed, but the hard expression also seemed to leave her face. “Okay,” she said. “But… please wake me up in an hour? And take me up there, so I can call?”
    “Two hours,” Wes said firmly. “One hour won’t do you any good at all. Trust me. I know sleep deprivation.”
    Ashley’s eyes widened. “Why did you leave the navy?”
    “Long story,” Wes said, starting to help her to her feet to walk her into the bedroom. When he got her there, he turned down the comforter and the sheet, fighting a sudden urge to offer to help Ashley undress. Instead he got a t-shirt from his dresser and handed it to her.
    “Lay your clothes out on the bed once you’ve gotten out of them and into this. I’ll wash them while you’re sleeping.”
    “Okay,” Ashley said, looking down at the t-shirt. Was she thinking, as Wes couldn’t help thinking, about how cute and little-girlish she would look in it, with only her panties underneath? She looked up at him. “Thank you for picking me up on the road.”
    “You’re welcome. Now you get into bed as soon as I go, alright?” He couldn’t help it: the daddy definitely came out in the way he said that. To his surprise, Ashley’s face broke into a little instinctive smile as if at the sound of the paternal admonition.
    “Alright,” she said with a yawn.
    Wes went to his truck to get the hardware he’d been hauling back from Ohio: antique nails he could have had them ship to him, but Wes liked to handle everything he put into his furniture, and he felt like it made a difference in the quality. By the time he’d put the box in his workshop, a roomy shed detached from the cabin, and gone to check on Ashley, she had fallen asleep. He picked up her jeans, long-sleeved t-shirt, and underwear, noticing to his surprise that she had taken off everything, including a pair of light blue nylon panties that he tried to hide under the shirt so he wouldn’t think about her being naked under his t-shirt.
    He put the clothes in the washing machine, turned it on. He got his cell phone and started out into the chilly dawn.
    Once he got to the top of the driveway it didn’t take him long to figure out who she was: the news was plastered across the website of the local newspaper.
     
    The escapee, identified as Ashley Lewis, 18, originally of Pelham, is not considered dangerous, but citizens are advised not to attempt to apprehend her but to report any sighting to the police at the following number.
    Reached for a statement in Albany, the head of the department of corrections said she would call for an inquiry into the circumstances of Lewis’ escape. “It’s