Page 23 of My First Mistake
I can see her wrestling with what I just said and practically hear her arguing with herself in her own head, because there was a time when she considered me her family too.
“I might have fucked up our friendship, and anything else we were ever going to be, Addie, but you will always be my family, and I would do anything for you, just like I would for Brax.”
She wants to argue with me, I can see it in her face, but beneath all of that fire and sass, she’s also one of the most compassionate people I know. And she of all people knows how hard it is for me to admit that, to be vulnerable with anyone. Her slender neck works as she swallows. “I don’t like being kept in the dark about things pertaining to my own life, Chase. You should have told me.”
I hold my hands up in surrender. “I fully agree and I intended to, but the timing never seemed to be quite right.”
Her brows pinch in a frown. “Hold up. I thought my building was owned by a guy named Brian from Idaho? I speak to him like once a month. So, who the hell is he?”
Shit! He is the reason I know almost everything about your life. “He’s one of my project managers.”
“Your project manager? I’ve been speaking to one of your project managers for the past four years? I know the names of his wife and children. I talk to him about all kinds of stuff, Chase.”
Yeah, I know!“That’s not exactly my fault you two hit it off so well, though.”
Her cheeks are growing pinker with each passing second. With indignation or embarrassment, I can’t yet tell, possibly both. “Does he tell you what we talk about?”
Internally I’m wincing hard, but I maintain at least an air of outward composure. Yes. Yes, he fucking does. It’s how I know about every disastrous relationship you’ve had for the past four years and the reason you drink pink wine.I should be ashamed of myself, but I’m really not. “I’m sure he doesn’t tell meeverything.”
“Wow, Chase. You’re a real piece of work.”
She storms off in a huff, moving faster than any person should be able to in those heels. I go after her, having to jog to reach her. And then, before I know it, I have my hand on her arm and I’m pulling her into one of the lobby’s many dark little alcoves. “Addie, please just fucking listen to me.”
She wrenches her arm free and then tips her jaw up, glaring at me. “I’m all ears.”
“I am sorry that I didn’ttell youI bought your store, but I am not even a little sorry that I did. And I am definitely not sorry that I had one of my most trusted employees be the man who overlooks the running of those properties. I get that you feel blindsided. I get that you don’t want to be sharing a cabin, or probably even a continent with me, but we are. And we’re in this wedding party, and this constant friction is exhausting. Can we please just pretend that we’re not mortal enemies? For a few days? For Brax and Eva?”
Her eyes narrow on mine. She looks like she might explode like a tiny little volcano of rage and sass, and yet I can’t stop imagining pinning her against this wall and kissing her so hard neither of us will remember what the hell we were arguing about. “What did you mean before when you said you fucked up anything else we were ever going to be?”
And now I’m blindsided. “What?”
“You said you were sorry you fucked up our friendship and whatever else we might have been. What else might we have been, Chase?”
Shitting fuck! What new level of hell are we entering here? If she was intending to turn the tables and have me on the back foot then she has totally succeeded. How do I even answer that? Youmighthave been the only woman I’ve ever loved and wemighthave been married with four kids by now? “I don’t know what I was…I was just making a point, Addie.”
She edges closer, and instinctually I do too, and now there’s only a few inches between us. Her eyes are dark, still glowing with anger, but maybe something else lingers there now too. My pulse is racing. Her breathing gets shallower. We both lean in and her tits brush against my chest. Do not look down at them right now, Chase! My dick is already at DEFCON 2 and it would take nothing more than the hint of a smile from her lips to make him harder than iron.
Her lips part and I am seconds away from kissing them. There’s nothing in this entire world right now but her and me and this moment. No past. No future…
“Addie, darling,” Maggie’s voice slices through the tension like a surgeon’s blade. Addie’s eyes immediately leave mine and land on her mom. An intense wave of frustration washes over me, but I take a much-needed breath and then I twist around too. “Your father should never have mentioned anything about Chase buying up those storefronts. I swear give him a little whiskey and he folds faster than a wet newspaper.” She shakes her head.
“It’s okay, Maggie…” I start, but she shushes me.
“It was none of his business saying that to you, and you, my girl, don’t you dare be giving Chase a hard time when all he was doing was helping out.” Her tone is all business, but there’s no real bite to it. Maggie Kinsella adores her kids, and if she knew how I’d broken her daughter’s heart, she wouldn’t justthreatento stab me with a stiletto. I’d be six feet under right now.
“She wasn’t giving me a hard time, Maggie. I swear.”
Maggie’ eyes narrow on Addie like she doesn’t quite believe me. Unsurprisingly, given how well she knows her daughter. Addison is a firecracker because she was raised by one.
Addie flashes me a brief scowl. “I think I’m perfectly entitled to know who my landlord is, Mom.”
Maggie considers that for a second and then nods. “Well, yes, you are. But Chase simply didn’t want anyone to know. He was just doing a good deed.” She smiles at me like I’m a fucking hero or something, and I can feel the heat from Addie’s fierce glare on my skin. I’m sure she’s thinking that I’m less white knight and more heartless villain, and I wonder if she regrets not telling her family what an asshole I was to her. I’m eternally grateful that she didn’t but I hate that it puts her in these awkward situations.
“There you all fucking are. What the fuck is going on?” Brax says and I try not to groan out loud at his arrival. If they’d just given me one more minute…then what? They’d have found me with my hands on Addison’s ass and my tongue down her throat. Probably better they did interrupt us actually.
“Braxton Benjamin Kinsella,” Maggie chides. “Must you use that word so liberally?” She shakes her head at him.
He throws his hands up. “It’s just a fucking word, Mom.”
