Bedrock (2 page)

Two

Addie was six the first time she thought about the man
she would marry. She imagined what he’d look like, how they would meet, and how
their
happily ever after would be the happiest of all. Although she had
never been to Disneyland, she had seen enough on TV to know that was exactly
what it would be like. And God knows she watched enough TV. It seemed sometimes
that was all there was to do. Addie lived with her grandparents in an upscale
middle-class neighborhood in Austin, Texas. She could imagine that their home
was once a happy place, although she’d never known it to be so. Her
grandparents rarely spoke to her, and while they cared for her enough to keep
her alive, that was pretty much the extent of it. Addie was almost invisible,
it seemed. Her grandparents were so sad she didn’t want to make it any worse
for them, so the older she got, the smaller she tried to become. She learned to
keep her head down, and the longer she did, the less everyone suffered.

Addie’s parents were seventeen when her mother got pregnant.
While she didn’t know the full story, she had gotten bits and pieces of it over
the years, most of them coming from her great-aunt Sara, who loved to tell
Addie stories of her mother. Addie’s mother, Constance, was an only child, the
apple of her parents’ eye. She was smart, kind, and beautiful, the kind of
child that parents dream of having. Constance was on the fast track to
Princeton when she met Addie’s father at a soccer game in her last year of high
school. Her parents insisted he wasn’t good enough for her. He would steal her
dreams, they warned. Against her grandparents’ wishes, Addie’s parents had
secretly been dating for a few months when her mother found out she was
pregnant. Coming from a strict Catholic family, Addie’s mother knew abortion
was not an option. And when Constance finally got the nerve to tell her parents,
they insisted that she give the baby up for adoption.

Addie’s father, Michael, begged her mother not to give her up. He
proposed marriage and tried his best to prove that they could build a life
together. With time quickly running out, at seven months along, Constance
finally agreed to marry him. Together they concocted a plan to forge the
parental consent form required and cross state lines, where they would get
married. But that was where everything went terribly wrong. Two hundred miles
from home, a drunk driver veered into their lane, forcing them off the highway
and into a tree. Badly injured, her mother made it to the hospital where
doctors delivered Addie, who weighed exactly three pounds and, aside from being
premature, was mostly okay. Addie’s mother on the other hand succumbed to her
injuries shortly after they delivered her.

Even from the day she was born, Addie was a dead ringer for her
mother, which she guessed was why her grandparents decided to keep her. Her
grandmother had even told her as much once, that they had lost the one and only
thing they loved, and since Addie was the only piece they had left of her, they
couldn’t bear to let her go, too. Addie had always sensed that it was the guilt
that drove the decision to keep her. Her upbringing certainly proved that it
wasn’t one made out of love or concern for her.

Her father, Michael, had wanted to keep and raise her. But her
grandparents hired a team of attorneys who quickly solidified in his mind what
he already knew, that there was no way that an eighteen-year-old boy with
nothing could win the case. Addie’s grandparents had told her through the years
that they hoped her father had learned his lesson. He had taken their daughter
from them, and the least they could do was return the favor. And though her
grandparents spent a small fortune trying to prevent it, a fact of which they
boasted proudly, Michael was granted visitation. Addie remembered fondly the
time she spent with him until she was around six or so and he moved to
Colorado, where he started a new family. He had a new life there, one without
so much sadness, Addie guessed, because after he moved, the phone calls and
letters seemed to grow further and further apart each year, until, she rarely
heard from him.

It was an unassuming, chilly, overcast fall morning the
day Addie met the man who would later change her life, become her husband, and
father her three children. While it was just another ordinary day, in
retrospect, the moment Addie met Patrick, though she would never admit it to
anyone other than herself, she
knew
he was the one. It would take him a
little more time. But Addie knew she wanted
him
and would settle for
nothing less.

She had broken up with her boyfriend of three years the summer
before, because, while he was the perfect boyfriend for high school and the
perfect boyfriend for her grandparents, she knew, had always known, that he was
not the one. That was the thing about Addie. She was confident, certain. She
knew what she wanted and she went after it. Her friends continuously gave her
flack for seemingly having her whole life mapped out. And she did. She knew she
would graduate, get married, and have two kids and the white picket fence,
perhaps even a dog. Her home would be a happy one, with dinner parties and lots
of friends. It was the life she’d always wanted, and she intended to have just
that.

In the meantime, though, Addie
was
enjoying college and having the time of her life. It was the first time in as
long as she could remember that she didn’t feel lonely. A prisoner who had
escaped her captors, she finally felt free. Always the life of the party, she
had no shortage of friends. And while everyone else her age seemed not to take
life too seriously, Addie was known as a popular overachiever who had a list of
goals, on which she was promptly ticking things off. Next up on that list was
to find a good man, which didn’t exactly happen in the way she envisioned it,
but it made for a great story nonetheless.

On a crisp fall Texas morning, lost in thought and staring at up
the sky, Addie was walking from the library to the cafeteria, when her phone
rang, startling her. Flinging her book bag around her shoulder and reaching
around, she dug blindly until she lost her footing, slipped, and nearly toppled
over. Trying to prevent herself from landing flat on her face, she dropped the
books in her hands in order to catch herself. As she bent down to retrieve her
things scattered among the lawn, she bumped heads with someone. Dazed and a
little shaken, she blinked, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her. There
before her was perhaps the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He looked
familiar, but Addie couldn’t place him.

