Free Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) by Nella Tyler

his pants. “I’m hungry for my
dinner—what’d your mom make us?”
    “We’ve
got pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and peas, some rice, and a big cherry
pie,” Autumn replied. I had to admit the sound of it made my mouth water.
    “Final
offer, Cade: want to hang around and get a bite to eat? We won’t hold you too
late,” Bob told me.
    “Nah,
I’d better get home,” I declined, shaking my head. I could see the little
flicker of disappointment in Autumn’s eyes, but she didn’t say anything. “I’m
going to make it an early night, I think.”
    I
turned away from the Nelson family and walked out to my waiting truck, thinking
about what I could do to fill some of my free weekend time. I’d go to church,
of course—that was a given—but none of the few guy friends I had were
interested in grabbing a drink anywhere.
    As
I climbed up into my truck, I thought about a girl who might be: Sherry Williams,
who’d been in my tenth and eleventh grade math classes, who I had had a bit of
a crush on in high school. She was still living in town, and as far as I knew,
she was single; she might be worth calling up to see what was going on, maybe
catch up a little.
    But
as I pulled off of the driveway and onto the road heading back for town, I
thought that it would just be a dead end. If Sherry had wanted anything to do
with me, then she would have made that clear—she would have stayed in touch.
    In
fact, I wasn’t really all that close with any of my exes, which I thought was
probably about normal. I shook my head and turned the radio up as I headed back
towards my house, wondering what I should do with myself for the night.
    I
hadn’t exactly been lying to Bob when I’d said I was bone-tired, but I also
felt restless. I didn’t like the prospect of going straight home and going to
bed, surrounded by my lonely, empty house.
    It
would be better by far to take a quick shower to clean up, make sure I didn’t
have any pesticide residue on my hands, and go out to one of the bars in town.
But I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be doing that, either.
    I
remembered that I’d run into Ashley Harris at the hardware store earlier in the
week. She was apparently newly single—I had seen the tan line where her wedding
ring used to be—and I had to admit that she’d looked cute enough. I’d known her
from high school, where we’d had English together all four years.
    Ashley
had been more than happy to run into me. “You’re looking good these days,
Cade,” she’d said, giving me the look I’d seen a few times in my life—the look
of a woman appraising a man.
    “I’ve
been working out on the Nelsons’ farm,” I’d told her, shrugging off the idea of
being any better-looking than I’d been the year before—but then, I reminded
myself, Ashley was newly single. She was looking at every guy she ran into as a
potential partner and sizing him up.
    “It’s
doing you a lot of good,” she had said, giving me that quick once-over look again.
“Hey, are you doing anything Friday night?”
    “I
hadn’t planned anything,” I’d said. “But I might be too tired by the end of the
week to do more than curl up in my bed.”
    “Big,
strapping guy like you?” She had put her hand on my arm and grinned at me. “I
don’t believe it.”
    “It’s
hard work,” I’d pointed out. “But if I’m free and have the energy, I wouldn’t
mind hanging out and catching up on all the news.”
    “I’ll
buy you a drink, if you do,” she had told me, almost fluttering her eyelashes.
    I’d
managed to finish up with her after a few more minutes, and more or less I’d
put the invitation out of my mind; it wasn’t that Ashley wasn’t a beautiful
woman—but I hadn’t had enough time to really be interested in her, not out of
the blue like that.
    As
I got closer to home, I thought about it. I could call her up and go have a
drink with her at the bar. We’d talk about a few things, catch up on each
other’s lives, and I’d