His hand tangles in my hair as he deepens the kiss until I’m breathless.
“What town are you from?” he asks.
“Clear Creek. Is that close?” I question, still wondering how far I made it.
“Real close. So close I’m shocked I’ve never seen or heard of you.”
“Told you. I didn’t really leave the house much. Less so in the last few years.” As I got older, my father started getting more controlling.
“I need a name, baby doll.”
“Winston.”
Trace is out of the bed before I even know what’s happening, pulling his clothes on. I sit up in bed, watching him move about the room.
“What are you doing?” I can hear the worry in my own voice.
“You’ll not spend one more fucking day worrying about anything,” he says, tugging a shirt over his head and then finding his jeans.
“What are you going to do?” I move to the side of the bed, looking for something to wear, but the dress I made looks unwearable at this point.
“I’m going to pay your father a visit.”
“What!” I jump from the bed and run towards him, wrapping my arms around his body.
“Calm down. It’s better this way. I’ll go over and set things straight. He’ll never think about looking for you when I’m done having words—and other things—with him.”
My heart starts to race. Panic is setting in.
“Baby doll, calm down. I promise you, it will be fine. I do this and it’s done and over. You don’t ever have to think about him or worry that someone is coming to take you from here. I promise, he’ll know what will happen if he comes on our land looking for you.”
“Our land?”
“Yeah, our land. You want your fairy tale, you’re about to get it. Trust me.”
“I trust you,” I say instantly.
“Of course you do because you’re all sweetness and love.” He leans down, placing another kiss on my lips. “I won’t be gone long. I’ll be back before the sun is down,” he tells me as he walks over to the dresser, pulls out a shirt, and slides it over my head before I follow him downstairs and to the front door. Boxes, the stuff he ordered, were delivered and now litter the living room floor.
“Lock the door behind me and go through some of your stuff. See what you do and don’t like.”
“I love you,” I say, because that’s all I can think about.
“I love you, too.” He leans down, placing another kiss to my lips. This one is hard and intense, almost like he’s branding me before he leaves. I flip the lock behind him and go to the window and watch him drive away.
I sit down on the sofa, not sure what to do, so I do what he told me to. I start going through all the boxes, pulling out piles and piles of clothes. It’s like he thought of everything—from dresses, to shirts and shorts, to jeans and so many shoes I don’t even know how I could wear them all.
I jump when I hear a knock at the door.
“Trace, it’s Ty.” I hear a man’s deep voice, and I know it’s Trace’s brother.
“You’ll scare her. Let me talk,” I hear a woman say.
“Maybe we should come back. Trace’s truck is gone.”
“Well, I think she’s in there. You heard what Steven said. Trace has a girl in there, and I wanna see,” the woman says.
“You’ve been hanging out with Dolly too much. You’re just as nosy as she is now,” Ty laughs.
I open the door to see them both standing on the porch. They turn their heads to look at me. The woman is a little bit taller than me, with blonde hair and a baby held on her hip. A smile spreads on her face.
“I’m MJ,” the woman says instantly, “Trace’s sister-in-law, and this is Ty, my husband. And of course, we have TJ, Ty Junior, here.”
Ty and TJ both look like Trace. There is no missing they’re related. Ty nods at me.
“I’m Addison,” I tell them. MJ reaches out to shake my hand. Then she changes her mind and pulls me into a hug, her baby bump coming between us. TJ giggles.
“Sorry, I’m just excited. I love how this family is growing, and I knew if Trace had a girl in his house, it was serous. It’s serious, right?” she asks.
“Wow,” Ty says, drawing our attention. He’s looking over my head and into the house. I turn to see what he’s looking at. “This place is a mess. Well, a mess for Trace at least.”
I didn’t think it was that bad, but it did look like a box bomb went off in the living room, and the kitchen still hasn’t been cleaned from the breakfast Trace made this morning.
“Oh my God, it is! This is so serious. He can’t even be bothered to clean, and messes drive Trace crazy.” MJ says something about Trace I didn’t know. I like the idea that I make him forget something. That he’s more worried about me than cleaning up some mess.
“Do you want to come in?” I ask, and MJ beams.
“We’d love to,” she says, pushing past me and into the house. She takes a seat on the sofa.
Ty is still standing in the doorway. “Put some pants on, or my brother is going to kill me if he’s anything like me. And I have a feeling he is.” I look down at my bare legs before grabbing one of the boxes from the coffee table.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell them, dashing upstairs. I hear MJ’s laughter as I make my way to the bedroom.