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DUST
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To say Ashley was surprised would be an understatement. The woman was downright speechless. Maizie calling her 'Superwoman' probably had something to do with that, considering that was when her lightly arched brows raised and she fell silent.

"Maizie, this is Ashley. Say hi," I said, meaning to break the awkward silence. 

"Hi," she obeyed shyly, now hugging me firmer than before.

Ashley was still quiet, her brown eyes blankly blinking at the two of us.

"She's pretty, Uncle Dusty," Maizie whispered terribly into my ear. She was always louder than normal whenever she tried to whisper, much like in this moment, but I noted how Ashley's mouth curved to the side in a lopsided smile at her words. It was nice to see she could still function.

Good. I was afraid I fucking broke her or something.

"I know, kid, she is. But, why don't you tell her that instead of me?" I suggested, catching Ashley's eye before she gave her attention to Maizie.

"Um, you're very pretty," she said with a toothy grin.

"Thank you. You're very pretty, too."

"Thanks! Dusty tells me that all the time!" she beamed, patting my chest as I watched her with pride. Hell, you'd think she was my fucking kid they way I was around her. "And I like your squiggles. I asked my mommy for some but she said I'm too little."

I chuckled when Ashley looked to me in confused amusement. 'Squiggles?' she mouthed for help.

"She means your tattoos," I explained, noticing just now that this was the first time I saw her without a jacket or coat on.

I could see her arms clearly, and while she was no where near as inked up as me, the woman certainly had more than just a few tats. I wanted to take the time to study them all, see if hers had meaning behind them or were just for the hell of it, but knew that would have to wait.

Another time.

"Oh! Well, yes, you are a little too young for...squiggles. Maybe when you're older," she responded to Maizie with a kind expression.

It was weird seeing Ashley so gentle. The earlier times I'd met her, she was the complete opposite. Standoffish. To know she was capable of being this way caught my interest. I wondered what it would take to get her to let her guard down around me, the way she was with Maizie. She softly smiled at the little girl as she sat in my arms, shyly smiling back at her.

Eventually, I put Maizie down, watching as she ran to a sitting area not far from the desk. She didn't even hesitate to grab a marker and start coloring on some of the pages scattered on a table in the center of the space. I usually scolded her whenever she just ran off somewhere, but since she was still in sight and not doing any harm, I let it go. Especially since it gave me a chance to really talk to the woman I came to see.

"Dustin."

"Ashley," I replied, playfully mocking her serious tone.

"How did you know I work here?" she questioned.

"This is the closest community center near the hospital," I shrugged with an easy grin, explaining how I assumed this was her workplace. "Figured I might as well see if you were here, and you were."

Shaking her head, she looked down at some of the papers in front of her, before bluntly asking, "Why? What are you doing here? Seriously."

To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure why these past few days I'd felt the need see her. It had been a month since I saw her at the hospital. A month since I watched her cough up her own blood. The whole time she was in a far worse state than I thought, and I was fucking chatting with her. Talk about being blind. I won't lie, I was beating myself up about it, even though she was a grown woman that made her own choices.

I just...felt like I should have known. I don't know. It made no fucking sense, but that's how I felt.

Eventually, though, Shai called and had me back on the streets, pushing product. Apparently, his source in the police department let him know I was no longer being watched and that was all he needed to hear to have me back to work. That gave me plenty of reason to forget about the closed off woman in front of me and focus more on getting my ass out of debt, but that only lasted about a week before she wormed her way back into my mind.

Every time I went to the supermarket, I realized I was hoping to see someone. Her. And, every time I left that place, I was disappointed. I tried to ignore the growing need to see her at least one more time, just so that my last memory of her wasn't that of her coughing up blood, but eventually my curiosity on her wellbeing became too much. Especially, whenever Maizie was around.

Which brought me to where I was today, standing in front of Ashley at her place of work, while she questioned why I was there. Her tone was mildly suspicious, distrusting, and also unsure, like she didn't know whether to write me off or not.

"I had to see that you were okay," was my honest answer. Letting my last memory of this woman be that of her at a broken state wouldn't do her justice. At least now she could stand and walk around on her own.

At my confession, her dark brown eyes darted up to meet mine, guarded as ever. "You check up on every stranger you meet?"

"Just the cute, fiesty ones," I joked.

She was not amused. Dammit.

Scoffing, she turned her attention from me to the papers on her desk, shuffling them into a neat stack before carefully walking them over to a filing cabinet behind her with the slightest of hobbles.

"What were your injuries...if you don't mind me asking?" I asked, leaning onto the front desk. I glanced over at Maizie for a second, glad to see her still coloring.

Eying me, skeptically, she countered my question with, "Why do you want to know?"

"Beats the hell out of me," I said. "Most woman make it easy for me to talk to them, or see them again. You make it fucking impossible, but here I am."

"Oh," she nodded, going back to filing, seeming uninterested in talking any further with me. "So, you like the challenge."

"I like you," I corrected.

I wasn't lying, either. Ashley's tight little body and edgy look was so attractive to me, and her fierce personality only intrigued me more. She wasn't my usual type. I tended to lean more towards curvy ravenettes with an innocent aura about them. Ashley didn't come off that way at all, and I wanted her.

Rolling her eyes, she replied, "I'm sure you do."

"You don't believe me?"

"Why would I? I've been nothing but rude to you."

"Not true. You saved my goddaughter's life," I argued, chuckling when she pursed her lips in annoyance.

"I'm a bitch," she tried again.

"And I'm an asshole," I smirked. "Want to go out?"

Staring straight back at me, Ashley furrowed her brows, trying to figure me out. I was also wondering what the hell I was doing. I didn't come here to ask the woman out. My intentions were simply to lay my eyes on her and see that she was alright, that way I could get her out of my fucking mind.

Raising one brow, unbelieving, she replied, "You can't be serious."

"Why can't I be?"

"Because, you have no reason to be interested in me," she tried to reason.

"Like hell I don't—" but the words stopped flowing the second I felt a little hand pawing at my leg.

"Uncle Dusty?" Maizie called out, rocking on the heels of her feet as she looked up at me.

"Yes, Maizie?"

"I'm hungry. Can we go to pizza?"

Chuckling at the phrasing of her sentence, I bent down and scooped her into my arms. "You want to go to pizza?" When she nodded her head enthusiastically, I agreed. "Okay, we can go to pizza."

"Yay! Can Miss Ashley come?" she asked, sweetly peeking over her shoulder at the woman in question.

Ashley gave Maizie an apologetic smile while I answered, "Miss Ashley has to work, but maybe next time." 

"Okay," she accepted, squirming in my arms.

"And you," I said, pointing at Ashley as I turned to leave, needing to tend to my goddaughter's hunger. "I'll be back for you, later."

"What? Why?" she asked in disbelief. 

Not satisfying her with an answer, I grinned as I walked out the door.