by Violet Duke
She looked in the rearview mirror at Kylie. “That means no milk before bed tonight, okay sweetie? Just to be on the safe side.” They’d rehearsed what their nightly routine would be like from now one, and Addison just smiled like this was all perfectly normal.
This is going to work.
It has to work.
“Don’t worry, this’ll be fun. Like camping.” Seeing their pensive, but wholly trusting faces, she added firmly, “It’ll be temporary. Just until I can save up enough to make sure we won’t ever have to go through this again.”
CHAPTER TWO
Present Day
CHRIST, SHE JUST KEPT GETTING sweeter every day.
Caine Spencer sat in his usual spot at the counter of the diner he’d been eating at almost nightly for the past several weeks, and watched the tired, but determined waitress behind the counter draw a big egg-shaped oval on a piece of printer paper before proceeding to zig zag and polka dot patterns all over it with a mix of pastel and neon crayons—and tiny-ass glitter stickers galore—to make yet another colorfully-designed Easter egg to decorate the walls with.
The fact that the woman was taking the entire task so darn seriously because her little sister Kylie had insisted the other night that they simply needed to decorate the diner for Easter, just made her all the more sweeter in Caine’s eyes.
Sweetness like that was his biggest weakness when it came to women. Bar none. And this woman, who was now rocking the tiny glittery Easter egg sticker extravaganza by using one to dot the ‘i’ in ‘Addison’ on her nametag, was quickly starting to become his kryptonite.
Though he hadn’t known Addison Milan long, the one thing he knew for sure was that she loved and cared for her two younger siblings with all the ferocity of a mama lion who would do just about anything for her cubs.
Hence the festive egg décor that looked totally out of place on the iconic black, red, and white checkerboard interior of the diner, with its classic steel and glass block trim.
Rumor had it that Joe, the owner of Joe’s Diner, purposely decorated his place with all the quintessential old diner touches to ruffle feathers with the nearby upscale residential area community board, who’d apparently looked down on him and his diner when he first bought the quaint coffee shop that once sat there years ago. Like its owner, the resulting diner thus had a lot of hard, borderline ornery edges, to accompany the bold, blunt, and refreshingly basic menu.
It was like a second home for Caine. And most of Creek Hills’ finest, for that matter. There weren’t many guys on the force who didn’t frequent the diner at least once a day like he did. Though granted, Caine had an additional reason for having nearly all his dinners there.
And presently, that reason was stepping out from the counter and heading his way.
Seeing Addison’s warm, but visibly wiped out smile, he immediately scolded, “You’re working too hard again, sweets.”
“Right back at you,” she tossed back, without missing a beat. “Kylie said you’ve been at her school doing police presentations all week long.”
Caine shrugged. “The principal asked. It fit in with the hours I had off. No big deal.”
She gave him a stern look. “You work all night long and then volunteer for everything under the sun during the days. Seriously, do you ever sleep?”
Not if I can help it.
Even after eight years on the force, Caine still sucked at not letting his job affect his sleep. As a result, his non-working hours usually consisted of him beating out some of his demons with whoever was up for some time in the ring until he eventually exhausted himself enough to drag his ass home and pass out.
Lately though, he’d also been volunteering for as many school and community events as possible. Not just to keep from staring at the ceiling above his bed for hours on end, but also to try and let some goodness and light back in his life.
It was a long time coming.
The last case before he’d put in for his transfer over to the Creek Hills precinct had eaten away at his soul like acid for months, until nearly robbing him of his faith in not just his badge, but humanity as a whole when they finally caught the dirty cop whose actions inevitably resulted in the loss of a lot of innocent lives just weeks before Christmas.
The officer in question had been a friend. It didn’t matter his reasons, or that he’d never meant for to get in as deep as he had. A dirty cop was a dirty cop.
In the same way that a friend was a friend.
Meaning it was just that simple.
Even when it wasn’t.
Going to Rick’s half-empty plain-clothes funeral…consoling Rick’s wife and kids as they tried to make sense of everything from the things Internal Affairs had discovered to his decision to blow his own brains out right in front half the force…wondering nonstop ever since if there was something they could’ve done to help Rick before it’d gotten that far. All of it had taken a toll on Caine over the past months.
Apparently, ‘grouchy sonofabitch’ was one of the nicer descriptions of him lately.
Funny thing was that unlike most folks who’d given him a wide berth when he’d first moved to Creek Hills, Addison had seemed to like his grouchiness. Then again, she was also the only person he’d met so far that seemed to think her own boss Joe—who was grumpy enough to make Caine look like the happy dwarf in comparison—was some sort of loveable, jolly saint.
Granted, around Addison, they both did seem to become better versions of themselves on their best behavior, but still. She just saw them through a different lens than the rest of the world. Sort of like the kids that swarmed around him with the cuteness overload at school presentations. The woman was all goodness and light.
Not to mention, really freaking pretty to boot—in a quiet, unassuming way.
She had the kind of beauty that didn’t hit you all at once. The kind that kept surprising you. The kind that one day sucker punched the air out of you when you realized she was even more gorgeous than you recall her being the day before.
