Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
OH NA-NA, WHAT’S MY NAME?
Addison
To say I’d been nervous before the date would be putting it lightly. I had a full-on panic attack earlier in the day and had to call Bri to calm me down. She’d talked me off the ledge and demanded I put on my “You’re a Badass” playlist so I would remember who the hell I was.
Her words, not mine.
But it worked just as well. I was Addison Wren Hawkins, and I deserved to be taken out on a fancy date by the sexy lawyer who made me want sweet, depraved things. I put on my favorite purple dress that hugged all my curves and took my time with my makeup and hair.
And the date had gone better than I imagined.
We’d drank and laughed, and slowly throughout the evening, I found myself growing more comfortable.
I wasn’t questioning my every word or movement.
Beckett made me feel safe in a way I’d never experienced before.
And every time he let a pet name slip, like “Bubbles” or “baby girl,” I wanted to drop to my knees beneath the table.
Again, an urge I’d never felt before and one that terrified as much as it excited me.
We drove back toward Lake Hills, Beckett’s firm palm on my thigh. We were casually discussing our favorite movies and TV shows we’d seen recently, and I enjoyed the lightheartedness of the conversation.
He made it all feel easy.
But when we pulled into the Lake Hills parking lot, I realized my mistake.
“Where’s your car?” he asked, and I cringed.
“Umm…it’s in a different parking lot. You can just drop me at the front. It’s a short walk.”
Beckett chuckled, and I knew that wouldn’t work. He was too much of a gentleman to leave me standing in front of my workplace on a cool night. Or at all.
“I’ll drive you to your car. Just tell me where it is.”
I rolled my lips and managed to keep my groan in my head. Although we didn’t know each other super well, I knew he wasn’t one to let something like that go. He was going to make sure I was home safely no matter what.
Which meant I had to tell him the truth.
“It’s actually…inside the gate. I…umm…I live here. And before you start judging, it’s only temporary. I just had to move out of my old apartment with the crappy boyfriend quickly, so when they offered me a place here, and at a discounted rate, I took it.”
He slowly rolled around the curved drive and back toward the resident’s entrance. Trying not to look at him was difficult, and I caught him glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.
“I would never judge you, Bubbles.” And there was sincerity in his voice that made it easy to believe him. “Can you open the gate?”
He motioned to it, still closed in front of us, and I scrambled for my purse. I found my keys and jammed the button hanging from my keychain. The gate slowly rolled open.
“That’s really nice of them to give you an option to stay here,” he said.
Nodding, I instructed him to go around the first two buildings and stop at number five.
“Yeah, we have several vacant units right now, so it works well for them, too.”
He pulled into a free spot at the end of the row and put the car in park, clicking the start-stop button to kill the engine.
“Oh, you don’t have to—” I began to say, but he cut me off with a quick, hard look.
Yeah, I knew I wasn’t going to win that argument either.
He pushed his door open and stepped out of the car as I gathered my things and went to open my own door.
But Beckett was right there, swinging the door open for me and offering me a helping hand.
I took it, and he wove our fingers together. My heart stuttered at the familiarity of the gesture, and I didn’t attempt to remove my hand. I really didn’t want to.
“I’m on the first floor, just around this—” Corner, I was about to say, but I couldn’t finish my sentence. A few steps beyond the corner, and I stopped dead in my tracks. Beckett stopped, too, and looked back with a deep furrow in his dark brows.
“Addison, what—”
“Addie?” Owen asked, and a shiver whipped down my spine. And not a good one.
Beckett’s gaze slowly swung up to see Owen leaning against my apartment door, a sad-looking bouquet in his hands, and a thoroughly distraught expression marring his boyish features.
His hand tensed in mine, and I worried that he’d pull away.
The thought made me want to make sure it didn’t happen, and I squeezed his hand once.
So tight that he couldn’t question my intention or desire.
“What—what are you doing here?” I finally found the nerve to ask.
“Waiting for you,” Owen explained, like it was any explanation at all.
“Why are you here?” I rephrased my question.
Owen’s attention bounced from me to Beckett and then to our joined hands. Even from several feet away, I could see his jaw work and the anger start to wash over him.
“We need to talk.”
Licking my lips, I squeezed Beckett’s hand again and glanced up at him as I passed, hoping he’d catch my silent request that he follow. I walked toward my apartment door, and I heard his faint steps pick up behind me.
“We don’t,” I said flatly, and I pushed past him like he was no one and fitted my key in the door.
Striding into my colorful yet cluttered space, I knew Owen would follow me, and I spun on my heels to see just that.
I stood in the middle of my living room with my arms crossed as Owen clutched the flowers in his hands and Beckett closed the door behind him.
His expression was hard, and I hoped he didn’t scare easily. He edged past Owen and walked toward me. Stopping next to me, he leaned down to my level and whispered, “I’ll be right here if you need me.”
I gave him a grateful nod and watched him only for a second. He continued deeper into my little apartment and into the kitchen, where he leaned casually against the cabinets. Where he could watch but not intrude.
“If you want to talk so bad, then talk.”
But Owen looked beyond me. “He’s just going to stay, then?”