“I’m sorry. Do I know you?” Addie asked, blushing.

He smiled and extended his hand. “Don’t think so. I’m Patrick.
Patrick Greyer.”

Feeling a little off, Addie just stared. After they gathered her
things, Patrick walked her to the cafeteria. Making small talk, he explained
that he was also a freshman, was there from Dallas, and was majoring in
finance. Over breakfast, where he had coffee and a bagel and she had o.j. and a
donut, they talked about childhood. Well, mostly Patrick talked of his, where
they grew up, and what brought them to Baines University. Addie explained that
she was majoring in communications and hoped to go to work in marketing when
she graduated. Patrick, studying finance, was on the fast track to gain
employment at Morgan, Lehman & Scott, where he was already interning.

The attraction was instant, the chemistry between the two of them
uncanny and palpable. Unfortunately, the time for their next class came much
too soon. As they said their goodbyes and parted, Patrick casually mentioned
having dinner the following Friday, and they exchanged phone numbers.

Waiting for his call was excruciating for Addie. Every time the
phone rang, adrenaline ran through her. Her hair stood on end. And every time
it wasn’t Patrick, her stomach sank. Three days went by and no phone call came.
Had she been mistaken? Did she imagine that there was an attraction? Was he
just being polite asking her to dinner?
No. She didn’t think so.
Finally, just about the time she put it out of her mind, the call came. She
couldn’t tell you how, but that day, when the phone rang, she knew it was him.

“Hello.” She answered, a little too enthusiastically.

“Hi. Addie? This is Patrick. We met in the commons the other day.”

Surprised and thrilled, she noticed his voice was even deeper and
sexier than she remembered. Addie shut her eyes, lifted up a silent thank you,
and smiled. “Uh . . . Yes, I remember.”

“Good. So . . . I was wondering if you still wanted to have
dinner on Friday.”

Addie, doing a little happy dance, screamed silently. “Yeah, of
course.”

Patrick paced his tiny apartment. “Great. I’ll pick you up at seven
o’clock then.”

Addie plopped down on her bed and sighed. “Perfect. Oh, and
Patrick?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

This time Patrick smiled. “Me too. See ya Friday.”

The next few days both dragged on and went by in a
blur. True to form, Addie started planning her outfit Wednesday evening.
Wondering what she should wear, she realized that she hadn’t even asked where
he was taking her. This was the first, first date that Addie could remember.
She had been with Jason for so long that he was practically part of her family.
They never needed to make plans; it was just assumed that he would be there, that
whatever it was they were doing, they were doing it together. This is what
Addie missed the most. It wasn’t so much Jason per se but always having someone
to do things with.

Dating was all new to Addie. She wasn’t even sure if she could
technically count what she was doing as dating. Most of the time, the boys she
was dating simply asked to meet up with her and a group of friends. They’d ask
what party she’d planned to attend and then there they would be. This time it
felt different. Patrick felt different, which was, in part, why there was so
much riding on this one date and why her outfit had to be absolutely perfect.

Addie had a great sense of fashion. She knew how to dress for her
body—always had. Her friends told her she was blessed. Tall and slender like
her mother, she had curves in all the right places. It made dressing the part
fairly simple. And for that she was grateful. Still, she didn’t have the
fashion sense
nor
the clothing budget that her roommate Jessica had,
which was exactly who she went to in order to help her find the perfect first-date
outfit. Jessica was, of course, thrilled to help. While Jessica wasn’t quite as
fortunate to have the body type that Addie had, she was an expert at putting
things together. And when Jessica couldn’t figure it out for herself, she was
lucky that she had an unlimited budget and access to a personal shopper at
almost every high-end store in town.

Jessica was the only granddaughter of an oil tycoon, practically
born with a silver spoon in her mouth into a family where they never wanted for
anything a day in their lives. At 5’2”, Jessica was short with an athletic
build. She had long chestnut hair and eyes to match. Jessica was everything
that Addie was not: rich, worry-free, and extremely smart. While Addie was organized
and by the minute, Jessica was fly by the seat of her pants. While Addie had to
study for days, sometimes even weeks to ace an exam, Jessica only had to show
up.

So it was quite a surprise to Addie that Jessica not only wound
up at Baines but also ended up becoming one of her dearest friends. Baines was
certainly not the most prestigious university. However, because it was small
and secluded, it was known for being hard to get in to, like an exclusive
country club.

Addie had dozens of potential date outfits lined up and strewn
about her bed when Jessica burst through the door. She took one look at Addie’s
perplexed expression and exclaimed, “Oh, no, no, no. This occasion calls for
special trip to Neiman's. I booked us an appointment with my favorite and, of
course, their best personal stylist. We have to be there in thirty, so hurry
up. Oh, and by the way, I checked out this Patrick character, and I’m just not
sure. From what I’ve heard, he’s mostly a loner, though a smart one: valedictorian
and currently sitting at the top of our class. So, I guess,
maybe
there
is potential. But you need someone who is social, not someone who stays holed
up in his apartment and rarely dates.”