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  Roll Play

  By

  Sher Dillard

  Copyright 2018 Sher Dillard

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof in any form. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means. This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Purple Herb Publishing

  Email – [email protected]

  https://www.facebook.com/Sher.Dillard/

  Other Books by Sher Dillard

  Dragon Fire

  Dragon Heat

  Dragon Blaze

  Rescued

  My Red Riding Hood

  My Brother's Best Friend

  Chapter One

  Ashley

  How in the hell did this ever happen, I thought, as I watched him drive away? The prick.

  We were going to my mom’s for Thanksgiving and he informs me that he had been cheating on me. Like I said, prick.

  What was even more surprising was his shock when I demanded to be let out. You would have thought I was supposed to accept his cheating ass. Like I wasn’t worth enough to expect faithfulness.

  Maybe bastard was a better word. Nope, in reality, he was both a prick and a bastard.

  You would think that a twenty-two year old college student would know better. Heaven knew I’d seen more than a few jerks over the last few years. But I thought he was different.

  No, I thought to myself. No, I hadn’t really. I had hoped he was different. But deep down, I had always had my doubts. What I was really upset about was that my gut had been proven right.

  Snatching my suitcase, I began marching up the road. It was only probably ten friggen miles to the next town and I was in heels. But hey, I deserved it for being with such an asshole.

  A cool November wind whipped at my skirt as I brushed my flapping hair out of my eyes. What now? I could call mom, but it was the day before Thanksgiving. She was up to her elbows in pies. Besides, I didn’t want to listen to two hours of discussion about me losing another boyfriend.

  That was one of the things about this weekend. I could finally get them off my back. I was going to finally come home with a boyfriend. No, she’d have lectured me all the way home.

  I could think of better ways to spend my time. Of course, when I showed up alone, she was going to be positive I had made the whole thing up and never really had a boyfriend.

  Nope, I was going to make it to the next town and catch a bus home. No way was I calling anyone for help. Jesse, my sister would have been too smug. Little sisters should never be given the opportunity for smugness. One of my unwritten rules.

  A rush behind me had me twisting to see a big Cadillac zoom by. An old couple stared at me like I was a psycho druggy looking to murder them in their sleep. I shuddered. It could be worse. They could be the serial killers.

  Reaching into my purse I made sure my mace was still there.

  Hunching my shoulders against the wind, I began to walk. What else could I do?

  My life sucked. There was no doubt about it. In fact. It couldn’t get much worse. Alone on the side of the road. Traveling to a family that would shake their head in disappointment.

  Sighing heavily, I shifted my suitcase to my other hand as I glanced up at the gray sky. One thing about the Pacific Northwest. It got dark early this time of year. Could I make the next town before then? A worry crawled up my spine. No way did I want to be on this road all alone in the dark.

  The fear had no sooner appeared when my prayers were answered. A pick-up truck pulled to a stop in front of me. Of course, now I had a new worry. Was this the dreaded serial killer?

  Don’t worry, I told myself. If I got the wrong vibe I could always turn down the offer for a ride.

  What were they going to do, kidnap me? Don’t even think it, I told myself. Besides, the whole serial killer thing would eliminate having to deal with my mother’s disappointment.

  “It will be fine,” I whispered to myself. “How bad could it be?”

  I opened the door to find my world falling apart. Yes, it could get worse.

  There was Eric Thomas, my first love. Looking at me like he’d just seen an alien from a different universe. The man’s eyebrows were halfway to his hairline and his eyes were the size of small moons. To say he was as surprised as I was would not be an exaggeration.

  “Ash?” he asked with that velvety voice that made my knees wobble. He was the only person in the world I would allow to call me that.

  All I could do was shake my head. Here I was at the low point in my life and now I had to share it with Eric of all people.

  “Hey, Eric,” I said as with as much nonchalant attitude as possible while I lifted my case into the back and climbed up into his truck. Tucking my skirt around my knees, I pulled the seatbelt and gave him a questioning look.

  He shook his head and dropped the truck into gear before pulling out onto the road.

  The two of us sat there in silence for a long moment. My stomach turned over as a thousand butterflies took flight. Eric Thomas. And the guy looked even better than my dreams.

  He’d grown up, I realized. No longer the lanky high school boy I remembered. No, now he was a wide-shouldered hunk. The kind of guy that made a girl think about things that could get her in trouble. His firm chin and sharp cheekbones were even more pronounced.

  Handsome was not exactly the right world. More rugged with a touch of danger. The kind of look that said, man. All man.

  “So?” he asked with a cocked eyebrow.

  My stomach fell. How could I explain this?

  “So,” I answered. “Do you always stop for strange women on the side of the road.”

  “When they’re pretty, I do,” he said with a smile.

  I blushed as I looked down at my hands in my lap. Why did that sound so good. Maybe because I’d just been kicked to the side of the road. Literally.

