Page 92 of No More Hiding

Maybe they were babying her, but she couldn’t be like Cash and hold it in. She wasn’t sure her brother shed a tear today, but she knew he did at night. She’d heard him last night in his room and got up to knock on the door and then stopped. If he saw her, he’d stop and she didn’t want to be selfish. He needed his time to grieve like she did.

Hours later, everyone had left and they were cleaning up the massive garage in the back where all the food and drink had been.

“Come here, you two,” her mother said. “Have a seat.”

“Are we going to lose the house?” Addison asked, crying.

She’d heard people talking today when they didn’t think she was around. Talks about the landscaping business and how it’d probably fall apart without Roc there to run it.

And if the business failed, then would they be homeless too?

“No,” her mother said. “I wanted to tell you that I’m running the business from the office like I always did. Matthew and Michael Butler both assured me the contracts were still in place. They’d help me find some men to complete the work if I needed it. Your father did the work of more than one man.”

“I’ll get it covered,” Cash said.

“Cash, you’re nineteen.”

“Dad would want me to step up. I can do it.”

Her mother sighed. “He would and he’d be proud of you, but you’re learning. Other men have been here longer and you can learn from them.”

“We aren’t losing anything,” he said firmly. “I won’t let it happen.”

Her mother walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. “Neither will I. Your father is going to continue to watch over us. We are going to be just fine and you know it.”

Addison started to cry harder and her mother pulled her into her arms. “It’s okay, Addison. It’s going to be okay.”

“It doesn’t feel like anything will ever be okay again,” she said, holding onto her mother as tightly as she could.

“It’s just going to take time,” her mother said, running her hand over her hair.

She looked up at her mother’s face and saw the tears mirroring her own. Pulling away, she shouted, “There isn’t enough time to ever make this okay,” then ran to her room and slammed the door.

How could anyone say that when her world had come crashing down on her?

She’d no longer be Daddy’s little girl.

She wouldn’t be able to pick on him about being stricter with her than Cash.

She wouldn’t be able to hug him and hold him and tell him she loved him.

Her rose-colored glasses were now covered in dirt.

Chapter One

The Man

Fifteen Years Later

“Addison.”

She turned to see Claire waving her hand over her head. Claire was a nurse in the ER at Ellis Hospital where Addison worked as a pharmacist.

She’d always known what she wanted to do. Or rather she’d told her father what she wanted to do. Little did she know the amount of time and work it would take to get here.

But before he died, her father had it in his head she was going to be a pharmacist and nothing was going to stop her from making that come true.

Not that she didn’t love her career, because she did, but she wasn’t so sure she would have forced herself through six years of schooling for it if her father were alive.