BETTER THAN A DREAM
PATRICK
O ld habits died hard. And the ones I’d started after Addi first left were back in full force. I worked long hours to keep my mind off of the one thing it always seemed to drift to.
Her.
Addi had been back in New York for two weeks now. Fourteen torturous days. Hadn’t heard from her since our text message exchange, even though I was itching to get on the next flight to Manhattan and toss her over my shoulder, kicking and screaming if I had to.
It was crazy how easy it was to slip back into my routine. The one where I drowned myself in work. The one where I did everything I could to stop myself from obsessing over her.
I wondered if that was how it was for her. If being away grew easier as the days passed? Maybe after two weeks, it felt like she’d never even been in Sugar Mountain at all?
I pulled off the baseball hat I was wearing and wiped at the sweat on my brow. It wasn’t warm in the slightest, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at me.
“Uncle Patrick! Where are you?” Clara’s voice echoed, and my mood was instantly lifted.
When I turned to look for my sweet niece, my heart nearly lodged in my throat at the hand she was holding.
“I brought you something,” she said with a giggle, and my jaw dropped at the sight of Addi standing there, holding the hand of the only other girl I’d ever adored.
“Addi?” I whispered like it might be the ghost of her and I was in some sort of fever dream.
“Yeah, Patrick, it’s me,” she said with a smile.
“She was looking for you, Uncle. But I found her first and told her I knew just where you were,” Clara announced as Jasper ran up to his favorite girl and planted his body right on her feet.
I heard a commotion in the distance, and when I stepped outside of the barn, I saw Thomas running in my direction.
“Clara?!” he shouted, and I yelled for him to calm down.
“She’s okay. She’s here,” I said, but after what happened, there would be no calming him down until he saw her with his own two eyes.
Thomas sprinted toward me. “You think that girl would learn,” he said, his breath shaking.
“She’s with Addi.” I gave a wave toward the open barn doors, and he stopped in his tracks.
“Addison’s here? Again?” He looked confused.
“Apparently. Got here right before you did,” I said, and he stepped through the doors.
“Clarabel.” Thomas put on his best dad voice. “You cannot run off!”
Clara winced slightly, her grip on Addison’s hand tightening as my eyes crashed into hers. I had so many questions.
“I wasn’t alone, Daddy. I saw Miss Addi and wanted to bring her to Uncle Patrick.”
He stepped toward his daughter and fell to his knees so he could look her in the eyes. “But you have to tell me or Mama, okay? You can’t just disappear. You know better.”
Clara’s eyes started to water. “I’m sorry, Daddy.” She threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Are you mad at me?”
“A little,” he admitted, and our sweetest girl started crying.
“I just got real excited to see Miss Addi,” she said at the same time as Addi apologized.
Thomas pulled his daughter away and wiped at her tears. “I know, baby. But you can’t run off. Especially after what happened. You can’t disappear like that. You’re going to give me a heart attack.”
Clara looked so sad as she glanced at each one of us before apologizing, even including Jasper.
“Let’s go inside and make sure your mama knows you’re okay. She’s looking for you too.”
“Think she’ll be mad? I am real sorry,” Clara said.
I jumped in. “I’ll let Brooklyn know that you’re okay.” I reached for my phone and typed out a quick text. I imagined that she must have been going out of her mind with worry.
Then, everything else faded into background noise because all I saw was her . Addison was here. In the wedding barn.
“Hi,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
I wasn’t sure what to do. Run to her? Kiss her senseless? Fuck her in the bridal suite?
“Hey.”
She took a forward step, closing the space between us.
“What are you doing here? Is your dad okay?”
Her head nodded as she took another step. “Yeah, Patrick. My dad’s fine.”
I swallowed, my throat thickening with each passing second as my mind raced with questions and hopeful responses.
“Addi.” I said her name like a plea. Like the very breath I needed to keep existing.
Another step. She was inches from me now.
