Chapter Forty-Two #2
Baxter hums adorably, already falling back to sleep despite his efforts to remain awake so he can listen, while Rayne pauses his doomscrolling as I speak. He doesn’t say anything, but I know he’s paying attention, listening closely.
Caiden has grown suspiciously quiet beside me, but when I look over at him, he has a concentrated look on his face as he aggressively stabs at his cell with all the intensity of a man defusing a bomb.
The vague worry that he’s committing cyber warfare crosses my mind briefly, his thumbs moving with the same level of urgency you’d find in a man trying to stop a missile launch.
I’d consider it impressive if it wasn’t so worrying.
Before I can actually ask the guy if what’s happening on his phone is a matter of national importance, eyeing his tongue poked slightly against his cheek while he types, Rayne quietly asks, “What else, mayhem?”
I turn away from Caiden, eyeing him like he’s one push of his thumb away from causing a worldwide catastrophe, and ponder the question for a moment before I finally confess, “I think I’d like somewhere walkable, where I can carry my camera around for hours and still find new things to capture.
Pretty cafés, good food, colorful streets.
Somewhere with old buildings would be cool, someplace filled with interesting history.
Maybe somewhere filled with neon lights that only show at night.
Honestly? I just wanna go somewhere exciting and cute where I can live out my romantic little fantasies and enjoy myself. ”
Only the sound of sprinting zombies follows, the movie still playing in the background, and I wonder if maybe I word-vomited a little too much when all three of the guys fall silent.
Well, actually, I’m pretty sure Bax has fallen asleep if the little snore I just heard behind me is anything to consider.
Caiden is still typing away on his cell, eyebrow pinched in concentration, and that worry that he’s plotting the downfall of a country reemerges. I mean, it’s relentless, but before I can voice my concerns, the bedroom door opens and in comes our missing piece.
Ry walks in wearing his usual slacks and a loose T-shirt, his hair only a little disheveled as though he’s received a noogie from someone near and dear.
I only know because I’m a professional noogier.
Ask my cousin and the bald spot I almost gave him last year and he’ll tell you I’m a noogie menace. I know a good noogie when I see one.
A smile immediately blooms over my face, and I ask, “How was your visit with Charlie?”
Ryan sends me an exasperated look, one that amuses me endlessly, because I’ve learned a lot about his sister over the past couple of weeks.
Only two years younger, Charlie Young seems like a firecracker I’m itching to meet.
According to Ryan, the girl can be as sour as she is sweet, doesn’t warm up to very many people, and doesn’t possess the ability to disguise if she hates someone.
There are a select few in Ryan’s life that Charlie genuinely likes, and they’re all in the room with me right now, aside from her parents and a single best friend she has.
I’d love to meet her for no other reason than to receive a verdict on whether or not she likes me, because that’s genuinely how deep my curiosity runs.
“I survived. Barely,” he sighs, though there’s a warmth in his eyes for his sister that tells me he’s not nearly as annoyed as he makes out.
“Sibling bonding. Don’t you love it?” I tease, and he rolls his eyes before rounding the bed with every intention of settling near the bottom corner where there’s space. That is before Caiden suddenly spreads himself wider across the freaking mattress.
“Absolutely not,” Ryan retorts flatly.
“You snooze, you lose, bro,” Caid quips, grinning without looking at his phone.
Ryan responds by simply shoving himself between Caid and me, hard enough that Caid yelps dramatically as he fights to remain on the bed.
Ryan hides his smile beautifully as he reaches for a pillow and shoves it behind his head, finally relaxing onto the cloud we’ve all been lounging on for the past couple of hours.
“You’re all children,” Rayne sighs somewhat fondly, finally relaxing into my stomach once more, and I don’t bother fighting the smile that splits my face.
Growing comfortable instead of responding, Ry wriggles slightly until one of his hands automatically rests against my thigh.
He tilts his head until his temple is pressed against my hip, and my hand moves of its own accord, my fingers instantly sinking into his chestnut strands much like my other hand that is still buried in Rayne’s dark hair.
The moment I start scratching lightly, Ry exhales deeply before melting into the mattress. Within minutes, his breathing turns even and steady, his whole face relaxing as I play with his hair.
Caid finally lowers his phone, dropping it to his stomach before he shuffles closer, sneaking his head onto my shoulder without caring how close he’s lying to Ry.
I feel Bax draw closer as he sleeps, his steady breaths puffing against the side of my head, and suddenly I’m trapped in my bed by four sleepy, adorable, beautiful men.
I’m completely surrounded, one hundred percent safe, and a quiet realization hits me so suddenly that my breath stalls in my chest for a very brief second.
It’s not a dramatic realization, like a mushroom cloud explosion went off in my brain.
There’s nothing terrifying or earth-shaking about it. It’s gentle. Soft. Certain.
I peer around the bed slowly. At Ryan fading away to sleep at my hip.
At Bax as he nuzzles against my pillow like he can’t get close enough.
At Caiden blinking slowly at the TV like his exhaustion has finally caught up to him.
And at Rayne, who is already watching me as though he knows something important just occurred in my mind.
And by God, has it.
My head is suddenly swimming with it, the feeling I’ve been dancing around for weeks now. It’s heavy, warm, and undeniable. Nerve-racking in the best way possible.
I love them.
All of them.
I kind of thought that would send me spiraling into a new existential crisis, maybe send me into a denial-induced psychosis or something.
I thought my mind would conjure several thoughts about it being too soon, at the very least. But none of it comes while my entire being fills with the unbelievable cloud that overtakes my senses, the feeling of weird rightness settling in my bones.
It’s like my heart settles and makes a home filled with four other entities that now live in my chest.
Rayne reaches up slowly, his fingers brushing lightly against my wrist.
“You okay?” he asks softly, his phone discarded as he sets his whole focus on me.
I look down at him and smile, my heart filling to almost bursting while I nod slowly and whisper, “Never been better.”
And no truer words have ever slipped my lips.
Well, no truer than my insistence that we will one day be invaded by alien robots that talk and crush cars under their feet like the careless metal fucks they are.