Page 78 of Letting it Ride

“Come here.” I hold my arm out so she can snuggle in next to me. “I’m super proud of you. Holding your ground with Maddox was one thing. But with your boss? I’m impressed.”

Addie runs her fingers over my chest. “Just… when it’s something important, you have to go for it. Right?”

I stroke her hair. “Exactly. When you find something you want, you don’t step away from the table. You place your bets and let it ride.”

EPILOGUE

CAM, TWO MONTHS LATER

Miller shifts from foot to foot, running a finger around the collar of his button-down shirt. “Why did we have to do this? I look ridiculous.”

I elbow him. “You look fine. We’re doing this for Addie. So shut up and go supervise some teenagers or something.”

Addie put her foot down on advising the prom committee, but she signed up to chaperone prom. Then, somehow, we were all agreeing to help out, and before any of us realized what we’d signed up for, we were pulling out suits to wear for the night. Blake, of course, got a free pass out of it because of something at the university. The rest of us are lined up against the wall of the high school cafeteria, which has beencleared of the usual tables and chairs and decorated with crepe paper in greens and blues.

Miller fidgets again. “I don’t know anything about kids, let alone teenagers. Aren’t they old enough to be on their own?”

Holly snorts, while Addie stares at Miller.

“Uh, teenagers aren’t exactly self-sufficient. Or trustworthy,” Addie says. “Some of them can make good decisions when they’re alone or in a small group, but put them together like this and the bad ideas just multiply. Don’t you remember being a teenager?”

“He’s still waiting for his own frontal lobe to mature,” I chuckle.

Miller elbows me.

Maddox walks toward us, escorting two boys who have guilty looks on their faces. One of them has something on his upper lip that looks like dirt. Is he trying to grow a mustache?

“What do you want me to do with these two?” he asks Addie. “They were outside smoking.”

Addie rolls her eyes with a sigh. “Josiah, Ethan, you two know better. Give me the cigarettes.”

The one with the failed attempt at facial hair shuffles his feet. “Uh, it wasn’t cigarettes.”

“Are you fu—” Addie catches herself. “Did you bring marijuana in here, Josiah? I swear to God, what’s wrong with you?”

“I’ll hold on to it for them,” Miller offers innocently.

Sure, he will.

“That shit’s illegal, you guys,” I add.

Addie glares at me. What? I was trying to help.

“It’s not weed. Promise. It’s just a vape,” Ethan says earnestly. “Swear to God. Really. Please don’t kick us out.”

“Please, Miss Anderson? Ethan really wants to talk to Joanna Bloom,” Josiah insists.

Addie looks like she’s counting in her head. Finally, she says, “Okay. Hand over the vape. And one more toe out of line, you’re both out of here and I’m calling your parents.”

Josiah hands it to Addie, and the two of them scurry off.

“Maddox, follow them,” she sighs, gesturing. “I don’t trust either one of them.”

He does, wandering across the dance floor a few feet behind the troublemakers as Addie hands the vape to me.

“Put this in your pocket. They don’t get it back. We’ll toss it at the end of the night.”

I tuck it into my suit jacket pocket as the musicswitches to a slow song. God, I hated this part of dances in high school. It’s all fun and games until you have to find a girl to dance with.

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