Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
SEVENTEEN YEARS
Beckett
I’d dreamed of her the night before. During the little I was able to sleep.
I couldn’t remember the last time I was nervous about a date, but there was something about Addison that made me feel off-balance in the best way. Fuck, I felt like a teenager again.
I pulled up to Lake Hills and parked off to the side in the circular drive. I took a deep breath and stepped out of the car, but I didn’t move far. I rounded the hood and stopped as Addison strode out of the front door.
Fuck, she was so perfect, she stopped me in my tracks.
Her light pink hair was curled, half of it pinned back, and her makeup was gorgeous.
I didn’t know much about makeup application, but whatever she did was spectacular.
Especially the shimmery shade on her eyelids that I noticed when she took a few slower steps closer to me.
The dress she’d chosen was like something out of my dreams. It was a darker purple and form-fitting. It stopped a little above her ankle, but the slit on one side slid up until almost mid-thigh. My cock thickened in appreciation.
When she stopped in front of me, a small, shy smile perched on her lips, my trance finally broke.
“Hi,” she greeted quietly. “I saw you pull up, so I figured I’d meet you out here.”
“You look…perfect. Amazing,” I said, unable to settle on a word that truly encapsulated how I felt looking at her.
A faint blush tinged her cheeks, and her dress was low-cut enough that I could see it spread down her chest.
“Thank you. You look really good, too.” Her eyes dropped to my feet and slowly made their way back up to my face. I’d kept it a little more casual, in dark jeans and a sports coat.
“Let’s go,” I said with a smile, turning to open her door. She slid into the car and tried to keep the slit of her dress closed. But I saw a peek of her upper thigh and realized, once again, I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of tasting her.
I walked back around the car and slipped into the driver’s seat.
“Where are we going?”
Putting the car in gear, I rounded the driveway out toward the street. “One of my favorite restaurants. Do you like Italian food?”
“Yes, absolutely. That sounds amazing.”
“So, how did your event go yesterday? The engagement party.”
We descended into easy conversation on the short drive to the restaurant. The engagement party was a success, and I loved the enthusiasm in her voice when she talked about how well it went. I wanted to keep talking about whatever topic made her smile like that.
It was hard to keep my focus on the road, but I watched her out of the corner of my eye as her smile lit up her face, and she talked with her hands.
“And you’re going to plan the wedding, too?”
“Yeah, next year. But umm…how was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? Your brother was in town, right?”
“He went back to Chicago on Friday, actually,” I said, making a left turn and thinking back on my very uneventful weekend.
“So, what’d you do?”
“I worked.”
Next to me, Addison slowly turned her head in my direction, and I could feel her gaze against the side of my face.
I intentionally left out the fact that I’d spent much of the weekend worried about our business finances and the missing money that was adding up every day. “You worked? That’s all you did?”
“Yes, but so did you.”
“But that wasn’t all I did,” she clarified.
She tucked a stray piece of pink hair behind her ear and turned in her seat so she could face me as best she could.
“I hung out with family and did other things. I didn’t just work.
And I have two jobs, which require working on the weekends. I kind of signed up for that.”
Leaning back, I gripped the wheel with my left hand and gave in to my desire to touch her. I reached over and let my right hand fall onto the small bit of exposed skin on her thigh. Still watching the road, her quick intake of breath was loud enough above the soft music that I could hear it.
Satisfaction rumbled through me. With her every reaction, my fragile restraint grew weaker.
Even if she didn’t say anything, she couldn’t hide her expressions.
It was easy to see her thoughts playing out over her face.
And I craved to see them again, preferably when she was impaled on my cock and at the precipice of orgasm.
“Beckett?” she asked, and I realized I’d zoned out to the images I’d conjured.
“Sorry, yes?” I squeezed her thigh, and she readjusted in her seat, scooting ever so slightly closer to me.
“Do you usually work every weekend?” Her voice was breathy, and I ran my thumb back and forth over her smooth skin. All my earlier nerves were suddenly calmed.
“Yeah, usually. It’s nice because no one else is working. I can catch up without any interruptions.”
She nodded and looked back out the windshield. “You don’t like setting time aside for that during the week? During the day? It’s just unfortunate that you have to use up all your free time to catch up on work.”
“It’s not too bad,” I said as I turned into the parking lot. “And I like to be accessible during the day. I have a lot of people who report to me, and if they need help, I want to make sure they can reach me.”
Addison was quiet for a second, and I glanced over at her. I caught her looking down at my hand on her thigh before she looked back up at me with a soft smile sitting on her lips. Lips that were painted a shade of dark pink I knew would look so good smeared around my cock.
“You sound like a really good boss. I bet people enjoy working with you, for you.”
“I like to think so,” I said with a smile.
Pulling up behind an SUV and in front of the valet stand, I put the car in park. Before we could say anything more, the valet attendants were opening our doors. I left the keys in the center console and slipped the guy a few dollars before I walked around the car to meet Addison.
