Page 63 of Twisted Hearts

“Okay. I just need to get clothes on then.”

She swerved off the stool and wobbled on unsteady feet, and I threw my arm out to catch her. “You’ve learned a lot, and none of it’s good, Addi. You sure you’re okay?”

She chewed on that bottom lip like she always did when she was thinking. “No, not really. I’m sure I’ll break down once I start thinking about everything, but for right now I’d like to ignore it.” Pale green eyes rose and met mine. “Is that…is that okay?”

“However you need to deal with what you’ve learned is what you need to do. There’s no judgment from me.”

She hesitated and then nodded. “Then I need ice cream, loads of it, and I’m out. Give me five minutes?”

“I’ll be here.” I turned my back to her bedroom because if I thought about her undressing in there, what she looked like bared and naked and with a bed so near, we’d never make it to the store. If I could make Addi’s day better at all, I was taking her to get some fucking ice cream.

* * *

As a manwho grew up watching my mom cook traditional, farm-style, meat-and-potato meals that stick to your bones, I also grew up learning to cook. I’d been on my own since I was twenty-two, right after I returned to my hometown from college and took a job with the Carlton Police Department. I moved into an apartment and had already realized a diet consisting mainly of takeout wouldn’t help me have the body or nutrition I’d need to do my job properly.

What I learned while taking the honest-to-God longest trip to the grocery store of my life with Addi was that she knew absolutely nothing.

Not only did she not know anything about cooking, what hit me while she was strolling through the frozen food aisle, gathering eighteen different pints of ice cream, was that her making a decision was next to impossible.

“I grew up with nannies and cooks, Shawn,” she scolded when I teased her about not knowing how to cook even something simple like grilled cheese. “I’m smart enough to figure it out, but I’d neverhadto.”

Right, because she was in her late twenties and until very recently had still lived at home, while I’d been on my own for close to a decade.

“But what I do know,” she continued in that tone, “is if you throw one more thing into this cart, you’re the one buying the groceries.”

Like I was going to let her pay anyway.

In response, I led her toward the frozen vegetables and threw in three different bags, smirking at her.

“What do you like for breakfast?”

“Well, that’s tricky, because it’s my absolute favorite meal to eat out, but at home, I don’t really eat much. A granola bar or yogurt. Sometimes some eggs, I guess.”

“And when you eat out?”

“Eggs Benedict. Waffles. Sausage, but links only. Never patties.”

A laugh bubbled up from deep in my chest. “You have put alotof thought into this.”

“Like I said, it’s my favorite.”

She was going to be working long hours at the bar. She needed more than a yogurt cup to have the energy to last.

I started pushing the cart toward the refrigerated section. I could make her eggs however she wanted them, although I’d have to figure out the Benedict part. I hadn’t seen a waffle maker in Shannon’s apartment, but I added the stuff to my mental list. I could go grab one at a store soon.

Once I threw the eggs in the cart, she grinned up at me. “You don’t have to cook for me, you know.”

I shrugged my shoulders and headed toward the baking aisle. “I’ve gotta eat. Might as well cook us stuff we’ll both like.”

And that was how the rest of the trip went. Addi’s eyes widened every time I threw something else into it, but with my workouts at Jaxon’s office to stay in shape, I consumed a whole hell of a lot more than yogurt and a few eggs every morning.

When everything had been rung up, she practically choked at the two-hundred-dollar amount and asked, quietly so the cashier didn’t hear, “Is this for like, a month?”

“No.” God she was cute. “A week, max.”

I swore I heard her audible gulp at the thought.

Funny how she was so intelligent, was trying so hard to be independent and clearly wanted to be, and yet there were so many things about which she was naive.

---