I tilted my head and put on my best uncaring mask. “Well, I invited him. You on the other hand…”
“Addie, please. We need to talk about this. You just up and left without so much as a conversation. I didn’t even realize it had come to that. I thought we could work it out. I don’t care about the rest of it. Anything else that happened, it doesn’t change what we have.”
I scoffed and tossed my hands out to my sides in exasperation.
“Are you kidding, Owen? Look, I’m going to save you the breath and what I know will be a painful conversation.
The fact that you didn’t realize it was part of the larger problem.
The entire time we were together, I was never the priority.
And even when we were together, your mind was on everyone else.
You were also content with me doing everything.
Not once did you cook or clean or heck, even pay rent.
Our relationship was utterly one-sided, and I deserve more than that.
Not to mention, you lied through your teeth all the time.
One of those things on its own is enough, but together…
I can’t believe I stayed as long as I did. ”
Owen stood stock-still, mouth agape, and frustration radiating off him. But I was beyond caring. At one point, I would have done whatever I could to keep the peace. No longer would I suffer to make that happen.
“You’re serious?” he asked, and I nodded like that was a real question. Of course I was serious. I sounded more serious than I may have ever sounded before.
“Addie, I will do anything to get you back. You changed my life that day. November first will forever be ingrained in my memory because it was the day you changed me. I don’t care that you cheated.
I don’t care about the other guy.” He dropped the flowers on the entertainment center—the closest hard surface—and started yanking at his shirt.
“Wow, Owen, don’t—”
“I did this for you!” he exclaimed, pointing to the inner bicep of his left arm. “I tried to show you when I went by your office the other week, but you wouldn’t see me.”
Dread washed over me, and I could feel all the color drain from my face. Beckett’s presence was suddenly behind me to my left, and I tensed at what we were both seeing.
Tattooed in a very fancy, very large script was my name. Well, I guessed it was supposed to be my name.
Beckett choked out a disbelieving laugh, and I caught him rubbing a hand over his mouth before I dragged my eyes back to Owen.
“You do realize her name is spelled with two D’s, right? A-D-D-I-S-O-N.” Beckett couldn’t keep the amusement out of his voice, and I had to roll my lips to keep from laughing.
What the heck had my life turned into?
“Wait, wha—” Owen stuttered and contorted his arm so he could look at it. “A-D-I-”
He stopped, and I slapped my hand over my mouth. The laughter was bubbling up inside my chest, and it was growing harder to contain.
Owen jerked his shirt back in place, face red with anger, and took a threatening step toward me.
He stabbed his finger out, and Beckett put himself between us.
I wasn’t ecstatic that he had to get involved, but I was also insanely appreciative of his presence.
I never thought Owen would physically hurt me, but the chance was never zero.
“Think that’s about enough, buddy. You’ve said your piece.”
Owen scoffed. “Like hell I’ve said my piece. We were together for a long time, and you just came around. I mean, who the fuck are you? This is between us.”
I stiffened and watched his expression morph. He peered around Beckett and met me with a knowing, unrelenting stare.
“Wait, is this him?” He took a step to the side so he could see me around Beckett’s massive frame. His accusatory finger motioned to the man between us, and my heart felt like it was about to pound out of my chest.
Beckett stood stock-still, but I could feel the tension rolling off him in resounding waves.
I never expected to be put in this situation, for the two of them to meet, but karma was funny like that.
When Beckett and I slept together on Halloween night, Owen and I were still technically together.
Although I’d already checked out of the relationship and texted Owen that we needed to talk the following day, we hadn’t officially broken up.
And when Owen and I had finally talked, he wasn’t willing to accept the breakup, so I’d admitted that I’d been with someone else. That fact seemed to snap him out of his denial. I hadn’t wanted to tell him, to hurt him like that, but I felt like he’d left me no other choice.
Owen took my silence as confirmation and took another threatening step toward me. But Beckett was there, stopping his approach with a firm hand against his shoulder.
“I don’t care what happened. You’re not going to intimidate her.”
“You don’t care? You don’t care that she cheated on me with you.”
“Honestly?” Beckett asked without skipping a beat. “I don’t. Doesn’t seem like you did much to deserve her anyway.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Owen spat back, and I balled my hands into fists next to me.
Where the hell did he get off? No, I shouldn’t have done what I did, I know that.
But the end of our relationship wasn’t only my fault.
“You’ve been around for a second, so don’t act like you know anything about her or us. ”
Instantly, I straightened. Us? There was no us, and there barely ever had been. Even when we were together, it was hardly that. But I didn’t have to say anything.
In front of me, Beckett smoothly slid his hands into the pockets of his dark jeans. “Okay, when’s her birthday then?”
Owen’s silence was answer enough.
“Or how about this—do you know her middle name? Or the color of her eyes?”
Rather than answer, Owen narrowed his eyes and straightened like he was trying to make himself taller against Beckett’s formidable frame. Like he was struggling to hang on to that anger in the face of his own inadequacies.
“Whatever. Like you know the answer to those questions.”
Beckett tilted his head, and I wanted so badly to see the look on his face.
“October fourth, Wren, and she has the most stunning green eyes I’ve ever seen.”