Page 89 of Shortcake
“What?” Harper asked.
“I think you and I have become so close that he thought we were sisters. Like he sensed how kindred spirits you and I are.”
My sweet Harper’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, beaming. Glowing. “Yeah?”
“Yep,” Addy nodded. “And think about it… we do kind of look alike.”
I took a quick inventory of both their features. Different noses. Different lips. Different jaws. Different brow lines.
They didn’t look anything alike. Except maybe that they both dyed their hair in extreme saturations of their selected color. Hell, they didn’t even have the same eye color.
“And we giggle like sisters,” Harper added.
“Hell yeah.” Addy held open her palm which Harper wasted no time slapping in a high five. “You’d be a cool ass big sister.”
I lifted my coffee mug and took a long, slow sip, just so I could have something in my mouth and avoid participating in this topic of conversation for another second. I just didn’t have it in me to tell Harperonce againto mind her language.
She grinned and leaned her head on Addy’s shoulder. “But you’d be an even cooler stepmom.”
And just like that, I spewed coffee all over the table pancake.
* * *
Back at the house,Harper ran straight up to her room. She’d been spending a lot of time up there, not that I blamed her. My room was my safe haven as a teenager, too. Besides, it always gave me and Addy a quick chance to steal some kisses while she was locked in her room doing whatever it was that teenagers did.
Seizing the moment, Addy slid her hands up my chest and around the back of my neck.
But I couldn’t shake the unnerved feeling at what Harper had said. What the hell did that mean? Did shewanta stepmom? Did she want Addy as a stepmom? How did Addy feel about that? We’d only known each other a few weeks…
Well, a couple of weeks and three years.
I kissed Addy back briefly but pulled away quicker than usual. Then, busied myself tidying up the kitchen so I wouldn’t have to look her in the eyes.
“Uh-oh,” she whispered. “Is this about the daddy thing?”
I chuckled. The daddy thing. What a way to word it.
“It’s more about the stepmom thing,” I said.
Addy blinked, seeming genuinely confused. “What stepmom thing?”
“What stepmom thing?” I whispered and stepped closer to Addy. “The thing Harper said at breakfast.”
Still frowning, Addy shook her head slowly. “When…?”
“You were talking about looking like sisters. And then Harper… she said…”
“Oh,” Addy rolled her eyes with a snap of her fingers. “When she said I’d make a cooler stepmom and then you completely lost your shit and spit coffee all over our pancakes?Thatstepmom thing?”
She was fucking with me. I should have guessed she was. Addy was good at taking almost everything lightly. Even the serious shit.
“Fine,” I said, throwing my hands up. “Go ahead and laugh at me. But the truth is, there’s a deeper meaning to what Harper said. And it’s my job to get to the bottom of it.”
Addy slid her hands around my waist. “Okay, Sherlock.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know you are. I can tell by the frown lines here…” she brushed her fingertips between my eyes, then trailed them down to cradle my jaw and the two lines that always flanked my mouth whether I was smiling or frowning. “Andhere.”
