Addy felt the plane level out at a cruising altitude moments before the "fasten seatbelts" light went off. She covered herself with her jacket and leaned back to sleep. Fortunately, her short, tiny frame fit easily into the crappy airline seats, and she hoped she could get some rest.
She tilted her head towards the window, feeling the plane chase the fading sun, and let her mind drift to the events of the past few days.
At 22 years old, her life had everything going for it. She lived with her Mom in the mid-west, and went to college. Her parents were divorced and her father lived in Las Vegas. They saw each other on holidays and skyped a few days a week. She had a steady boyfriend all through college, and as graduation day approached, she had thought he was thinking of marriage.
She had her life all planned out. She would land a job in the city, work her way up the food chain, get married to her boyfriend Steve, have a few kids, and live in the 'burbs. Instead, she came home one night to find her mother in bed with Steve.
After all the screaming, crying, and threats to tell everyone, she found out that she was the only one who didn't know that almost the entire time she was dating Steve, he was also fucking her mother. And to top it off, Steve was planning on marrying her mother, and her mother was pregnant.
She'd packed a bag with some clothes, and went to a motel. She called her father and told him everything. Before they were off the phone, he had a plane ticket in her name, told her to have the school send her the diploma she was about to receive, and move with him to Vegas.
So Addy did just that. She blocked her mother and Steve's phone numbers from her phone, their email addresses from her inbox, and from being able to contact on her social media pages. She set it up with the university to mail her diploma to her father's address in Vegas, and spent a few more days wrapping up what was left of the only life she had ever really known.
Addy received a text message from her father only a few moments before she had shut off her phone as she had boarded the plane stating that he had taken care of her mother and Steve. She had smiled, knowing that while she had loved to have listened to that conversation, she was glad she wasn't on the receiving end of it. Dad did have a temper some times after all.
She dozed off and slept peacefully for the first time in days. She woke up to the sound of the pilot announcing they were beginning their approach. She sat up, took in her surroundings, and looked out the window to see the desert of Las Vegas approaching.
While the plane landed and people began to gather their things, she took a moment to gather herself. She was one of the last ones off the plane, and made her way to the baggage claim to get her only suitcase.
Addy had worn a long sundress, her long hair flowing down her back, and as she stepped out of the terminal into the hot Vegas heat, she had wished she had on next to nothing at all. She felt the sweat form on her skin immediately.
"Addy!" She heard her father yell for her over the noise.
She saw him standing against his car, and took in the sight of him. Her beacon of hope in her dreary world, her knight-in-shining armor so to speak.
Her Dad, Lucas, was tall, with dark brown hair, which glistened with red highlights in the sunlight. He was almost a foot taller than her, and kept himself in shape. He might have been 42 years old, but didn't look a day over 35.
He smiled easily at his daughter, and chuckled as she came running towards him. He watched her long blonde hair flow behind her, her blue eyes brimming with tears, and caught her when she jumped into his arms as if she was 4 years old again.
"Dad, oh I'm so glad to see you! Thank you so much for everything!" Addy blubbered to him.
He held her tight against him, not caring that she was draped all over him like a child. Her arms wound tightly around his neck, her legs around his waist, her breasts tight against his chest. He leaned back to look at her face, to see the tears, and he sat her down gently. With the gentlest of movements, he cupped her face and wiped her tears with his thumbs.
"It's okay now Baby Girl. Life doesn't always turn out as we plan. But come on, let's go home. I bet you are famished," he told her as he hugged her one more time, before he took her bag from her, tossed it in the backseat, and watched her climb into the car.
She watched her father walk around the car and get in and half-listened to his deep voice as he drove her home. He didn't live that far from McCarron, but she sat up intently when he didn't turn on Tropicana but continued a bit further north and then east.
"Dad, where are we going?" She asked him.
"Silly, you didn't listen to what I just said," he chided her gently.
"No Dad, I didn't, I'm sorry," she looked at him with wide blue eyes.
"Do you remember a few months ago when I told you I was looking at houses? Well I bought one, but it was a foreclosure and needs a lot of work. Which means, that perhaps, you moving out here is more of a blessing, because you can design it for me," he told her.
For the second time in a matter of an hour, her father made her smile. He knew that she secretly harbored an artistic streak, but that she had went to school for a management degree to keep her mother happy.
"Oh Dad, this is going to be quite the adventure!" Addy leaned over and hugged his arm excitedly.
"Just keep an open mind Pixie," his nickname for her since she was a girl, "its livable, but not in the best of shape," he warned her.
She smiled as he turned onto a quiet cul-de-sac and she saw a beautiful Mediterranean style home at the end of the street. She even leaned forward in her seat to look at it as he pulled into the driveway.