34. Addison
Addison
CHRISTMAS EVE
# Red flags are green if you squint in just the right way
I t’s been twelve days since Chase left for LA.
We spoke every day for the first six days, although each call got progressively shorter and shorter.
Usually, he’d call me first, but then it was me calling him.
And then he’d be in a meeting and would promise to call me back, and the time between missing my call and returning it would get longer as the conversations got shorter.
Always rushing off to another meeting or to fix something.
I can’t blame him. I knew this long-distance thing wouldn’t work.
He’s too busy for a relationship with someone living in the same state as him, never mind someone living on the other side of the country.
We haven’t spoken at all in two days now.
Just a text from him this morning telling me he loves me.
I’m sure that’s true, but sometimes love isn’t enough.
My mom steps back from the Christmas tree, clapping her hands and admiring her handiwork, and deservedly so.
“It looks beautiful, Mom.”
She wraps her arm around me, her eyes shining with delight. “It always reminds me of you kids and how excited you used to get. You always used to love Christmas.”
Her expression turns sad when she looks at me. “And then, it seemed…” She tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. “For a while, it seemed like you stopped.”
I hug her tightly. “I still love Christmas, Mom,” I assure her. Now is not the time to think about Chase Hunter. I’ve forgiven him for breaking my heart all those years ago, and even though it’s breaking again right now, that’s not on him. I’m sure he really did want this to work as much as I did.
The doorbell rings.
“I’ll get it,” Eva shouts, followed by the sound of her stockinged feet scampering down the hallway.
The door opens and she shouts again. “Addie. It’s for you.”
I look at Mom and she shrugs, like she has no idea who would be calling here for me either. Only Emma would drop by to see me, and she’s definitely in Chicago based on the thousands of photos she keeps posting to her Instagram page.
I walk out into hallway, passing a grinning Eva on my way. She’s closed the door on whoever is out there and I can’t help wonder if this is some kind of surprise my family have cooked up. A Christmas singing telegram? Carolers? A pony? All of the above?
I pull open the door and my heart stops beating. Because it’s better than all of the above by a country mile. “Chase?”
He smiles and those mesmerizing blue eyes twinkle brighter than Christmas lights. “Hey, Firefly.”
“W—what are you doing here?”
“I told you I was going to make this work, didn’t I?”
“I know you said that, but…”
He frowns. “You didn’t believe me?”
“Not exactly. But what about your job? You’ve been so busy.”
He takes my hand and pulls me out onto the porch and the doors close behind me with a soft click.
Then he opens his thick wool coat and wraps it around me, until the two of us are inside it and I’m squished up against his chest. “There’s a reason I’ve been so busy, baby.
I’m sorry I wasn’t able to talk as much as I wanted to, but I had to tie up a few loose ends before I could get here. ”
That makes my heart hurt for him. “I love that you did that, but I don’t want you killing yourself just to be able to spend a few days here with me.”
“I’m not here for a few days, Firefly.”
Now my heart hurts for me too. Not even a few days? “So, how long are you here for?”
He runs his nose over my jawline, a deep animalistic growl rolling in his throat.
“I don’t want to spend another second of my life without you in it, Addison Kinsella.
I love you. Always have. Always will.” He presses a soft kiss on my lips and I melt into him like the snow in the first rays of the winter sun.
“I love you too, Chase. But…you live in LA.”
“I’m moving home to Juniper Ridge?—”
“No, I can’t ask you to do that.”
He chuckles softly. “You didn’t ask me, baby. Did you even hear what I said?”
I did. He called Juniper Ridge home. “You actually want to move back here?”
He nods.
“But what about your job? Your clients?”
“I’ve had a reshuffle. Promoted a couple of my best project managers to VPs, so I can take more of a back seat and focus on the design, which is the part I love anyway. But that’s where we might need a little compromise, Firefly.”
“What kind of compromise?”
“You’re going to have to move too.”
I blink. “Me move? But if you’re coming home to Juniper Ridge, and I already live here, why am I moving?”
“I can work remotely for the most part. There’ll be a little travel involved when I inspect sites, but most of what I do I can do from anywhere.
