Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Annika felt like a pig, but she couldn’t stop eating. “These chicken fingers are amazing!”
“Thanks,” Ace said across the table. “Fried ‘em up myself. With a little help from the assistant chefs.”
“Who you calling an assistant?” Kendrick asked. “I peeled the potatoes.”
“Doesn’t take a lot of skill,” Ace replied. He winked at Annika before adding, “Anyone can peel potatoes. But it takes special skill to fry chicken. You’ve got to get it just right or you’ll burn the outside to a crisp while undercooking the inside.”
“Yeah,” Isaiah chimed in. “We’ve had your cooking before. Bro, stick to just peeling those potatoes.”
Everyone, including Kendrick, laughed.
It felt really good to be with others and having a good time, Annika noted silently. She couldn’t remember how long it had been since she’d felt so included.
Perhaps she never had.
But something felt right about this experience. It all seemed so natural.
She prayed it would last. Though she doubted it would. Oh well. It was a wonderful reprieve for however long she had it.
“I’d eat your cooking, Mr. Kendrick,” she told him.
“Aww, thank you, sweetie. And you can just call me Kendrick. Or Uncle Kendrick if you’d like.”
That made Annika smile, just like the laughter had. Maybe they were actually accepting her as part of their found family.
“So, you came to L.A. to work in the industry,” Lana said, referencing a conversation they’d had earlier. “Where was home, originally?”
Annika looked down at her plate. How much should she tell them? She sure couldn’t tell them everything. But her past—the part before Los Angeles—was safe to talk about. Even if it was a bit sad…
“Nebraska,” she told them after looking back up. “Sort of bounced between Lincoln and Omaha. They aren’t too far from each other. I lived in both at various times.”
“I’ve never been to Nebraska,” Iris said. “Is it pretty?”
“Yeah. In a way. Really flat. But it has its own beauty,” Annika replied. “There are places where it seems like you can see for miles. It’s so open and vast on the plains!”
“That’s cool. Do you still have family there?” Cami asked.
Annika wondered again how much she should share. It wasn’t that her past was shameful or anything. She just didn’t want people feeling sorry for her. But she didn’t want to lie, either.
“I never knew my family. My mom—I was told—was a college kid at the university there in Lincoln. She signed away rights as soon as I was born. So I was raised by foster parents.”
She left it at that. There was no need to mention the group homes, string of “parents” or the time she was in an actual orphanage.
Nor was there reason to admit she didn’t even know if Voss was her real last name.
It was on her birth certificate. Whether it came from her biological mother or father, she didn’t know.
She’d searched numerous times in databases, but no solid answers materialized from her time.
As far as she knew, it was just a random name assigned to her at birth by someone at the hospital or the State of Nebraska.
“I know a little bit about that,” Iris said. “Not exactly the same. I was raised by my grandma for a while. But when she passed, and my other relatives got tired of me, I did the foster thing.”
Annika looked her way. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“Thank you. And I’m sorry you did, too,” Iris told her.
Their eyes remained locked for a moment. Annika liked the other girls, too, but she felt an instant connection to Iris. It must have been their shared experience.
She still couldn’t open up about the specifics of what brought her to Los Angeles, though. Not yet.
Maybe never.
It would be horrible to put Iris or anyone else in danger.
“You mentioned wanting to work for a studio,” Lana said. “Have you put in for any jobs?”
Annika’s stomach muscles tightened. She knew all this would come up. But again, she couldn’t put anyone in danger.
“No. It just… didn’t work out.”
She hoped the group would leave it at that.
Thankfully, it looked like they would for now because the conversation changed directions when Matteo said, “You’ve eaten good, honey. I’m proud of you. But I hoped you saved room for dessert.”
Unable to help herself, she sighed wistfully. She loved the way he was talking to her! It seemed so genuine. She had the sense he truly wanted to care for her.
“Yes, Sir. I can eat dessert!”
He grinned. “Good girl. But eat more chicken or sides if you want it. We’re in no rush.”
Annika obeyed, eating another chicken tender.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten so good.
Her mind couldn’t help but drift back to the man she’d encountered on the street earlier.
She hoped he was able to get something to eat, too.
Perhaps someone else had given him some money to go with the lonely dollar she’d dropped him.
Iris hopped up. “I’ll grab the cake.”
Lana went with her. “I’ll get the plates and forks.”
A loud beep sounded throughout the dining room. Annika practically jumped onto Matteo’s lap.
Even though she still didn’t know what was going on, she felt better the moment his strong arms wrapped around her.
But she felt a little foolish, too. That had been a trauma response. Life could be hard—and sometimes mean—out there on those L.A. streets. There were plenty of loud noises. Most were innocent, though still jarring.
Still, some warned of danger.
“It’s okay, honey,” Matteo said soothingly. “See that little speaker up there?”
She followed his line of sight to a small white box mounted high on the wall near the ceiling right in the center of the room.
“Yes,” she replied.
“We have those all through the house. Please don’t be startled. It tells us the Daddy Guard is needed. The alarm only beeps if we missed the notifications on our phones. And, since we all put our phones up before supper, we obviously missed something.”
Annika rested her head on his chest for a moment, savoring the feel. Then, she scooted back into her own seat next to him and said, “What is the Daddy Guard, exactly?”
“We’ll tell you all about it,” Iris said with a proud grin.
“Yeah. We’ll explain while the Daddies answer the call!” Cami added.
Annika watched in fascination as the men hurried from the room. They had purpose as they moved. It was evident they’d done this before—like firefighters getting a three-alarm call in the middle of the night.
And Matteo sure looked sexy as he sprang into action.
The sexiest thing Annika had ever seen…