He remembered that sucker punch well.
It was the day he’d actually looked forward to sleeping for a change, on the off chance that maybe, just maybe she’d help inspire a few dreams instead of the nightmares that normally haunted him when he closed his eyes.
CHAPTER THREE
WITH A SATISFIED BELLY PAT, Caine finished up his dinner a short while later and finally answered the question Addison had asked before the last three groups of customers had walked in, “Luckily, I don’t need a lot of sleep.”
Since he knew her job came first, Caine had gotten used to these extended pauses in their chats. It actually worked out well because the downtimes in their conversations often gave him the chance to remember to check in on social media. While he wasn’t a big fan, his brothers and even his parents seemed to think it perfectly normal to broadcast all their business on the internet. Lately, it seemed that was the only way he got updates on their lives now that he lived a good few hours away.
To be fair, his family had of course been trying to bridge the distance between their lives the past few months—both geographical and metaphorical—but he wasn’t ready yet. Sure, he’d always been fairly rough around the edges, but he knew they’d worry like hell when they discovered just how much more jagged his gruff edges had become since Rick’s case had hit the fan.
So for now, the internet would have to be the tether he used to stay connected to his family, his old friends…and every human he used to know pre-Creek Hills, really.
As Addison tended to the nearby customers who had snagged her attention just as he’d been answering her question, he scrolled through two new baby birth announcements and one new engagement, in between ignoring five talking animal videos that had thousands of likes for some bizarre reason. He was in the middle of discovering that his brothers were planning a trip to Vegas soon when he saw Addison hustle over to the order window and then start her trek over to his end of the counter again.
Which meant
he had another few minutes to text his brothers to make sure they sent him their travel details. He may be limiting how much he saw them, but that didn’t mean he was any less overbearing about worrying over them.
Just like he predicted, Addison took on a bunch of hobbit tasks during those few minutes, involving checking in on every table, even the ones that weren’t hers, and making about a half dozen customers smile and laugh before completing the journey. “So you only do things you ‘need’ to do?” she replied playfully as she put down her order tray and reached over the counter for the egg art she’d been working on earlier.
Saucy minx. She was throwing his words back at him and referencing the recent discussion they’d had about massages in one fell swoop. Though it had been a perfectly innocent conversation for her seeing as how she’d never had a massage before, it had been far less so for him. He’d made the mistake of telling her about a few common pressure points to help relieve stress, and Addison, being as curious as a monkey with a yellow hat, had immediately started seeking out said pressure points and kneading them inquisitively with her own fingers.
As soon as her eyelids fell to half-mast, and a soft, groaning sigh slipped past her lips, he’d changed the subject asap.
…And stayed seated at the counter for at least five minutes longer than usual to let things, errr, ‘settle down,’ before he’d headed on over to the station for his shift.
“Fine,” he amended. “I just don’t like to sleep; I prefer to stay up as long as I can.”
“That’s what she said,” she quipped with a wickedly winged eyebrow, before jolting to a stop in her tracks, eyes blinking in surprise. Shaking her head, she lamented dramatically, “Oh no, I’m starting to sound like you.”
He grinned. “You’re welcome.”
Smothering back an amused smile, she hopped up onto the empty stool next to him to stick up another collage of colorful Easter eggs on the wall.
And swear to God, Caine felt his brain blitz out for a second or two.
The woman was a petite little thing. But she had curves for days. He’d never once seen her in anything other than a ‘Joe’s Diner’ t-shirt and some worn jeans. Regardless of how much she downplayed it though, a man would have be blind not to appreciate that naturally feminine hourglass figure of hers.
…Which was currently inches from his face.
Good lord.
“So back to Max,” she broke into his thoughts, clearly oblivious to her effect on him. “You mentioned before I got slammed with the dinner rush that you’re not totally on board with your brother’s plans to start his own business. You think he’s making a bad decision?” she asked quizzically as she wobbled a bit to try and reach a spot about a foot beyond her reach.
His hands shot out automatically to grab her waist and steady her.
It took all his energy and effort not to flex his fingers into her soft, pillowy hips.
What in the world were they talking about again?
“Thanks. I’m okay now.” She finished taping up the eggs and blushed from the apples of her cheeks to the tips of her ears when he picked her up off the stool and gently settled her down on the ground. “Um, yeah. Again, thanks for the assist.” Quick as a skittish kitten, she scurry-shuffled back behind the counter.
Meanwhile, Caine felt like his entire body was drifting in slow-motion—his brain especially, which was taking its sweet time un-fuzzing. Jesus, she’d felt good in his arms.
Dude, she’s asking you another question.
“…So you think he should keep on designing video games instead?”
Oh right, they were talking about his brother.
That was definitely a safer topic to focus on, though not nearly as interesting as trying to figure out if that faint scent of raspberries was coming from her soft, sun-kissed skin, or that silky, tumbling mass of mahogany waves she wore up in a long, no-nonsense ponytail every day.