  This was Eric, my high school boyfriend. The person who at one point knew all my secrets. We’d lost our virginity together. Even now, I could remember the way he felt inside of me. Filling, strong, right.

  My cheeks grew even warmer as I remembered that night in my mom’s downstairs spare room. My family was gone for the weekend and I was supposed to be staying with my Aunt Kay. Instead, I’d snuck off and we had shared a moment of pure heaven.

  He glanced over at me and I could swear he was remembering the same thing.

  “Come on,” he tried again. “You can’t leave me in the dark like this. Why are you hitchhiking? I assume you’re headed home for the holidays.”

  I sighed heavily and shook my head. This was going to hurt.

  “I broke up with my boyfriend. It seems he didn’t believe as much in monogamy as I thought. Unfortunately, he waited to tell me until we were on our way to meet my mom.”

  Eric had the good grace to wince. He shot me a comforting frown as he encouraged me to continue.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I decided I didn’t want to breathe the same air as the asshole and demanded he let me out. He, being a useless piece of crap, like most men, left me there.”

  “Hey,” Eric said, “I wouldn’t have done that and you know it.”

  I glanced over at him and realized he was right. Eric wouldn’t have done that. In fact, he never would have cheated on me. He wasn’t the type.

  “Sorry,” I told him. “I’m just pissed off at the moment.”

  He nodded. “Sure, I understand.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. This was Eric. One of the good guys. Even
if he had broken my heart.

  God, he was looking good. A flannel shirt rolled up to expose strong forearms, large strong hands gripping the wheel. Boy those hands. They had driven me to places I would never forget. He had been a master.

  I secretly swallowed hard as I fought to keep from squirming in my seat. The boy brought back so many good memories.

  “So?” I asked as I desperately tried to change the subject. “What are you doing out here? I thought you graduated last year. And your parents moved to Florida. Why are you going back to our small hell hole of a town?”

  “Hey, Everton isn’t so bad.”

  I nodded. He was correct, our hometown was a nice place in the foothills of the cascades. Close enough to Seattle that we could visit the big city without being touched by the big city if you know what I mean.

  “Okay, but still. Why?”

  He shrugged those wide shoulders as he took a deep breath. “I’m coming to look at office space just outside of Seattle. I thought I’d check out our old stomping ground.”

  “Office space?” I asked.

  Again he shrugged. “Yeah, my partner and I are looking for a place for our business.”

  Partner? Was that business or personal I wondered as my stomach fell? This was Eric, no way was he single. Not looking as good as he looked. Combine that with not being a prick and he was a killer combination.

  “Business?” I asked. “So you did graduate?”

  He smiled. “I was working on my masters, but when Sandy and I got our patent, we thought it was time to give it up and just start our business.”

  “Patent?” I was going to have stop talking in one word sentences. It made me sound like a mystified toddler.

  He smiled shyly, almost embarrassed. “Yeah, we invented a compression system for video on the internet. A combination of hardware and software that makes things work faster.”

  My jaw dropped. I’d known he was smart. But this sounded like big stuff.

  “When we got some angel investors?” he continued. “It just made sense to get started.”

  “Investors?” I asked unable to believe I was having this discussion with Eric.

  Again he shrugged. I swear the boy was embarrassed. “Yeah, they gave us a bunch of money to build a prototype. So we need offices and a couple of extra engineers.”

  I slowly shook my head. Here I had been buried in getting a degree in Russian literature and Eric had been inventing things and starting a business. It made me feel sort of small.

  “Tell me,” I began. “Have you known your partner long? How’d you meet?”

  “Sandy?” He frowned for a moment. “We met the first week of school. We hit it off right away.”

  My stomach fell. If it didn’t stop soon it was going to end up rolling around on the floor.

  “Yeah, he’s the one who got me interested in the hardware aspect of things.”

  He? Suddenly I felt as if the world was back on track. No way was Eric gay. That was one of the few things in this world I was sure of.

  Of course, why I should care was the big question. We were over. We had been over for a long time. Then it occurred to me that just because he and Sandy weren’t romantically connected. That didn’t mean there wasn’t someone else.

  It was unfair. He knew about my lack of connectedness. I mean it had been on full display. But how did I ask about his status without sounding like an idiot or worse, interested in the answer?

  “Sandy and I wanted to start all over, away from school. There was nothing keeping us there.”

  The sadness in his voice touched me. Something had happened there but I was pretty sure there wasn’t someone special in his life. A fact that I could live with.

  He smiled at me and I smiled at him as an awkward silence fell over us.

  It was strange, I was no longer mad at the prick who left me by the side of the road. No, suddenly, I wasn’t mad at all. In fact, if it wasn’t for the whole mother expecting me to bring a boyfriend home aspect. I might actually be happy for the first time in a long time.

  Chapter Two

  Eric

  Who would believe it? Ash. The girl who had ruined me for all other women.

  Sighing, I glanced over at her from the corner of my eye.

