by Easton, Meg
“You really did keep it,” Addi breathed.
He glanced up to see her looking his direction, gazing at the stone. What if things went wrong with Addi? Could he handle the pain of going through with her what he’d gone through with Zoe? With Addi, he was happy in their relationship. More than happy—he was thrilled. If things went wrong with the two of them, he’d have so much further to fall than he had with Zoe.
He put the stone back in the box and stood up. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I’m sorry to run out on you two, but I have to...” What? He didn’t even know, so he couldn’t finish his sentence. He just had to go somewhere and think.
After giving Addi a quick kiss on the forehead, he grabbed his keys and shoes, and headed out to his truck for a long drive.
18
Addison
“I need news about your man.”
That was how Chloe answered the phone when Addison called her on her way to the grocery store Saturday morning.
“What if you won’t like the news?”
“No, Addison! No bad news. There can’t be bad news. You two are too adorable together. What happened?”
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing. Maybe something.”
“Oh. That explains everything.”
“It does?” Chloe had so much more experience with dating and guys and understanding what was going on.
“No! That was sarcasm. Don’t they have sarcasm in Oregon? Explain.”
“You know how I was so worried about Ian being a rebound guy? I realized that rebounding for me isn’t so much about not having had enough time to get past feelings for my ex, because Matthew and I never really had super strong feelings for each other. I think we both held onto the relationship for so long because of other reasons. What I really crave right now from that relationship is the security of knowing right where I stood with him.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re thinking of going back to Matthew.”
“No. I want a relationship where the amount of love we feel for each other is at a ten. With Matthew, it never got over a three. But it was a solid three, and I really miss that it was so solid. Sometimes when I’m with Ian, he is so sweet and it feels like we are connecting so well, and I know he really likes me. And then other times, he just...isn’t, and I’m unsure about everything. Like last night. I was helping his grandma in her office and he came home from work, and you should’ve seen his face, Chloe. It just lit up when he saw me. Like I was his entire world. Seriously, I wish I would’ve had it videoed, so I could just watch it over and over.”
Chloe happy sighed.
“And then we were all working on organizing the office and just chatting about random things and he got really quiet. I looked over to see what was up, and he was holding the stone I painted for him. Remember that?”
“Oh, I remember. I swear you talked about it for a year straight.”
“There was just something different about him while he was holding it. Heavy. Sad. Anxious. Regretful. I don’t know—it’s hard to explain. Then he just got up, said goodbye, and left.”
“Huh.” The line was quiet for a few moments, and then Chloe asked, “Did his grandma say anything?”
Addison pulled into a parking spot and turned off her car, then picked up her phone when bluetooth switched it over from the car’s speakers. “She did. She said that maybe it wasn’t the rock that made him all morose—maybe it was what was under the rock. It was a wedding invitation. His wedding invitation.”
“Get out.”
She very nearly opened her door at her sister’s command, then rolled her eyes at herself and stayed put. She was the older sister, after all.
“He didn’t get married, though, right?”
“No. I knew his last relationship had been serious. He said he thought it would end in marriage. I just didn’t know he meant that serious, or that he thought it would end in marriage because they had actually planned the wedding. Shirley said their wedding was supposed to happen the same weekend I moved here.” She let out a deep breath. “Remember all the research I did to make sure that Ian wouldn’t be a rebound guy?”
“Yeah.”
“I think I probably worried about that more than I needed to. What I should’ve been worrying about was becoming the rebound girl.”
“Oh.”
“So what do I do? The same thing I’ve been doing? Back off and give him space? Buy myself a spinning wheel and prepare for a life of solitude?”
“Communication is the number one thing. Go out with him again soon and bring it up.”
“I can do that.” She paused for a moment. “Thanks, Chloe, for dating a million guys before finding Dustin so you can answer my questions. Even if half a million of them were ones I had hoped would ask me out.”
“What are sisters for?”
After hanging up the phone, Addison sent a text to Ian, not allowing herself to stop and over-analyze before she did.
Are you free tonight?
It took long enough for his response that she almost grabbed her list and went into the grocery store. Finally, though, his answer came in.
No.
I have to install all the cabinets in a home today, and it’s huge.
We are starting at noon, and I won’t be done until at least 8.
She nearly just sent a frowny-faced emoji back and prepared to spend more of the weekend feeling unsettled, but then she decided that she wasn’t going to quit so easily.
You still have to eat, right?
How about I bring dinner to the site? And then I can help as needed.
But what if you came and all I wanted to do was kiss you all night long? I’d never finish installing the cabinets.
She kept re-reading the text, her heart doing a little jump every single time. Then she typed in her response.
Then we’ll have to turn it into a game. We install one cabinet, we get one kiss.
I like when you’re in charge of the games.
She smiled, grabbed her list, and got out of the car. She could make exactly two dishes well, and one of them was chicken piccata. She already had the list of things to buy because she was making it for her roommate dinner turn later this week, so she would just get double.
