Before That Night: Unfinished Love Series: Caine & Addison, Book 1 (5 page)

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.”

Caine did a double take. “What?”

“Max and Gabe were in here eating the other night, with your foster sister Lia and your foster brother Drew. It was your night off, and they had plans to go over to your place to hang out or something.”

That’s right, they’d wanted to have dinner—aka an intervention—but, darn, he’d already committed to a private security gig for a nearby high school that had needed two uniformed off-duty cops for a reunion. “I didn’t know they came here to eat first.”

“Yep. And they talked about you a lot all through dinner.” She gave him a sheepish grin. “I couldn’t help but overhear some things.”

He shrugged. “No big deal. I don’t think there’s anything they could say about me that I don’t already feel comfortable talking to you about in the first place.”

This time, the sound from Addison’s throat was a soft, surprised,
pleased
little ‘oh.’

And holy crap, did it pack a punch. Especially because it was accompanied by a quietly happy smile she valiantly tried to hold at bay by nibbling on her lower lip.

So focused was he on watching her alternate between teeth nibbles and swift little tongue swipes across that now plump lower lip, that he only managed to catch the tail end of what she said next.

“…Seriously, Gabe has got some serious game.”

What the hell?
That jerked him back to the conversation. “Did the little prick hit on you?”

She laughed out loud then. “Gabe is nearly as tall as you are. There’s nothing ‘little’ about him.”

Caine felt his back molars grinding a little bit. He’d never once begrudged either of his brothers if a woman found them attractive. But because the woman in this case was Addison, he wasn’t just feeling resentful, he was feeling downright territorial.

It didn’t help at all that she and Gabe were close in age.

Suddenly, at twenty-nine, Caine felt like an old geezer in comparison. “Gabe has always been popular with the girls,” he warned, feeling a little bit like a shitty big brother for throwing him under the bus like that.

In all fairness, he’d never once felt compelled to do that before. Something about the woman made him…possessive.

Unapologetically so.

Addison nodded. “That sort of goes without saying. He left the diner with like three numbers that night.”

Caine rolled his eyes. Yeah, that was a regular occurrence with Gabe. Not because he was some sort of player. No, it was more like women just gravitated to his energy, and found themselves wanting to be his best friend within seconds, and half in love within minutes.

Mental note: Don’t ever agree to meet Gabe at the diner when Addison is working.

“Don’t get me wrong, your brother’s cute and all, but I’ve never been a big fan of the whole dating scene.”

“No?”

She shrugged. “Too busy working. Plus, I’m not into painting the town red, or even eating out, really. I’d much rather just curl up in bed with a library book and a bowl of cereal.” She laughed self-deprecatingly. “Boring, I know.”

An insta-fantasy of Addison in
his
bed immediately assailed his thoughts. And it was anything
but
boring. But strangely, not in a sexual way. More in a warm woman curled against his side on a Sunday morning way.

He admittedly liked that even better than a sex fantasy.

“Yeah, I’m a homebody too.” He glanced down at her lips again. “Does your boyfriend at least spoil you with some fancy wine and candlelit dinners when you eat in?”

Yes, he was fishing for information. Over the past month, he’d yet to learn anything beyond surface level details about her. She wasn’t closed off per se. In fact, she was like a happy-go-lucky, tell-it-like-it-is free spirit most of the time, but she was a locked book for sure when it came to her personal life.

Addison’s laugh in response to his question was borderline incredulous. “No boyfriend. And I’d much prefer a hotdog roasted on a fire stick over a fancy dinner with candle light and china.”

Music to his ears.

“Plus, I’m not quite old enough to drink, remember?”

Ouch.
He could’ve done without the reminder that she was only twenty.

Humming as she finished taping up her final basket of Easter eggs on the wall nearest the cash register, she peered over at his mug. “Need a refill?”

Of the watery brown liquid Joe called coffee?
Pass.
But just like he’d been doing for the past four weeks, he swallowed back a few big bland gulps and smiled. “Maybe just one more.”

