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Today, however, was a different day.
Because today, I’d be meeting her parents.
They’d flown in from Germany last night. This morning we were set to go over there.
“What did they say?” I asked.
“My brothers informed me that they’d dropped off all of Addison’s things she had with her in Germany at her place,” she said. “And then they told me I had less than thirty minutes to get to my parents’ place, or we’d be eating what was left.”
Belly in knots, because I didn’t know how to do the meet-the-parents thing, or hell, the parent thing at all, even with my own parents. I was a kid who’d been raised by a circus. Literally.
What did I know about meeting the parents?
Yet, I was doing it, because Ande didn’t want to go over there on her own.
“I didn’t realize she had a place here,” I found myself saying.
“She’s had it for a while. The Air Force pays her well, and since she was on base, she didn’t have to pay for an apartment. So, she decided to keep the one here for when she got back in two years—finding affordable real estate in downtown Dallas is damn impossible.”
“Agreed,” I grumbled. “Are you ready to go?”
Just thinking about the real estate in Dallas was heartburn-inducing. I still had flashback nightmares of when we were looking for a permanent location for Circus House.
“I’m ready.” She nodded once, her shoulders slumping.
Placing my hand around her shoulders, I guided her to the door, grabbing her security blanket as we left.
The hand-knitted blanket followed her everywhere. To the living room to watch television. To the bed to sleep at night. Hell, it’d even gone to the damn store with us to buy our second box of condoms yesterday. Though she’d left it in the car.
She wrapped it around her shoulders, and together we walked out of the apartment building toward the parking garage.
I was alone in the building now.
The only ones left were Hannibal and Hades when they were in town—which was rare—and myself.
Winston, who owned the building, didn’t even live there. They’d decided, along with my other sisters, to start their own subdivision. Now, all of them lived on one perfectly manicured street with their families.
There was an empty lot for me, but I hadn’t decided to make the jump yet. There was only so much I wanted to hang out around them. I loved my family. I loved the kids. I liked my brothers-in-law. But I didn’t want to be around them twenty-four seven. Unlike them, I was traumatized by our closeness on a tour bus for years and years.
The moment we all got our own places felt like a weight had been lifted off my chest.
Living with six women, all with their periods synced, was a nightmare made in hell.
“This building is lonely,” Ande said, likely reading my thoughts.
“This building is peace,” I said. “It feels like I can breathe.”
She snickered. “I know what you mean. But wouldn’t you rather live somewhere where other people were around? This is almost so empty it’s eerie. Especially in the middle of Dallas.”
She had a point but…
“There were years where I was stuck on a tour bus with six hormonal women. I had to share a space with them, while they were all on their periods. There were bras everywhere. Yelling. Fighting. Nasty tampons in the trash can. Favorite foods eaten in the middle of the night… let’s just say that I could go the rest of my life with this emptiness.”
“Does that extend to me?” she teased.
I looked down at her as I opened the door to my truck. “Funny enough, I’m finding the thought of having your hair on my shower wall for the rest of my life surprisingly exciting.”
She threw her head back and laughed.