Cheeks no longer flushed pink, Addison soon had her serene, almost zen-like grace wrapped all around her again as she finished gluing on some fluffs of plastic neon green grass on a coloring book image of an Easter basket she’d printed off the internet. Sounding as puzzled as she had when he’d first expressed his concerns over his brother’s new career aspirations, she gave him a questioning glance. “I figured you of all people would think it’s great that your brother wants to start his own security business. Isn’t that right up your alley?”
Finally, his brain was functioning enough again to answer. “I do think it’s great.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he tried to turn all his jumbled feelings on the matter into words. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that Max has found something he’s passionate about. From what I hear, there’s a steady stream of some high-paying people who go to my folks’ antique arms shop just to hire Max to install all his fancy security systems in their homes. Frankly, he’d be crazy not to start his own business.”
“Buuut?” she prompted.
What was it about her that made him want to open up and bare his innermost thoughts, share his soul?
“The ‘but’ of the matter is that he’s wanting my brother Gabe and I to work with him.”
She shrugged. “Again, that sort of sounds like a great idea. You’re a cop; you can see the security aspect of things from a different angle than he can. And didn’t you say Gabe is graduating early from college?”
He couldn’t stop the proud grin over that reminder. His baby brother was graduating a full year early from his engineering program at Embry Riddle, with honors. Not that he was surprised. That boy had always been the smartest one in the family.
Well, with exception to their foster brother Drew, at least. The newest member of the Spencer family, the thirteen-year-old hacker extraordinaire their folks have been lovingly smothering like a baby bird for the past year—what with Caine, Max, and Gabe all living out of the house—could whoop all their asses in the intellectual department. Combined.
“Actually, Gabe’s age and unlimited potential are part of the reason why I have reservations,” he confessed. “Gabe is a tech genius. There are half a dozen big corporations who want to hire him right after graduation, to pay him a ton of money to invent more of his crazy gadgets. He could be one of those billionaire inventors in a few short years. Hell, I can even see him working for the government, or making the next eco-invention that helps countries on the other side of the globe or something.”
She processed that silently while she taped half a dozen brightly-colored eggs on top of the plastic grass covered Easter basket, two of which had been decorated and personalized by Addison’s siblings just before he’d sat down for dinner two hours prior. The Easter egg with Kylie’s bubble-letter name looked identical to the one Addison had made—the cute little thing liked to copy everything her big sis did—while Tanner’s egg was adorned with all the new-teen boy subtlety of bold tribal tattoo patterns, jagged orange flames, and crazy-looking alien eyeballs.
She was so great with them; almost like their mom instead of their sister. He’d yet to learn about their parents or why the kids were here in the diner every night, but he seriously doubted anyone could do a better job loving those two lucky kids than she did. Coming from a close-knit family himself, Caine always enjoyed watching Addison interact with her brother and sister as they finished up their meals before she drove them home to turn in during her dinner break, usually around nine after the dinner rush, before it got too late for the kids to be up.
When she would return to work after her break, the hour or so he’d get to spend talking to her before he’d head over to the station to get changed and ready for his midnight shift was now easily one of the best parts of his day.
“Maybe Gabe doesn’t want to make truckloads of money or change the world,” she remarked finally. “What’s so wrong with him using his smarts a little closer to home? Helping folks keep their family and possessions safe is a noble profession. Again, right up your alley.” The soft, unbridled smile that ghosted her lips wasn’t
at all the like big flashy one she gave the customers. No, this one was more introspective. More real.
Just for him.
“Too dangerous.” For a brief moment, he wasn’t sure if he was still only talking about his brothers’ business venture, or if he was also describing Addison’s smile.
She stared at him for a beat. “Is that what the hesitation is about? You’re worried about your brothers’ safety if they work in security?”
“No, that’s not it exactly.” How could he explain it to her? While his time on the force had involved some of the greatest good he could imagine being a part of, he’d also seen enough during that time that had changed his entire world view irrevocably. Not for the better.
He just…didn’t want his brothers to come to see the world the way he now did, didn’t want their shadows to chase them the way his now did.
Per usual, Addison never pushed. But he felt his defenses dropping all the same. “I’m worried about what they’ll go through if all these high tech security systems they build, God forbid, end up not being enough to stop a criminal from taking something irreplaceable. How messed up they’ll get if they see one of their clients’ companies suffer financially as a result. Or worse, how badly they’ll blame themselves if a family loses a parent or a child to an armed intruder.”
The sound Addison made then shook him to the core. Not because she sounded shocked, but because she sounded…understanding. “I get it. And you’re right to be worried about that for them. It’s one of the most impossible things to deal with—feeling that you let down someone who places all their trust in you.”
His gut twisted at the all-too-familiar tone in her voice regarding the topic. But her shuttered expression told him not to ask. So he didn’t. Not yet, anyway.
“You should tell your brothers how you feel,” she suggested softly. “Not because it’ll change their mind; I doubt it will. But I think you should talk to them so you can see that they worry about the same thing when it comes to you and your job.”
