Page 143 of Broken Dreams
“He can try.”
“Well, I’m sure the old ladies of Sugarloaf are going to spoil you the next two weeks.”
“All part of my plan. The women love me, I just have this way with the ladies.”
Addison scoffs. “Please.”
“Hey, look who you’re in love with...”
“A fool.”
I shrug. “We are all fools in love.”
She laughs loudly. “Oh, you’re in a mood. Did you talk to the permit office?”
I swear to God, someone there hates me. Once again, my permit was denied. This time claiming the drainage will be an issue, creating runoff into another farm. How the fuck that’s even possible is beyond me since there are about thirty acres to the closest farm on either side.
“I’m never going to get out of my sister’s house at this rate.”
Addison lets out a sigh through her nose and turns to face me. “Move in with me.”
“What?”
“You and Jett, move in with me. I know it’s fast. I know we said we’d take things slow, and I know this is the opposite, but you’re sneaking over every night anyway. I have a four-bedroom house that’s built, and...I want you there when I wake up in the mornings. I want us to have dinners together, the kids can play. All of it would make our lives easier. Of course you can say no, but...”
“Yes,” I answer without even thinking. All I know is that after her first sentence, I could see nothing else but a life with her. The two of us getting the kids ready for bed, tucking them in, then going back to our room. I can see the dinners where Addison and I work as a team, laughing and making a mess as we navigate in the tiny kitchen. Late nights where I make love to her until she collapses and mornings filled with kisses.
All of it is what I want.
“Yes?” Addison asks hesitantly. “You said yes?”
“I did. I want every day with you, Addy. I want to create a home for our kids and...well, I’m not doing that with Brynn. You’re my future, baby. You’re my days and nights, and fuck if I want to miss any more of them.”
Addison leans in, pressing her lips to mine. “I love you, Grady Whitlock.”
“And I love you.”
More than I knew I ever could again.
* * *
“Can you put that over in the corner?” Addison asks as she’s trying to set up Jett’s room in an airplane theme.
And when I say theme, I mean it’s fucking ridiculous. She has what looks like the front of a plane coming out of the ceiling and it’s the ceiling fan.
Then, the bed is more like a cockpit with buttons and levers. “You know he’s never going to sleep when we put him to bed.”
She shrugs. “He loves this room, Grady. He loves it. He is moving again, and I refuse to let that boy feel anything less than loved.”
I walk up behind her, wrapping my arms around her middle, and kiss her neck. “He knows you love him, dove.”
“I do, and I want him to be happy in his home.”
I turn her to face me. “He is happy. He’s living with his best friend and a woman who made his room into a damn airplane heaven.”
She sighs and steps back. “I just want him to love it here. I need him to feel like this is his home.”
“Addy, it’s his home because we make it a home.”
