“You will, though,” Maddie says matter-of-factly. “Fuck it up, I mean. Nobody’s perfect, so you’re going to mess up, and I’m going to mess up. We’re all going to need to figure out how to deal with that.”
“Are you setting us up for failure?” Ace asks, but there’s amusement in his voice.
“I’m being realistic,” she counters. “I’m also saying I’m willing to work through it if you are.”
The weight of her words hangs in the air.
She’s not saying she loves us, nor that she forgives us completely. Yet she is saying she’s willing to try, and right now, that’s everything.
“I’m glad you all came and talked to me instead of disappearing.”
“We promised we wouldn’t leave,” Ace reminds her. “And we meant it.”
“Okay,” she says. “Well, I’m exhausted from the tour. I’m going to take a shower and sleep for about twelve hours. But if you want to hang out tomorrow, I think I’d like that.”
“What did you have in mind?” Rhodes asks.
“I don’t know. Coffee... or breakfast? Or just hanging out?”
“We can do that,” Ace says.
She moves toward her bedroom, then stops. “Oh, and one more thing,” she adds, turning back with a smirk. “When we move past the slow thing, all three of you better be ready. I’ve had two weeks to think about what I want, and let’s just say, the idea of the three of you has my imagination working overtime.”
Rhodes’s jaw literally drops. “Did you just?—”
“Goodnight, boys,” she says sweetly, disappearing into her room.
The three of us freeze for a moment.
“She was talking about sex, right?” Rhodes asks.
“She certainly was,” Ace says.
I don’t say anything. I simply nod, absorbing the weight of what happened. We took a risk, put ourselves out there, and instead of getting shut out, we’ve been given a chance.
Chapter Thirteen
Maddie
I wake up to the smell of bacon. It means either I’m dreaming, or someone broke into my apartment. Given my life, it could go either way.
I pull myself out of bed, squinting at my phone. It’s barely nine in the morning, which is an early start for me after two weeks on tour.
I grab the first shirt I find—Rhodes’s black T-shirt that is now mine. It’s enormous. It hangs off one shoulder, but barely covers my ass, which I don’t realize until I’m already in my kitchen doorway. The sight that greets me stops me in my tracks.
Ace is at my stove, spatula in hand, with an apron wrapped around his body. Rhodes is leaning against the counter with a coffee cup, while Vander is sitting at my kitchen table. At the sight of me, they all freeze.
“Good morning,” I say, stretching. “Is that for me?”
Rhodes’s coffee cup pauses halfway to his lips. “You’re going to kill us.”
“What?” I ask, walking across the kitchen to grab a mug.
“That shirt,” Rhodes says with a groan as if he is in pain.
“It’s comfortable,” I say, pouring myself coffee. “Besides, you’re all here uninvited at nine in the morning. You get what you get.”
Vander makes a sound that might be a laugh or could be him dying internally. I’m not sure.
