Chapter 23 #3
“I’m preserving your energy for more important things. And as far as the kids are concerned, it’s Friday night. We should have known not to bother with pizza tonight.” Maddox and Abbi ditched us for a party.
I reach for my pizza. “If you take this again, your dick won’t see my lips, my hands, or anything for a long time.”
“You’re all talk, Birdie.” He eats some pizza before saying, “Amelia was out faster than ever tonight.”
Winter read to her while we waited for the pizza to arrive. That was after I got her ready for bed. “I think the heat has exhausted her this week, which is probably why she wasn’t herself today.”
My phone sounds with a text and Winter groans. “I’m getting rid of my phone,” he mutters.
I check my phone in case it’s not the chat group texting us and discover a text from Maddox.
Maddox
Girls are so confusing.
My heart trips over herself as I read his message. Maddox sometimes reaches out this way. I think it’s because he finds it easier to be vulnerable via text rather than face-to-face. Whatever the reason, I live for these texts.
“It’s Maddox,” I say to Winter who watches me knowingly.
Me
Just so you know, boys are too.
Maddox
Like, why does she tell me she wants to get back with me and then sleep with him? That makes no sense.
My heart doesn’t just trip now; she full on falls to her knees.
This is why I will forever keep on getting up every day and putting one foot in front of the other while making peanut butter sandwiches, packing Wet Ones in my bag, pulling my kids up on swearing while thinking it’d be a hell of a lot easier to just let them swear their heart out, arguing over homework, fighting over who will fill the dishwasher every night, and praying every bed in the house is occupied each night.
He needs me to love him, and cherish him, and help him get through this precious life we have.
He needs me to hold his hand even though he thinks he’s too old for that.
He needs me to bandage his scars when the world is mean.
Me
I agree. Completely. But love doesn’t always make sense because people don’t always make sense. Life beats us up, Maddox, and we find odd ways of dealing with those beatings. The trick is to find the people who see the beatings for what they are and who will love you through them.
Maddox
Okay, Queen, now you’re doing that thing you do when you talk in riddles. Can you dumb that shit down for me?
Me
Go to her and talk to her. Ask her why she did it, and when I say ask her, I mean exactly that.
Don’t throw your hurt at her and tell her she deserves a guy like Todd.
You don’t really mean that. I know she hurt you, and she’ll need to find a way to make that right with you, but I know Leia, and I’m guessing she’s got her reasons for what she did.
You have to find out those reasons and then decide if you can live with them.
Maddox
And if I can’t?
Me
If you can’t, she’s not the girl for you.
Maddox
This is all so dumb.
Me
Yeah, it feels like it sometimes, but when you find your person, every second of it is worth it. I love you, Maddox.
Maddox
Yeah. Back at you, Queen. Thanks.
I place my phone down next to the pizza box and move closer to Winter. Looking up at him, I say, “I love you.”
His arm comes around my shoulder. “What did I do to deserve that?”
I smile. My heart is still on her knees. It’s in times like this that I’m reminded of how lucky I am to have Winter by my side in everything I do in life. “You never have to do anything to deserve that. I love you simply because you are the very best human I know.”
He presses a kiss to the top of my head.
“Here’s what we’re going to do tonight. First, we’re going to eat as much pizza as we can fit in our stomachs.
Then, I’m going to carry you to bed where we’re going to watch Blindspot.
You’re going to curl up next to me with your arms and legs all the fuck over me in the way I like.
You’re going to pass out after half an episode.
And then I’m going to pass out right before I get to the end of that episode.
We’re going to sleep for hours and then I’m going to wake you up with my mouth to your pussy.
Then, you’re going to suck my dick. And then, we’re going to spend another day teaching our kids how to be good humans. ”
“I can’t decide if I’m more excited about the pizza part of all that or the sleep for hours part of all that.”
“I’m fairly fucking sure it was the sleep part of all that. I don’t know any woman who loves her bed as much as you do.”
I shake my head at him as I sit up straight and reach for some pizza. “Honestly, Winter Morrison, you have no idea about women sometimes. I’m fairly fucking sure all mothers love their bed more than anything else on earth.”
We proceed to bicker over sleep, and mothers, and fathers, and all the differences between them while getting as much pizza in our stomachs as possible.
I overeat by about two slices.
Winter makes some smartass remark about the food coma I’m about to enter.
I make some smartass remark about him practically ordering me to enter that food coma.
He lifts me over his shoulder and carries me into the bedroom while telling me I’m deluded if I think I’m the kind of woman any man can order to do anything.
I argue that he sure as hell tries often enough to order me into things.
And all the while, our phones sound with text messages that I just know are going to drive him insane.
I fucking love this man and the life we’ve built.
And as exhausted as I always am, I wouldn’t change one thing about any of it.