Or possibly I’m overreacting. She did just have a pop star on the phone who clearly adores her and thinks she’s fabulous.
As she fucking should.
“You should come back to bed,” I say.
The blue dress goes over her head. “I’ve come back to bed three times since my alarm went off. And I need to be in early today. I have a meeting with the big bosses.”
“Twice,” I say. “The shower wasn’t bed.”
She has no idea how gorgeous she is when she smiles like that.
Absolutely none.
If she did, she wouldn’t be leaning over the bed to press a kiss to my lips. She’d be out finding someone much better than me.
“Do you have any idea how much I appreciate that you have nothing to gain from liking me?” she says.
Is she fucking kidding? “You mean beyond getting to enjoy your personality, your body, your heart, your intelligence, your sense of humor, your?—”
“Professionally. You don’t want my job. You don’t want to play baseball. You don’t want my connections. You’re not threatened by me. You just…like me. And when you don’t like me, it’s because I don’t like you enough.”
I shift so I’m sitting on the bed and pull her into my lap.
She doesn’t fight it, though she does squeal. “Duncan, Ihave to go to work,” she says on a laugh.
I kiss her neck and breathe in the scent of her.
Lavender will forever be Addie to me. Forever and ever. “You deserve all of the people to like you for who you are and fuck what you can do for them.”
“Will you come over again tonight?” She loops her right arm around my neck and kisses the top of my head while I trace the barest hint of cleavage at the edge of her dress.
“If you want me.”
“I want you.”
“Good. I need to talk to you about how I’ve been thinking I should try baseball after I retire.”
She playfully shoves my head away as she climbs off my lap. “Don’t do my dishes.”
“I thought being an equal partner meant sharing the load.”
She stops dead in her tracks as she’s reaching for the white cover-up thingy. Her eyes meet mine, and they start to water again.
Fuck. “Addie?—”
“No, you’re right.” She straightens slowly. “I—I’ve done everything for myself for so long, I’veinsistedon doing everything for myself for so long, so I wouldn’t put myself in the same situation that my mom put herself in, that I didn’t even realize that’s exactly what I’m doing, but for opposite reasons.”
I scoot to the edge of the bed, watching her.
She shakes her head, slips her sweater thing on, and then bends over to kiss me once more. “Thank you.”
I catch her hands in mine and press a kiss to each of her palms. “I haven’t done your dishes yet.”
“And you don’t have to. But if you do…thank you. And thank you for being patient with me. I…clearly have a lot more to figure out than I thought I did.”
I don’t want her to go.
But I know why she has a meeting with her bosses this morning. I know what she needs to tell them. Whether or not she’s making the right decision, time will tell.
