Chapter 16 #2
“Hi,” I said breathlessly, my mind blanking on what exactly my escape plan was. I was no Marine and clearly no Great-Aunt Edith either. I’d gotten him away from her clutches, but now what? We couldn’t stay here all night.
Nash was under no such compulsion as he didn’t seem to mind. Leaning forward, his warm breath tickled my ear as he whispered, “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
I shoved at him, trying to tell him to behave, but still clutched his shirt with one hand. Plastering the most benign smile I could summon, I faced Great-Aunt Edith. “I’ve got to steal him away. Thanks for making him feel welcome.”
Her wiry eyebrow arched, calling me out. “Selfish girl, hogging such a nice man. Even if he is the enemy. Hiram will hate him.” She grinned manically. “And won’t that be a treat. I’ll tell Charmain we’ll need popcorn for that showdown.”
I dragged Nash away from her, through the crowded living room and down a quiet hall into a small den.
Only once the door was closed behind us did I heave a sigh of relief.
How she and Papa were siblings baffled me.
Papa had been the nicest man in the world.
Great-Aunt Edith was a garlic-breathing dragon with questionable morals.
“Not that I’m complaining,” Nash said smugly, “but care to share why I was just hauled into a dark room with my girlfriend?”
I glared at him. “You have no idea how close you came.” I nearly laughed at his bewildered expression, but Great-Aunt Edith was no laughing matter. “I warned you about her, and you just about fell into her clutches.”
“You said avoid the spiked eggnog,” he clarified.
“The eggnog and Edith are a package deal. You were standing between them. What’s worse is the mistletoe. You were about two feet and three seconds away from being mauled by an octogenarian who chomps on raw garlic every morning.”
Nash actually turned a bit green. “But I have a girlfriend. Why would she…?”
I snorted. “That doesn’t mean much to Edith.
You could have a ring on your finger, and she’d still make passes at you.
” Collapsing into a brocade armchair, I dropped my head into my hands, the bump on my temple smarting.
This was all too much. Apart from Nana, Hailey, Gabe, and Ivy, I didn’t exist day-to-day with the rest of the Addams family.
Just got roped into family holiday occasions like this.
Sometimes—when Hiram wasn’t bombing me with texts—I could forget just how much the outcast I was with the rest of them.
Coming back was like getting a front row seat to a horror movie.
“How is Hiram?” Nash finally asked, easing down on the ottoman across from me.
Excellent question. How was dear old Dad who gave me his name, ditched me at five years old, occasionally dropped in to flash around expensive gifts on major holidays, and effectively disappeared from my life the rest of the time?
“As manipulative as always.” I swallowed hard.
“He threatened to set me up with a certified creep, but I told him I already had a boyfriend.”
His thoughtful expression turned downright murderous, and my heart warmed several degrees.
Before I got the job, I’d disclosed to Nash I was the daughter of his biggest competitor.
Honestly, I thought it might have cost me the position, but to my surprise it seemed to be the thing to seal the deal.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, I guess.
But I wasn’t out to steal company secrets, and Nash seemed to know that.
No. I was dead determined to live outside my father’s shadow, and if working for a rival company was the way to do that, so be it. I was a trailblazer.
My therapist used other words, but that’s a different story.
I didn’t hate my dad. His abandonment stung when I was younger, and if I was honest, still did.
What kid didn’t want their dad’s attention and approval?
To not be shuffled off to another relative because she was inconvenient?
Instead, I got Louis Vuitton shoes for birthday gifts and a pony for Christmas.
And I didn’t even like horses. Money was no object with Hiram Addams, but all I wanted was the thing I never got—his attention.
His love was too big a thing to ask for.
At eighteen, he offered to pay my way through college, and I turned him down.
I paid for it all myself and never took another dime.
He forgot my birthday, but when it came to Christmas, he still tried to buy my loyalty to maintaining the family image with lavish gifts.
Hiram Addams was a prominent figure in the social world—his family had to act accordingly.
But the expensive gifts didn't mean anything. They didn’t fit in my world.
And I didn’t fit into his, between his work and his woman of the week.
“Does he know I’m the boyfriend in question?” Nash asked roughly.
I fell back in my chair, laughing. Not a cute laugh or a giggle but a deranged honk. One of my siblings had probably ratted me out already, but I didn’t bother mentioning it.
Nash cracked a smile, like my moment of insanity amused him. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“I’m sorry.” I straightened, shaking my head. “I should have been more upfront about why I asked. Snap, I shouldn’t even have asked. This is insane. Totally my fault. Absofreakinglutely—”
Nash’s hand squeezed mine gently, cutting off the flow of verbal nonsense spewing from my soul. “No. Don’t apologize. Your dad should have never put you in this situation.” His free hand brushed against my temple. “Did you get hurt?”
“I’m okay,” I whispered breathily.
Nash’s fingers lingered a minute, then dropped away.
“I don’t have extended family,” he said slowly.
“I was raised by a single mom, and for a short time, her parents until they passed when I was in my teens. I never knew my dad. It’s not even on my birth certificate.
At nineteen, I was completely alone in the world, familywise. ”
I swallowed hard. Nash had always been incredibly tight-lipped about his past and never talked about his family connections.
But I desperately wanted him to open up, share more.
He was getting a front-row seat to my mess.
Something I was regretting by the second. “I’m sorry. Were you close to them?”
He stiffened, avoiding my gaze and drawing his hand, still holding mine, back.
Come on, open up. You saw what we walked into. Can’t I know more about your family than what fits on a postage stamp?
“It doesn’t matter now.”
I frowned. “Of course it does. If you—”
“We were no Addams family,” he quipped, motioning towards the door. “Seeing all that, I have no protocol for normal family dynamics because I may not have your typical American family, but even I know that isn’t normal, darlin’.”
I loved when he let his twang slip. And darlin’?
Melt me. But I knew what he was doing, deflecting from his own family.
And it stung. In the car, he said he was curious about me, wanted to know things.
Why, then, couldn’t he return the favour and be open with me? “Normal is overrated,” I deadpanned.
Nash grimaced. “You Addamses may have gotten more than your fair share of the toxic family genes, but they don’t scare me.
Okay, your nana scares me, but I like her.
Gabe seems cool. Ivy and the kids are great.
I can already tell I’ve won Hailey over.
What I can see, though, is that they love you.
That’s the thing that matters. We can handle the naysayers together. ”
Tears pricked in my eyes, but there was no way I was crying in front of this man. I wasn’t sure what hurt more—how sweet his words tasted or how desperately I wished he let down a few of his walls for me.
“We made a deal. We’re good. Save me from Aunt Edith is all I ask.”
He might live to regret those words, but for now, I brushed a kiss to his cheek in thanks. It was quick—a butterfly touch—and I pulled away quickly.
Nash stared at me, and I blinked. I shouldn’t have done that. We had rules, and we didn’t have an audience, so… My stomach picked exactly that moment to rumble, and I pressed a hand to my middle, biting my lip. Lunch in Butte had been great but way too long ago.
Nash chuckled, breaking the tension. “Let’s get you fed. Whatever Austin—it is Austin, right?—is cooking smells amazing.”
Smiling at him, I added, “Final warning: It’s karaoke night.”