Never Kiss a Stranger (12 page)

I yanked the door open to the day spa Coco had picked and was immediately ushered to a changing room and outfitted with a robe and slippers. Moments later, I was escorted to a private room where my mother and sister were already sipping cucumber-infused waters as attendants kneaded and tugged their hands like bread dough.

“This is the life,” my mother sighed. “Oh, gosh, I needed this.”

Coco and I exchanged looks, quietly amused at my mother pretending to have a stressful life. Her simple, small town life in Darlington, Kentucky working in a real estate office paled in comparison to the stress we put ourselves through to make something of ourselves. But we said nothing, like the good daughters we were.

“So, how exciting is it that you have a brother now?” My mom beamed. “And he lives here in the city! I mean, if you ever wanted to spend time with him, catch a bite to eat, need help hanging a picture—whatever—I’m sure Wilder would be there in an instant. He seems like a good boy.”

I hated that she talked about him as if he were a child, like the friendly neighborhood boy scout always willing to lend a helping hand or help an old lady carry her groceries inside.

Wilder was so much more than she knew, and he was so much more than I could ever explain. The pain of separating myself from him and attempting to drown out the thickness of the emotions that weighed heavily on my heart only served as fuel to the fire of resentment that’d burned in me for so long.

I resented my mother.

And now, I almost hated her.

Though I supposed it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t like she knew. She didn’t do anything on purpose. But it was the fact that she could con anyone in the world into marrying her. Why’d it have to be Vince?

“I’d like to leave my ring on,” she said to the masseuse. “I can’t stop looking at it. It’s so nice being married again.” She shrugged her shoulders and flashed a coy, dimpled grin, as if it were her first time as a newlywed. “So, Dakota, how’re things with Harrison?”

“They’re still living together,” I interjected.

“When are you going to cut the cord?” Mom asked, shaking her head as if she truly gave a damn. It was all an act. It always was. “I’d love to see you meet someone new. I want to see that sparkle in those big, blue eyes of yours again.”

Coco rolled her eyes. “Who has time to date? Certainly not me. And who wants to date a woman who could be flown clear across the country at a moment’s notice?”

Coco and Harrison worked out well for a while since he was her producer. He flew wherever she did. They were both obsessed with their work and obsessed with each other, until shit got real. Coco still refused to talk about what really happened, which only told me it was bad.

“You know that boy you used to date in high school, the country singer guy, what’s his name again?” Mom scrunched her face, pretending like she didn’t remember. The whole world knew his name. Beau Mason was the biggest country rock singer in the history of music, with more platinum albums in the last decade than most recording legends had in their lifetimes.

“Beau.” Coco said his name through gritted teeth. She’d refused to talk about him in the nearly ten years that had passed since they went their separate ways.

“Yes! Beau Mason.” My mom smiled fondly, as if she had nothing but good memories of him. I barely remembered Beau since I was a little younger than her when they were together, but he was my sister’s first taste of real love. And her first taste of real heartbreak. Those things never leave you, no matter how much time passes. “You know, I heard he was retiring. For good. Can you believe that? He’s been so successful and he just wants to give it all up for a quiet life back home.”

“Good for him.” Coco rolled her eyes. It was the most she’d said about him in years. If you asked me, she was still wildly in love with him. She’d never admit it though, and she refused to listen to any of his songs.

“Maybe he’s not happy,” I said. I glanced across the room at my sister, and I could’ve sworn she was trying to blink away tears. I wanted to tell her she didn’t have to be such a diamond all the time, sparkly and pretty and flawless on the outside and so hard that no one could break her on the inside. It was okay to be vulnerable sometimes. “Maybe he’s searching for something else. Someone else…”

Coco shot me a look that silenced my commentary. “You know, Addison was seeing someone recently.”

“You were?” My mom seemed shocked. “Please tell me you’re back with that nice Kyle boy.” She didn’t know the half of what went down with Kyle, and I never quite had the energy to share it with her.

“Nope, not Kyle.” I shot Coco a look. We were even.

The spa attendants ushered us into another room, where three massage tables were set up.

“Oh, gosh, I just love a good massage,” Mom drawled. “Vince tries to rub my shoulders, bless his heart, but he just doesn’t do it the way a professional can.”

I preferred my massages to be quiet and tranquil, but with Tammy Lynn’s inability to sit in silence for too long, it wasn’t going to happen that day. I breathed in the eucalyptus oil diffusing beneath me and settled into the soft cushion of the table as I tried to tune her out.

“Oh, girls!” my mom’s excited voice was muffled through the headrest of the massage table. “I forgot to tell you, Vince and I are planning a family vacation. We’re thinking sunny Florida! He’s going to rent us a house right on Cocoa Beach. For one week. All five of us. One, big happy family. How’s that sound?”

Like torture. Like pure fucking torture.

