Addison knows her mom better than anyone.
“She’ll answer.” I decide, hoping my words can soothe her. “We don’t have to tell her right away, but maybe we can plan a visit? Have her come out here when you’re ready?”
She nods. “Yeah, because I can’t keep this from her. The woman is like a bloodhound. She can sniff out a lie from a mile away.”
I chuckle, glad that she’s easing up. This is a lot, and she’s handled everything with so much grace that it leaves me reeling. She really is the strongest woman I know. “We move at your pace, Sunshine. When you’re ready, so am I.”
She gives me a small smile. “So we’re boyfriend and girlfriend now?”
I pop a shoulder. “For now.”
“What does that mean?”
“We’re swamped with work today,” I grin, ignoring her question as I motion to the sticker-covered desktop. “There are reports I have to finish, and a mountain of emails—”
“Rowan Kingsley!” Addison gasps in mock horror. “Are you using work to get out of answering me? Where is Human Resources when you need them?”
I can’t keep the face-splitting smile away as I beam. “Right here, Ms. Bright. What can I help you with?”
She puts her hands on her hips as she grins right along with me. “Yes, I would like to make a formal complaint—”
“Denied,” I smirk before she bursts out laughing.
“You didn’t even hear what I was going to say!” She cries with joyful tears welling in her eyes.
“If you want to push the matter, you can take it up with the complaints department.” I reach under the desk, pull out my trash can, and offer it to her.
She slaps a hand over my bicep. “You’re ridiculous!”
Our laughter settles as she watches me read through reports. The whole time, her head rests back on my shoulder as I palm her side with one hand and use the other to flick through the files.
“Thalia dropped this guy off a roof?” She asks, bewildered, as we go over my sister’s CEO hit.
“Not her best work,” I frown at the small attached image file of a man splattered on a sidewalk, his skull cracked open and blood spewing from the wound. “Are you sure you’re okay with seeing this, Sunshine? I can handle the bloody stuff on my own.”
She doesn’t break her concentration as her eyes gloss over the gore. “This stuff never bothered me. I’ve been a horror fanatic all my life.”
I chuckle. “You and Alana will get along just fine.”
There’s a knock from downstairs. Well, it’s more of incessant banging that echoes through the house rather than polite rapping.
“That’s probably Thalia, if I had to guess,” I mutter under my breath.
“Lox said they were coming over today, but I didn’t know when.” Addison is up and out of my lap before I can reach for her. She bounds to the door before throwing a suggestive look over her shoulder. “Help me dress, Assassin Man?”
I’m following right behind her as if being tugged by an invisible leash. I wrap my arms around her waist as we walk into the bedroom to get dressed for the day.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Addison
“What the fuck is brunch?” Atlas asks as he reclines his big body back in one of the rickety wooden chairs at the dining room table. The long-sleeve shirt he’s wearing stretches over his chest, but it’s an improvement from the Sweet Haven t-shirt that’s two sizes too small for him.
“It’s in between breakfast and lunch,” Connor supplies across from him as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.Which it is. “And there’s often drinking involved.”
Alana beams proudly beside her fiancé, trailing a hand over his clothed bicep. She’s wearing a green sweatshirt that makes her eyes pop, and the cutest pair of light-washed bell-bottoms I’ve ever seen.
Loxley groans, looking like death warmed over in her cute blue sweater and jeans. “No drinks for me. I’m still feeling sick.”