“Why are you here?” I asked for the third time.
“I’m here for you, you big dummy.” Her voice was playful, but I didn’t trust that my ears had heard her correctly.
“For me?”
She smiled. It was the kind that crinkled her eyes. The one I loved. The one I had memorized. The one that meant she was genuinely happy.
“Yeah. For you. I don’t want to waste any more time, being away from you. I don’t want to hate where I live because you’re not there. I want to live in Sugar Mountain, where my heart has always been. With the man I love, if he’ll have me.” She said the words like she’d practiced them on the flight over. And honestly, she probably had.
“As if I’d ever let you go,” I said before closing the space completely, taking her in my arms and claiming her once more.
This time, there would be no more goodbyes. No more life apart. Only together. Like we were always supposed to be.
Addi moaned, and my dick was rock hard. Her hand roamed down my body, stopping once she reached my jeans and caressing the bulge there. I moved my hips against her palm, liking the way it felt, wanting more of it.
“Baby, I’m going to fuck you right here if you don’t stop,” I warned.
“I dare you,” she said with a grin as her tongue pressed against mine, our kisses frantic and messy.
I reached for her hand, intertwined our fingers, and pulled her up a set of stairs to one of the bridal suites. The windows were uncovered, and the view of the mountains filled the entire frame. I heard Addi’s breath catch, but when I reached for her chin and tipped it in my direction, her eyes focused solely on me.
“Only right that we’re the ones who christen the space, don’t you think?” I asked, and she licked her lips as she nodded. So agreeable.
I peeled off her clothes, tossing them without care to the ground before removing my own and doing the same. She stood there, staring at me, like she hadn’t just seen me naked a couple of weeks ago. But instinctively, I understood. Because this was different.
This wasn’t temporary. This wasn’t us ending. This was our second chance. The start of our forever.
“Need you to lie down, love. I want to look at you while I make love to you, memorize every face you make,” I directed, pointing at the plush carpeting.
“You’ve gotten bossy in your old age,” she said, but still did as I’d asked.
I had known that she would.
“Going to make love to you like I’m never letting go, baby. Like my world stops and starts with you.”
“No take-backs.”
“Never.”
“I love you, Addi.”
“I love you too, Patrick.”
And that was all I needed to push inside of her. She gasped as I filled her body, and I tried my best to maintain any semblance of self-control. Honestly, I had very little when it came to her. And being inside of her fully tested every last ounce of it.
Her hips rocked, moving in unison with mine. We’d always been good at this, connecting like there was no one else in the world. Sex with Addi was soulful. Spiritual. On another level completely.
“Not gonna last,” I warned as I sped up my pace, hating that I hadn’t satisfied her, but also reveling in the fact that I’d have the chance to make it up to her.
Because my girl wasn’t leaving this time.
“It’s okay, babe. We have a lifetime for you to take it slow,” she said, as if reading my mind.
And I lost it right then and there. Spilled all my love inside of her, and she didn’t even look like she cared. I’d make her come until she saw stars. Multiple times. And I couldn’t wait to do it.
“Can I ask you something?” I said as I rolled off of her and pulled her onto my chest, gripping her tight.
“Of course,” she answered, her heart racing against my skin.
“Are you okay with Thomas and Brooklyn getting married here?”
She pushed up from my body and angled herself toward me, her nakedness on full display. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
I moved to sit up as well. “Because the barn was our idea. Well, yours really.”
Shaking her head, she responded, “I know, but it suits them. Don’t you think?”
I did think that actually. But I was already moving past that subject.
“If this suits them, then what suits us, you think?” I asked, not caring at all that I was pushing her because she’d moved back here for me.
She mentioned not wasting any more time, and I couldn’t have agreed more. We’d wasted too much being apart. Years had flown by, and we couldn’t get a moment of it back.
Addi grinned. “The house you built. I’m obsessed with it.”
That was a hell of a response. One I hadn’t seen coming even though it was so damn obvious.
