Page 10 of Bookworm
“Noooooo!” The boys took off running down the hall of my new apartment complex.
“Cole! Coen!” Addy called out. “Watch where you’re?—”
It was too late. They ran smack into a man turning the corner of the hallway.
Not just any man… Adam.
And he was carrying an armload of groceries that spilled all over the floor.
“Oh jeez. I’m so sorry,” Dad said, jogging to the end of the hall to help him pick up the fallen groceries. “Boys, say you’re sorry!”
Dad didn’t recognize Adam right away, but Addy leaned into my ear and grabbed my elbow in a firm grip. “Holy shit,” she whispered. “Is that Adam?”
“Yep,” I whispered back.
“Whoa. He aged well.”
“Right again.”
“Is he still a total dickwad?”
I snorted a laugh and covered Lacey’s ears. “Addy. Language,” I joked saying the same thing she used to say to me in high school when I dared utter a curse word in front of her.
She waved me off. “She’s eleven months old. She can barely ask for juice. She definitely doesn’t even know enough to know what a dickwad is, let alone repeat it.”
Grinning, I shook my head and pressed another kiss to Lacey’s forehead. I’d only met my little sister once when she was first born and it pained me to be missing so much of their childhoods. Even though being in England meant that I had more time to spend with my other half-brother… my mother’s son, Duke.
My heart was split between the two countries. Between my two families. And it was damn hard.
And Addy was more like a sister—a best friend—than a stepmother. I could literally talk to her about anything.
“Jury’s still out on the dickwad thing,” I said, answering her question.
Truth be told, I wasn’t entirely sure that he’d evenbeena dickwad back in high school.
We were only eighteen.
And sure… he didn’t stand up for me against his father. But not many guys would have, right?
As for him not telling me about leaving early for summer classes at Dartmouth? Okay, yeah, it wasn’t great. But again, as a teenager? Emotions are weird. I didn’t know how to manage most of my feelings at that age either. I kind of understood why he didn’t want to tell me.
Like somehow by not admitting it to me, we had more time together.
We both could have handled that summer better.
But we were also both young and inexperienced. I was happy to leave the past in the past… as long ashewas.
But if he was going to stand there and try to blame me, expecting me to feel guilty at how things went down? Well, he had another thing coming.
“Harper!” Dad called from the end of the hall. “Did you realize Adam lives just down the hall from you??”
Surprised, I blinked, standing there in silence for a few seconds.
It wasn’t until Addy’s voice broke my stunned silence that I realized I hadn’t answered. “Well…?” Addy asked. “Did you?”
“I… I didn’t know he livedherein this building, but yeah, I knew he um, worked at Dartmouth.”
Slowly, I found myself walking down the hall, still holding Lacey, with Addy at my side.
