Page 50 of Bookworm
I snorted a laugh as I blew some compressed air over the page I’d been working on. “Oh yeah? And how did my eleven-month old sister who can’t even ask for her bottle process that news?”
“How dare you,” Addy gasped dramatically. “She very clearly asks for her baba and winkie!”
“Winkie?”
“Well, actually if we’re getting technical, she asks for her inky. Her pacifier. Binkie turned into winkie turned into inky.”
“I see. Well, far be it from me to ever question her genius again.” I set the book carefully on the rack beside me to dry, then leaned back in my chair, taking a moment’s breather before moving onto the next one.
“Exactly. And let me tell you, when it comes to her big sissy, she’s adopting anI’ll believe it when I see itmentality regarding your love for her.”
“I woulda packed a bag if I’d known I was going on this guilt trip, Addy,” I teased her back. Some people would have been annoyed by such an intense and blatant guilt trip, but that wasn’t our style in this family. I knew this was Addy’s sense of humor and that she was only 20 percent serious.
Maybe thirty.
“Yes!” she squealed. “Pack a bag and come stay here for the weekend.Please. We miss you and soon you’re just gonna be back to stupid, rainy England.”
A weekend, back at my childhood house in Maple Grove? The thought of being back in my old bedroom—the same bedroom where I’d lost my virginity to Adam years ago—made my mind swirl. Maybe some space would do us good after our little tiff this morning? Then again, he might interpret it as me running away… again.
“Would it be okay if I brought someone? I mean, I have to check and see if they’re available or even want to come?—”
“Ohhhhh,” Addy sang and in the background, I heard Lacey echo her singing. “Is it a boy? Please tell me it’s a boy.”
“It’s… Adam,” I admitted.
Addy went silent for a long beat. Then, she finally asked, “Does this mean?—
“I don’t know what it means,” I said, cutting her off. “We’ve been… seeing each other. Again. I guess.”
”I should have guessed when we ran into him in your building. Well, you’re of course welcome to invite Adam along.”
“Can you do me a favor and wait to tell Dad? If he can’t come, I don’t want it to be a whole thing, you know?”
“You got it, kid.”
“And,” I added, “if I’m coming to Maple Grove, then you, Haylee, and Enzo better be up for some girls night bar hopping!”
Addy and I were friends first… and stepdaughter-stepmother second. We were close. Closer than I was with my own mother. And we’d always joked that once I turned twenty-one, we’d go out drinking all the time together. Unfortunately, life got in the way and I turned twenty-one in England. Not that it mattered since the drinking age was eighteen over there. Even still, Addy and I had never quite gotten to embrace girlfriend status like we’d always wanted to do.
“Bar Hopping? In Maple Grove? You mean to the three bars this town employs… one of which I own?”
“Yep,” I said. “Those are my terms.”
“You realize two of those bars close by 10 p.m.?”
“But not yours. Yours is open until one a.m. I should know, right?”
I heard her give a resigned sigh. Addy and I had first met when I rolled into her bar as a teenager using my cousin’s ID and drinking underage. Not my finest moment. But it brought her and my dad back together, so I wasn’t going to beat myself up for it.
Besides, I paid for that night the next morning in one of the fiercest hangovers I’d ever had in my life. Even to this day.
See? Told ya there was a reason why I didn’t drink much anymore.
“Counter offer,” I tried. “If you don’t want to go out in Maple Grove, the three of you could come here and party in this cute college town. You can crash in my apartment, then the next morning, we can all caravan to Maple Grove?—”
Addy groaned. “Are you joking? I’m too damn old to be sleeping on futons in dorm rooms.”
I clicked my tongue as though I were insulted. “Dorm room?! I’ll have you know that this a full-on six-hundred square feet, one-bedroom apartmentthankyouverymuch!”
