Before That Night: Unfinished Love Series: Caine & Addison, Book 1 by Violet Duke Read Free Book Online

Eyes that were as dark as they were deep. A strong chin that could look menacing when paired with a frown, and just plain devastating when paired with a smile. A jaw that could undoubtedly crack crab claws with ease.
    And a mouth specially designed for kissing.
    The last observation was pure speculation of course. From what she could gather, she wasn’t the only one speculating about that fact. According to the gossip she heard on a regular basis in the diner—sometimes it was kind of nice that folks forgot waitresses had perfectly functioning ears—Caine was single, and seemingly uninterested in the women of Creek Hills.
    He seemed plenty interested in you tonight .
    Addison ignored the dangerous observation that kept popping into her head long after he went off to start his shift. Similarly, she ignored how insanely tickled that new development was making her.
    Therein lay the path to the land of impossibilities.
    A half hour later, she was still thinking about all the impossibilities of the situation as she finished up the last of her nightly post-closing duties. Per usual, she waited for the janitors to start on the floors before waving them goodbye and heading out. The twenty-minute window she had once the janitors started working on the floors was just enough time for her to slip out to the van unnoticed. She’d discovered that trick within the first few days working there, and it’d been working like a charm ever since.
    With one more furtive glance around the tiny back lot that Joe only used for vendor deliveries and to park his own vehicle when he was here during the daytime, Addison climbed into the quintessential 80s camping movie van to turn in for the night.
    It hadn’t taken long for Addison and the kids to come up with their daily routine. It all started with her waking up at four-thirty in the morning to drive out of the lot before the morning crew arrived at five. She’d drive over to the supermarket from there to pick up a few things. They couldn’t keep much in the cooler so the daily trips to the market was both a necessity, and a way for the kids to get another half hour of sleep in every morning. Next, she’d drive them to the community rec center one town over that opened at five-thirty every morning for the early bird senior citizens. Since her annual membership permitted her two family guests, that’s when she and the kids would shower, use the facilities, and brush their teeth, under the cover of their early morning exercise laps in the pool.
    After eating breakfast together in the car while they deflated their air mattress and covered up all traces of their living in the van, Addison would drop the kids off at school at around seven, when a lot of their friends were already on campus playing and hanging out. Then, she’d head over to her day job at Bernadette’s until noon. She picked up Kylie at the grade school first, and then Tanner a block over at the middle school, then tried to do something fun with them for about two hours. Whether that was going to the park or the library, or just watching some internet TV on the tablet computer they all shared, she made a point to spend that time with them before heading over to the diner about an hour before her shift—never any earlier, to avoid any questions.
    Since the diner was always pretty slow at that time, there was always a booth for the kids to sit in and do their homework while she fixed them a quick snack. Since Joe was hardly there anymore, Addison and Shirley pretty much ran the place in the latter half of the day so Addison would do some light managerial things in between helping the kids with their homework until her shift. The bit of paperwork here and there was a nice trade-off for the free snacks and dinners she got to feed the kids every day.
    Then, when her shift would start, the kids kept themselves entertained until dinner, which she timed to be about a half hour before her dinner break started. That way, she could spend