There’s no hesitation, no fear, just the plain truth, and I feel it all the way to my bones.
Maddie goes still against me for all of maybe half a second before a grin sculpted from the gods appears on her face. Her expression melts into something else entirely, so warm it nearly disintegrates me on the spot.
And then she whispers, “I know.”
Shocked laughter bursts out of me, my head falling back right after I catch the goofy grin Maddie wears. I’m breathless by the time the last chuckle leaves me, and I blurt, “I can’t tell if you’re that confident or cocky.”
Maddie shrugs, playing with the hair at the nape of my neck. “Neither. You just make it very obvious that you’re in love with me, handsome. It’s a subtle love that you only notice if you pay attention, and I pay very close attention to each of you. Fromfolding my clothes to buying me dinner to tickling my back even when I don’t ask. It’s in the small but meaningful things. So, yeah, I know you love me.”
I’m rendered speechless, shocked she notices things like that, even though I shouldn’t be. Nothing gets past Maddie.
She presses her forehead against mine, still smiling that heart-melting smile, and she softly confesses, “And I love you right back, Ry.”
The office suddenly feels very small, incredibly warm, and my chest aches in the best possible way. I could cry if I didn’t have a better hold on my emotions.
Not that it would matter, because Maddie ruins it anyway when she whispers, “You know what this means, right?”
My mouth parts as I shake my head. “What?”
With a giddiness that only Maddie can make look endearing, she mutters, “If we get married, the dick bottle opener becomes a family heirloom. How neat is that? Our first piece of history, and it’s a wooden phallus I chased you with. That thing fell out of my pants, Ry, and we’re going to pass it down to generations after us. An antique like you’ve never seen before. Imagine what the grandkids will say. ‘Hey, Meemaw, what’s the story with the vibrant wiener you keep on your mantelpiece?’ I already yearn to share the tale.”
I stare at her for all of two seconds before I laugh so hard I nearly fall out of the fucking chair.
Oh, yeah. I love this woman.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Maddie
Seoul feels like stepping into every single one of my Pinterest boards and getting attacked by each pin I’ve saved. Neon signs glow above us in soft hues of blue and pink while music drifts through the crowded streets lined with tiny shops and food stalls I’m already growing attached to. The city is alive in a way that feels impossible to capture with my camera no matter how many photos I take.
Which is pretty damned unfortunate for everyone around me, because I’m certainly trying my best anyway.
“Blue,” Caiden calls from somewhere behind me, sounding like I’ve just run over his puppy. “You’ve taken, like, a billion photos today already.”
“And every single one of them is vital to my existence,” I call back, snapping another photo.
There’s a pause from Caid before he sighs. “You took a photo of a pigeon yesterday.”
“It had personality, Caid,” I call over my shoulder. “So much so that I named him Craig.”
“Well, Craig stole somebody’s food and you captured it all on that camera of yours,” he volleys. What he’s actually doing is proving my point.
“Exactly,” I sass back.
Rayne snorts quietly from beside Caid while Ryan shakes his head in the universal body language forthis woman exhausts me spiritually, physically, and mentally.Bax is simply content watching me with a warm grin I don’t think he’s wiped from his face since we landed in Korea and I screamed like a girl who had just received a pink Barbie bike for Christmas.
I grin with no small amount of pride, because this has been the most fun I’ve had in so long. We’re already on day three in Korea, and I’m already considering citizenship. I haven’t worked out how that would work with my four very gorgeous, caring, and lovable boyfriends all living across the world, but that’s a problem for another day.
The guys are all currently leaning against a low stone wall as I crouch slightly in front of one of the prettiest couples I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing with my own two eyes. I’ve photographed plenty of beautiful people during my life, but these two? Breathtaking.
Wearing a pretty pale-pink hanbok that sways softly in the breeze, the woman smiles up at her boyfriend as he adjusts her sleeve carefully, his own pale-blue hanbok complementing hers to perfection. They’re both laughing quietly as they stand beneath a cherry blossom tree, faces full of love that I capture with rapid-fire snaps.
I’ve never been more obsessed as I peer down at my camera, standing upright as I flick through the images. “Perfect. You guys are disgustingly beautiful.”
The girl, Ha-eun, laughs vibrantly, and I can’t help but take another photo just as her boyfriend, Min-ho, bows slightly with gratitude. I grin over at the couple, lucky to have met them after I took a photo and spotted them in the background. Thankfully, they spoke English and were more than happy to humor me when I asked to take their pictures. In fact, Ha-eun looked positively ecstatic, and so I’ve spent the past thirty minutes simply snapping different shots of the pair with a growing obsession for everything Korea offers.
When I hurry over to the two, giddy to show off the pretty photos, Min-ho asks, “You’re a photographer?”
