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“Yeah, right. Maddox will be in the middle of the hockey season, Noah would rather chew off his own finger than travel with me, and Cooper is too damn old now to be any fun. Unless you’re going to volunteer, I’m shit out of luck.”
I frown. “If I could, I would. Your brothers are out of the question, but Cooper would pout so hard if he heard you call him ‘too damn old.’ He’s only two years older than me, for the record.”
“Two years is a long time in old man years.”
A laugh slips out before I can stop it. “Fine. What about your friends? I’m sure there are a bucketload of teenage girls wanting to go scout out sexy European men.”
“The people who pretend to be my friends are social climbers. They’re not interested in a real friendship.” She twists her mouth and glances at me. “Have you really not kept up with any of us? Not even on social media?”
“No. I should have, but I knew once I went there once, I would have fallen down that rabbit hole and ended up doing something stupid like drunk call your brother.”
She fights back a smile. “Right. Well, I have a decent following on social media, so most of my friends from school or online are either after me for a quick jump in their follower count or to get close to one of my brothers. So, yeah. That’s a no on bringing any of my friends with me.”
I double blink. “Oh. How many followers? I thought that was an Instagram handle on your back window, but I wasn’t sure.”
“A couple million. Honestly, the self-promo was Maddox’s idea. He’s the one who kind of got my career up and running.”
“Your career? A couplemillion? Gosh, Addie. You haven’t even graduated high school yet.”
She shrugs. “I just do some modelling and small things like that. Really, I use my page to show off all of the crazy things I do. It started out as me just posting the footage from my skydive and a few tricks on my board, but things kind of spiralled from there. When you have a famous dad and brother, a large following kind of just falls in your lap.”
I can’t tell if she’s happy about that. The last thing a young girl needs to worry about is social media and everything that comes with it. I’m not sure whether to be angry at Maddox for encouraging this or proud that he’s trying to help her out.
It’s not any of my business, I remind myself.
“Oh no, I know that look. Trust me, I’m happy doing what I’m doing,” she adds.
I stay silent and watch her for a few moments as she turns down a road behind the arena and finger waves at the security guard standing at the entrance to an underground parking garage. He waves back and ushers us inside, and a second later, Addie parks. There’s no hint of a lie in her open expression, so I decide to believe her. Adalyn Hutton isn’t the type of girl to settle. If she were unhappy with what she was doing, she simply wouldn’t do it.
Her courage is one of the most special things about her. Would it be weird to say I look up to someone so much younger than me?
“Okay. I believe you.”
She grins. “Do I say thank you?”
“No. Definitely not.” I snort a laugh.
I take a look out the window and blow out a long breath as the current situation comes racing back. We’re here, and there’s no turning back now.
“You look like you could hurl,” Addie notes, a twinge of sympathy in her voice.
“I’m nervous to see everyone,” I admit.
“Don’t be. They’re excited to see you. Well, Mom and Dad are. They forced Noah to come tonight, so just ignore him. He’s in a bad place.”
Great. “Okay. I can do that.”
“Oh!” She reaches into the back seat and pulls a huge pink purse onto her lap. Rifling through it, she clicks her tongue. “We have to take a photo and post it before we go in. My brother’s orders.”
“Seriously?”
She pulls her phone out of the bag and swipes the screen, pulling up the camera. “I know it seems over-the-top. But they want to spark the rumours, and this is the fastest way.”
“Fine,” I relent.
“You can give Dox shit later. I actually encourage it.”
I shake my head, smiling. “Just take the photo.”
