Page 36 of Enticing

Don’t make my head hurt, Leo.

Leo

Sorry, sweetheart. What can I do to make it better?

Addie

You can’t make it better, but I wish you could.

Leo

Maybe I can. How about you let me try?

Addie

I would if I could.

Leo

What’s wrong, Addie? You can talk to me.

Addie?

Adelaide?

It only takes me a few minutes to get to Addie’s after she goes radio silent, but when her front door swings open, the woman standing on the other side isn’t the one I’m looking for. She looks eerily similar to the angel who’s been starring in my dreams for weeks, but it’s not her. This one is a little shorter with the same eyes and similar hair. But the biggest difference is the way she’s looking at me. Adelaide never looks at me like I’m a hot-shot hockey player, unlike this woman, whose entire face changes when I’m betting she realizes who I am.

“Is Addie here?” I ask, wanting to get inside and check on my girl.

Fuck. . . My girl.

I mean, I’ve been thinking of her that way for weeks, but damn if I don’t want to say it out loud. To claim her. I want her to let me. To make her believe it.

Making her believe will be the trickiest part, but she’s worth it.

The stranger’s smile spreads, and the similarity ends.

This woman is younger.Freer, if I had to guess. She doesn’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders like Addie does.

“You’re Leo Sinclair,” she announces, like I don’t know exactly who I am. I try to look around her. “Come in.”

I take the invitation like a vampire excited to be invited to cross the threshold. And this is definitely the moment I decide I’ve watched too many chick shows with my sisters and Caitlin and Bellamy through the years.

“What are you doing here?” she asks before I get a chance to ask who the hell she is.

“I was texting Adelaide, and she stopped answering. Who did you say you are?” I have zero doubt my mom would tell me that was rude, but I don’t give a shit. She’s in Addie’s house, and I don’t see or hear her or the kids. “Where’s Addie?”

She offers me her hand. “I’m Coraline, Addie’s sister. Our girl is probably passed out on the couch. She’s not much of a drinker, and she got a little drunk earlier before Caitlin left.”

Coraline moves, and I follow her into the kitchen, listening to her ramble on about Cait and Callen and too much wine mixed with killer cookies, but my brain seems to be stuck on the way she saidour girl.

Does this tiny woman know something I don’t?

Has Addie mentioned me?

“Anyway, Adelaide isn’t much of a drinker, even when she’s not breastfeeding. But I’m pretty sure tonight was the first time she’s had a full glass of wine since she gave birth to Lennox, let alone a whole bottle. And trust me... she had every bit of that bottle. She’s going to have to wake up at some point to pump and dump later, and she’s going to be hurting when she does it.”

“Pump and what?” I ask as Coraline starts picking up the mess in the kitchen while I stand and stare.

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