Page 39 of Fated to Her

I take his hand and shake it. “Adeline.”

“Maverick, dear. I really didn’t mean to startle you. I’m glad to finally meet you,” he says, squeezing my hand softly.

“Dad, that is enough. I need to get her home,” Emery says, and he looks at her.

“Fine, fine, I’ll go. It was nice meeting you, Adeline. Hopefully, I will see you again,” he says before wandering off.

I stare after him, thinking his father is a little odd, yet he does seem genuine. Still, I’m also horrified that I have met the man who has caused so much torment for Eli and Emery.

“I’m sorry, Addie. I honestly didn’t know. Come, I should get you home. Eli is going to kill me,” she says.

“You don’t have to tell him.”

“He will find out. His scent will be on you,” she says with a sigh.

Emery doesn’t say anything for the entire trip home, and I can see she is dreading telling Eli and his reaction. When we pull up in the parking lot, I help her grab the bags out of the car when an idea hits me. I don’t want Eli upset, and I also don’t want Emery being banned from being around me for her father’s actions.

I wrap my arms around Calum, and he holds up the bags in the air, looking down at me.

“Ah, Addie, you good? What are you doing?” he asks.

“Sorry,” I tell him, rubbing my hands inside his shirt and across his back.

Emery is staring at me before her eyes light up, realizing my idea. She comes over, sandwiching me between them and rubbing my arms with her hands.

“I’m feeling a little used right now,” Calum says.

“Sorry, I just need your scent,” I tell him.

“I can see that but is there a reason you want to smell of me?” he laughs.

“Fool, she is getting Dad’s scent off her,” Emery tells him.

He nods, then freezes. “Wait, you’re not going to tell him?”

“And you’re not going to tell him, either, Calum,” I tell him.

Emery nods, finally letting me go, and I step away from him.

“Besides, for keeping your mouth shut, you can take Emery out for dinner,” I tell him, and his face flushes.

He looks at her. “You don’t have to. I can keep my mouth shut.”

“No, dinner would be nice,” she says, her cheeks tinged red.

I should have been a matchmaker.

They stare at each other, and I clear my throat. “Can we go up now, or do I need to watch you both make lovey eyes at each other?”

“Oh right, yes, we should head up,” Emery says, taking some bags from him.

Chapter 10

• Cyrus •

What is taking them so long? Eli and I have been home for an hour, and she still isn’t back or answering her phone. Eli has been pacing frantically in the living room for the past twenty minutes.

Relief floods me when the elevator sounds with a ding. She doesn’t even have time to step out before Eli wraps her in his arms. Calum and Emery step around him as he mauls Addie, having to squeeze past him. Eli has always been anxious when it comes to Addie. Still, ever since finding out she’s pregnant, his anxiety has turned into an obsession, needing to know where she is constantly, everything she is doing. He is doing my head in. I ended up coming home early because I couldn’t stand watching him stare at the phone. She probably has around a hundred missed calls from him if she bothers to check it.