As he’s removing the grease from his hands, Baxter’s ocean-blue eyes land on me, then my Jeep, and then back to me. Only to do a double take at the paint on the car, and then all warmth bleeds from his face. The warmth that appeared a second before turns ice-cold, and I bite my lip when he asks, “What happened, Sunshine?”
I shrug weakly as I climb out of the car, explaining everything in short, clipped sentences, and I immediately lose my battle with my emotions when Bax looks at me with that fierce protectiveness, his expression filled with fury and worry. My lip wobbles threateningly, and I blink rapidly as I whisper, “Oh no. I really am going to cry over a car. What the fuck?”
“Sunshine.” Bax crosses the garage in seconds, and I’m bundled in his embrace before the first tear can fall. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s nothing I can’t fix. Don’t cry.”
“He vandalized my baby,” I mumble, voice and soul full of misery.
Baxter’s face tightens dangerously as he peers down at me, and he promises, “I’ll fix it.”
“I know,” I mumble, feeling a deep well of appreciation for the man.
“You won’t even be able to tell it happened when I’m done, okay?” he assures, and it almost makes me want to cry that little bit harder.
Bax notices, and he takes my hand and says, “Come here, Sunshine.”
Before I can do or say anything, he guides me toward his office at the back of the garage, away from the mechanics and noise and sadness sitting heavily on my chest.
As soon as the door closes behind us, I collapse dramatically onto the maroon-colored couch that feels comfier than it looks and sigh, “Is it weird to mourn a car?”
Bax accidentally snorts, and I give him a pained look that has him wiping the sudden burst of amusement from his face. He takes a seat beside me and, without hesitation, pulls me sideways into his lap, which I find even comfier than the couch. His arms wrap around me snugly, offering safety and warmth, and I drop my cheek to his shoulder as I mumble, “I loved that car.”
“It’s not destroyed, Sunshine. You still have it,” he points out, rubbing a hand up and down my back.
I sigh as I melt against him. “It holds emotional damage now.”
Baxter smiles faintly against my head before the jackass mutters, “It’s perfectly suited to its owner now, right?”
A laugh slips out despite myself, and I feel that smile he’s wearing grow into a grin before he presses a kiss to my head. Then, with an earnest promise, he says, “I’m serious, Sunshine. I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.”
Putting my entire faith and trust in the man, knowing it won’t be misplaced, I lean back and cup his face. I offer him a pathetic excuse for a smile before leaning in and pressing an appreciative kiss to his lips. When I pull back, Baxter’s eyes are full of emotion, and he bundles me up and hugs me tight for a long moment while I spend the next hour feeling sorry for myself.
Chapter Fifty
Caiden
I’m pretty sure I’ve refreshed the same vacation page no less than six times in the last ten minutes. Nothing has changed, but I find myself pressing that stupid little button repeatedly anyway, because that’s just what I do when I’m stressed. Which is apparently what adulthood is. Stress.
Well, that and expensive groceries.
Sighing as I press the refresh button for the seventh time, my thoughts go straight back to Maddie. Our apartment no longer feels right without her, and it doesn’t feel right sitting here instead of in her apartment. It’s too quiet, and I don’t like it.
Ryan is at the station handling updates with the police report, not trusting the police to notify us of their progress or a possible arrest since they didn’t deem us worthy enough to let us know Toby was released on bail. Assholes. It would have been great knowing that little tidbit before Maddie went shopping without any of us.
Since Bax kept Maddie at his garage after seeing what happened to her car, and Rayne disappeared sometime after hearing Toby’s name again, I’ve been left to my own devices. I’ve been trying to take my mind off my worry for my girl, sitting in the sparse living room and aggressively refreshing internet tabs while I try to plan a vacation for Maddie like it’s a military operation. Because if I stop for even five seconds, I’ll start thinking about Maddie standing in a parking lot staring at her vandalized car. That will lead to me wanting to commit crimes in the name of justice or vengeance, and I’m too pretty for prison.
So, instead, I hyperfocus on the task I’ve been working on since Maddie won that two-week vacation. I’m balls-deep inflights, hotels, tours, restaurants, the whole lot. I still don’t have a location in mind, so I’m opening tabs for all of the above for several countries currently in the running. I’m pretty sure I have fifty-six tabs open, and roughly twelve of them are food-related. I know my girl’s priorities, and food always comes before anything else, even photography.
I’m halfway through my list of pros and cons of taking Maddie to Thailand when I hear the shuffle of footsteps moving quietly into the living room behind me. I already know who it is before I check.
Rayne drops onto the couch while I continue typing furiously on my laptop, not saying anything at first. We sit in silence that stretches comfortably between us, which is normal for Rayne. He doesn’t feel the need to fill silence with noise, more than content to sit blissfully among the peace silence brings, and I respect him for it.
Eventually, I feel him glance over at my laptop right before he asks, “You’re still doing that?”
“Doing what, my dude?” I ask without looking up from the screen.
“Planning a vacation to make sure Maddie doesn’t run off with another man,” he answers, and I snort suddenly, remembering that’s exactly how this whole thing started out. A plot to make sure we got to spend more time with Blue, preventing her from finding love with anyone else who wasn’t us.
Now, though? Now it’s turned into wanting to simply spoil my girl and take her on the vacation of her dreams, watching her with my own two eyes as she absorbs the beauty and culture of another country, as she fills her belly with food she’s never had before. I’ve been itching to take her on a vacation she’d never forget ever since I told her I liked her in her office at Static.