* * *
Addison pulled up to the house that Ian had texted her the address to. It was a newer neighborhood with three houses under construction next to each other, and he wasn’t kidding when he said it was huge.
Ian must’ve sensed her pulling up to the house, because he came out fast enough that he reached her before she even got the passenger door open. He gave her a big smile and a small kiss, then said, “That one didn’t count—the game hasn’t started yet.”
But to her lips that were still tingling from the brief touch of his, it definitely counted.
“You cooked dinner? For me?” He picked up the dish with the hot pad, then pulled up the foil and breathed in deeply, a look of bliss on his face.
“Now don’t get all excited. This and enchiladas is the extent of what I can cook.”
Addison grabbed the basket and a blanket and followed Ian into the house. A couple of other guys were working on different things in the house, but Ian shooed them away when their noses brought them straight to the food, and he led them into what she guessed was a guest bedroom. Carpet hadn’t been laid yet, so she spread the blanket on the plywood floor. Ian put the pasta dish on the blanket, and she got everything else out of the basket and spread it out.
He seemed to love the food, and gave her compliment after compliment. Enough that she didn’t even want to bring up his engagement, but she knew that if she didn’t plow ahead with her questions, she might chicken out.
“So, you were engaged and nearly married, huh?” Wow. When she’d thought through this part of the night in her head, it came out so much less blunt.
Ian ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Um, yeah. I should’ve told you already. It was just...”
“Awkward?”
&nb
sp; “Yeah. I meant to tell you when we had our catch-up coffee date, but before I got a chance, I was carrying you in my arms and it seemed weird to say, ‘Oh, and by the way, I was engaged, but my fiancée broke it off right before the wedding.’”
“That might not have been the most elegant way to bring it up, but it would’ve been effective.” She was pretty sure she quoted his words pretty close to exactly.
Ian’s laugh was loud and booming, bouncing off the smooth surfaces of the empty room. He scratched his cheek. “In all fairness, you did warn me that I might not like it when my request came back around to bite me, so I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“And? Tell me about it.”
He started off telling her what she already heard from his grandma. Then he told a little about their relationship. It didn’t sound bad, but it didn’t sound great, either. It had been a little like hers and Matthew’s relationship—they weren’t in each other’s lives enough in all the important ways. But her relationship with Matthew had been stalled and practically unmoving for years, so it hadn’t been too big of a deal for her to hop off that train. Ian’s relationship with Zoe had plowed forward like a freight train and when she pulled the brakes, the train jumped the tracks, injuring everyone. It sounded awful. And, based off the way that Ian became more sullen and weighed down as he told it, it really was awful.
“Wow. I really brought down the mood of the room, didn’t I?”
“Luckily,” Addison said, “I brought apple cobbler. It’s guaranteed to bring it up seven notches.”
“You made apple cobbler?”
She held the container back as he grabbed for it. “No, I bought it. I can make two things, remember? No getting your expectations higher.”
He was still leaned forward from trying to grab it, his face inches from hers, so she kissed him. He smiled into the kiss and said, “That one didn’t count, either.”
Gosh, she wanted things with him to work out. She could already picture the marital bliss and happy little children running around with Ian’s dark wavy hair.
They cleaned up and started working on the cabinets. Ian and an assistant—a kid who used to be one of his Junior Woodworkers, apparently—had hung all the higher cabinets before she got there, which was good, because those were the more difficult ones, and she didn’t have a clue what she was doing.
If she had ended the date right after dinner, she probably would’ve walked away feeling relatively confident about their relationship. As the night went on, though, she wasn’t sure at all. There were times when they laughed as they worked, and he very enthusiastically kissed her after each cabinet was finished. And then there were times when he seemed to be thinking too much, and it was like he was avoiding her as much as one could while maneuvering a cabinet into place. And any attempts to find out how he was feeling didn’t go over well.
But it was obvious that something was wrong—he still couldn’t manage to keep his emotions hidden well. They had finished with the kitchen, two of the bathrooms, and one of the washrooms when she said, “You seem to be doing a lot of thinking tonight.”
“I am sorry I have been so distracted.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in close. She put her arms around his neck, and soaked in how right it felt to be so near him. Everything about this was right. He leaned in close to her ear, his breath tickling her neck. “Coming here tonight to help me was an incredible thing to do. Thank you.”
Her mouth was right by his ear, too, so she breathed, “You forgot to mention dinner.”
She felt his smile right next to her ear, and he pulled back enough that he could meet her eyes. “So was bringing me a delicious meal. And giving me kisses like they were fuel to keep going.”
She dropped her hands to his chest. “So what you’re saying is, I saved you twice today.”
He chuckled and smiled that amused smile that had first pulled her in at Gateway Groceries so many weeks ago. He dropped one hand to her hip and brushed a curl away from her cheek. “In the who-saves-whom category, it looks like we’re tied. It’s anyone’s guess who’s going to be getting that Medal of Honor in the mail.”
