Mr. Mitchell Billionaires' Club Book 2 - Raylin Marks Page 0,156

before he flies again.”

“That is a trip I do not wish to be a part of.” I laughed.

I knew I should stay in my lane and let Avery handle the Derek situation the best she knew how, but I had so many feelings about everything, and none of them were good. I could only hope I stayed busy enough in London not to drive myself crazy.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Jim

The week in London was nothing compared to the three weeks that followed it. Avery and I had stayed in better contact than the week before I left for the UK; however, we were in this stalled-out zone, one could say, with her ex. He hadn’t been off the rails entirely since that day at the beach, but I wasn’t a fool to think he was clean and sober. People with addictions like his didn’t walk away from daily use without rehab. No fucking way.

Was I still irritated that Avery wasn’t pursuing his ass in courts? Fuck yes. It was making me miserable, seeing her acting like someone who was backed into a corner. What was bothering me most was the feeling that this dirtbag was a heartbeat away from another bender, it was only a manner of time.

Avery and I had a friction point in our relationship because of him, and it was driving me insane that we couldn’t see eye-to-eye on this issue. She seemed closed-off to hearing my advice, and I was not going to lose her over this asshole, so I was pushing it all down.

The two weekends I’d spent with Addy and Avery since Derek’s beach blow-out episode were the highlights to the past month. I was officially in over my head with stories of Sally and the Three Little Rascals, and Addy wasn’t letting these made-up characters leave anytime soon.

Avery gave me the okay to renovate one of my rooms for Addy to use when they stayed the night, so the previous Saturday, we had a shopping experience, to say the least. Since Avery and Ash had become a lot closer in the last month, Clay and Joe even came along, making it an all hands on deck situation. Addy was as adorable as ever, gripping my hand as she put the master of design, Clay, in his place while picking out her favorite color for everything—purple. I laughed as I looked around and realized that all of these grown adults had bent over backward, doing whatever this little girl wanted, and she ate it up that whole day.

Now, here we were, dropping off Addy with her grandparents for the weekend again. I’d been dreading this all week long. Avery had asked me earlier in the week if I would like to come along to meet Larry and Annette in the hopes that it might ease my mind about Addy staying here. I appreciated Avery’s gesture, knowing her heart was in the right place, and I hoped I could make some kind of sense out of Avery’s rationale after meeting them.

“Hey, daydreamer, are you coming?” Avery asked, letting Addy out of her car seat in the back of my two-door Bentley while I sat in the driver’s seat, zoned out.

“Just thinking about tonight, Av,” I said, getting out of the car, peeling off my suit jacket, and draping it over my seat.

Avery’s hand grabbed mine as Larry let us into the house, and we walked into the quaint but nicely-arranged living room. Larry closed the door and followed us in, greeting me and shaking my hand. “I’m Larry,” he said. “It’s nice to finally meet the man who papa’s little peep talks about all the time.” He chuckled.

“She’s the best,” I managed, studying the casually-dressed man. His clean goatee and graying hair made him look well put together, and made me question why in the fucking world he hadn’t kicked his adult addict kid out of the house yet. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Jim.”

“Have a seat,” Larry said.

I sat on the other end of the sofa from Larry, noticing his television was turned to some boxing documentary.

“Hey, there,” a woman said as she popped her head into the room from around the corner. She smiled, but it was painfully evident that she was worn down. She was either overworked or just fucking done with life. “I’m Anne.”

I heard Addison and Avery in the back of the small house, Avery seemingly getting Addison in the bath.

“Avery, I can give her a bath,” Anne said, walking down a