Chapter 19
NINETEEN
ON TRIAL
Beckett
We stepped onto the small porch of Addison’s childhood home, and I took a deep breath.
I worked in a high-stress environment every day with sometimes very combative people. Yet I was more anxious to meet her two grandmothers than I ever had been at work.
I’d known that the two women were important to Addison, but I hadn’t realized just how important they were until our drive over.
She was only five years old when her parents died. Five. My heart broke for her, and even eighteen years later, I could tell their deaths still affected her. As it likely always would. Losing a parent was never easy, let alone when she was so young. What I wouldn’t give to take away that pain.
Addison paused at the front door with her fingers hovering just over the handle. Sensing her hesitation and anxiety, I pressed a hand to the small of her back.
I couldn’t help but notice the way her shoulders dropped and the small breath she blew out. Like my touch had helped soothe whatever thoughts were racing through her mind. She shot a soft smile up at me, and my heart frantically collided with my chest.
She pushed the door open. “Everyone ready?” she hollered, and immediately two voices responded.
“Almost! One second and we’ll be out.”
I closed the door behind us and glanced around the entryway.
The space was small, but I could tell it was decorated with care.
Each trinket and piece of art carefully selected and curated.
It felt like a welcoming grandmother’s home should.
There were beautiful photographs and family photos.
Every single one of them that I could see included Addison, but one in particular stuck out to me.
A man and a woman were seated on a bench, both of them smiling wide and their arms wrapped around the little blonde girl between them.
I knew it was Addison, not only because we were in her childhood home, so it was an easy guess, but because I’d know that smile anywhere.
Her hair was pulled back in pigtails, and she was the perfect mix of both her parents.
My heart broke for her all over again.
“So, this is where the Addison Hawkins grew up?” I asked.
“Yes, it is,” a voice from my right answered.
I looked up to see one of Addison’s grandmothers. Her black and gray hair was pulled into a tight bun, and she straightened her cream sweater as she walked out of a room just inside the front door.
“You must be Grams,” I said by way of greeting. Sticking out my hand, she took it with a smile. “I’m Beckett Crawford. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“I am Grams. Or Gabriela. It’s nice to meet you, too, Beckett.” Her dark eyes were soft and shot to Addison, who stood beside me. They widened slightly as she tried to hide her smile of approval, and I could see Addison’s blush bloom across her cheeks out of the corner of my eye.
Addison cleared her throat as I dropped Grams’s hand. “Is Nana about ready, or should I—?”
“I’m ready, I’m ready,” another voice—Nana—said from behind Grams. She stepped out of the way, and Nana pushed her walker into the little entryway. We were quickly running out of room in the small space.
Nana stopped in front of me and looked me up and down. “You must be Beckett,” she said flatly, tucking a piece of her short white hair behind her ear.
“And you must be Nana.”
I would have offered to shake her hand as well, but I got the distinct impression she didn’t want that. Similar to Grams, she shot a look over at Addison, but rather than an excited, eye-widening glance, it was drenched in uncertainty.
“We should get going,” Nana said, reaching for her purse on the little side table by the door.
“Yes, I’m starving,” Grams added, and we all shuffled out of the house.
“You’ll have to give me the grand tour another time,” I whispered to Addison, who gave me a guarded smile but nodded.
“I’m sorry about Nana,” she said quickly as I held the door open and waited for the two women to walk outside. “She’ll come around. Eventually.”
“No worries, baby girl. Nothing I can’t handle.”
Nana pushed her walker down the ramp on the other side of the porch. Grams followed behind her, and Addison waited for them while I opened the passenger-side door.
“Hope you don’t mind squeezing in the back with me,” Grams said. “It’s easier for Helen to sit up front with her hip.”
“Of course, it’s no problem.” Addison tucked Nana into the seat, and I folded her walker to put in the trunk. Addison met me at the back of the car.
“Thank you for helping,” she said. “You don’t have to, though.”
I set the folded walker in the trunk, and Addison reached up to close it. But I stopped her with a hand over hers and hooked my other under her chin, tilting her face up to look at me.
Addison had made her intentions known before our date: that she wasn’t interested in anything casual. She was a relationship type of woman, and that’s what she wanted. And I already knew that’s what I wanted to give her, but after our date, I was even more sure.
I wanted to make that clear to her, too.
“I want to help, Addison, because I want you.” We didn’t have much time for me to expand, so I kept it simple. Then I leaned down and kissed her softly. It was a chaste, sweet kiss that did nothing to curb the growing need inside me, especially after a few days without her.
But with her grandmothers waiting, one of whom I was still trying to win over, I wasn’t going to push my luck.
We closed the trunk and got in on opposite sides of the car.
Sliding into the backseat, I realized very quickly that it was much smaller than the front.
My knees were pressed into the back of the seat in front of me, and I was glad it was a short ride.
Otherwise, there would be muscle spasms and lots of aches and other pains.
“You going to be okay squished back here with me?” Grams asked with a laugh, patting my knee.
“I think so.”
“So, Beckett,” Nana began from the front.
Seated behind her, I couldn’t see her face, but I caught Addison’s nervous gaze in the rearview mirror. I gave her a quick wink, hoping to calm any anxiety. “Yes?”
“What do you do for a living?”
“I’m an attorney.”
“Actually,” Addison added. “He owns his own law firm.”
“I do,” I agreed. “It was my father’s, and he passed it on to me.”
Nana hummed as we turned out on the highway. “And what kind of law do you practice?”
“I have a mixed practice, actually. Immigration and labor and employment are the main practice areas, but I’ve also done some work in construction law.”
“So, you must work a lot then. Running your own firm, dealing with your own practice and cases. Do you have any free time?”
Grams cleared her throat next to me and threw me an apologetic smile.
“I have some,” I said. “Not a lot, but enough that I can spend time with my Aunt Michelle, who recently moved to Lake Hills, and keep in touch with my friends.”
“You’re close with your family then?” she asked, and Addison groaned.
“Nana, what are you doing? He’s not on trial.”
“Well, of course he’s not, Addie Wren,” Nana said. There was a beat of silence before she added, “But if he were, he’s an attorney, he should know how to defend himself.”
More silence followed until the three of us burst into laughter. And I swore I heard Nana join in for at least a second.
“Well, anyway,” Nana continued after our laughter finally died down. “Do you have a thing for younger women? Is it a kinky thing or something?”
Addison gasped, and Grams leaned forward to smack the back of Nana’s seat.
“Oh my gosh, Nana!” Addison abruptly stopped at the next light and shot Nana a disbelieving look with her jaw dropped and her eyes wide.
“Helen, are you kidding me?” Grams scolded as Addison shook her head and angrily whispered her own dismay.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I understand why you’d ask. And this is the first time I’ve ever been interested in someone significantly younger than me, but I can promise that it is not what drew me to Addison.”
“So, you’re telling me age has nothing to do with it?”
“Well, whether we like it or not, age almost always has something to do with it,” I reasoned. “But her age is the least interesting thing about her. She’s smart and funny and kind and a million other amazing things. Age is the least important part of it.”
Expecting Nana to say something more, I was surprised when silence followed.