Page 21 of Protecting Addison
She smiled at him once more, then headed through the garage to go back inside.
Despite his attempts to clean his hands before touching her, there was a faint black handprint on her shirt at the small of her back, and MacGyver couldn’t stop the satisfied smile from widening his lips at the sight of his mark on her. He’d tell her when he got inside so she could put the shirt in the wash before it stained.
Turning to the car, he lifted the spare to put it back in the trunk. He wasn’t sure he’d done much of anything tonight, but he’d enjoyed spending time with Ellory…and of course the kiss from Addison had shown him that she wasn’t exactly immune to him. He loved spending time with her, and maybe, just maybe, she felt a fraction of the same way about him. A man could dream.
CHAPTERFIVE
“Careful with that, Ellory. Don’t drop it.”
“I won’t!”
“Borysko, don’t point that fork at your brother. If you fell, you could stab him with it. And, Artem…stop antagonizing Borysko.”
“What does that mean?” Artem asked.
“It means egging him on. Making him want to poke you with that fork because you’re teasing him on purpose. Yana, you can’t bring twenty Barbie dolls to this picnic. Choose three. That’s it.”
MacGyver couldn’t help but smile as he watched Addison wrangle their kids. It was always like this when they tried to leave the house. They had the school routine down, but anything else seemed to be chaos. Addison handled it, and them, like a pro. He stood by the front door, holding it open, patiently waiting for everyone to file out and to his Explorer.
Ellory was holding the container of cookies that she and Addison had decorated last night, and he held the cake—which had morphed from a simple circle to a multitiered masterpiece, complete with a ship on a fondant ocean, buttercream waves, and a zodiac boat with little people inside. Honestly, MacGyver had never been so impressed. Yes, she could make a mean Elsa or Little Mermaid cake. Even a recent dinosaur cake had been out of this world. But watching her bring his world to life out of sugar and an icing bag had blown him away.
Yana padded toward him, holding up the three dolls she’d chosen to come with her today. “Ricky?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“Look! I had doll before.” Then she said something in fast-paced Ukrainian that MacGyver obviously couldn’t understand.
“She said she had a doll back in Ukraine. It looked like these but wasn’t so nice. But she misses her,” Artem said, translating for his sister.
The little girl had her lower lip out in a pout, looking like she was about to cry. MacGyver squatted down so he was eye level with Yana. He balanced on the balls of his feet, holding the precious cake carefully with one hand while cupping Yana’s cheek with the other. “I’m sorry about your other doll.”
The little girl leaned her head against his hand for a moment before straightening and nodding. Then she looked down at the trio of Barbies in her hands. Addison had found what had to be some previous little girl’s collection at Good Will the other day. He’d tried to convince her that she didn’t need to shop at the secondhand store anymore, but old habits were hard to break. And he had to admit that the gleam of delight in Yana’s eyes when she’d seen the box full of dolls and clothes and other accessories had been worth it. She now had Black, Asian, and white dolls, and she played with them equally.
“Pretty,” she said happily, holding up a dark-skinned doll with a natural-looking afro.
“Yes, she is,” MacGyver agreed.
“Pretty!” she repeated, holding up the Asian doll with long, sleek black hair.
“Yup,” MacGyver said, as he slowly stood up. But Yana wasn’t done. She waved the last doll, a Barbie with long red curls. “Pretty. Addy.”
MacGyver looked up and met Addison’s eyes. “Yeah, she’s as pretty as our Addy, isn’t she?” he said.
He didn’t hear Yana’s response as her brother took her hand and led her out the door, because his concentration was locked on the woman in front of him. She looked a little frazzled. Had a small stain of something on her shirt—probably jelly from helping Yana get their breakfast ready that morning—her hair was already coming out of the barrette she’d used to pull it away from her face, and he could see nervousness in her eyes. And to him, she was beautiful.
“I’m sure we’re forgetting something,” she said as she came toward him. “I forgot how hard it was to get little kids ready for a social outing. Ellory’s gotten much better at leaving without having to do a million things right before the door opens.”
“If we’ve forgotten something, it’s not a big deal,” MacGyver reassured her. “Come here.”
Addison frowned a little as she stopped in front of him and tilted her head to the side, as if asking what was up.
“Before we go, before things get crazy, I just wanted to say something.”
“Things aren’t already crazy?” she asked with a small laugh.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” MacGyver told her. “I just want to let you know how proud I am of you. You’ve accepted everything that’s been thrown at you with a grace that’s incredibly rare. I know things haven’t been easy, but you’ve made them look that way. I’m proud to have you at my side today. Everyone is going to love you. Try to relax and enjoy the day.”
“I will. I just…I’m nervous,” Addison blurted.
