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I walk into the tube and let her fall in, catching her in my arms. Since she’s a beginner, the main goal is to fly by yourself, so I don’t try anything crazy. After thirty seconds, I do the same thing with her that I did with Lexi. Hold on and spin.
Everyone goes three more times before we finish, each time getting more and more comfortable flying. Brooks tells Max that he’ll pay him to take him skydiving out of his plane. Max said anytime, but he doesn’t want his money. One taste and it’s addicting.
Just like Addison.
Lexi bounces all the way to the pink limo. “This was my best birthday ever!” she exclaims. My smile widens hearing this. We knew the first birthday without her parents might be hard on her, but kids are resilient. They move on too quickly, and sometimes it saddens me. I think that’s why I bring up her father frequently. I want her to remember him. I want her to know that he didn’t leave her by choice and he loved her. I don’t mind being the host for her father’s love. I’ll make sure she knows how loved she is every day of her life.
Chapter sixteen
“Ugh! If any more snot comes out of my nose, I’m going to cut it off,” I murmur into the Kleenex I’m holding up to my nose. It’s so sore and raw that I’m barely touching it.
“You need to go to the doctor,” Syd says. “You’ve felt miserable for the past week, and you’re still not better. We leave this weekend for Vegas. Go. To. The. Doctor.” She pokes me in the arm as she says each word.
I throw my head back into the cushion. I feel like shit. My chest hurts from coughing, my nose burns from constantly blowing it, and my voice is hoarse from my sore throat. The last thing I want to think about is my bachelorette party. In. Six. Days.
Just kill me now.
“Fine, I’ll go to the Minute Clinic.”
Sydney jumps up and puts on her shoes. “Great! Let’s go,” she says with a little too much excitement.
“I didn’t mean right now,” I whine.
“No, we’re going right now. You need meds. I’m going to make sure you get them. Now, let’s go.” She reaches for my hand and pulls me up. I blow out an exasperated sigh to show my annoyance but it makes me cough, which pisses me off even more.
Two hours later and an incessant need to take a shower and wash off the germs from the millions of other sick people at the clinic, I’m loaded up with meds with a diagnosis of bronchitis and a sinus infection.
Syd makes me some chicken noodle soup and sees to it that I take the meds then sends me to bed. I’m sure this is not how she imagined the beginning of her spring break. I’m supposed to be flying to Texas right now to drop off Lexi with Amy and Ted for the week since it’s her spring break, too. Max and Aiden go instead. The air pressure from the plane would have made my head explode, so I stay home.
When my head hits my cold pillow and my sick body relaxes into my soft bed, I pull my comforter around me and send up a silent plea that I start feeling better soon. My mind starts thinking about the wedding and Lexi. It’s hard to believe Lexi has been with me for almost a year already. Somedays it’s hard to remember what it was like before she came to live with me. Jaxon is still working her adoption case. Lexi’s social worker makes frequent visits, and I was elated when she told me she thinks Lexi belongs here with us. Now to prove it to the judge. We have perfected our schedule over the last few months. The months have flown by without any incidents, surprisingly. We constantly ask Lexi if kids are being assholes, but that seems to have stopped after Aiden went and had a meeting with the principal.
Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child made me love it more. I’d never seen Aiden more excited than when he dressed up as Santa. There have been a lot of firsts for us, and I cherish all of them.
My eyes droop as the medicine takes affect. My chronic cough has kept me up for nights, so I’m exhausted. The inhaler the doctor gave me has given me temporary relief from the cough from hell, so I quickly fall asleep.
***
“Are you sure this looks okay?” I ask, spinning around, looking at myself in a full-length mirror.
“Are you serious?” Syd asks. “You look stunning in that, and Aiden will love it.” I turn back to Sydney, who is sitting on the couch in the dressing room area.
“You really think Aiden will be okay with this number…” I sweep my hand down my body, “…when I’m not with him?”
Sydney has dressed me in a short, black sequin dress. I don’t even think short is accurate. It’s if I bend over my ass is going to show short. The back of the dress is open, draping down to my ass.
She waves her hand around. “The only thing he’s going to think about is that you’ll end the night in his arms, wearing that.” She points at the dress. She doesn’t know Aiden very well, then. “It’s Vegas! Live a little!” Syd jumps up and walks over to me, spinning me around to face the mirror. “You look gorgeous. If I had legs for days like you, I’d be showing them off all the time.”
“You have zero problem showing yours off,” I joke, hip bumping her. She looks at me and wags her eyebrows. I glance at the mirror. I’m just glad I’m not sporting the Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer look anymore. The meds worked wonders and after three days, I started to feel human again. We leave tomorrow afternoon, so Sydney and I are getting some last minute shopping in. I already had a dress picked out to wear Saturday night, but when we walked past the boutique, Sydney saw this dress on the mannequin and here we are.
“Fine, I’ll get it.” It does look good, and I know Aiden will love it…when I’m with him. I might have to get ready after the guys leave and make it a surprise for when we meet up after the festivities. I have just the right shoes to go with it. Excitement for this weekend starts to bubble up inside me. The last two weeks I’ve been sick. I couldn’t think about anything other than trying to breathe.
“I can’t believe you get married in a month.” Syd wraps her arm through mine as we walk out of the store. “I was sure I’d get married first.”
I nod my head. “I did, too. I can’t believe we’re actually getting married.”
Syd whips her head to me. “What?”
“I mean…it seems like it’s the world versus Addison and Aiden. And we are not in the lead.”
