Page 33 of Raggedy Dan
Chapter Eleven
Riley
After yoga, their girls’ lunch turned into a full-blown day of chaos and pampering that Riley hadn’t seen coming.
It started at a tiny nail salon on the edge of town that smelled like acetone and lavender.Ella claimed the biggest pedicure chair like royalty, feet in the bubbling water, sighing dramatically.“This is the only part of pregnancy I still enjoy.Everything else is just hormones and heartburn.”
Nora and Maria flanked Riley, passing around a thermos of frozen margaritas they’d smuggled in.The techs pretended not to notice.Riley sipped hers through a straw, toenails painted a deep red that matched her hair.“You do this every week?”
“Every other,” Maria said.“Keeps us sane when the boys are being idiots.”
“And how often are the boys idiots?”
“Often enough that we do this every other week.”Ella laughed, hand to one side of her baby bump.
After nails came the shooting range.It was an outdoor spot tucked behind a hill, owned by a prospect’s uncle.They lined up at the pistol bay, earmuffs on, margaritas traded for water bottles.Riley shot first, putting a tight grouping on the paper target at twenty-five yards.Ella watched with wide eyes.
“I’ve never even held a gun,” the yoga guru admitted.
Riley asked the owner for a .380, knowing it was small, light, with an easy recoil.She checked to verify it was loaded, showed Ella the safety, and handed it over.“Finger off the trigger until you’re ready.Then you flip the safety.Breathe out, squeeze slow.”
Ella’s first shot went wide.The second one clipped the edge.Third hit center.She squealed, jumping up and down.“I did it!I’m a badass!”
“You’re a pregnant badass,” Nora corrected, grinning as Riley retrieved the weapon from Ella’s grip on her next jump.
“We won’t tell anyone about that part,” she whispered to Maria, who laughed until tears wet her cheeks.
Back at Ella’s house, the day ended with backyard yoga.Mats were spread on the grass, Chicken Nugget determined to photobomb every pose.During downward dog, he launched himself at Riley’s face, tongue out, happy to have a new target.Riley collapsed laughing, and the dog sprawled across her back.
By six-thirty, the sun was low and gold, and Riley was loose, happy, and buzzing with a low-grade heat that had nothing to do with tequila.She’d spent the whole day surrounded by women who didn’t flinch at her past, who laughed at her jokes, and who treated her like she already belonged.
When Dan’s bike growled into the driveway right on time, Riley felt it in her chest first.That familiar thunder, the way it vibrated through her bones.Throughout the day she’d kept him updated on every change of venue, just as he’d asked.
He stayed on the bike, arms folded over the handlebars, watching her walk towards him.She didn’t miss the way his gaze tracked her legs under the borrowed flannel, the hem brushing mid-thigh.
“Miss me?”she asked, settling into the seat behind him without waiting for an invitation.
He twisted to look at her happy smile.“You’re wearing my shirt.”
“You left it on the floor.Possession is nine-tenths and all that.”
Dan’s laugh rumbled through his back into her chest.
“Get a room, you two,” Ella called from the porch, waving with both hands.
Riley flipped her off cheerfully over Dan’s shoulder.He eased away from the curb, twisted the throttle, and the wind tore the laughter right out of her mouth.
They didn’t go back to the clubhouse.She didn’t know where he was taking her, but she didn’t care.
She trusted him.
***
