Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70558 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70558 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“Oh.” Addison’s eyes widened as he inched closer to me. “Um.”
He paused, dropping his voice to a faint whisper. “Daddy? Does he look…um…”
Straight?
Huge?
Frustrated?
“We’re not going to make assumptions, sunshine.” I wasn’t sure I looked gay—whatever that meant—so we weren’t going to assume anything. “Everything we read online said they’re good at matching roommates.”
There’d been some funny stories floating around social media, but nothing that said Addison needed to be worried.
“Yes.” Slowly nodding, he straightened. “No assumptions.”
And a tiny girl popped out beside him.
Hmm.
Maybe it was time to make assumptions?
“Baby, you can’t—” She stopped as they both turned in our direction and stared at us like we were aliens.
She seemed to recover first and smiled, but it looked slightly forced. “Hi. Is one of you Addison?”
My sunshine managed to nod but words took another few seconds. “I am. It’s…it’s nice to meet you.”
Whoever she was.
His roommate was definitely the guy but he just watched us stoically for a moment before coming alive. “Yeah, nice to meet you.”
Well, our first meeting could’ve gone worse.
“This…” Addison swallowed hard as he looked up at me. “This is Tate.”
That still sounded awkward…but at least he hadn’t called me Daddy?
His vague introduction had their gaze flicking back and forth between us, clearly searching for something. They waited in silence for a few seconds, probably for one of us to say something else, but when that didn’t happen, she took the guys hand and tugged him away from the door. “Come in and set that down. Do you need help?”
That seemed to be a good sign but Addison shook his head as his eyes went wide. “No. No, thank you.”
And now we looked suspicious.
I could see something in their gazes shift but I wasn’t sure what they were thinking. Smiling, I tried to play it off. “We’ve got a plan, but thanks for the offer.”
Hmm, didn’t help.
Addison seemed to have given up on trying to be himself because he shut down completely and rushed into the apartment, past the two confused people still watching us. “Thank you.”
Yep, that didn’t look odd at all.
“You’re welcome.” She obviously wasn’t sure what to say but she was trying. “Yours is the bedroom on the right.”
Addison called out another quick thanks but didn’t slow down, so I just followed him in and tried not to look weird. I flashed them my work smile and that seemed to help, but I knew it was just a temporary fix as I headed into what seemed to be Addison’s bedroom.
The quick way he shut the door behind me didn’t help us look sane, but he obviously needed privacy for a moment, so I set everything down as quickly as I could. Addison sighed and crashed into me, curling into a ball against my chest and letting out another theatrical sound. “That was bad. I didn’t know what to say and I wasn’t expecting him to be like that and she was polite but I looked weird. I remembered not to say Daddy, though.”
Before I could decide where to start, he whined. “And I forgot his name and didn’t ask hers. I should’ve figured out a way to ask what her name was. They don’t look alike so I don’t think they’re related. Ugh. Can I come home now? I changed my mind.”
Not good.
Not good.
Okay, how were we going to fix this?
Chapter 21
Addison
“Online college is a thing. I don’t need the full experience. This was a stupid plan.” What had I been thinking?
Daddy hugged me tight but he took a deep breath like he was trying not to laugh. “We’re going to tackle one problem at a time. I remember his name. It’s Damon. I’ll help you figure out who she is. You can come home anytime you want but I don’t think you’d like online classes. You like people, sunshine.”
Okay, he might’ve had a point with that last part.
And he hadn’t said I was being theatrical yet.
“Yeah, I might get lonely if I was home by myself all the time, and you like your work, so I can’t expect you to stay home with me.” Even I knew that wasn’t reasonable.
Daddy’s chest jerked but he kept his thoughts on how humorous I was to himself. “You’re right. But we have schedules and plans for when we know you’re coming home and I’m going to do my best to come over here and take you for dates on a regular basis.”
Kissing my head as I took a deep breath, he gave me another squeeze as he kept trying to talk me down. “We’ll try new restaurants and find fun places to shop. There’s some kind of boutique toy store that just opened up. I bet my sunshine would love something sparkly and overpriced.”
Giggling, I nodded. “I would.”
Daddy knew me really well.
“And you’ve been looking forward to this for a while. I know it’s a big change but you were looking for a new adventure and something you could do long term.” Rubbing his hand up and down my back, Daddy shrugged. “Now, if that plan changed then it’s another story, but I don’t think it has.”