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“She’s my sister,” Dad cuts in sharply. “She doesn’t mean to be brisk. That’s just her nature and Grayson doesn’t think.”
“Stop making excuses for her. Paloma is a saint. If anyone talked to Addie the way Iris talks to Paloma, I would be in jail for manhandling her out the door. She would never be allowed in our home.”
“Iris loves Paloma. She has never said—”
“To your face.”
Dad points the tongs at me. “Stop it. This isn’t the time for this conversation.”
My irritation only builds from there.
Michael says something to Addie, and she laughs. Neither one of them has moved even though Paloma is no longer there.
Maybe I will need bail money.
Dinner starts and Addie sits in her usual place across from me. Dad and Paloma take the ends with everyone else going filling in around us. Michael the monumental fuck takes the seat next to Addie and flashes her thousands of dollars in dental work.
But Addie is looking at me. Her green eyes are soft and watchful. She’s not trying to get my attention or even saying a word, simply watching me and something in that calms some of my fury.
When Dad stands to give a speech, Addie looks away. Her head turns to listen as he describes the last ten years of his life with Paloma. The happiness and contentment. He talks about Addie and me, and us as a family. I’m only partially listening as my brain can’t seem to detach from how beautiful Addie looks in the soft twinkle of fairy lights strung up overhead. How her eyes glittered. How delicate the lines of her profile were.
As she always seems to, her glance flicks to the corner of her eyes in my direction. Her little nose crinkles playfully over aquirked lip. My own lips twitch and I bump her foot lightly under the table.
Food is distributed. Something is placed in front of me. I don’t look at it. I don’t care when I’m given a knife and Michael leans — fucking leans like the foot between them is too far for whatever shit he just has to tell her — into Addie’s shoulder, breaking her connection with me to focus on him.
I could kill him.
I have thirty tons of wet concrete and a basement to finish. Nobody would ever find his fucking body.
The idea becomes even more enticing when I can hear his useless mumbling asking about her job, where she lives, why so far. Idiot things that are none of his business.
“Do you have someone back home?” he asks finally, acting ridiculously casual cutting his chicken.
“Yes,” Addie says without pause. Without consideration. She carves a sliver of her own chicken and pops it into her mouth.
“Oh, that’s great,” Boy-Wonder mutters. “How long have you been together?”
“A while.”
He nods slowly. “So, you’re serious about him.”
It’s not a question, but Addie bobs her head once. “As a heart attack.”
I feel my lips curve until the idiot lifts his head, a frown on his face. “But he doesn’t think you’re worth committing to?”
Addie stops chewing. My grip on my knife tightens.
“Excuse me?”
Michael shrugs, but we don’t hear his response when the grating whine of Iris’s complaints filter down the table like shit rolling down a hill. The snide sneer carefully kept below Dad’s radar is an octave higher, catching my and Addie’s attention.
I don’t miss the hard pinch in Paloma’s jaw, the tightness in her knuckles as she saws into her steak. She’s listening politely to the troll on her left as she’s berated at her own table.
“I don’t mean to be cruel, Paloma. But you’ve been a part of this family long enough to understand the importance.”
Paloma’s shoulders lifts in a slow, measured breath. “Yes, thank you for the reminder.”
I set my cutlery down gently across my untouched steak and baked potato, my irritation too high to even consider eating. I also shouldn’t be trusted to wield a weapon at the moment.
