Chapter 14
It was pointless for me to stick around the apartment with Jules after Adam left.
I spent another hour, sipping way too much coffee and putting the final touches on pressing the glue down on Pride Prejudice. But until that glue dried, I had nothing else to do here at the apartment.
So I packed my supplies and headed off toward the campus library.
It wasn’t until my phone rang nearly four hours later that I realized how much time had passed. I looked at my screen, smiling at Addy’s name flashing across. “Hey,” I answered.
In the background, I could hear my little brothers wreaking havoc, running around, making shooting noises. “Stop running in the house!” I pulled the phone away from my ear just in time to avoid Addy shouting right into the receiver. “Ugh, sorry about that,” she sighed. “What’s up?”
“Ummm… you called me. What’s up with you?”
“Oh. Right. This whole pregnancy brain thing is so real.”
“Oh my God!” I squealed and jumped up and down in place. “Addy, are you pregnant?”
“What!? No. God no. Bite your tongue, girl.”
I stopped jumping in place. “But you said pregnancy brain.”
“I meant from when I was pregnant with Lacey.”
“But you haven’t been pregnant with her in?—”
“Please, Addy. Just give this to me.”
I snapped my mouth shut. “Right. Pregnancy brain. Got it.”
“Anyway, I wanted to see if you wanted to come to Maple Grove this weekend! We haven’t seen you since that first night and I had to explain to Lacey that her big sister isn’t avoiding us and does in fact still love us very much.”
I snorted a laugh as I blew some compressed air over the page I’d been working on. “Oh yeah? And how did my eleven-month old sister who can’t even ask for her bottle process that news?”
“How dare you,” Addy gasped dramatically. “She very clearly asks for her baba and winkie!”
“Winkie?”
“Well, actually if we’re getting technical, she asks for her inky. Her pacifier. Binkie turned into winkie turned into inky.”
“I see. Well, far be it from me to ever question her genius again.” I set the book carefully on the rack beside me to dry, then leaned back in my chair, taking a moment’s breather before moving onto the next one.
“Exactly. And let me tell you, when it comes to her big sissy, she’s adopting an I’ll believe it when I see it mentality regarding your love for her.”
“I woulda packed a bag if I’d known I was going on this guilt trip, Addy,” I teased her back. Some people would have been annoyed by such an intense and blatant guilt trip, but that wasn’t our style in this family. I knew this was Addy’s sense of humor and that she was only 20 percent serious.
Maybe thirty.
“Yes!” she squealed. “Pack a bag and come stay here for the weekend. Please. We miss you and soon you’re just gonna be back to stupid, rainy England.”
A weekend, back at my childhood house in Maple Grove? The thought of being back in my old bedroom—the same bedroom where I’d lost my virginity to Adam years ago—made my mind swirl. Maybe some space would do us good after our little tiff this morning? Then again, he might interpret it as me running away… again.
“Would it be okay if I brought someone? I mean, I have to check and see if they’re available or even want to come?—”
“Ohhhhh,” Addy sang and in the background, I heard Lacey echo her singing. “Is it a boy? Please tell me it’s a boy.”
“It’s… Adam,” I admitted.
Addy went silent for a long beat. Then, she finally asked, “Does this mean?—
“I don’t know what it means,” I said, cutting her off. “We’ve been… seeing each other. Again. I guess.”
”I should have guessed when we ran into him in your building. Well, you’re of course welcome to invite Adam along.”
“Can you do me a favor and wait to tell Dad? If he can’t come, I don’t want it to be a whole thing, you know?”
“You got it, kid.”
“And,” I added, “if I’m coming to Maple Grove, then you, Haylee, and Enzo better be up for some girls night bar hopping!”
Addy and I were friends first… and stepdaughter-stepmother second. We were close. Closer than I was with my own mother. And we’d always joked that once I turned twenty-one, we’d go out drinking all the time together. Unfortunately, life got in the way and I turned twenty-one in England. Not that it mattered since the drinking age was eighteen over there. Even still, Addy and I had never quite gotten to embrace girlfriend status like we’d always wanted to do.
“Bar Hopping? In Maple Grove? You mean to the three bars this town employs… one of which I own?”
“Yep,” I said. “Those are my terms.”
“You realize two of those bars close by 10 p.m.?”
“But not yours. Yours is open until one a.m. I should know, right?”
I heard her give a resigned sigh. Addy and I had first met when I rolled into her bar as a teenager using my cousin’s ID and drinking underage. Not my finest moment. But it brought her and my dad back together, so I wasn’t going to beat myself up for it.
Besides, I paid for that night the next morning in one of the fiercest hangovers I’d ever had in my life. Even to this day.
See? Told ya there was a reason why I didn’t drink much anymore.
“Counter offer,” I tried. “If you don’t want to go out in Maple Grove, the three of you could come here and party in this cute college town. You can crash in my apartment, then the next morning, we can all caravan to Maple Grove?—”
Addy groaned. “Are you joking? I’m too damn old to be sleeping on futons in dorm rooms.”
I clicked my tongue as though I were insulted. “Dorm room?! I’ll have you know that this a full-on six-hundred square feet, one-bedroom apartment thankyouverymuch!”
“Do you or do you not have a futon instead of a couch?” Addy asked.
Silently, I pressed my lips together, smothering my laugh.
“That’s what I thought,” Addy said.
The elevator gave another dying ding and the doors clunked open on my floor. “Okay,” I laughed. “So bar hopping in Maple Grove it is.”
“Fine. You’ve got a deal,” Addy laughed.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost five o’clock… and Adam never came to the library like he said he would. Unease trickled down my spine. “I’ve got to go, I’ll text you tomorrow to firm up the details. Love you!”
After we hung up, I packed up my supplies and walked the halls toward Adam’s office. He should have finished classes a while ago, but maybe he had office hours he forgot to tell me about.
I found his room, the heavy dark wood door shut and gave a little knock.
Nothing. No answer. I peeked in his classroom. Again, empty.
I continued to explore the building, realizing that I’d been here a couple of weeks and pretty much never left the library. When I came upon the faculty dining room, I stopped short. I was sort of faculty. I had a temporary badge.
I opened the door, peeking inside the small but cozy dining room and had to admit, it was pretty impressive. There were a few counters of varying types of food to order from—a coffee place. A burger joint. Pizza. And a soup and salad place.
It was mostly quiet and as I scanned the room, Adam was still nowhere to be seen.
My heart stopped as my gaze landed on two people, all the way in the back corner. Jasmine.
Jasmine was sitting, picking at her salad, while a man ate across from her.
But not just any man…
Elijah Stone. Adam’s father.