Free For the Love of Gracie by Amy K. Mcclung Page A

if he'd awaken. He was still sound asleep, but muttering my name.
    My phone beeped, alerting me of a text. I jumped, causing Ash to jump too. 
    He rubbed his eyes. "Hey gorgeous, guess I fell asleep." 
    I cursed my phone. "I'm sorry that woke you up. You were sleeping so peacefully."
    He grinned. "Were you watching me?" 
    I shrugged. "Couldn’t help it, you're so darned cute." I moved away from him to read my text. I rolled my eyes and sarcastically said, "Yay. Hudson misses me." 
    Ashton stood up, stretching his body, his shirt riding up slightly as his pants dipped a little at the same time. I licked my lips as I watched him. 
    He held his hand out to me. "Come on, I'll fix you breakfast." 
    "Thanks for bringing me back here, I enjoyed it," I said as we walked upstairs.
    "Me too. If you want, you can grab a shower while I make breakfast."
    I'd rather us grab a shower together , I thought naughtily.  He showed me to the bathroom and set me up with towels and everything I'd need. 
     
    After breakfast, he drove me home. "You busy today?" he asked as I got off the bike.
    "Nope, no plans actually. Why?" 
    He grinned. "Go put on some comfortable clothes. Jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes kind of thing. I'll be back in an hour and we'll spend the day together. If you want?" 
    I nodded. "Definitely! What are we going to do?" 
    He revved the engine on his bike. "You'll see." 
     
    A shton texted me an hour later, letting me know that he was outside waiting. I skipped down the stairs excitedly. Locking the front door, I turned around and discovered him sitting in a pick-up truck. He jumped out and opened the passenger door for me. 
    "What is this?" 
    He laughed. "This is called a pick-up truck. They're vehicles that require gas to run. They're also known to carry beautiful women in them to fun places for the day." 
    I smirked. "Nice. I meant whose is it?" 
    He smiled. "It's mine. I can't ride my motorcycle all the time." He held his hand out to help me up into the truck, and then ran around to get behind the wheel. He still refused to tell me where we were going. 
    It was an unseasonably warm November day in Nashville. Lately it didn't matter what time of year it was, any temperature was possible. Today the high was in the low seventies. We drove the back roads from Smyrna, past the lake, into Mount Juliet. 
    As I glanced around, I realized we were in a local state park. I hadn’t been there in years. I used to come and walk the trail for exercise with Cameron when we were in high school.  
    After parking the truck and getting out, Ashton went to the bed of the truck and pulled out two fishing poles.
    “Um, what is that?”
    He shook his head with a laugh and said, “Fishing poles. You’ve been fishing before, right?”
    I snorted and covered my mouth embarrassed. “Sorry. No.”
    He laughed again. “I’ll teach you.”
    I crinkled my nose. “Do I have to touch the worms or the fish?”
    He smirked. “I give you permission to touch only what you want.   I’ll take care of the rest.”
    Touch what I want, huh? He didn’t know how dangerous his statement could be.
    We walked toward the nearest dock. The park was empty considering how pretty the weather was today. Ashton carried a tackle box and the two poles for us. As we set up, he took a fisherman’s hat out of his tackle box and put it on.
    I snickered. “Hey grandpa.”  
    He chuckled and put the hat on me instead. “It looks better on you. It’ll keep the sun off your face.”
    I crinkled my nose again. “It’ll mess up my hair.” I laughed. “I’m playing, I’m not that girly.”
    It was a little big on me so I twisted my hair up on top of my head and placed the hat on top. The extra hair inside tightened it and kept me cool too. He motioned for me to sit first. I eased myself down onto the edge of the dock. I slipped my socks and tennis shoes off and rolled my jeans up to my knees so they wouldn't get wet. Ashton rolled his jeans up and sat