Page 6 of Slow Hands Cowboy

It was all strained.

Jackson didn’t have a relationship with their mother at all, and Addison couldn’t say that hers was healthy.

Again, it was difficult to forgive that abandonment. It was one thing for a marriage to end, it was another to leave during your children’s formative years.

It was another to skip out on everything entirely.

Maybe that was why Addison felt responsible for everything. For her father’s happiness, for her younger brother’s reputation, for the health of the town, even, overburdened by responsibility because her mother seemed to have none.

But she was almost there. She was at the finish line.

She was doing the thing. And all the signs pointed to the fact that it was supposed to happen. She had been watching, closely, as doubt and fear had crept up inside of her.

But all that doubt was foolish.

Alan was a good man. He was the right man.

Perfect to take to fundraisers. Perfect to have on her arm anywhere. His family owned a golf course in Sun River and it was a fantastic venue for large events – not that she was marrying him for his venue.

He had been the football star back in high school.

They had dated junior and senior year, then gone their separate ways at college. She had dated a few guys down in California, but she knew that she needed to come back home to Mustang River. And with most of them, their ambitions had lain far away from there, so she had known there couldn’t be a future.

But it was easier to date and not worry over much about how it looked when she was away from the town.

When your mom had a reputation for being a tramp who got carried away by passion, you felt like you had to watch your visible body count.

At least, that was what had happened with Addison.

When she had returned home, Alan had returned too. And it had made sense to pick up where they left off.

Not right away. They had started dating again seriously about four years ago and gotten engaged a little over a year ago. Addison wasn’t in a hurry, but she wanted her life plan to be mapped out.

And this was very much the five-year plan in a nutshell. Now she was ready to lock it down. She would run for mayor, get elected, get through a term, and then they would have kids, giving it a fair amount of time. At that point, she would have solidified her reputation as being a very good mayor. Because she had a plan to help everyone’s business, and who didn’t want that?

All signs pointed toward go. And maybe that was why it had been so important that she get all of the details right. Anyway, it was Walker’s job to make sure that everything was right. It was in the best interest of his business. So surely, he hadn’t minded too much.

She put all thoughts of Walker to the side and focused on her moment, her day.

Her mother had not been invited to the bridal shower, but there was only so much family togetherness that Addison could do. She didn’t want to be actively healing that relationship when it was supposed to be about her.

Is this about you?

She ignored that.

Her stepmother was here, and she and Addison had a reasonably good relationship. It wasn’t maternal. Her dad had married Linda when Addison was nineteen, and she hadn’t lived at home, so it wasn’t like they had a traditional parent-child dynamic, but she was a nice lady, and she made her dad happy, so there was that.

And she bought Addison a lovely bridal shower gift.

All her gifts were lovely. There was a lot of lingerie, and quite a few kitchen products as well, even though Addison wasn’t sure that she needed those.

She and Alan had combined households a couple of years back, and he was a great cook, and had brought an arsenal of supplies, but it did feel nice to get an aesthetic stand mixer, and some other things that would photograph well.

Alan’s kitchen wasn’t entirely to her taste, but he cooked, so there was no reason to be finicky about it.

She missed her little house, honestly, though it was now occupied by tenants, closer to town.

It had been such a cute little place, it still was, it was just that other people lived there. And it wasn’t the kind of place that the mayor of Mustang River ought to live, she supposed, nor was it the kind of place that Alan would want to live in.