"The footnotes are important. You know what makes something real?" Jax said. "A chart."
Liam said something about legal structures and trusts in the tone of someone reading from notes written at 4am who wasn't embarrassed about it. Mateo talked about space in the house.
Caleb mentioned his shooting schedule had gaps built in, said it like it was old news, like he'd already talked to his agent. Dante explained distributed commitment like he'd coined the term and was mildly surprised it wasn't already in common usage. Killian's phone buzzed on the table. He didn't look at it.
April read the contract, the chart, the footnotes. She finished reading every piece of evidence presented to her. She looked around the room at eight men waiting with barely concealed anticipation who had spent every hour she was asleep building her a reason to say yes.
Sitting at a breakfast table surrounded by eight men who'd drafted a notarized contract at dawn should've felt insane, butinstead it felt like finally understanding why people bought those fancy puzzle boxes where everything clicks into place with that satisfying sound, except the puzzle was her life and the pieces were men and the satisfying sound was Jiro humming while Caleb stole her strawberries.
"Okay," she said. "Now we're doing this."
She picked up the pen and signed.
All eight of them signed after her. For a moment, no one moved.
Jax
Jax broke first, hauling her out of her chair with a whoop, spinning her once before she could protest and catching her mouth mid-laugh.
She’d signed.
Oh shit. He still had to tell her about the chaise.
Killian
Killian caught her when Jax let go, hands settling at her waist before she'd finished laughing. He kissed her like a decision already filed and approved, and for once, the decision hadn't been his.
They'd given her the folder, the calendar, the structure. And then he'd done the hardest thing he'd ever done in a boardroom: nothing.
No play except patience.
Second easiest decision he'd made in twenty-four hours. Both times he'd stepped back instead of forward. Both times she'd met him anyway.
Caleb
Caleb caught her and dipped her low, one arm supporting herback as she arched toward the floor, grinning like an idiot the whole time. She made him want to be extra.
You complete me.
You... all... complete me?
He kissed her, still holding the dip. First take he'd ever wanted to do re-shots on.
Liam
April turned to him in the middle of the noise, her fingers sliding into his lapels as she pulled him in.
"Next time I invite you to my bed," she said, "you stay."
"I wasn't sure you'd want me to."
She stepped closer until they were chest to chest. "I do."
He exhaled once, relief hurt.
His hands rose to cup her face, fingers sliding into her hair as he pulled her in.
His mouth met hers,finally,his tongue finding hers—soft lips, the taste of her, the way she opened for him.
