Page 55 of Protecting Addison
Addison laughed. “Very true. Unfortunately, there are a lot of words in the English language that are spelled strangely. Artem? What did you learn today?”
“Girls say one thing, but mean different.”
Addison sensed a story there. “Yeah?” she said, encouraging him to keep going.
He nodded. “Girl in class, she say she no like me, but when we outside, she want me to chase her. So I did. When I caught her, she kiss me!Blech!”
Addison, Maggie, and Preacher all laughed. “Yeah, girls can be weird about telling the boys they like that theyactuallylike them,” Addison told him. “How about you two go change. Then you can get a snack.”
“Cheese!” Borysko yelled before running toward his room.
Artem was a little more subdued, but Addison knew how much he loved his snacks too. He smiled at her, then followed his brother just as a car pulled into the driveway. It was Ricky with Ellory and Yana.
Yana raced into the house, hugged Addison, then ran to find her brothers. It was always the first thing she did when she got home.
Ricky’s arm went around Addison’s waist. “Ready?”
She nodded. Ellory had stayed in the car, waiting for them.
“She okay?” Addison asked.
“Excited. Nervous. But okay.”
“Things will be fine here. Take as much time as you want,” Preacher told them.
“Yeah, we’ll just be stuffing our faces with your brownie cake thing,” Maggie said with a smile.
“Wait, what? Brownie cake?” Ricky asked.
Addison smiled. Her man had the biggest sweet tooth…it was adorable.
“Come on, let’s get this over with,” she said, dragging Ricky toward the open door.
Maggie waved and Preacher gave them a chin lift before they shut the door behind them. Ricky’s hand on the small of Addison’s back felt good. To have him by her side was all the confidence she needed to put on a brave face for her daughter.
After she got in the car and put on her seat belt, Addison turned slightly to look at Ellory in the back. She looked…freaked out. No matter how nervous Addison was about this, she wanted the visit to go well. She needed to calm her daughter a little.
“Hey, how was school?” she asked.
“Fine.”
“Learn anything new?”
“No.”
Right. This wasn’t going well. “Breathe, El. This is going to be fine.”
“What if he doesn’t like me?”
“How could henotlike you?” Addison asked.
Ellory shrugged.
“El, listen to me. Are you listening?” Ricky said as he drove down the road.
“Yeah.”
“Whether or not Brady likes you isn’t the point of this visit. It’s so you can meet him and he can meet you. You have plenty of time to build rapport. You’re going to have to get to know each other. This is like a first date, they’re almost always awkward. Just go with the flow. Besides, if he doesn’t like you, it’shisloss. Because you’re an amazing young lady. Kind, smart, compassionate, beautiful, and strong as hell. Got it?”
