Page 53 of Broken Dreams
“Hey, Addy.”
“Grady, my sister and best friend are here,” I whisper-yell. “In Sugarloaf.In my office.Here!”
He pauses. “From Oregon?”
“Yes! From fucking Oregon. I told them about us yesterday, and today...” I practically screech. “Today, they’re here!”
“Easy, relax. It’s fine. I’m assuming they came because they want to meet me?” He laughs as though there’s anything about this that is remotely funny.
I roll my eyes. “What do you think?”
“Okay, so I’ll come over tonight like we planned.”
My eyes widen, I look down at the phone, and then bring it back to my ear. “Are you crazy? You can’t come here. I need an excuse. A good one. Jett is sick? No, that is too easy. You’re sick? Too coincidental. How about you are stuck in Virginia? Wait, that won’t work because Blakely isfriendswith the guys at Cole. Okay, we go dramatic, you were in a plane crash and lost the use of your arms, which means you can’t drive, but you’ll make a full recovery by the wedding.”
Might be the best idea I’ve had so far.
Grady laughs. “I’m coming over, Addison. I’ll bring Jett and it’ll be great.”
Great is absolutelynotthe adjective I would use, and his calm demeanor has me concerned. “Why aren’t you nervous?”
“Because they love you and want you to be happy. They came here to make sure I’m worthy of your time, and if they leave without getting that chance, that’ll be worse.”
“You say worse, I say necessary.” He doesn’t understand because Blakely is a freaking super sleuth. She is scarier than any of the guys—I can handle them. I’ve known them since grade school and with one look I can make all three of them cower. But Blakely, she’s not like that.
She assesses, studies, and I can’t control her at all.
Brielle, I think I could take, but not Blakely.
“We’ve managed to fool the entire town, what makes you think we can’t handle this?”
I look at the door, waiting for one of them to pop in. “She’s terrifying.”
“And my sister isn’t?”
“Okay, you have a point, but why aren’t you...nervous?”
Grady sighs and says something to Jett before returning to me. “I don’t get nervous when it comes to situations like this. I’m trained to control my emotions and think rationally.”
Well, that’s annoying. “Okay.”
“So, we remain calm, we act like we do around Sugarloaf, and I’ll meet your sister and your friend. You weren’t nervous with my family the other night.”
He has no fucking clue just how nervous I was. I wanted to puke. Still, it went great. Brynn and Phoebe made me super comfortable. His brothers were funny and didn’t seem to care too much about either of us dating, and Jett is the sweetest boy who loves me since I come equipped with Elodie.
Maybe this will be totally fine.
“If you think so.”
“I do.”
I let out a long breath through my nose, working on this calm thing he seems to have down. “So tonight?”
“I’ll be there in about two hours with Jett, and if it goes well, we can decide if you want me to come back over after he’s asleep to hang with them more.”
“I really hope your training includes how to manage two maniacs.”
Grady chuckles. “I was trained to handle being captured and tortured by the enemy. I can handle your friend and sister.”
