Sassy Ever After: Kiss My Sass (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Free Page A

left.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
    Ashe
     
                  Ashe was oh, so tempted to pitch the pieces of the changing table out the window. As it was the instructions had seen better days. The booklet was a wrinkled up mess sitting in the middle of too many pieces to count.
    She could have paid someone to assemble everything for her, but Ash had stupidly decided that she wanted the whole parenting experience. So far she’d managed the crib, swing, and bassinet, but the damn changing table was making her crazy. You’d need to be a freaking octopus to have enough hands to hold things in place and still be able to get all the screws in.
    Well, that or another person. Like the child’s father.
    Ashe let out a deep sigh, full of frustration, sadness and acceptance. Matt had seemed like such a nice guy, but not long after she’d told him she was pregnant, he stopped contacting her. It wasn’t like she’d gotten pregnant on purpose, or was after his money.
    Ashe knew the military didn’t pay as well as it should, but she’d at least hoped he would have been willing to stick around to be a father even if they never stayed together as a couple.
    Any and all letters she’d tried to send had all been returned. She wasn’t even sure if he was still overseas or if he was back home and enjoying his bachelorhood.
    Oddly enough, Ashe couldn’t really hold a grudge. After all, it’s not like they planned to have a kid, and it was her choice to keep the child. They’d been in lust, not love, and both had known the score going in. Fate just had a different plan.
    One busted condom later, and Ashelynn had become pregnant with Lilly. The crazy thing was, she was over two months along when she’d found out. Turned out she was one of the lucky women who didn’t experience any morning sickness, but she did tire very easily.
    Knowing that it would be a long time before she could travel again, Ashe had begun to plan out where she most wanted to go. If she was going to do this trip still, then she needed to fast track it.
    Backpacking across the US had been an experience she’d looked forward to sharing with her parents before their deaths. Her mom had passed from cancer, and shortly after, her father suffered a cardiac arrest, though Ashe suspected it was more like a broken heart.
    Feeling like they were still with her, she decided to take the trip for them all. Despite the very healthy nest egg left over from the life insurance policies, she had enjoyed taking odd jobs while traveling. Bartending was the best though.
    She’d bartended all through college, and had learned several tricks and such to wow a crowd and really amp up a party, so her tips were phenomenal. It was at one such job where she’d met Matt.
    He was handsome, polite, and just plain fun . They enjoyed hikes, long drives to some surrounding attractions, and had so much fun she’d decided to stick around until he had to fly out again.
    During one of their hikes, something her mother had told her popped into her mind. Some people come into your life, not to stay, but to bring you to the path you were meant to be on.
    Ashe wasn’t sure why that particular bit of imparted wisdom had sprung up in her mind, but with his absence now, she couldn’t help but feel like perhaps he was one of those people for her.
    Now she was home, living in the very house her parents had spent so many happy years together in, only she was back to raise her daughter alone.
    It saddened her that they’d never get to meet their grandchild, but Ashe felt sure they were looking down on them both. She only hoped she’d become as great a parent to Lilly, as they’d been for her.
    Lilly was her miracle. Ashe was a firm believer in fate, and her daughter came along at a time when she was feeling incredibly lonely. Having her there, feeling her roll and kick in