Page 16 of Protecting Addison
Now he hurried home as soon as possible so he could help her with dinner, and so he could spend time with the kids…and Addison. She was easy to be around. Easy to talk to. She never raised her voice to the children, never got upset when something was spilled or if the many toys he’d bought the kids were strewn all over the living room.
The more he was around her, the more hewantedto be around her. It was a novel feeling for MacGyver. In the past when he’d dated someone, the longer they went out, the more he learned about each woman, the less he wanted to hang out with them. But not Addison. If he could, he’d spend all day by her side. He was fascinated by how talented she was with her cakes. She should be working in some fancy hotel or bakery. Not working out of his house. But he was lucky she was. They all were.
Looking over at Ellory, he saw her smiling slightly at her new siblings…but she was pushing the grilled chicken her mom had made especially for her around her plate, not really eating. It was clear something was on her mind, and it was time to see if he could do or say anything to help her.
“Ellory, you want to come out to the garage and help me with something?”
“Sure,” she said eagerly.
MacGyver pushed his chair back and picked up his plate. He leaned over and kissed the top of Addison’s head, unable to keep his hands…or rather, his lips…off her. “Thank you for the amazing lasagna. You cook as well as you bake and decorate.”
She blushed a little, and he vowed to compliment her more often.
“Me too?” Artem asked, standing up next to his chair.
“Next time, buddy,” MacGyver told him gently. “You have homework, and after that, Addison was going to let you all watch an episode or two ofThe Magic School Bus.”
“Yay! All right!”
MacGyver and Ellory brought their plates into the kitchen and put them into the dishwasher, then headed for the garage.
“If you don’t feel up to doing anything, we can just sit in the backyard,” he told her.
“I’m okay. The nap this afternoon helped,” Ellory said.
MacGyver nodded. The girl knew her body and how she was feeling better than he did. He trusted her to let him know when and if she’d had enough.
He opened the garage door and winced when he turned on the light. He really needed to work on cleaning the space so they could put their cars inside, but it was filled to the gills with the stuff he’d moved out of the house to make room for everyone. There were wires and plastic piping, old batteries, more tools than any one man could ever need in a lifetime, wood scraps, and things he’d found in junkyards that he thought one day he might be able to do something with. In short, it was a tinkerer’s paradise.
“Hmmmm, where to start,” he mused.
Ellory chuckled. “I have no idea how you find anything in here.”
MacGyver shrugged. “Honestly? Me either.”
They both laughed. It was nice to see the girl smiling. He went over to one of the two chairs in the middle of the chaos and sat, gesturing to the other one with a tilt of his head. “Sit. You know, most people would look around this room and think it’s a bunch of junk. And individually, I guess it is. But there’s more to it than meets the eye. Kinda like what I do.”
“Being a SEAL?”
“Yeah. Many people think being a SEAL is about strapping a bunch of guns to our bodies and shooting first and asking questions later. Or that we go around stabbing people and blowing crap up. And yes, we sometimes have to do that stuff, but more often than not it’s about using our brains to figure out different situations. To decide how to infiltrate enemy lines without being seen or heard. To rescue hostages without any casualties. To figure out how to get out of tricky situations with a minimum of fuss.”
“So you have to be super stealthy,” Ellory said.
“Yeah. For example, years ago, SEALs didn’t have any kind of way to communicate silently, and thanks to an astute consultant, he realized that American Sign Language was a perfect way for us to talk to our fellow SEALs without saying a word. Such a simple solution, but genius at the same time. From that moment on, every class of SEALs learned signs that would be appropriate to our job.”
“Smart,” Ellory said with a nod.
“Yup.” MacGyver leaned over and picked up a paperclip that was lying on the ground. “See this?”
“Uh-huh. It’s a paperclip.”
“Right. But it’s also a key. A lock pick. A lightweight pulley. An electrode that can be used to make an audio signal with a phone. You can unclog a bottle of dangerous chemicals with it. Make a light with pennies and this paperclip. It can be a magnetic compass. Or just twist it into a fun shape to entertain a toddler who might be crying hysterically.”
Ellory looked skeptical.
“Anything around you can be used in an emergency. The trick is recognizing the junk as the tools theycanbe.”
“This is why your friends call you MacGyver, isn’t it? Because of that old show with the weird guy who magically gets out of impossible situations with things like that stupid paperclip.”