“Mom, I can’t take off work,” I objected. I couldn’t be around Wilder for seven days. Not when the wound was so fresh. Peeling myself from him had left a mark, and spending a week with him in Florida was going to be like picking the scab. “I’d have to talk to Brenda. I don’t know…”

“Same here,” Coco added. “I’d have to clear it with the network. I can’t make any promises.”

Mom was silent. Muffled sniffles echoed in the tiny room we shared. She was crying. In true Tammy Lynn form, she managed to make us feel like shit for not giving her what she wanted. She’d done it all our lives.

“It would really,” she said between sniffles, “mean a lot if you could try.”

I groaned. Maybe if I was lucky, Wilder wouldn’t go. “I’ll try, Mom. When were you thinking?”

“Vince is still working out the details. We were thinking next month sometime. Would that give you girls enough time to plan?” Gone were the sniffles and woe-is-me act. She seemed happy again.

Maybe she really did want us to be a big, happy family. Maybe she really did love Vince. Maybe he really did make her happy. And maybe he was going to be the one person to bring out the best in her—the person Coco and I always dreamed she would be.

* * *

“Girls, this means so much to me,” Mom said as we left the spa later that morning. “You have no idea.” Her eyes began to water as her peppy façade faded. “I know I wasn’t the best mother, but I want to make it up to you. And I know you never knew your father, but Vince is willing to step in. It’s a little late in life, but he wants to be there for you. We both want to make this family work. And it means so much to me to have your support.”

Coco and I exchanged looks, practically reading each other’s thoughts. Was this another act? Did she mean it? Was she really turning over a new leaf?

“Love you, Mom,” Coco said, wrapping an arm around her before I followed suit.

“Vince and I will be in the city a few more days,” she said. “If you want to get together again, just let me know. He’s got a few sights he wants to show me, some special evenings planned. But I’d like to see you girls again before we leave. You never come home anymore.”

It was true. We avoided Darlington like the plague, especially Coco.

“Anyway, I’ll let you know about Florida,” she said, plastering a smile on her face. “I can’t wait.”

Mom hailed a cab as Coco and I walked off in the other direction, waiting until we were far enough away to start dissecting our morning with Tammy Lynn.

“So that was… fun,” Coco said as we briskly headed south from Midtown.

“She seems happy.”

“She always seems that way. Give it more time. As soon as the newness wears off, she’ll be airing all their dirty laundry and filing for divorce. You know the drill.”

“This one seems different though, Co.”

She shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t have the time nor the energy to give two shits about mom’s love life anymore. It’s exhausting, and we’re grown now. It’s no longer our concern.”

“Easy for you to say.” My phone buzzed in my pocket. I didn’t have to look at it to know who it was. He’d been messaging me all morning, begging me to come over so we could talk. I pulled my phone out to read his latest appeal.

“Oh, my God.” Coco glanced over my shoulder and read the text. “I thought you were going to end it with him.”

“I am. He’s just having a hard time accepting that we’re done,” I lied. I was having just as hard of a time as he was.

“End it, Addison.” Coco shoved her hands in the pockets of her skinny jeans as her stiletto boots clicked on the pitted cement. She could be cold and hard sometimes, like frozen concrete.

I wanted to tell her it wasn’t that simple. It wasn’t going to happen overnight. I almost told her I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to walk away from the best thing that had ever happened to me. Instead I gave her my best “I’m working on it” before saying goodbye and heading straight for Wilder’s apartment.

* * *

My first words when I saw him were, “This has to stop.”

My body wholeheartedly disagreed, though.

I wanted to throw myself onto him, wrap my legs around his body, and fall softly into the comfort of his soft bed sheets. I wanted to feel him deep inside me, taste him, smell him, lose myself in him.

But I didn’t do any of that.

I imagined there was an alternate universe somewhere where the two of us were laughing and playing like two carefree lovers. Addison and Wilder were living their happily-ever-after fairytale romance somewhere, just not in the here and now.

“Get your hot little ass in here, now,” he growled in the low, sexy voice that instantly made my panties melt.

He’s your stepbrother!

He led me inside as the elevator doors closed behind me and pushed me up against the wall of his foyer. He leaned down and took my bottom lip between his teeth. Wilder was never that aggressive, and I supposed the thought of losing me for good had done a number on him. Maybe it’d made him hungrier for me?

I teetered between giving myself to him one final time and standing my ground. “I mean it. We can’t do this.”

“No,” he seethed. His breath quickened, forcing itself in and out of his nostrils like a raging bull. “I love you, Addison. I fucking love you. I’m not letting you go. You’re mine.”

His hands flew to the sides of my face, holding it still as he forced another kiss on my lips.

“I don’t think of you as my stepsister. You’re not. You’re my girlfriend. You’re the only person in this whole fucked up world who gets me.”

I didn’t recognize the man standing before me, the man clinging so desperately to me like a shipwrecked sailor clinging to a sinking lifeboat. Wilder backed away from me, running a hand through his hair and tugging on the ends. His bloodshot eyes suggested maybe he hadn’t slept the night before, though I couldn’t blame him. I hadn’t, either.