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He scoffs and takes a big swig of beer as Moe pushes himself off the bar and stands in front of me. “For the record, though,” he whispers so Rupert doesn’t hear us, “I think the two of you are good together.”

“Thanks, Moe,” I say, thankful for yet another person that came into my life because of Michael and Charlotte.

“Go ahead and take off when your food is ready. I can hold down the fort until Bree comes in.”

I nod and slap his shoulder in thanks, already looking forward to seeing Addy again.

* * * *

Addy opens the door and smiles at me but it doesn’t reach her eyes, and I’m instantly concerned. She looks emotionally exhausted, her hazel eyes not holding their usual sparkle.

“Hey, I brought food,” I say, holding the bag up, and she nods.

“Smells good.” She steps back and holds the door open wider, motioning for me to come in.

“You okay?” I ask as I pass her, studying her face carefully. She shuts the door and sits down in the chair at the head of her little kitchen table, pulling one leg up to her chest, and wrapping her arms around it.

“Yeah, just a long day.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

She just shakes her head and looks off into the living room. I decide not to push her and grab the food out of the bag, laying her container out in front of her. She offers me a small smile and starts to pick at it, not really eating much, and I can’t take my eyes off her. I fucking hate seeing her like this. Something is obviously bothering her, and I would do anything to make it better. Or just hold her if that’s what she needs. If she was my girlfriend, that’s exactly what I’d do – haul her into my lap and just hold her as she deals with whatever is bothering her.

I glance around her apartment, trying to find clues as to why she’s so upset tonight but I come up with nothing. My gaze goes to the TV where The Walking Dead is already cued up. “You didn’t watch without me, did you?” I ask.

She shakes her head, a real smile teasing her lips this time, and I take it as a win. “No, I promised that I wouldn’t.”

“Good. This is not gonna turn into another Sons of Anarchy fiasco.”

She giggles. “You’re the one who made it a fiasco. I was perfectly happy to re-watch it with you,” she says, and I shake my head. We started watching that show awhile back, and she kept watching without me while I had to close down the bar a couple nights so I changed her Netflix password until I could get caught up to where she was.

“I’m just saying if it happens again, there may have to be consequences.”

“Oh, yeah, tough guy? What are you gonna do to me?” she asks, her brow arching in defiance, and I smile at the attitude in her voice that was nonexistent only moments ago.

“I’ll think of something.” I shoot a wink in her direction, and a blush stains her cheeks. Her gaze locks onto mine, and she holds it for a long moment before she looks away again, and all I can think about is kissing her perfect, full lips.

“You done eating?” I ask as I put my trash back in the bag. She nods and slides her barely touched food in my direction. When everything is cleaned up, I toss the bag into the trash and come back out to the living room to find her already curled up on the couch, her eyes letting me know that she’s a million miles away again.

I sit down next to her, close but not too close, and throw my arm across the back of the couch as I start the episode. She doesn’t say a word, and I’m not really sure what to do at this point. Deciding to risk it, I let my arm fall around her body, and I pull her into me, instantly able to breathe a little easier with her in my arms.

Her honey apple scent surrounds me, and it takes all my willpower not to bury my head in her neck and just stay there. She leans into my side, like I’m giving her just as much comfort as touching her gives me, and my chest puffs out with pride. We watch the show for a couple of minutes before she starts to shake like a leaf. Glancing down, I tap underneath her chin with my fingers, and she looks up at me.

“You okay,” I ask, and she nods, tears welling up in her eyes. I freeze, unsure of what I should do to fix this or what even happened to make her cry. A single tear slips from her eye and trails down her cheek. I reach out and wipe it away, causing all hell to break loose. A loud sob spills out of her, and I jerk back for a split second, shocked. My chest constricts painfully, and I hate each and every tear trailing down her cheek as I debate if it’s a good idea to hold her or if it’s too forward.

Fuck it.

Reaching over, I grab her and pull her into my lap.

She straddles my legs and buries her head in my neck, pouring her emotions out onto my shirt, and I wrap my arms around her, knowing that this kind of pain just needs to be expelled from the body. Addy shifts in my lap, and I bite back a curse, silently telling my cock that this is not a good time to make an entrance – no matter how good she feels against me.

My hand goes into her blonde hair, and I cradle the back of her head as her hands grip my t-shirt, and she almost seems to curl into herself in my arms. I want to find some profound thing to say to her that will make all this go away – whatever it is – but I’m coming up with nothing. Over the past two years, whenever she’s tried to get me to open up, she didn’t push or pry. She just asked me a question and then waited in silence until I was ready to talk about it. So that’s what I do for her now. I wrap her up tight, making it perfectly clear that I’ve got her and I’m not going anywhere and just sit with her.

“Shhh, Ad, I’ve got you,” I whisper to her, and she trembles in my arms. Something roars up inside me, some primal need to make whatever is upsetting her go away, and it kills me that I can’t. Mine. She’s mine. I bury my face in her hair, the scent of apples invading my nose, and I just breathe her in, a chill running down my spine. This feels perfect, like where she’s always belonged, and I can’t believe that I didn’t see it before.

It’s unacceptable to me that I spent years of my life without realizing how smart, sexy, and perfect she is. Or the way her laugh can always pull a smile out of me and the way her eyes light up when she’s excited about something. Most of all, I can’t believe I never realized the way even a simple touch from her soothes me and drives me crazy all at the same time.

“You’re okay,” I whisper in her ear, hoping that if I say it enough times, it will be true. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”

After awhile, she calms down, and the only sounds in the room are her occasional sniffles but she hasn’t once tried to leave my lap, even clinging to me when my leg fell asleep and I needed to move. I rub my hand down her back, and she nuzzles her face into my neck.

“You wanna talk about it, Ad?” I ask, and she pulls back, her eyes red and puffy from the onslaught of tears. She opens her mouth like she just might open up to me but snaps it back shut after a second and shakes her head. I just nod in response, and she curls back into me. The circumstances that caused this may suck but I’m never going to complain about getting to hold her in my arms.

She presses a kiss to my neck, and my entire body jolts, coming alive beneath her. “Thank you, Trey,” she whispers, and I drag my fingers gently down her back again.

“Of course, baby.” I freeze and wait for her response. It just slipped out like it was the most natural thing to do but I have no idea how she’s going to react. When she cuddles closer to me, I let out a relieved breath and close my eyes with my arms still tightly wrapped around her.