“I have no idea.” I look at both of them. “That is why I’m asking you.”
“Well, at least you know she likes you if she had sex with you,” my mother observes, and all I can do is close my eyes. Also, she is not wrong.
“Okay, well, I’m not having sex with her.” Yet, I leave out because no one should be talking about sex with their mother. But then again, no one is my mother.
“And why not?” She throws her hands up. “I fell in love with your father because of all the sex we had.”
“And the fish,” my father chimes in. “She really started to love me when I gifted her Elsa, the fish.”
My mother gasps. “I broke up with you because of that fucking thing. Who gives a woman a fish?”
She shakes her head.
“You loved that fish,” my father says as my phone pings with Avery’s name.
I sit up as thunderclaps fill the room, along with the flash of lightning. “I have to go. It’s Avery.” I don’t even wait for my father to say anything.
Her face fills the screen, and I can see she’s in a dark room. “Daddy,” she whines, her voice soft, and I swear I can see tears streaked on her face. My whole body goes numb and stiff at the same time.
I toss my laptop to the side and run to the door before she even says another word. “We have no lights.” I run around the fucking house, looking for my fucking keys and finally finding them in my bedroom.
“Where is Mommy?” I ask her and she jumps when thunder claps again.
“She went to check—” she says. “I’m scared.” My whole body goes cold. I run out of the house, the wind and rain hitting me, and I have to shield my eyes.
“Hey, look at me,” I tell her as I get in my car and pull out of the driveway, the wipers going as fast as they can to clear the rain off my windshield, but it’s coming down too hard. The bright white line of lightning flashes in front of me while Avery cries softly. “I’ll be right there,” I soothe her as I try to go as fast as I can safely. “Look at me, baby girl. I’m going to be right there,” I tell her, and then
the line goes dead.
“Avery!” I yell her name, and when I call her back, it tells me the person is unavailable. I pull up in front of her house and run out faster than I’ve ever run. I swing open the door, and the heat hits me right away. “Fuck,” I hiss as I take two steps at a time until I get to her door and knock fast and hard.
“Addison!” I shout her name, “Avery!”
The sound of the door unlocking somehow makes me feel a touch better. She opens the door, and I pull her to me. “Stefano,” she says. “You’re soaking wet.” She laughs at me, my heart beating even faster. “What are you doing here?”
“Avery called me,” I explain, walking in and feeling the heat run through me. “Avery,” I say her name, and she comes running to me as I squat down. “Where is your iPad?”
“On the bed, there is a red light in the middle,” she tells me. “I was scared.”
“She called you?” Addison asks me. “But why?”
“I was scared,” Avery repeats softly.
“You ready to go?” I ask Avery and then look over at Addison. “Come home with me?” I don’t even know if I’m asking her or telling her.
“We’re fine here,” she says. “The lights will be back on soon.”
“I have the room, and it’s getting really hot in here.” She can’t deny it’s an oven in here. The windows are open, and towels are on the floor to soak up whatever water they can. “Come with me.”
“Fine,” she huffs, “let me grab some things.”
I just nod at her as I pick up Avery in my arms, ignoring the fact that I’m wet and now so is she.
“Am I going to sleep in the princess bed?” she asks me, and I smile. I don’t say anything because I can’t. My heart, which would come out of my chest, is now lodged in my throat as she wraps her arms around my neck. I literally can’t say anything. I have never been so scared in my life. I had no idea what I would do if I got here and they were not here. I can’t even imagine.
Addison walks back out of her bedroom with a small bag in her hand. “Okay,” she says as she walks toward the front window and closes it, “shall we go?”
We are all soaking wet when we get in the car and back to my house. “I’ll take her and change her and get her into bed,” Addison says, but I don’t let her out of my arms. I carry her to the bedroom. I turn on the lights and hear the gasp behind me.
“What in the f—” Addison starts, stopping as she looks around the room. The pink, four-poster, canopy queen-size bed sits in the middle of the room. The pink satin bedding shines as the pink tulle hangs from the four posters.
“My mother,” is all I can say as I put Avery in the middle of the pink carpet.
“Don’t,” Addison warns, rushing forward with her arm out, “she’s going to get the carpet wet.”
I laugh and shake my head. “Doesn’t matter,” I reply, walking over to the pink dresser with diamond buttons for the drawer handles. “Glammy got you some clothes.” I pull open the drawer, and another gasp comes out of Addison. I look back over my shoulder as she spots the corner of the room
where there is a white plush rug with different pink pillows against the wall, where a round circle of pink silk drapes down around the pillows. “It’s a reading corner.”
“A reading nook?” she says, shocked. I peel Avery out of her wet clothes, tossing them to the side where Addison steps to pick them up. I put pink pj’s on Avery and get her into bed.
“Night,” I say to Avery, kissing her neck, “I’m going to put on a little light.” I walk toward the side of the room and turn off the lights, but then the twinkle lights come on as if they’re stars in the sky.
“Jesus,” Addison says, looking around, “do those lights stay on all night?”
“They’re sort of motion censored,” I say, and she shakes her head.
“Of course they are,” she mumbles as we walk out of the bedroom.
“Where do you want to stay?” I ask her when we are standing in the hallway, and she shrugs. “You can sleep in the guest room.” I point at the room on the left. “Or you can stay in my bed.” I smirk at her, winking one eye, and I can see her try to hide her smile. She pushes my shoulder, moving to the side to walk away from me. I grab her hand before she walks away from me, turning to pull her to me.
I don’t think about anything else but kissing her. My lips crash down on hers. She gasps right before my lips touch hers, giving my tongue the access it needs to slide into her mouth. My hand drops hers to wrap around her waist and pull her to me. Her chest crushes on mine as our tongues go around and around in circles. I kiss her now like I wanted to kiss her this morning, our tongues fight with each other but this time she doesn’t push me away. Her hands go to my hips, and my cock fights to get out of the wet shorts. I deepen the kiss for a minute before she steps away from me. “Okay, Stefano.” She looks at me, her eyes darker than before. Her head pulls back a bit. “I’ll go out with you.”
addison
. . .
I watch the clock turn to four before I get up from my desk, smoothing down my skirt. My hands are all clammy with nerves as I walk to the back of the house where I know everyone is in their office. Every single step toward the chattering of voices gets my heart beating faster and faster as it echoes in my ears. My hands nervously shake as I get closer and closer. I know they were supposed to have a little meeting this afternoon about possibly bringing in someone else to help. I stick my head into the conference room, seeing the four of them sitting around the table going through the applicants who have been applying all week long. “I’m headed out,” I say, avoiding eye contact with each of them, smiling quickly before hightailing it out of there.
“Okay,” Clarabella says, leaning back in her chair looking at me.
“Have a great night,” Presley calls, and I can hear her snicker right before she adds in, “On your date.”