She gasped and stomped her heel on my insole.
“Mother…fudger,” I said just in time before I accidentally swore in front of the baby.
Thane laughed at me, as did Mad Dog and Addison, while Olivia smiled smugly.
“That hurt,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Good,” she said and took a drink of her wine.
8
Olivia
“Hey, Tommy, would you mind going to Des Moines tomorrow to pick up the windows? You can take my SUV. I need to do a few things at the station for work, and then I can finish up here, so we can install them when you get back.”
My ears perked up at the mention of Des Moines. “I’ll go with you to help.”
Three pairs of eyes turned to me.
“No way,” Addison said.
“Why not?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Because you just want to check in at work. You only got here today.”
“But, I mean, if Tommy is going anyway, like I said, I can help.”
Tommy laughed. “The store will bring the windows right to my vehicle. I don’t need help. Besides, you couldn’t lift one even if you did really want to help.”
“I’m stronger than I look.”
“You can go if you apologize for stepping on my foot.”
I started to protest that he had goaded me first, but it was pointless. “Fine. I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t care if you come with. You can keep me company.”
“Why, you…”
He’d tricked me.
“Focus on what’s important,” he said to me.
He had a point.
I turned and smiled triumphantly to Addison. “See, Tommy doesn’t care if I come with.”
She stuck out her bottom lip. “But I thought you came to hang out with me.”
“But I thought you had to help someone with a will tomorrow?” Maddox asked her.
Addison glared at her husband.
He laughed. “Sorry, babe.”
She sighed and looked at Tommy. “Olivia can go with you, but I’m warning you. She’s going to try and get you to take her to work. And when she does, she only gets a half hour, tops. If you give her more than that, she’ll never leave. And if she refuses, I give you permission to pick her up and carry her out of there.”
“Hey, I’m right here. And since when did you become the boss of me?” I said with a pout.
“Since you don’t know how to relax and take a vacation,” Addison retorted.
I crossed my arms across my chest. I didn’t like being treated like a child, but she wasn’t wrong.
“I can do that,” Tommy said. “I’ll carry her out of there if I have to.”
Addison laughed. “I’d love to see that.”
“I know it’s not as exciting as work, but did you have a good time?”
Addison handed me a dish, and I put it in the dishwasher. All the other guests had gone home, the kids were asleep in bed, and Tommy and Maddox were still outside, so the two of us were alone in the kitchen.
“Yes. It was fun and relaxing. I forget how nice it is not to worry about work all the time,” I admitted. Or the things that came along with being a defense attorney.
“Is everything okay on that front? I know you won that big case.”
I smiled. “I did win. And it felt really good.” What came after, not so much. But I didn’t want to bother her with that stuff. “I know I need some time off like this, but it’s hard to let go every now and then. My firm is my baby.” And with no husband and kids, sometimes, it felt like it was my family.
Addison put her hand on my shoulder. “I understand. Until Maddox came back, my work was my baby. And I’m just a one-man show. You and your partners built up your firm from the three of you to what it is now. I can see why you put a lot of energy into it. But remember, you hired all those people because they are competent. If you don’t think they can manage without you, you wouldn’t have brought them on.”
I chuckled. “You have a way with words. Maybe you and Maddox should move to Des Moines, and you can join my team. We could use someone like you in court.”
She scrunched up her nose. “Nah. I like my little life here.” She rinsed off a glass and handed it to me. “Which is so crazy when I think about it. Maddox and I had such grand plans to get out of this town and do bigger and better things. And now, here we are…happy.”
“Life is funny sometimes.”
We cleaned up a few more dishes in silence before Addison said, “So…”
“So…what?” I asked. I had no idea what she was thinking.
“So, you want to tell me why you were acting so strange earlier tonight?”
I winced. “You noticed, huh?”
She laughed. “Of course I noticed. Tommy didn’t exactly help. He kept watching you.”
A hot flash went through my body. “He did?” I asked more eagerly than I should have.
“Yeah, he was watching you like he was waiting for you to mess up or something.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t prepared for the disappointment that followed.
A slow grin spread across Addison’s face. “Did you want him to be watching you for other reasons?”
“What?” I scoffed. “No.”
“Because when your attention is elsewhere, he looks at you like he wants to do things to you. Very bad things.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
I shook my head, even as I tried not to let any excitement get the best of me. “No, he doesn’t.”
“Yes, he does. But we’re getting off topic. Why were you being weird?”
I didn’t know what to do. I could make something up, but then I’d be lying. Or I could tell her the truth and potentially embarrass her. Or worse, she could get mad at me for not listening to her.
Thanks to the help of a few glasses of wine, I decided to go with the truth.
“I got here early even though you told me not to, the
