They sat there in silence, lost in their own thoughts. The loud sound of the doorbell shook them out of their thoughts. "Who would be visiting at this hour?"
Pete got up and walked to the door. The minute he opened it Addison heard the anger in his voice, "Where in the hell have you been!" She had a pretty good idea of who he was talking to and she couldn't have come at a worse time.
Chapter 12
"You break into my house, leave your four month old daughter here with nothing but a diaper bag and a car seat and then disappear off of the face of this planet!" He closed the door behind Mindy trying his best to control his anger.
Amanda Finch walked into the house and stared at Addison. She looked a lot like her brother but she was short and her hair was a lighter shade of brown. "Are you Pete's latest flavor of the month?" She laughed and reached out her hand. "I'm Amanda but you can call me Mindy. Pete calls me brat like its going to offend me or something."
She plopped down on the couch and looked around. "So where's my daughter?"
"She's asleep and I'm not waking her up so you can forget that." He ran his hands through his hair, "Where have you been Mindy?"
"Aww, my big brother missed me." She giggled and then turned towards Addison. "Did he even bother to ask me if I was okay? No, he's too busy yelling. Its okay though cause I know him well enough that he can't stay mad at anyone and that he'll calm down in a minute or two." She got up, walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine. "Until then, I'm going to enjoy some of the good stuff."
Pete exhaled, exasperated. He took a few deep breaths and then slowly asked, "Mindy, why are you here? Its not that I don't want you around but that baby is going to be confused with you coming in and out of her life."
Mindy winked at Addison, "See, I told you he'd calm down." She took a sip of her wine. "Okay the reason I am here is because I missed my girl." She sighed, "I'm glad you didn't turn her over to social services. Actually I knew you wouldn't do that so that's' why I left her here."
Pete shook his head, "Where have you been? I was worried but I knew better than trying to find you."
Amanda shrugged, "I have friends in low places," she laughed and polished off the rest of her drink.
"This isn't funny. I honestly hate the thought of you out there with no money or a job. Please tell me what I can do for you to make you wake up."
Addison was starting to feel uncomfortable. "Um.. I think I'm going to go to bed now. It was nice meeting you Mindy."
Mindy pulled Addison into a hug, "I don't know you but if you had anything to do with helping Pete with my baby, I owe you my life."
Addison shook her head, "She's wonderful." She smiled and headed off into her bedroom. As she jumped into the shower, she silently prayed that Mindy wasn't going to change her mind and take Amber away from them.
Chapter 13
The next morning Addison was careful not to make too much noise as she headed towards the kitchen. She slowly inhaled the aroma of the fresh coffee coming from the kitchen. Pete was standing by the coffee pot, staring off into space. It looked like he hadn't got much sleep.
"Good morning." She whispered, not wanting to wake Mindy.
He smiled and brought her a mug. "Its okay, you don't have to whisper. She's asleep in my room. I took the couch."
"So how'd it go last night? Is she going to take Amber back?" She sipped her coffee and felt the dreamy haze of sleep slowly begin to lift. She nervously awaited his answer.
Just as he was about to reply someone knocked at the door. "What now?"
He walked over to the door and opened it. Jessica's shrill voice pierced the silence of the house. "Have you lost your hearing? I tried calling your cell twice!"
He put his finger over his mouth, "Would you keep it down? We have company."
She followed him into the kitchen and coldly nodded at Addison. "So because you have company you couldn't answer your phone? Who is this company anyway?"
The bedroom door opened and Mindy stepped out. "Who invited the hyena to the party?"
Jessica rolled her eyes and glared at Pete. "What is she doing here?"
Apparently Jessica and Mindy knew each other and didn't like each other. Addison smiled; she was really starting to like Mindy now.
"She got here last night. Was I supposed to turn her away? She's family." He looked like he was ready to pull his hair out.
Rose walked in the front door and smiled brightly. Her grin disappeared when she looked at Jessica. "Am I interrupting?"
Pete hurried over to Rose and took her coat. "Not at all; Rose this is my sister Mindy, Amber's mom. She's going to be visiting with us for a few days. If you follow me, I'd like to speak with you in private."
As soon as they walked out of the room Mindy looked at Jessica and rolled her eyes, "Please tell me that you are not seeing my brother again."
Jessica smiled her fake smile, "Well of course I am seeing him. We're engaged and that's part of the reason I am here. I booked a chapel for Saturday and I wanted to go over the plans with him."
Addison's heart stopped, he was getting married this Saturday? That's three days from now!
"Are you kidding me? What are you pregnant? Why in the he is my brother engaged to you and why are you getting married so soon?" Mindy was in Jessica's face in a heartbeat. She may have been shorter than Jessica, but Addison was pretty sure Mindy would do more damage in a fight.
Pete walked in the room just in time. "What's going on here? Mindy, step away from Jessica; You are not going to fight her in my house." He looked over at Addison, "I'll give you a ride to work right after I get showered and changed." He turned to Jessica, "This is not a good time right now. I'll call you later." With that, he turned and walked into his room shutting the door behind him.
