Unable to help the smile, I let it split across my face, finally falling back to sleep with a murmured string of words I couldn’t recall if you paid me all the money in the world. I’m out like a light within minutes, and it’s the best damned sleep I’ve had in a very long time.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Caiden
I’m pretty sure we all hear it, the mumbled words that slip out of Maddie’s mouth right before she zonks out and falls back into la-la land without putting up so much as a single fight.
“I’m glad you guys found me. This is really nice,” she says, right before the lights go out in Maddie Town and she falls asleep against Baxter’s shoulder, her feet tucked under Rayne’s legs. I don’t even think she realizes she’s positioned herself that way, but I can’t help the way my smile breaks free at the sight.
I thought I would get jealous of seeing her with the others, even though I did offer an outlandish suggestion like sharing her between us. The guys might have thought I was joking.
I wasn’t.
If it means I get to be a straggler in Maddie’s orbit, floating around her with my three best friends, the three men I would lay my life down for, then I’d say it’s a pretty sweet deal. It would mean more protection for Maddie, more hands to look after her, and more attention on her if I’m busy or at work and can’t be near. If it means I get to regularly see that content, blissed-out face of hers as she sleeps, then I’d die a happy man today, no matter which of us put it there. I’ve been crushing on this woman hard enough to make diamonds for far too long, and now that she’s invaded our lives and we’ve invaded hers, I don’t think wild horses could tear me away. If I have to share her with the three men I consider brothers, then that’s exactly what I’d do, and I’d do it happily.
First things first, we need to figure out how she feels and work out whether or not she would be open to pursuing thingswith any of us before my brain swan-dives into my delusions and fantasies. We can’t do that while she’s asleep, so I opt for something else instead.
Once I’m assured Maddie is sound asleep, her lips parted as her breathing deepens and she sinks that little bit more into Bax, I eye the three of them before blurting, “So, what are we going to do to keep her from disappearing wherever the hell in the world for two weeks?”
Rayne barely glances at me, but I catch the bastard tucking Maddie’s feet a little farther under his legs, as though he’s trying to keep them warm with his body heat. Bax rolls his head across the back of the couch to look at me, while Ryan simply glances up from his phone and over at me with a raised eyebrow and asks, “Why do you think we’re plotting anything at all?”
I give him a funny look. “Uh, because that little pint-sized manic pixie over there won’t be around for two whole weeks if she goes traveling, and then what will we do with our time? I love you guys, but I much prefer spending dinner with her than just the three of you. And not just that, what if she finds someone while she’s traveling? What then, huh?”
Rayne finally looks over at me and mutters, “Why is this such a big deal?”
He’s apparently the only one who doesn’t see the problem with the possibility of Maddie finding a new man abroad, Baxter and Ryan already gazing at the sleeping beauty like they can’t actually imagine anything worse. Oh yeah, we’ve got it down bad for Madison Fowler. That much is clear.
And Rayne isn’t fooling anyone. I catch the way his hand suddenly wraps around Maddie’s calf, his thumb rubbing over her bare skin while he pretends to be engrossed in the show I’m sure he knows nothing about. Pretty sure he’s more in tune withMaddie than any of us are, always anticipating what she needs before she even realizes what that is.
The man looks far too relaxed and put together about the possibility of her going away and meeting someone who isn’t us, and I narrow my eyes on the bastard. “What do you know that we don’t?”
Rayne gives me a bored look that infuriates me. “Ask yourself this, dumbass. Would she be asleep between Bax and me if she had any intention of going off to find a dick to squat on? Would she be so open with her home if she planned to go traveling in search of a man like a dick-seeking missile? She has four right here, and I think that would be overwhelming enough, don’t you?”
I fucking knew he liked her, damn it.
“Wait,” I counter, raising an eyebrow at him. “Does that mean you’re on board with the whole sharing thing? You’d be down for that?”
Rayne looks away, but I see that troubled past of his wash over his face before he locks it down so fast that I would have never believed it was there had I not caught it. Before I can call him out, he shrugs a shoulder and mutters, “I don’t exactly have a clean record when it comes to relationships, and not the romantic kind. Can’t say I’d be much good for her, but that thought isn’t so heavy if you guys have her back, too. You know?”
I nod, because I know exactly what he means. Rayne has been in a total of two relationships, and neither of them has progressed further than third base. Pretty confident our resident grump is still a virgin, but I like where my balls are at, so I haven’t dared ask for confirmation. But I know the reason why they didn’t work out, and that’s because Rayne’s father did a real number on his psyche. If trauma had a body, it would be Rayne. That guy has endured things no kid should ever endure, and it’s an honest-to-God miracle he’s still here with us today.
“You know she won’t see your past when she looks at you, man,” Bax assures quietly, and I agree with a firm nod and encouraging smile.
“He’s right, you know. Maddie isn’t one to judge, because she’s outlandish and bold enough to see past certain things others won’t,” Ryan adds, locking his cell and placing it on his lap as he gives us all his focus. “She’s been very fortunate in life to grow up with parents who encourage every crazy thing she does, who haven’t ever judged her for the choices she makes, and who support her in any way she needs. Her friends are the same. She’s the epitome of judgeless unless you do her wrong enough, and then she’ll simply write you off. Look at the ex, he’s a prime example. And then look at how long she’s been friends with the girls she’s always texting or calling. She told me a little about them, and apparently Ashton has a similar background to you, but she loves that girl like she’s the sister she never had.”
His words sit heavily between us, and Rayne turns his head to look at Maddie for a long moment. Long enough that Ryan goes back to tapping away at his phone while Baxter’s eyes close as though he’s about to fall asleep.
That can’t happen, because we need to clear some things up before I can even shut my eyes and sleep tonight.
“With all of that said, does anyone have a plan?” I blurt, and Bax jerks as though I’ve woken him just as he drifted off. He gives me a glare, and I give him a look right back. “What? You can sleep after we’ve talked this out. You assholes laughed and brushed me off when I first mentioned it.”
“Which was on the same morning we met her,” Ryan interjects, and I slap his phone out of his hand like the petulant little fuck I can sometimes be.
He sighs, but I ignore him. “And now we’re here almost every night, or she’s having dinner at ours. There’s clearlysomething going on here, or am I being delusional because I like her that much?”
Silence answers me, and I huff, slouching in my seat. “Sure, don’t all answer at once.”
The room descends into a quietness that pricks my nerves, and I’m just about to declare Maddie mine when Bax finally says, “I like her. I really like her, so I’m good with sharing if you guys are. But it stays only between us. Pretty sure homicide wouldn’t be out of the question if she so much as sneezed around another guy who isn’t in this circle.”
