The Slow Burn (Moonlight and Motor Oil #2) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,78
won’t take it on.”
She shut her mouth.
“I didn’t mean to take you there with Perry and your dad.”
“Toby.” She said his name tersely. “Perry didn’t damage me. I know his shit isn’t mine. My point is, your mom’s shit isn’t yours. It wasn’t your dad’s. It’s hers. And I’m sensing you’re still eating it, and that has to stop.”
Toby said nothing because he saw nothing, not Addie’s beautiful, protective face, not her body on his.
His mind was gone.
Riding the wave of her words.
“Baby,” she called.
Toby stared at her not seeing her.
“Toby, honey, come back to me,” she urged, cupping her hand along the side of his face.
He came back to her.
She caught it the moment he did.
“That hadn’t occurred to you,” she surmised.
“No,” he confirmed.
“You okay?” she asked.
“She destroyed him.”
Addie ran her thumb along the edge of his beard.
“He never got over her.”
“And those ‘Aunt Whoevers’ you mentioned earlier, that wasn’t trying to get over her?” she asked.
“That was passing the time, maybe attempting to give his sons a woman’s touch. Mostly, I figure, it was because he was a guy and needed to get himself some, so he got it. He broke more hearts by the time I was ten than I could count and he did that shit hammering into his boys you never broke a woman’s heart. He told us the worst kind of man dragged a woman’s heart around. I never got that because he did it all the time.”
“Yeah, that’d be pretty freaking confusing,” she murmured.
“Loved him, don’t get me wrong, Addie. He was a good man and a good father, and he loved us too. Was proud of us. Showed it. Taught us good lessons. Brought us up right. Knew to give me the freedom I needed, and I’ll always be grateful for that. But Johnny sets him up as this kind of god-like wonder when he wasn’t. He had flaws.”
“Okay, but you know one of those flaws wasn’t loving her,” she said cautiously.
“Maybe I didn’t, until now. Though I did know fucking women over was not something to aspire to, and definitely doin’ it while tellin’ your boys never to do that shit was fucked up.”
“Hmm . . .” she hummed.
“Hmm . . . what?” he demanded.
“It’s natural and swings both ways, a woman looks to her mother and either wants desperately to be like her or fears the shit out of becoming her. Same for a man.”
Shit.
She had that right.
“The thing with you is,” she continued, “you’re torn because he was good in so many ways, admirable even, but there was something important that wasn’t right, and you honed in on that and not the other things he clearly gave you. And maybe . . . just think on this, okay? Maybe you should cut him some slack because everyone has flaws. No one is perfect. And he wasn’t perfect. That makes him not god-like. Though in the end, it makes him what he actually was. Human.”
He rolled her on that, covering her with his body and then kissing her when he got her under him.
Once he released her mouth, she blinked slowly a couple of times, it was cute, then she grinned at him.
“Now do you want me to sort out your big brother issues?” she offered.
“Do you have big sister issues?” he asked.
“Nope. Izzy’s one hundred percent rad.”
He grinned at her. “Yeah, she is.”
“Johnny’s rad too,” she said gently.
“Now, baby, my big brother is god-like,” he told her.
“He’s just human, Toby,” she replied.
“I don’t have a lot of shit around Johnny, Adeline. I was Grams and Margot’s favorite. He was Gramps, Dad and Dave’s favorite. They all loved both of us but each of us got something special. It was just that he could do no wrong because he did do no wrong. He’s golden through and through. Solid. When I was a kid, I wanted not to like him. It was fucked up, but it was true. He’s just totally not unlikable. He’s that good of a guy. I wasn’t a fan of his big-brother shtick, but as you know, we worked that out. I think I just recently gave up the idea that somehow, for some reason, I had to be like him. You found you, today, Addie. I found me when I laid shit out for Johnny last week. So it’s all good.”
“You sure?”
Christ, she was sweet.
He hadn’t expected this.
He got off on her tart. Her backbone. Her quick wit. Her protective instinct. The fact she was