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All thoughts I’d had before, but they hit me hard now. I was a nomad for so long, that I never really admitted I wasn’t anymore.
“This place—AcesPlayed—the people we work with, they’re as much family as Daria and the girls,” I spoke aloud as the reality sank heavily into my bones.
Addie finally looked up at me, scowl gone, but blankness in its place.
“Phillip. You…” Only a few weeks and she was as much at the hub of things as he was. “How come he can’t see it? If he’s not content here, that’s fine, though I don’t understand. But he didn’t say anything. He hid it. And you don’t have a problem with that.”
“Are you in line?” someone asked.
“Go ahead.” I moved toward a wall that took us out of the flow of foot traffic, and Addie followed.
She fiddled with her fingers. “I can’t tell you what he was thinking. This place—Aces—doesn’t mean that to me. Yet. I see why it does for you. For Luna. Phillip made a mistake. When he figures out what it was, let him apologize.”
“He doesn’t know yet?”
“Do you?” she countered.
What his mistake was or mine? I searched her face. She was open, brilliant, and stunning. This amazing mystical creature who just walked into my life one day and made herself at home, as if she’d always belonged here.
“Yes,” I said even as my brain tried to keep up with my mouth. “You’re right. I don’t get to tell you how to feel about him, despite how I feel.” I settled a hand on the back of her neck. “And besides really good together I don’t know what you and I are. But I’d like to find out.” I brushed my lips over hers.
She murmured me too against my mouth, and kissed me back.
My pulse screamed in response, and I crushed into her harder, needing to feel everything about this moment. I didn’t care who saw, especially when she whimpered. I dragged my mouth up her jaw to her ear. “I want to push you into the bathroom right now and see if I can make you come as loudly as you did the other night.”
Addie’s light laugh was intoxicating, and her palm on my chest was a tease rather than a deterrent. “No,” she said softly. “You’ve got to earn that.”
Desire and her playful tone tempered my disappointment. “How? Flowers? Suction cup dildos? Bottle caps?”
“We’ll see.” She nudged me back another step. “I want to say nothing money can buy, but you can start with lunch.”
“That’s fair.” I grasped her hand and tugged her back into line. It didn’t matter that a few people were whispering and others looked disgusted with the public display of affection. They were just jealous. “Can I still call you Addie?”
“I guess.” Her sigh was exaggerated and her smile destroyed the illusion. “But only you. And the girls.”
I grinned. “I make no promises for anyone else, but excellent.”
We ordered food and grabbed a table.
My phone buzzed with a text from Judith. Re: Mr. Toph.If you have ideas, I need them today.
Shit. I still needed to deal with Nolan.
“What’s wrong?” Addie asked.
I didn’t want to burden her with this, she’d seemed so stressed about the issue when she first heard about it, but I was out of ideas. “Nolan is telling Judith he wants a job. He says it’s only fair since we stole his designs.”
A low growl rolled from her throat. “Arrogant fucking asshole.”
“Seriously.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
“Tell her you’ll take the interview, but only if you get to be the one who conducts it.”
I stared at her in disbelief. “What? Why? We’re not going to offer him the job. The point is to figure out how to make him go away.”
“How good is he?” Addie asked.
“Eh? He’s not bad. Most of his work is painting on existing assets and renders.” But so was a lot of what we did.