Chapter 14
They drove to work in silence. Addison was sure that Pete had enough to think about without her asking a hundred questions. Her thoughts kept wandering to the conversation they had about Melanie and then how they were interrupted when she asked if Mindy was going to take Amber back. She hoped and prayed that if she were taking her back, she would stay close so they could watch Amber grow up.
They walked through the doors of the clinic and headed into the elevator. "I'm sorry about all the chaos." It was the first time he'd spoken since they left the house. "I want you to know, my irritation has nothing to do with you. My sister and Jessica have always hated each other. Jessica wants to get married this Saturday and to top it all off, I am more terrified than anything else that Mindy is going to decide she wants Amber back."
"Maybe you should take a few days off of work to think things over." She wasn't quite sure what to say but her own heart felt like it was breaking into a million pieces. Pretty soon, she was going to lose Amber and Pete and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"I can't let my clients down. I think work will be just what I need to take my mind off of things right now." He rubbed his eyes and leaned back.
"I think you should listen to her Pete." Tilly's voice boomed out of the speaker. "And for the record, I think you are making a huge mistake marrying SchizoGirl. And you are an even bigger idiot than I thought if you are going to marry her in three days! Why haven't the two of you hooked up?" Addison grinned, good ole Tilly.
"Thanks for the advice Tilly." He looked slightly embarrassed.
"I'm just sayin, that's all." The sarcasm in her voice did not go unnoticed.
The door to the elevator opened. As they stepped out he reached out and grabbed her arm. "I didn't get to tell you thank you for listening the other night. I haven't been able to talk about Melanie with anyone for a long time. It means a lot to me that you decided to stay. I don't know if I could get through this mess without your support."
Addison smiled, "I'm not going anywhere, I have nowhere to go, remember?" Her heart sank as she watched him walk off. He definitely didn't look like a man who was going to get married in three days. She walked into her office and looked over her schedule. It was going to be a long day and going home was going to be even worse.
Chapter 15
Naomi caught Violet just before she was leaving for the day. "Can I talk to you about something?"
"Sure, what's up?" She followed Naomi to her office.
"Okay, this stays between you and me alright?" Violet nodded her head as Naomi continued, "It's about Pete and Addison."
"What about them? Have they finally hooked up?"
"Not exactly; I spoke with Addison last night and she admitted she had feelings for Pete. She would kill me if she knew I was doing this but the both of them are so stubborn. It's hard seeing my best friend so miserable."
"Okay so what are we going to do about this?" She scooted her chair closer to Naomi's desk. Violet was a sucker for romance.
"Well obviously we are going to have to stop him from marrying Jessica. Can you believe that she's trying to schedule the wedding for Saturday?"
Violet rolled her eyes, "No it doesn't surprise me one bit. I tried telling Pete that she should be on heavy medication and in a straight jacket but he always laughs it off."
Naomi heard a noise and looked up. There was someone standing by the door. She quietly crept over and swung the door open. Sam and Cooper stumbled into the office. "How long have you two been standing there?"
"Long enough to realize that Pete has completely lost his mind!" Sam shook his head. He wondered why Pete had been avoiding him the past few days.
Naomi sighed, "So now you understand why we need to do something about this?"
"What exactly can we do? Kidnap Jessica and feed her to the sharks?" Coop sat next to Violet. "Scratch that, the sharks would probably sense her evil and stay the hell away." Violet laughed and rolled her eyes. Coop was such a nerd but he never failed to make her laugh.
Sam nervously paced back and forth. "I still don't necessarily agree that Pete is right for Addie. I mean, if he's ready to settle down, then yes but I still worry he's going to bail when things get serious."
"The way I see them look at each other, I'd say it was beyond serious." Violet had always sensed the connection between the two of them but felt it was none of her business.
"Okay, we're all adults here. I'm sure we can think of something." Naomi tapped her ink pen on her desk.
"We could trick Jessica into cheating. We get her to a bar somehow and have some really good looking guy hit on her and get pictures of them making out."
Sam chuckled, "Coop, have you been watching the soaps again?"
Coop's face reddened, "Hey, daytime television has excellent ideas on how to romance a woman."
Violet playfully pushed his arm, "Too bad you haven't had the chance to try any of those great ideas. You really do need to stay away from the internet and women with screen names like SpankMeDaddy."
"Hey, she happened to be a very nice girl and for the record her screen name was SpankMeHarder."
"Okay, Frick and Frack, that's enough bickering. You two are more alike than you care to acknowledge when it comes to love and romance." Naomi stood up and started ushering everyone out the door. "Now, let talk about our original dilemma on the way out the building." She shut off the nights and locked the door to her office. As they headed to the elevator Naomi was struck with an idea. She wasn't sure exactly how they were going to pull it off but they had to try. "I think I have an idea but its going to require all of us working really fast. The rest is going to be up to Pete and Addie. She smiled smugly, this plan was going to work; she just knew it.
Chapter 16
