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Bill frowns. “You didn’t know?” He looks at me questioningly and I realize the mistake she’s made.
Adeline doesn’t miss a beat, though. “No, I didn’t.” She presses her hand harder against my stomach as she leans into me. “I was slammed at work yesterday and then Jameson and I had to attend a dinner party that didn’t allow much time for us to catch up after work. And then”—she smiles sexily up at me—“well, you know how it is, Bill, when you’re just married. You’d rather be doing other things than talking.”
The memory of our kiss this morning crashes into me, coiling desire for Adeline through me all over again.
Christ.
It’s unexpected and unwanted.
I’m attracted to her, but there’s no way in hell I’m acting on that. Like I told Hudson, it’s too risky to take things any further with Adeline. But fuck, it’s proving harder than I thought to ignore what she does to me.
“I do remember,” Bill says, his features softening. My mentor is an old romantic. Any mention of his ex-wife softens him, something Adeline knows. She played a great card there.
Bill worked too much throughout his marriage. His wife left him a few years before I met him due to his workaholic ways. He had many girlfriends after that, but he never remarried. I know he regrets choosing work over his wife because she truly was the love of his life. I also know this is why he insisted I find love in order to inherit his company.
He thinks I work too much and will end up regretting that like he does.
Bill and I aren’t the same, though. I’m not interested in being married or building a family. I don’t have any good memories of my parents’ marriage. In fact, my mother is better off without my father.
Love fucks people up. Makes them do things that aren’t good for them. I vowed years ago not to make the same mistakes my mother did.
“How about you, Hudson?” Adeline asks, turning her attention to my brother.
“How about me, what?” he says.
“Are you seeing anyone? I keep asking your brother and he keeps fobbing me off. Since we’re related now, you should just expect me to come straight to you with these questions.” She grins at him like she’s enjoying herself.
He returns her grin. Hudson likes Adeline. “I see how we’re doing things now, Addy. And if you’re planning on hitting me up for details, you should plan on me hitting you up for the same.”
She laughs and I feel it in her entire body as it sways against mine. “Oh, Huds, I have no secrets from you. You know this.”
“Huds?” he asks. “I don’t recall anyone ever calling me that.”
Adeline cocks her head. “I think it’s good. You don’t like it?”
“I can work with it,” he says. “And as for your question, I’m not seeing anyone.”
“Oh, how disappointing. I was thinking we could double date,” she says.
“Jesus, no,” Hudson says. “I can think of nothing worse than fucking double dating with a newly married couple.”
Adeline laughs again. It’s such an unusual sight that I’m captivated by it. The way her face softens and lights up at the same time. And the way her whole body laughs along with her. She’s a beautiful woman; when she laughs, that beauty is magnified. “What do you think, darling?” she asks, her eyes finding mine.
I stare down at her, still thinking about how beautiful she is. Even her eyes change when she laughs. The color shifts into a different shade of green and the wariness I always see in them disappears. “I’m not willing to share you yet.”
“There’s the brother I know,” Hudson says. “And I suspect he won’t ever be willing to share you, Addy, so no double dates for us.”
Adeline watches me for a few more seconds before dragging her gaze away. Looking at Mom, she says, “Is there anything I can do to help you with the tacos, Reese?”
“No, this is Jameson’s and Hudson’s job. You and I won’t be lifting a finger tonight.” She loops her arm through Adeline’s and guides her back out of the kitchen while calling over her shoulder, “Adeline needs a drink, Jameson.”
Hudson grins. “There’s nothing quite like watching you get ordered around.”
I ignore him and pour Adeline a wine. When I take it to her, I find my mother listening intently to something Adeline is saying. Slowing my pace, I watch them for a minute.
Mom is like Bill, a romantic at heart. Sadly, the man she fell in love with at eighteen, and left her family for, turned out to be a piece of shit who didn’t know what love was. She stayed with him until he died simply because she had two sons with him and thought staying was the right thing to do. I also doubt he would have let her go, but since she didn’t test that theory, I’ll never know.
Over the years, Mom has tried to find me love. She’s invited me to lunch many times, while also inviting a woman she thought I’d like. She’s dragged me to charity events under the guise of wanting me to donate money while really it was to introduce me to someone. She’s also, on occasion, simply not shown up to a dinner with me, leaving me alone with a woman she also invited.
