Acting Up (13 page)

“Now,” she said in a firm tone. “Addison and her stepson need some privacy.”

“Aaron, what are you doing here?” Addison asked, as soon as they were alone.

He sank onto to the couch with a casual shrug. “Nowhere else to go.”

“What do you mean nowhere else to go? Aren't you supposed to be with your mother?”

“She has a new boyfriend, and they're going to the South of France for three months. So, she sent me to Dad's.”

“I'm pretty sure your dad still lives in L.A.,” Addison said, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, with Angela.” He spat the word out and Addison bit back a smile. It was gratifying to know the
I Hate Angela Club
had gained new members.

“You don't get along with her?” Addison asked, trying not to show any reaction.

Aaron's lip curled in a sneer. “She's as fake as her rack,” he said, cupping both hands out at chest level.

She grabbed his hands. “Stop it. You shouldn't talk about your dad's fiancée like that.”

“Whatever. Anyway, I heard them arguing the day I got there. She was flipping out over me showing up, and he said not to worry. I'd only be in the house a few days until he could arrange for me to go to some stick-up-their—”

Addison quirked a brow.

He hesitated. “—
butt
fancy boarding school in Connecticut or somewhere.”

If Merrick had been standing in front of her right now, she'd have decked him. “I'm sorry you had to hear them fighting.”

Eye roll this time. “Whatever. It's not like I wanted to be there either.”

“I still don't understand how you wound up on my doorstep.”

Aaron eyed the plate of warm cookies. “Can I have one of those while you interrogate me? I haven't eaten anything all day.”

“Yes, but you're still going to answer my question. How did you get here?”

“On a plane,” he said, stuffing a morsel in his mouth.

“I figured out the flying part, Sherlock. I was hoping to learn how you ended up on a plane to Georgia. Did your dad let you come? And how did you even know where to find me?”

“I talked to your housekeeper. She told me where you'd gone. Then I booked a flight on the Internet with his credit card.”

He'd booked it with a— “Wait a minute. Does your dad even know you're here? Does
anyone
know where you are?”

The third shrug in as many minutes. Addison clapped a hand to her forehead. Great! Her ex-stepson had run away from home. Correction – run away to her.

“How did you get to Covington Falls?” Addison asked, dread growing by the minute. “There's no airport near here.”

“Bus.”

“You rode a bus all the way here by yourself?” she asked, appalled at the idea of him at the mercy of some sleezeball. “That could have been dangerous. What if something had happened to you?”

“The people were all right.” He wrinkled his nose. “The inside smelled like my gym locker though.”

“What was your plan once you got here? Or had you even thought that far ahead?”

He downed the glass of milk in one gulp. “I hoped you'd let me stay.”

The shocks kept coming. “You want to live with me?”

A flash of searing pain swept across his face before he disguised it. A brief show of vulnerability that broke her heart.

Addison snatched the last cookie as she sank onto the couch. “I have to call your dad, you know. I'm sure he's worried by now.”

“I doubt he even knows I'm gone,” Aaron said with a snort of derision. “Too busy with Angela. They're always fooling around.”

Addison tried not to react to this information. She did not want to know about Merrick's love life.

“I walked in on ‘em once, over Christmas,” Aaron said. “They were doing it on the dining room table.”

She groaned. “Thanks for the mental picture.”

His eyes gleamed with a cynical amusement she found disturbing in someone so young. “That's why she hates me.”

“Angela?”

“Because I saw her… you know,” he said, holding out his hands again.

She batted them down. Again. “I'm sorry you had to see that.”

“Why?”

“Because you shouldn't be exposed to your parents' love life. You're a kid.”

His bird chest puffed up. “I'm not a kid. I'm fifteen.”

“Right, I forgot,” Addison said, hiding a grin. “However, the law says you're a minor, which means you can't just hop on a plane and go live wherever you please.”

“I'm telling you, he won't care.”

His neutral tone didn't fool her. “I still have to call him. I could get in trouble if I allow you to stay here without permission. I'm not your legal guardian. I'm not even married to your dad anymore. The police could claim I'd kidnapped you or something.”

His eyes gleamed, and Addison shook a finger at him. “Uh-uh, buster. I'm in enough trouble with the press right now. Go into the kitchen with Mrs. Thomas and help her with dinner while I call your father.”

“You'll let me stay though? If he says yes?”

She searched his eyes — eyes that seemed much too old for their years — and answered the only way she could. “If he agrees.”

He jumped up from the couch and headed to the kitchen.

“Aaron?”

He turned around. “Yeah?”

“Why do you want to live with me anyway?”

His shoe scuffed the floor. “Don't know. You were always pretty cool, I guess. And I figured you wouldn't flip out.”

“You came all this way because I'm pretty cool?” Addison didn't believe the explanation for a moment. “Come on. Why me?”

His head came up. “When you asked me a question, you looked at me, like you cared about the answer. You listened.”

“That's it? I listened?”

He shrugged, a standard move Addison knew meant yes, no, whatever, and who cares.

“No one else ever listens to me.”

“All right, go help Mrs. Thomas. I'll be there in a minute.”

After he left, she pulled out her phone. Sydney had begged Addison to erase Merrick's numbers. Now she was glad she hadn't. She dialed his cell, knowing Merrick
always
answered.

He picked up on the fourth ring. “Addison, this is a surprise.”

His rich baritone voice caused tiny pings to go off in her heart. She massaged her chest, trying to make the ache go away.

“Hello, Merrick,” she said, trying to keep an even tone. “How are you?”

