I load my plate with Kung Pao chicken while she quietly sings along with the theme song on her television. Her voice is so sweet, so innocent-sounding. She’s trying not to let go, but I know if I weren’t here, she’d be putting Mariah to shame right now. “The Golden Girls?”
She stops singing, and a soft pink blush creeps up her neck. Fuck, it’s adorable. “They’re my inspiration.”
“The Golden Girls?” I ask again because… what the fuck?
People are inspired by Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou. Even Walt Disney for fuck’s sake. They aren’t inspired by the Golden Girls.
“One day I hope to retire in Florida with three of my best friends. We’ll sit around and eat cheesecake at midnight and keep each other sane. We’ll be happy.” She scoops another pile of noodles in her chopsticks. Her eyes twinkle when she looks at me. “Golden Goals.”
“You’re serious?” I grab an egg roll.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“So that’s your life’s ambition? To be single with a bunch of other single women relying on cheesecake as your only means of satisfaction?”
“Have you met Blanche?”
I choke on the bite I just took. “Oh, so you’re Blanche in this scenario?”
She shrugs then passes me my drink. For some reason, the thought of her, at any age, being with another guy makes me want to lock her in a tower. Hell, I’d even feed her cheesecake.
I wash down the food lodged in my throat then hold her gaze. “What about marriage? And kids?”
“I already have five kids.” She answers as if it’s the only possible answer there is, ignoring the marriage part entirely.
“I mean of your own.”
“Those boys are mine. If they’re not, who else do they belong to?”
There’s that fire in her eyes. It’s the same fire I saw the night at the police station when she told me about Liam being a foster child. She loves these kids. She loves them more than she loves herself. I admire the hell out of that.
She opens her mouth wide, then touches her cheeks and jumps up off the floor. “Be right back. I’m starting to crack.”
So am I.
She runs to the bathroom and comes out two minutes later minus the purple stuff. Her ivory skin is flawless and I’m imagining the way it would feel under my fingertips, against my lips.
She plops down on the floor beside me then picks up her chopsticks again as though she never left. “You wanna tell me the real reason you dropped by my apartment with a Chinese buffet?”
I came here to make you mine.
After hearing her talk about her future, I’m not sure Adrienne wants to belong to anyone. I do know there’s only one way to find out.
“I’m re-opening The Taproom. The contractor said it’s safe as long as I keep people away from the construction area.”
“Blaze.” Her eyes light up. “That’s amazing.”
“I want you to be there on opening night… With me.”
“Like a date?” she asks, climbing over to straddle my lap.
She circles her arms around my neck and leans in. My hands grab her ass and pull her closer. I need her closer.
I place a gentle kiss on the skin I’ve been dying to touch. It’s so cool and smooth. “Like a date.”
She smiles then brings her mouth to mine, stopping right before I can kiss her. “It’s about damn time.”
Fuck yes. I grab her by the nape of the neck and claim her mouth. Her fingers tangle in my hair as she grinds against me. There’s nothing on earth better than this feeling right here. She lifts off my lap long enough to slide her pajama bottoms down. My hands trail from her ankles to her thighs, and I chuckle because she lied. She did shave.
She lifts my shirt up over my head and starts placing little kisses over my shoulders and across my chest. I sweep her hair off her shoulder and kiss her neck, and she moans. Then she looks up at me. Her gaze meets mine and blessed hell, I am undone. She’s looking at me like no one’s ever looked at me before, like I’m the fucking sun she’s been waiting on so she can blossom. If we weren’t already on the floor, that look would bring me to my knees.
It’s official.
I am hers. And Adrienne Maddox is mine.
Five days ago, Blaze asked me on a date. It’s not a real date with candlelight and menus with words I can’t pronounce, but it’s more than a stolen moment in a back office. Haley refused to let me go without letting her do my hair and makeup. According to her two hundred thousand followers, she’s pretty good at it, so why the heck not. I’m sitting on a dining chair in the bathroom while she twists my hair into a loose updo. A few strands fall around my face, and there’s a braid along my crown. Her makeup job makes me look like the lovechild of Jennifer Lopez and Chris Hemsworth. If Jennifer Lopez was a fair-skinned white chick and Chris Hemsworth was a foot shorter.
“I can’t believe you’re dating Blaze Abbott,” she says as she tugs the last strand of hair loose.
“We’re not dating.”
She inspects her work. “But he used the word date?”
“Yes.”
She walks around in front of me, bending forward to rest her hands on her knees, so she can look me in the eyes. “Fuck buddies don’t go on dates, Addy.”
“But they go shopping together at Costco?”
She laughs as she dips her pinky into the cream eyeshadow and swipes my eyelid. “Oh, Hector and I are definitely dating.”
I smile because I am genuinely happy for them. They’re both amazing people who deserve to be with another amazing person.
A small pang cinches my chest. “I just don’t want to get my hopes up.”
“If he isn’t hooked after looking at this…” She grabs my hand and pulls me out of the chair, spinning me to face the mirror. “He’s either a complete idiot or you just don’t have the right parts.”
Damn.
The light pink off-the-shoulder dress is flowy but short with a hem of ruffles just above my knee. My hair and makeup are perfection. I almost don’t even recognize myself. I feel as though it’s senior prom all over again—if I had gone to senior prom. Nerves flutter in my belly, and I’m suddenly thankful that Hector invited Haley to go tonight too.
“Pretty sure he likes all my parts just fine” I smooth my hands down the front of my dress and take a nervous breath. At least I hope he does.
Haley grabs both of my hands and holds my gaze. “Stop. He’s seen you naked. You’re going to be fine.” She grabs her cell phone from her back pocket. “And this is definitely going on IG.” She holds her phone up. “Now smile.”
When I walk downstairs, Liam looks up from the tablet he’s playing on. His mouth drops open. “Wow. Miss M. It doesn’t even look like you.”
Ryder pauses the show on TV long enough to look my way. “Yeah, you look hot.”
As opposed to looking… not hot?
Liam tosses a throw pillow at Ryder, hitting him in the face.
“I mean you’re always pretty, but…” He looks at the ground and shakes his head. “Never mind.” Then he un-pauses the TV.