Chapter Forty-Seven #2
“All I’m saying is that it’s a lot of emotional baggage, dating four guys,” Sasha continues, sighing into the phone.
“And in my defense, my darling daughter didn’t bother sharing that news.
I found out through social media. Also, have you seen the comments, baby?
Someone called you a Polycule Avenger. Isn’t that funny? ”
Okay, so I definitely see where Maddie gets her sense of humor. My lips are twitching at the pair while Ryan chokes on his drink from beside Caiden, who is openly enjoying the conversation at hand.
“Good, right? I’m apparently collecting men like Infinity Stones,” Maddie repeats the comment to her mother, and they both laugh like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever heard.
It only ends when Nikolai comes back to the phone and sighs deeply. “Four of them, malyshka? Really? You couldn’t have found one mentally fortified man who could handle you?”
Maddie grins, her eyes scanning us all, before shaking her head. “Nah. Four is more fun.”
“I don’t want to know,” her dad whimpers, and I hear Sasha laugh in the distance. Then, with a little more seriousness, he asks, “Are they nice to you?”
All four of us perk up instantly, each of us turning to stare at Maddie with a deep-rooted need to hear the answer. Her lips twitch, like she knows we’re watching and listening, and she answers with so much honesty that my heart feels funny. “Yeah, Dad. They’re nice to me.”
“Good. Good,” he answers, before he pauses. “Which one’s the blond guy? He looks like he could help me move the furniture in your mother’s music room.”
Caiden suddenly looks deeply honored.
“That’s Caid. You’ve probably heard of him from your actor buddies, Papa. He’s a trainer. Owns his own gym and health brand,” she answers, singing his praises, and I feel a pinch of envy niggle its way under my armor.
“Oh, yeah. I like him,” Nikolai mutters, and I glare at the smug bastard on the opposite couch like I want his head to implode.
It doesn’t.
Instead, I grumble, “I could move furniture.”
“Who’s that?” Nikolai asks suddenly, and Maddie grins at me.
“You won’t believe me if I tell you,” she says, pausing as though she’s building suspense. Then she says, “Baxter Marshall. The owner of Zone Out.”
Silence answers, before Nikolai suddenly blurts, “You’re shitting me? You didn’t think to tell me that sooner? The guy looks like he’d tell me my lawn is uneven, but he’s damned good at what he does. I like him, too. Hold on. Sasha! Did you know our daughter is dating Baxter fucking Marshall?”
Maddie slaps her hand over her mouth to smother her laugh, but it does no good, the amusement on her face very clear for all to see.
The others find it just as funny, and I shake my head before relaxing into the couch, letting Maddie finish her conversation with her parents, who seem to approve and support her choices.
By the time she ends the call, there’s a glow on her face that warms my heart and a grin so wide on her face that I sneakily find my phone and snap a photo before she notices.
I send it into the group chat, because I’m a considerate bastard, and tuck my phone away before Maddie looks around thoughtfully and sighs.
“I’ve thought about it. Why don’t we just own this shit? ”
“Own what, trouble?” Ry asks, heading to the kitchen for a bottle of water.
He brings one back for Maddie, and she gestures vaguely between us. “This. The internet already thinks I’m sleeping with all of you, my parents are now fully aware I’m a part of a reverse harem. So why not?”
“You are sleeping with us,” Caid points out with his signature grin.
Maddie deadpans, “Thank you, Captain Obvious. What I mean is, the internet is already having a field day with half-baked information. Why don’t we just give them the real story so we can move on with our lives?
I’m great behind the camera, but being in front of it gives me the ick like you wouldn’t believe.
I’d rather not have to worry about being stalked by paparazzi and have everything I do monitored so they can find out more about us.
If we do a statement, maybe photos, and just own it, this thing will die down a lot faster. ”
The room goes quiet, all of us putting some serious thought into the idea. Because as much as Maddie is calm and collected on the surface, I can almost hear the questions she’s asking beneath the words she’s speaking. Are we willing to stand beside her openly?