“I'm fine.” He sounded surprised, yet wary, and she couldn't blame him. Most of their conversations over the last year had been strained and angry.

“I have a situation here,” Addison said.

His sigh hissed across the line. “Your alimony checks will commence right on schedule,” he said in a dry tone. “Don't worry, my love, you'll receive your pound of flesh.”

Addison lost the play-nice tone. “If you were here right now, I'd pound you and your stupid girlfriend.”

“Fiancée.”

Addison jumped up and started pacing. “I don't care what you call her. I'm not calling about a check. I need to talk to you about your son.”

“Aaron?”

“You don't have any other children, do you?” She was going to develop lock jaw from clenching her teeth so hard. “Do you know where he is?”

“At home, I presume.”

“You presume wrong. He's here, Merrick. He showed up on my doorstep today.”

He let out a bark of frustrated laughter. “That's what the drama is about? Don't worry. I'll send my driver around to pick him up. He'll be out of your hair in an hour.”

“I'm not in L.A. I'm not even in California.”

There was a brief silence. “Where are you?”

“I'm visiting a relative in Georgia.”

“What?”

“He took a plane and then a bus. Merrick, how could you not notice he was gone? What if he'd been robbed? Attacked by some pervert? Or worse?”

“He's there now? In Georgia?”

“Yes. He got here a couple hours ago. My neighbor brought him into her house and gave him milk and cookies.”

“Milk and cookies? What kind of city are you in?”

“It's not a city. It's a small town.”

“Wait. Are you in that place you lived in when you were a kid? With the aunt?”

She paused by the sliding doors. “Yes, but that's beside the point. Merrick, he heard you talking to Angela. He knows you were going to send him to boarding school.”

“I'm sorry he overheard.”

“You should be sorry you said it. First his mom doesn't want him, and now you. What's the matter with you two? He's a kid and he's upset. So upset he came to me.”

“You're right. If he'd come to me I wouldn't have made him go. He and Angela don't get along very well, and I thought he'd be happier—”

“Please don't pretend you were doing this for his sake.” How had she never seen how self-centered Merrick was? Addison wanted to throw the phone across the room. “We both know better.”

Merrick cleared his throat. “I'm sorry Aaron involved you in a family matter. Listen, if you would arrange for him to get home, I'd be grateful. I'll reimburse you.”

“He wants to stay here. With me.”

“You don't have to keep him. Just send him back.”

“I want him to stay. I told him he could if you agreed.”

“You want him to live with you?” he asked in genuine surprise.

“I guess we both needed to get away for awhile. Will you let him stay, Merrick?”

Two beats passed. “It's fine with me if you don't mind.”

“No. I think maybe we'd be good for each other.”

“Fine.” She could tell he was about to click off.

She sank onto the couch. “Merrick?”

“Yes, Addison?”

“Don't screw up with him. He's upset right now, but he loves you, and even though he's almost as tall as you, he still needs you. You have the power to break his heart. He's your
son
. Be his father.”

There was another long pause and when he spoke again, Merrick's tone was gentler. Close to the one he'd used before they'd ended up hating each other. “I will. Thank you. Goodbye, Addison.”

“Goodbye, Merrick.”

Addison stared at the wall long after he'd hung up. Tears slipped down her cheek, and she brushed them away. For the first time, the vise around her heart eased, and she took a deep, cleansing breath.

“Are you all right?”

She gasped and spun around. Ethan was leaning against the doorframe, his arms folded across his muscular chest. Addison had the insane notion she'd like to lay her head on his chest and have those strong arms around her.

Too nice. And too soon.

She stood, giving herself time to gather her scattered emotions. “I'm fine.”

Ethan noticed anyway. “You're crying. He made you cry.”

He took a step, and Addison held out a hand to ward him out. “Please don't do the adorable, heroic thing right now, or I will fall apart. I was saying goodbye.”

“Goodbye?”

“My divorce became final when I signed a piece of paper. It took a few more weeks for my heart to catch up. I'm okay. A little sad, but fine.”

Ethan nodded. “I had that moment, too. Sad, but fine.”

“Do you ever get past it?”

“I don't know yet,” he said, giving her a wistful smile.

Addison rolled her eyes, which thankfully had stopped leaking. “Boy, you sure know how to give a girl hope. Come on, I have to go tell Aaron he's staying.”

“You sure you're ready to have a teenager living with you full-time? You're dealing with a lot yourself.”

“It might be good for me to focus on someone else's troubles for awhile.” She chuckled. “I'm sick of my own complaining. In any case, Aaron's a pretty good kid. I'm sure he won't be much trouble.”

“This is so lame.”

As it was perhaps the hundredth time Aaron had repeated the phrase since Addison had dragged him out of bed, the teenager's complaining had turned into white noise. Ignoring him, she pulled into a parking space and turned off the car.

Aaron regarded her with sullen eyes. “I thought you were cool.”

“Just your luck to wind up with a regular old boring adult,” Addison said, flashing her best red carpet smile. “Guess that'll teach you to run away from home, won't it?”

The kid blinked, and Addison fought an amused grin. She'd obviously caught him off-guard by refusing to care whether or not he thought she was cool.

If Aaron didn't know what to make of her, Addison was equally puzzled by her new charge. Aaron's gratitude for taking him into the bosom of her — or rather Aunt Ruth's — home had lasted until she'd informed him he would have to go to school. Then he'd turned into a muttering, grumbling lump of expensive baggy clothes. It was Addison's first experience with teenage angst, and boy, was it was ugly. She was now certain God sent children to earth as babies because their parents would kill them if they didn't start out cute.