Addison brought the coffee pot over to top him off, before going over to do the same for the three other customers still remaining in the diner.

He watched in amazement as they happily guzzled down the stuff.

Seriously, he had no idea how folks kept drinking the ‘coffee.’ In his book, weak coffee ran somewhere in between warm beer and day-old milk. Especially since he drank it black.

“Sure you don’t want pie or anything for dessert?”

The piping hot crime against caffeine now temporarily forgotten, he frowned. “I probably shouldn’t.” A crying shame, really, because unlike the coffee, the food at Joe’s was killer, and the desserts were probably the best he’d had in years.

“If you tell me you’re trying to watch your girlish figure, I’m going to clock you on the head with this coffee pot.”

He chuckled. “For every pie you twist my arm into eating, that’s another few miles I have to run every day to work it off.”

“To get your body fat back down to zero percent?” she retorted dryly as she shot him a wholly unsympathetic headshake. “I don’t even eat the pies and I’d have to run an entire marathon to work off all the calories my hips somehow absorb by osmosis from working here.”

Hallelujah for science. The woman could wear the hell out of a tucked in t-shirt and a plain pair of jeans.

“Sweetheart, if I weren’t way too old for you, I’d do the ungentlemanly thing and tell you exactly how much I like the fit of your pants,” he teased gently, simultaneously giving her a backhanded compliment and himself a backhanded insult at the same time. That was a good combo; it’s been working well for them now that they’d gotten comfortable enough for him to kid about things like this.

A flash of heat fired in her eyes over his words.

Huh, had he gone too far this time?

She answered his unasked question by smacking him with a reply chock-full of sass, “Well,
gramps
, if you weren’t way too old for me, I’d do the hussy thing and tell
you
how much I like the fit of
your
pants right now.”

Well, this was new.

Putting a pin in the implications of what she was saying about her noticing the fit of his pants for a brief moment, he focused on the playful insult she’d just tossed his way. He sure as shit didn’t like it when the newbies at the station called him Gramps; hearing it from Addison’s mouth made him want to do something stupid like bench press a car.

Or kiss the hell out of her.

The alarm on his phone chose that exact second to go off.

Hells bells. Up until now, he’d liked working the midnight shift. It meant he could hang out with Addison until about eleven-thirty before heading in to work.

Tonight, he wanted more time.

“You better go before you’re late,” she said then, her voice back to business as usual.

Dammit.

It was possible he said that last bit out loud.

Because she walked up to him slowly then. If you could call what she was doing walking. She had a definite subtle sway to her hips that she didn’t normally have usually.

Jesus, that was some walk.

When she reached him seemingly an eternity later, she leaned over the counter.

And snatched his mug away.

“I wasn’t through with that.”
Why the hell was he protesting?
Oh yeah, because his throat was so parched just from watching her walk that he’d drink just about anything. He settled on his ice water.

Meanwhile, she was busy pouring coffee from the pot with the green handle, not black for regular or orange for decaf. Interesting. He didn’t actually know what that third pot was for.

Before he could ask, she slid what looked like a big gulp sized to-go cup in front of him. Nearly the size of a carton of milk. Oh joy. “Thanks,” he said smiling appreciatively, even as he was mentally thinking of who he could give the cup of bland coffee to so it wouldn’t go to waste.

Addison’s lips twitched to the side. “This one isn’t Joe’s blend. It’s my personal one that I brew up just for me with the extra pot.”

He looked down at the piping hot cup and leaned in to take a whiff.

Lordy, that smelled good.

He took a wary swallow.

And groaned in bliss.

“Why have you never poured this for me before?” he demanded, gulping back seconds and thirds. The brew was strong, deep, and flavorful. Better than simply perfect, it was damn near dirty, it was so good. “You’ve been holding out on me.”

“Yes,” she answered, looking more than a little guilty about that fact.

He studied her simpering features. “On purpose?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Criminy, this was better than foreplay. “So why now?”

She chewed on her lip and said softly, “Maybe I like you
not
being ‘gentlemanly’ for a change.”