“Thank you so much.” She nodded to the valet guy and gave him a sweet smile.
I swore the guy swooned on the spot, and I fully understood his instant infatuation.
But I also loved that her smile widened when I slid my hand against the small of her back just above the curve of her ass and led us inside.
Every time I walked in, it smelled better than the last. The low lights of the restaurant were warm and accented the occasional flicker of candlelight from each table.
“Reservation for Crawford,” I said over the quiet murmur of voices and hush of music that was a soft melody in the background.
The host smiled and grabbed two menus before he motioned for us to follow him.
He directed us to a circular booth at the back of the restaurant.
It was one of my favorite tables in the entire place with a spectacular view of the patio.
There was a stream running through the property and lights strung from one large tree to the next.
I preferred to sit out there when the temps weren’t hovering just above freezing.
“Your server will be right with you,” the host said as he set the menus on the table. Addison scooted in from one side, and I slid in the other.
She shrugged her jacket off and set it on the booth next to her.
“Good to see you, Mr. Crawford,” Jeremy said as he approached our table.
“Good to see you, too, Jeremy. This is Addison.” They waved to one another before I had to ask, “How’s school?”
He smiled and smoothed his hands down his black dress pants. “Really great, actually. This semester was tough, but I made it through. What would you like to drink?”
“Water to start,” I said. “We’ll look over the cocktail menu. Thanks.”
He nodded and headed back toward the kitchen.
Addison nudged me and crossed one leg over the other, opening the cocktail menu and peering down at the list. “So, you’re a regular here?”
“Not really. Jeremy is a friend’s son. He wanted to go to law school, so I helped with his application and wrote him a recommendation.”
She nodded, but her eyebrows drew together, and she tugged her bottom lip between her teeth.
“What?”
She glanced up at me, green eyes bright in the candlelight. “I’m sorry?”
“I can tell by your expression that you have something to say. Your thoughts often play out over your face.”
“Yeah, I know,” she sighed and closed the cocktail menu, tucking her hair behind her ear and readjusting in her seat. Like she was looking for something to do, she picked up her napkin and dropped it in her lap. She folded it carefully and let her hands rest on top of it.
“I just realized that Jeremy is probably around my age and that you have friends that have kids my age.”
I didn’t have a chance to respond before Jeremy returned with two waters and to take our drink order.
Addison ordered one of their signature cocktails, and I ordered a whiskey, neat.
“I’ll bring some bread as well.”
The second he left, I turned back to Addison. “You’re right. I have friends that have kids your age. Does that bother you?”
She looked down at her hands, fidgeting with a ring on her pointer finger. And every silent second that passed, my anxiety grew. In an instant, I was second-guessing everything. Every interaction, every word we’d spoken to one another.
“I know it should, but it doesn’t.”
I had to take a breath before I could respond. “Why should it?”
“Because,” Addison began but was interrupted by Jeremy, who slid our drinks across the table along with the basket of bread and butter. He promised to give us a few minutes to look over the menu, which neither of us had even opened.
Addison took a long sip of her drink, and her eyes widened. “Oh my gosh, that’s so good.”
I smiled against the rim of my own glass as she tilted hers back one more time. She slid it across the table and cleared her throat.
“Anyway, I just think that most people would be bothered by a seventeen-year age difference.”
“I don’t care what most people think, Bubbles. I care what you think.”
“I don’t care,” she said softly.
When she looked back up at me, I felt the weight of her words and the confidence behind them directly in the center of my chest. And I couldn’t help it. I had to touch her. Reaching forward, I let my hand rest on her thigh just beneath the slit of her dress.
I watched her chest expand. “Maybe I would if I thought you only wanted to be with me because of my age,” she said, her voice breathy. “But I don’t think that’s true.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, taking a sip of my drink and letting the warm liquor burn away the rest of my nerves. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“Okay, good. So, it’s not an issue? For either of us?”
“No, baby girl. It’s not.”
She nodded, a smile slipping across her lips as she reached for the menu. “So, what’s good here? What do you recommend?”
“Honestly, everything,” I said, looking over her shoulder. “But I usually get the ribeye or the fettuccine. Their lasagna is also really good.”
“Pasta sounds amazing, actually.”
I reached for the bread and placed two slices on a plate for Addison, then added two for myself on a separate plate. Pushing the butter toward her, Jeremy arrived, and we ordered our entrées.
“I tried to make pasta from scratch once, but it didn’t turn out so well. I’m not a great cook. I can do the basics like making packaged pasta, but more than that I’m worthless.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
She finished chewing a bite of bread and confidently said, “It is. I have other skills that make up for it, though.”
Once the words were out of her mouth, she froze, and even in the dim candlelight, I saw a blush make its way across her cheeks and down her chest. She opened her mouth, likely to backtrack, but I couldn’t let her. Her embarrassment was adorable, although unnecessary.
“I know you do, baby girl.”