  A beautiful as ever. Long brown hair. Chocolate eyes, that could melt a man’s heart. A cute skirt that flashed just enough leg to make it hard to concentrate on the road. She’d changed her perfume, I realized. Now, it was pure sexy. A jasmine mixed with some exotic scent that pulled at me.

  She had always torn at my guts. Even now, just sitting a few feet away and I was having to shift around to remain comfortable.

  Taking a deep breath, I tried to think of something to say to break the awkwardness rising between us. There had to be something safe to talk about. Old friends, dreams, plans. Something.

  “So, who was this idiot who let you go?” I asked, hoping she would take it as a compliment. Obviously, the guy didn’t deserve her.

  She grimaced and shook her head. “Another in a long line of losers.”

  My guts clenched up. “Hey, I hope you’re not including me in that line.”

  She smiled and shook her head. “No, not you,” she said then paused for a long moment as she stared out the side window. “What really sucks is how my mom is going to be.”

  I laughed. “Let me guess, she’s pressing you to settle down and get married.”

  Ash glanced at me, her brow furrowed as she tried to figure out how I knew.

  “Your mom has four daughters. Of course, she’s pressing you. We were in high school and she was already measuring me for son-in-law material.”

  Ash frowned as she thought about what I said.

  “Yeah, A college degree might be nice. But to my mom. Being a wife and mother are what is important.” Ashley replied with a sad look on her face “ She’d gotten like that not long after her Dad died. It was like her entire world became focused on family.

  “This trip was supposed to be a way to get her off my back.”Ashley continued. “Plus, there is the whole Jessie issue. She and her boyfriend just got engaged. Mom is going to throw that in my face all weekend.”

  I sighed as I remembered the rivalry between Jessie and Ash. A sisterly competition that seemed to drive their lives at times. Of course, if anyone ever thought of hurting one sister. They would die a long slow painful death from the other.

  “Sounds like a fun family holiday, if you ask me.”

  She laughed sadly as she shook her head. “Yeah, a ton of fun.”

  Once again, that awkward silence fell between us. As both of us tried to find a safe topic

  “Where are you going to stay in town?” She asked with a strange look in her eyes.

  I shrugged. “A motel, I guess.”

  She continued to frown as she looked at me. I could tell something was bubbling around in that brain of hers.

  The sadness in her eyes pulled at me. I thought back to our last conversation before I left for school. I had told her that if she ever needed me fo anything, I would be there for her. If this wasn’t that then I don’t know what would be.

  Without really thinking it through, I said, “Maybe the solution is for me to pretend I’m your boyfriend. At least for the weekend. It would keep your mom off your back.”

  She winced and looked down at her hands but she didn’t tell me I was crazy. I knew Ash, she had been thinking the same thought before I said anything.

  “Just for the weekend,” she said. “You can stay in the spare room.” Her cheeks suddenly grew very pink as the both of us remembered what had happened in that room.

  “You don’t have to do anything,” she continued. “Just pretend enough to convince them you are my boyfriend so they will stay off my back. It would be a big favor. I know it will suck. But, you’d get a great Thanksgiving dinner out of it.

  “Your mom always was a great cook.”

  She laughed a little as she glanced at me from under her brow.


  “Good, that solves that,” I said.

  She smiled widely as her shoulders relaxed. It had taken a lot for her to ask. Anyway, I wouldn’t be spending Thanksgiving alone in a hotel room eating McDonald's.

  .o0o.

  Ashley

  That was Eric, always a knight looking for a cause to be fixed. I hated the idea that this time it was me. But I hated the idea of Mom’s judgement even more. My heart raced as my stomach churned. What had I done? How was I going to pretend he was my boyfriend without getting my heart broken again?

  Was it really that important? Should I back out now before this all blew up in my face?

  No, it was only a few days. He’d be downstairs. We’d have dinner tomorrow. Eric and my uncles could watch football. He’d go check out office spaces on Friday. And maybe we could leave on Saturday. Assuming he was willing to give me a ride back to school.

  Who was I kidding? After three days with my family, he’d be begging me to leave.

  He glanced over at me and gave me that Eric smirk that always made me feel special. That shared moment that reminded me that there was good in the world.

  “So,” he asked. “What do I need to know to pull this off.”

  I smiled as I filled him in on me and he caught me up to date with him. The time flashed by as he talked. A comfortable ease that covered a hidden tension. That good tension. The kind that made a person feel alive.

  “And how did we get back together?” he asked. “I mean I was down at Stanford. You at Eugene?”

  Swallowing hard I tried to come up with a plausible story.

  “I never told Mom who I was dating, just that I was bringing someone home. So that’s good.”

  He smiled. “How about we keep it simple. We reconnected online and have been carrying on a long distance relationship. Getting together for long weekends. That type of thing.”

  I relaxed inside as I nodded vigorously. He was making this easy.

  Once we were all caught up. A silence fell between us. Not as awkward. At least not until he turned onto my street. Suddenly I was as nervous as a Republican in Portland.