Page 20 of Won’t Let You Get Away

“You just haven’t been back here since high school and don’t know where to look.” Addison winks and tosses the binder onto my pile of paperwork. She stands up quickly and walks around the table, pulling me to my feet before I can react.

“I’m going to show you my favorite spot,” she declares.

“Addison, I?—”

“Since it’s my last night here before heading back to the city, you can’t say no.” She snatches my phone from the desk and guides me out the door.

“Tellme again why I even agreed to this?” I grumble to my sister as I yank off another shirt.

“Because you said there’s nothing fun to do here, and while I agree Honeywell is the epitome of small-town hell, I enjoy proving you wrong.”

Addison always makes time to visit Mom and Dad a few times a year, so she definitely knows all the best bars and hangout spots we couldn’t go to as teenagers.

“You know, most people would call this bringing a designated driver,” I tease.

I’m holding up a shirt on its hanger in front of me, scrutinizing myself in the mirror when Addison appears in the bedroom doorway with her arms crossed.

“You’re not going just so I have a DD.” She scrunches her nose and gestures towards the shirt in my hands. “Not that one.”

“That’s it. I’m not going! Literally everything I own makes me look either lazy or pregnant.”

I throw the shirt onto my growing “hell no” pile and flop onto the bed.

Addison blinks slowly, raising a single eyebrow.

“Well…you are pregnant.”

“Oh my God, you’re kidding!” I gasp dramatically and cup my barely-there bump. “I thought I just ate too many tacos for lunch.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if your baby comes out craving tacos instead of milk,” Addison muses with a sigh, sitting down beside me on the bed.

“I just want to have a fun night,” she says, resting her head on my shoulder.

“Is that why you invited Hannah?” I blurt without thinking.

Hannah and my sister have been friends since middle school, though if you ask me, calling them “friends” is being generous.

Addison is fiercely loyal to those she cares for, sometimes to a fault. She puts their victories above her own and will go to great lengths to hype up her friends. My sister and I rarely fight, but our biggest argument was when I expressed my concerns about her friend Hannah being self-centered and toxic.

Despite that, I’ve always been civil with Hannah for the sake of Addison. The only problem is that Hannah knows I don’t like her and doesn’t show me the same courtesy.

“Please don’t start with that. I just wanna have fun with my sister and best friend,” Addison pleads.

“You’re right,” I concede, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. “Especially since next time you see me, my idea of fun will folding baby clothes.”

Addison laughs, “Between me and Mom, you’ll have plenty of folding to do.”

“I’ll make sure to attach the rule—you buy it for the baby, you fold it for Mama,” I tease, playfully shoving her away. “Now help me pick out a top so we can go.”

After an hour of listening to Addison catch me up on her college friends while getting ready, there’s a knock on the cabin door. Before I can even get to the living room, Tucker barges in with a scowl.

“What are you doing?—”

“Why wasn’t the door locked?” he interrupts.

“I didn’t think about it after letting Ads in,” I shrug, crossing my arms and giving him a suspicious look. “Plus, the only one who usually shows up here is a sassy horse with attachment issues.”

“Shit,” Tucker mutters, rubbing his hand over his face. “I forgot to warn you about her and the fence repairs.”

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