“Baby, we’re not hiding anything.”

Her eyes got big again. “Are you—?”

“They’ll be good.”

To that, she looked dubious and explained it by saying simply, “Johnny.”

“He’ll be good.”

No less dubious with, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, and if he isn’t, I don’t give a fuck. This is about you, me and Brooklyn. You’re into me. Brooklyn loves me. Johnny and I had a talk yesterday and I’ll share what that was about but,” he gave her a squeeze, “I’m doing it while you’re sucking back a smoothie.”

She began to look ornery. “Most men like skinny chicks.”

“That’s wrong. Most men like what they like, like most women like what they like. It comes in a variety of forms. And I’ll take you as you come but not when you come that way because you’re run down, don’t have enough money to feed yourself properly or enough time to do it.”

She gave him another soft look before she hid it and sassed, “You’re into me too.”

“Totally into you,” he admitted openly.

And when he did, her head jerked a little in visible surprise.

Then she assumed an expression he’d never seen from her, but it was one he absolutely expected from Adeline Forrester.

Sultry, confident, and hot as fuck.

Jesus, if he didn’t get her out of there, like now, she’d be on her knees at the edge of his bed again.

Toby moved his hands to her waist and gave her a squeeze. “Now I’m making you a smoothie.”

She moved her hands to his neck and held on tight, so he didn’t make another move.

“Best part about that,” she whispered, “what you said, and it does not diminish the happy I’m feeling that the slow burn is over, I just got me some, you’re gonna give me some more later, I have Christmas lights and food in the house and my hands right now on you, but the bestest best part is that you said this is about you, me and my baby.”

“Addie,” he whispered back, sliding his hands from her waist up her sides.

His hands stopped moving when her heart slid into her eyes.

That he didn’t expect from Adeline Forrester either.

And it wasn’t hot as fuck.

It was the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen in his goddamn life.

“That’s the bestest best part, Toby, outside of me, right now, having my hands on you.”

Well, hell.

Fuck it.

He’d make her a smoothie in a minute.

Right then, he kissed Addie again.

And as he intended, it turned into necking.

So it took about fifteen minutes to get a smoothie down her.

But . . .

Whatever.

She’ll Give a Shit

Addie

AFTER MY SHOWER, during which I’d done a lot of grooming (specifically with a razor) that I wished I’d done before my visit to Tobe’s house, in my robe, my hair in a towel, I sat on the side of my bed with my phone.

Earlier, while I sucked back the fruit, yogurt and protein powder smoothie Toby made me (which was delicious), he told me about his surprising, and very cool conversation with Johnny the day before.

I had also told him about my conversation with Izzy.

And we’d made a plan.

So I instigated that plan right then, texting him, Out of the shower. Ready to do this?

I then got up and yanked the towel off my head, moving back to the bathroom, Dapper Dan, who was hanging with me, following.

I didn’t have a lot of time. Toby was going to show at four thirty, everyone else at five, so right then I had about forty minutes to do what I wanted to do before Toby arrived.

Make an effort.

A big one.

For him.

I had not been in the zone to go all out since well before Brooklyn had been born.

Perry and my marriage was a disaster, nearly from the beginning. Once his band broke up (and they didn’t make much when they were together), I was the sole breadwinner. I knew in my heart, even if I wasn’t allowing it to sift into my mind, I’d made a huge mistake with my choice of husband, and this was before he’d cheated on me.

I loved him. I truly did. Enough that I was blind to all his bullshit. But I’d been head over heels.

Until he made it so I wasn’t.

And then when I came to Matlock to figure out my life, there was never a reason to do myself up.

That wasn’t true.

There was.

Because there was Toby.

Admittedly, all the times Brooks and I went to JerryJack’s Diner with Izzy, Johnny and Toby, or out for pizza at the place in Bellevue, again with Izzy, Johnny and Toby, and other times besides, I didn’t do it because I didn’t want him to think I was trying to catch his eye.

But I’d already caught his eye.

And now I wanted him to know different sides of me that didn’t involve me being Brooks’s mom, Izzy’s sister, Perry’s ex.

I mean, I had a feeling he knew this already.

But I wanted to give him the good stuff.

Stuff he’d never had.

And to be honest, I was looking forward to it and wished I had more time. It had been so long, even I forgot this part of me who liked to look hot and feel attractive and get attention.

The only attention I wanted was Toby’s, and I had that.

But doing this actually might be more for me than it was for him.

It was still for him.

Dapper Dan had decided to stretch out on the bathroom rug, and I was combing out my hair when my phone binged with a text from Toby.

Let’s roll.

I smiled, texting back, Calling her now.

Then I instigated my side of the plan, which was calling Izzy, while I knew Toby was instigating his side of the plan, calling Johnny.

I hit speakerphone and put the phone by the basin, grabbing the shine oil I put in my hair that was in its dregs.

I really wanted to drop a hint to someone I needed more for Christmas because it did great things to my hair and I’d miss it when it was gone. But even if I’d decided to let those who loved me help out, and one could say with ten thousand dollars in my desk drawer I could afford a bottle of shine oil, I wasn’t yet at the place to do something like that.

Izzy’s voice came over the speaker. “Hey, Addie. Everything okay?”

I was really looking forward to the day when my sister didn’t answer every call with “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s good. Do you have a second?”

“Always.”

Okay.

Damn.

This was weird.

I didn’t think it would be, so caught up in all the goodness that had happened with Toby.

But two sisters very with two brothers?

Yeah.

It was a little weird.

“Listen, something happened,” I told her.

“Oh God,” she replied. “What?”

“I know you heard about that fight I had with Toby.”

“Yeah,” she said slowly.

Having put the oil in my hair, I was combing it through, saying, “Well, today we worked things out.”

Izzy didn’t reply.

“Like, really worked things out,” I stressed. “We had another huge fight and then we . . . got together.”

“Got together?”

“Together together.” I reached for the hairband I used to pull back my hair before I put on makeup and continued, “We had sex.”