Forbidden Harmony (Harmony Falls #3) - Elizabeth Kelly Page 0,93
selling her wedding dress. Honestly, she’d looked a little on the tired side and she’d had a rasp in her throat.
She looked exhausted. Probably because you woke her up at three and then at five for sex again. Jesus Christ, it’s a wonder she can even fucking walk.
Guilt trickled through him. Addison did seem sore this morning. He’d seen her rubbing her thighs after her shower and she’d winced when she sat down on the bed. He’d immediately nixed his plan to fuck her again before he had to leave for work.
“I stayed the night because I was tired,” Preacher said. “Stop reading into shit that isn’t there. And stop stalking me like a fucking weirdo.”
“Never,” Gideon said. “I gotta make sure my pookie-bear is safe.”
“Jesus, I fucking hate you today,” Preacher said.
Gideon laughed before sobering. “Be careful, Simon. You have a good life here and I don’t want it destroyed because Addison Moore breaks your heart.”
A city bus pulled up at the bus stop across the street, the sound of its engine and brakes giving Preacher a reason not to answer Gideon. The bus pulled away and Addison, looking even worse than this morning, trudged across the street. She twitched in surprise when she saw Preacher and Gideon, slowing to a stop in the middle of the street before joining them.
“Hi,” she said. Her voice was hoarse, and her eyes were rimmed in red.
“Hello, Addison,” Gideon said. “How are you?”
“Good,” she said.
“Still no car, huh?” Gideon said.
Her smile was strained. “No, not yet. Hi, Preacher.”
“Hey,” he said.
She didn’t look good. She looked fucking terrible. Before Preacher could ask what was wrong, she gave them an awkward wave. “Nice to see you both. If you’ll excuse me, I’m pretty tired.”
She coughed into her hand before walking down the sidewalk toward her apartment building. Preacher heard her sneeze as Gideon started up the SUV. “See you later, pookie-bear.”
Preacher gave him the bird and Gideon laughed and drove away. Preacher waited a beat then walked after Addison. He caught up to her at her building door.
“Addison, wait,” he said.
She turned to face him. Her eyes were watery, and he knew damn well she’d been crying again.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” he said.
She shook her head and fumbled in her purse for her keys. “It’s been a shitty evening and I’m tired and don’t feel like talking about it.”
“Sunshine, please tell me why you’re upset.”
She blinked rapidly before coughing into her hand. “I – it’s nothing important.”
“I want to know.”
She pulled a tissue out of her purse and dabbed at her eyes. “Daniel was supposed to go car shopping with me tonight. I sold my – some stuff yesterday and thought I might have enough money now to purchase a second hand one. But he blew me off to go drinking with that idiot Brad and the other firefighters.”
She swallowed, wincing a little before clearing her throat again. “He’s drinking too much. I don’t know what to do about it. I tried to talk to him tonight about how much he’s been drinking, and he-he got pissed at me and stopped answering any of my calls or my texts. I’m worried about him, but I don’t want to tell Mom and Dad, because they’re not going to be home for a while yet and I don’t want them worrying about him if I’m just overreacting like Daniel said I am.”
She rubbed at her forehead, her eyes watering again. “Anyway, I should have asked Grace or Kira to go with me instead, but I… I need to get used to doing stuff on my own now, right? So, I decided to go alone, and it was kind of awful. The sales guy was a total jerk and acted like I was an idiot, and all of the cars on the lot were completely out of my price range. So, then he was pressuring me to apply for a loan through them, but I can’t afford a car loan and my student loans, you know?”
He nodded and she leaned against the door to her building, looking completely defeated. “My choices are to buy some awful beater car that will probably break down on me in the first month or take the bus to work for the next year while I try and save more money for a car. Taking the bus is a huge pain in the butt because the schedule is stupid and I -”
She stopped and rubbed away the tear that was siding down