Most of my clients already travel across the country for my services.
It shouldn’t matter if they have to come to LA or Juniper Ridge.
But for that I’ll need an office space. And ideally one on Main Street.
And there are none available right now.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“I wondered if maybe you’d be willing to share yours?”
“You want my store?” Technically, he owns it so he could take it if he wanted to, although I know he never would.
But I rack my brain for how we might make that work.
We’re so short of space already and Emma and I work hard to make the best of what we do have.
It’s perfect as it is, but for him…I guess I can make room, seeing as he’s moving his entire life for me.
“We could move some stock upstairs, I suppose.”
Chase shakes his head. “I would never ever ask you to give up your store, and I made sure your lease is ironclad, baby. Nobody could ever take it from you. But I was thinking more like the space above it…”
“You mean my apartment?”
“Yeah.”
“But then where would I live?”
He squeezes me tighter. “With me, I hope. I bought the old Cooper place.”
My mouth drops open. The one I told him I dreamed of living in, with the wraparound porch and the swing and the huge field out back with space for chickens and dogs, and lots and lots of children. “You bought that? But how? When?”
“Closed yesterday. I’ll be moving in after New Year’s.
And you don’t have to move out right away.
I’ll have a home office that I can work from for as long as I need to.
You can take all the time you need.” He cups my jaw between his thumb and forefinger.
“But not too long, because you are mine, Addie. You were mine from the very first time I kissed you, and you’ll be mine until the day I die. ”
My knees tremble and if he weren’t holding me up, I’m sure I would crumple to the ground in a heap. “Let me get this absolutely straight. You’re telling me you’re moving back to Juniper Ridge, you bought my dream house and you want me to move in with you?”
“In a nutshell, yes.”
Wow! Arrogant, possessive, making-a-hell-of-a-lot-of-assumptions asshole. And I love him for it. “You know you’re a walking red flag, right?”
“So I’ve been told.”
A smile tugs at my lips. “What if we drive each other crazy living together?”
He kisses me again, a dark laugh tumbling out of him.
“Baby, you drive me crazy every second of every fucking day and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s one of the many, many reasons I adore you.
” He glances over my shoulder at the window.
“You know they’re all watching us, although I’m sure they think I can’t see them. ”
I can just picture the four of them peeking out from behind the curtain—their faces a mixture of shock and excitement, and I can almost hear the excited giggles from my mom and Eva. “Then you’d better unhand me, sir, or Brax and my daddy might come out here with a shotgun and run you out of town.”
He hums, like he’s thinking. “Yeah, they might if I hadn’t already told them I was moving back here, and that I was madly and hopelessly in love with you.”
“They all knew about this before I did?” I would poke him in the ribs, but I’m too warm and comfy wrapped up in his arms.
“I asked them to keep an eye on you and let me know if you were freaking out about us. I know you’d never have told me anything was wrong. It killed me being in LA and barely being able to talk to you.”
“So, this is it? You’re back for good?”
He nods.
“Won’t you miss LA?”
“LA is just a place.”
“A place that’s been your home for the last eight years.”
He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and squeezes me tighter. “You’re my home, Addie. I would live in the Arctic circle in an igloo as long as you were with me.”
“I think the Wi-Fi there might be terrible and then you’d be super grumpy.”
He hums, running his nose over my throat. “If your parents and your brother weren’t watching, I would put you over my knee right here, Firefly.”
I shiver. “Don’t tease me. We have to stay here at my parents’ house tonight. No spanking allowed.”
He smiles against my neck. “I can wait for that. But you’re gonna have to learn to be quiet for me, baby, because it’s been twelve very long days and I’m probably going to combust if I don’t get to fuck you very soon.”
“Well, I can’t have you exploding in your pants at the dinner table now, can I?” I snicker.
He nips my neck. “I just added another twenty strokes to your spanking.”
Sounds incredible. I press my lips against his and we kiss like we might never stop. Little does he know I plan on adding at least another hundred or so to that spank counter before we go back to my apartment tomorrow.
And I cannot wait.