He went and got the picnic basket and blanket and carried them out to her car, his hand in hers. Which was good, because he had turned the power of those beautiful blue eyes on her, and she wasn’t sure she could be trusted to walk or talk on her own.
At her car, he gave her the sweetest kiss that made her think that maybe everything would work out between them just fine.
19
Addison
“I am so glad you could help me today,” Peyton said as Addison chopped the last cooked chicken in the tray.
“I’m glad I had the day off. This has been fun.” And it was fun. It had been a nice change of pace from her usual, and Peyton seemed so grateful. It was nice to just mindlessly chop food.
“It has.” Peyton smiled her perfect smile with her hair that even looked pretty when she was spending the day in the kitchen. Then she removed the empty tray and put a full one in its spot.
“More chicken?”
“This is why I’m a personal chef and not a caterer. With catering, there’s so much monotony. Seriously, thank you, Addison. It’s a client I cook for all the time who’s having a big luncheon, but still. I don’t know what I was thinking when I took this job. I couldn’t do it without you.”
Addison got lost in the rhythm of her chopping while Peyton mixed the rest of the ingredients for the chicken salad in a giant bowl. “How are things going with Ian?”
“I don’t know. And I hate not knowing. Sometimes I think I know, and other times, I’m positive I don’t. All I do know is that he’s everything I ever wanted but hadn’t known that I wanted yet. I’ve fallen pretty hard for him.”
Peyton smiled dreamily.
“But let’s talk about something else. I’ve already analyzed everything more than an IRS agent analyzes a suspicious tax claim, and I’ve got brain exhaustion from it.”
Peyton washed her hands then went to where her phone rested on the counter and touched the screen. Then she smiled at it—the kind of smile that Addison had seen her use only with one person.
“Was that a text from Max?”
She nodded. “He’s a funny friend.”
Addison shook her head, wondering if the girl would ever refer to him as something other than a friend.
Timini finally came back into the room, hugging a kid-sized dress form, taking small steps so she wouldn’t hit into it too much as she walked. She set it down with a huge exhale, and then started adjusting its size.
“Okay, we’ll switch to a new subject, then,” Peyton said as she pulled another tray of croissants out of the oven. “How’s work?”
“I kind of imagined that most of my days would be spent blissfully organizing people’s homes. There is so much more to running a business that I am learning as I go. I’m a little stressed out by how many blank spots I have in my schedule, since they’re what’s paying the bills.”
The truth was, she was a lot stressed out by that. She wasn’t great at marketing or advertising because she’d never had to deal with those sides of the business before. It all came so naturally to Chloe and it made her wish they lived so close again. With her help, she would have her schedule filled for sure.
“I think you should just not worry about it,” Timini said. “Clients will come in when they come in. Stressing about it won’t change anything.”
Bex dragged herself into the room wearing baggy sweats and a baggy t-shirt, her hair pulled into a messy bun, no makeup on, and flopped into a chair at the table. “Guys, I’m sick. And I have episodes to film. Make me better. Please? I’m begging here.”
“I’m pretty sure there’s a sticky note somewhere that says it’s against the rules to be sick.” Timini just kept adjusting the mannequin, like she hadn’t just directed the jab at Bex, and Addison had to hold in a laugh.
“Get your germs away from the food!” Peyton
screeched, making shooing motions. “Go sit on one of those tables.”
Bex just looked at the other tables like she didn’t have the energy to get up and move. “Can’t. They’re too messy.”
“Really, they are,” Addison said. “Can we get a little more organized everywhere?” She didn’t mean to direct the comment at Timini, but she was, by far, the one contributing the bulk of the chaos at the inn.
“If you organize,” Timini said calmly, holding pins in her mouth, as she put a half-finished bodice on the form, inside out, “then creativity flies right out the window. Same goes with rules.” She shot a glare at Bex.
“While we’re discussing issues,” Peyton said as she added the chopped chicken to her mixture, “can we talk about adjusting the temperature? It’s always freezing in here!”
“Are you kidding?” Bex said, looking like Peyton’s comment put some life back in her. “It’s always a furnace in here. Especially when you cook.”
Peyton looked to Addison and Timini for support, but Addison didn’t say anything—she thought the temperature was fine. “Okay, then, maybe we can talk about keeping the volume down a bit while we’re all trying to work.”
Bex sat up straighter. “Is this about when my sisters and their kids come over? Because loud is how you know they enjoy being around each other.”
“Maybe we just need to change things up a bit,” Timini said as she glanced around. “Rearrange the rooms down here. Maybe all we need is an infusion of change to refresh everyone.”
“No!” Peyton begged. “Change doesn’t rejuvenate. It stresses people out.”
This whole conversation was stressing Addison out. Normally, she loved when they were all together, whether they were working out issues or not. Her parents had never been around much and she and Chloe hadn’t always had the same schedules, so she felt like she never really got much of a family growing up. All her roommates in a room together made the place feel like a home.