“You’d want to get married at our home?” I asked.
“There’s nothing I’d want more,” she said as she looked around. “It’s beautiful in here. You’ve made something real special in this barn, but it’s not us. We don’t need all this.”
God, I loved this woman.
“I’ll give you anything you want. Tell me, and it’s yours.”
“You, Patrick. I just want you.”
“That’s easy enough,” I said before taking her swollen lips and kissing them once more. I planned on claiming this woman’s lips, mouth, and body until the day I died.
“Can you take me home now?”
We stopped at the front desk on our way out of the resort to grab all of Addi’s things. It hadn’t even occurred to me that she’d come straight here from the airport or that she’d packed up all of her belongings from New York because SHE WAS NEVER GOING BACK THERE .
I wanted to throw a fucking party. “Does your dad know you’re back?”
“Not yet. Think we could go see him?”
“Of course.”
We drove in my old, beat-up truck, Jasper being a proper cockblock as he sat between us, a smile plastered over my face that I couldn’t seem to get rid of.
“Why are you grinning like that?” Addi asked, her hand resting on Jasper’s back.
I shot her a quick glance, my smile still firmly in place, as I answered, “Why aren’t you?”
She laughed. It was full-hearted and filled with joy. It only made my lips curl up even more.
When we pulled into the driveway, my heart started racing. The last time I’d been over here, I definitely hadn’t been happy.
Addi must have been just as excited as I was because she bolted from the truck and ran straight into her dad’s house without knocking. I heard her laugh and Jeremiah’s deep voice before I even entered.
I found the two of them hugging in the kitchen, Jeremiah’s crutches scattered on the ground. He must have dropped them when he saw her. Jasper sniffed around them, his tail wagging.
“This is a nice surprise,” he said as he looked at me, his daughter still in his arms.
“Isn’t it?”
“So, you’re back for good?” He looked at his daughter with so much hope, his voice wistful with his words, and I noticed a tear fall down Addi’s cheek.
“Yep,” was all she managed to get out as he squeezed her even harder.
“I’m so happy to have you back, sweetheart. It’s not the same without you.”
Damn.
Now, I was getting choked up.
“Hope you don’t mind me stealing her. I mean, I did build us a house,” I said, launching a guilt grenade I knew I didn’t need.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, son,” he said as he took my hand and gave it a firm shake.
“My two favorite men.” She sniffed and wiped at her face with the back of her hand before maneuvering out of her dad’s arms and straight into mine.
“Think Sarina will come visit more?”
“Heck yes!” Addi answered with so much thrill in her voice. “She decorated her room, remember?”
She laughed, and I gave them both a look. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I put the pieces together easily enough.
“You need a haircut,” Jeremiah said.
I groaned. “You sound like my brothers.”
“They sound smart.”
I turned toward Addi and gave her a fake smile. “Will you cut my hair, love?”
“Just like old times.” She smiled, but it wasn’t fake, like the one I’d just given her.
“Get out of here, you two. Come see me soon though.” Jeremiah waved us off like we were bothering him.
Addi called for Jasper and started to walk toward the door, but I stayed back.
“Give me a second,” I said once she noticed that I had stopped.
She narrowed her eyes, but kept going anyway.
“Remember the permission I asked for all those years ago?” I asked my—hopefully—future father-in-law.
“I remember.”
“Does your answer still stand?”
He reached out his hand once more, and I grabbed it firmly.
“Of course it does. She’s all yours, Patrick. She always has been.”
“Thank you, Jeremiah. I’ll take good care of her,” I said as my heart pounded inside my chest.
“I have no doubt about that. Can’t believe she’s really home.”
“I know. It’s about damn time.”
He jutted his chin. “Go. Cut that mop on your head.”
“Fine,” I growled before pointing at him. “But you’re coming to Sunday dinner at the farm. Don’t even think about getting out of it.”
He smiled, his teeth on full display. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”