“Glo Beam?” It was the dumbest name for a toothpaste I’d ever heard, but what she said wasn’t wrong—the marketing for it’d been so successful, most shops sold out the second they’d put it on display.
“That’s the one. I wrote the jingle for it. I’ve done some for cars, some big tech companies, and a couple of food and drink items, too.”
“Well, hell, you’re a famous lady!” I raised the bottle the server had just placed in front of me and saluted Adrienne with it.
Tapping the edge of her bottle, filled with some sort of juice, she smiled at me. “I wouldn’t go that far, but I’ve been lucky with the ones I’ve done.”
That accidental meeting led to us talking for three hours, and by the end of it, we’d agreed to meet at a restaurant opposite the bar we were in the following night. I hated parting from her, but the knowledge I’d get to see her the next night made it bearable.
It wasn’t until I was walking into my old room at my parents’ place that I realized I hadn’t gotten her number. That was okay, I’d make sure I got it tomorrow night.
Logistically, looking at her as someone I could form a relationship with was dumb. The distance from where I was to LA was nuts, but I’d never met a woman who’d made the word ‘more’ hit me repeatedly, and I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her so I could figure out why.
Nothing was impossible in life. Everything was achievable if you just put the work and effort into it. At twenty-two/almost twenty-three, with a successful business that I’d built all by myself, I could say I wasn’t a stranger to hard work, and it didn’t scare me when I was faced with it. But I also could say I was the kind of guy who didn’t just walk blindly into things or didn’t at least think them through from all angles before I did something. And that’s what I was going to do with Adrienne.
The next night…
I waited in front of Capricio’s for two hours, hoping she’d been delayed or had gotten caught up in traffic. By the time the partying began happening around me, with groups pushing past me to get to the bars, I’d accepted she wasn’t coming.
Yes, I was disappointed, but sometimes shit happened in life that we had to get over.
I spent the next week embroiled in Jackson’s wedding, the craziness that surrounded it, and the happiness at the end of it. Yes, I thought about her. It seemed like every time I blinked, I saw her face, but still, I had to move on.
Sometimes people meet, and they form a lifelong attachment. Sometimes, they just leave a lasting impression. Adrienne had done both, but life was full of disappointments, so I threw myself into my work once I got home, helping to build a new barn.
Life was a lot like the bricks we used for the foundations—you needed to build them properly and secure them with cement, otherwise, it’d all come tumbling down around you. I was slowly building my life with cement, but sometimes cracks formed that I had to work on a little.
The whole time I worked, something my brother had said during his speech on his wedding day played on repeat inside my head. It was one word ‘instalove.’ I found the whole notion impossible after it’d been explained to me and attributed it to him just being happy at being married to Sasha. I didn’t believe in it one bit. It just wasn’t feasible to fall in love the instant you met someone.
One day my life would be like the house I lived in—solid, secure, and complete. A lot like Jackson’s was with Sasha and my other brother, Elijah, and his wife Sadie—instalove assumptions aside.
Baby steps. I could take those until I was ready to take adult ones.
Chapter One
Adrienne (but you can call me addy)
Life sucked. Well, no, it wasn’t as dramatic as that, but it wasn’t what I’d call good, either.
I’d had a date planned with the first guy I really liked in a long time six months ago, and then my agent had called telling me a company needed their jingle sooner because of a change to their ad campaigns, so I’d had to stand him up. It’d broken my heart doing it, and I’d felt like crap as my plane had taken off, but I had no way of getting in touch with him.
Hell, does anyone know how many Marcus’s there are on Facebook? It’d been impossible to find the guy to apologize.
After that, I guess the stress from my work and the constant noise where I’d lived had gotten to me. When my parents had come to visit, they’d seen how drained and tired I was and had suggested I move to the second property at my Nonna’s new place. Initially, I’d laughed the idea off, but then it’d grown, until one morning, I’d just handed in my notice to the apartment manager and started packing my stuff up.