My answer comes instantly, as do the others, and a week later, the article breaks the internet all over again. After contacting a huge magazine and offering a deal that has our story printed in only a week, our photos are printed across glossy pages and distributed for all the world to see.
The photos Maddie took herself have been mixed with the professional shots she asked her assistant, Zeke, to take, trusting him enough to hand the camera over.
There are loads of photos taken, all natural and fun and just us.
Rayne asleep with his head in her lap and Maddie’s hair tangled in his black hair, Ryan kissing her temple in the kitchen, Caiden carrying her piggyback through the apartment lobby.
Then there’s me holding her against my chest while she grins directly into the lens after Zeke said something that made her laugh. That one’s my favorite.
As expected, the internet loses its mind all over again, only this time there’s a far more positive reaction from the commenters. More people love it, overshadowing the recreational assholes that stalk comment sections like they have nothing better to do with their lives.
The article spreads far and wide, because Maddie’s personality bleeds through every interview answer and every photo. She’s funny, honest, and her usual charmingly chaotic self, and it shows with every page she’s printed on. I’ve never been more proud seeing someone be so unapologetically them.
By the end of the week, Maddie’s social media following has tripled.
Celebrities have started reaching out for shoots, brands are chasing her voicemail wanting to collaborate on campaigns, and one actor even emails her assistant asking for “the cool blue-haired diva with the hot boyfriends.” I’m pretty sure Maddie printed that email and has it framed somewhere in her room, I just haven’t found it yet.
It’s not the only thing she’s printed, either, which leads me to why I’m standing here wielding a hammer and a pocket full of nails while she directs me from the couch like the most unstable and distracted foreman I’ve ever met.
“It’s crooked,” she notes, and I peer over my shoulder and narrow my eyes on the manic little pixie.
“It’s straight,” I correct, convinced she’s seeing things.
Maddie sighs. “It’s spiritually crooked.”
I pull a face and turn to the photo I’m hanging. It’s one of many I’ve placed along the wall.
“That’s not a thing, Sunshine,” I snort, adjusting the frame a little more before calling it a day.
I nod, happy with the results, noting how different the living room looks now.
The landscape photos are gone, the ones Maddie smashed during that crazy morning we met.
Now, the wall is filled with us. They’re not perfect photos, but they’re real.
Some are shots pulled from the shoot we did for the magazine, and some are sneaky shots Maddie has captured over the months we’ve known her.
There’s a photo of Maddie laughing so hard that she’s blurry.
There’s one of Rayne looking at her when he thought no one was looking.
Ryan carrying takeout bags while Maddie hangs her arms around his neck with an adorable grin.
Caiden grinning widely with his arms around all of us like a proud little golden retriever, making us all laugh in that photo.
There’s only one word to describe it, and that’s home. That’s what it looks like, and it fills me with a wild but content feeling seeing Maddie fill her home with reminders of us.
When I finally sit beside her after emptying my pockets of the leftover nails and depositing the hammer on the coffee table, Maddie climbs halfway into my lap without so much as a word.
It’s like an automatic response, and my heart fills to bursting, my arm wrapping around her back to hug her to me.
She sighs softly against my chest, nuzzling her face into me, and I press a kiss to the top of her head before asking, “Tired?”
“Mhm,” she answers, squeezing me tight before relaxing against me.
“You happy, Sunshine?” I wonder, curious enough to bring it up.
Maddie tilts her head back just enough to look at me, and I peer down into those gorgeous blue eyes filled with love, happiness, and contentment. She smiles, a small smile that feels more real than anything I’ve ever seen, and she whispers, “Ridiculously happy.”
Something in my chest turns to jelly, softening in a way it only ever does with my girl. I lean down slowly, kissing her once.
Then again.
Her fingers slide into my hair as she smiles against my mouth, warm and sleepy and one hundred percent ours. And for the next hour, I don’t waste any time showing Maddie just how much it means to me that she chose us just as we chose her.