Despite appearances, Maddie is still jittery from the discovery her mom dropped on her earlier. She’s fidgeting, up and down on the couch, and generally restless despite me turning on her favorite show, heating up leftovers from yesterday, and doing my best not to pester her.
Since it’s only me here, I’m not really sure what I’m meant to do in this situation. Baxter is sleeping in our apartment after spending hours on the road, Caiden is hosting a night session for the disgustingly wealthy customers he trains at his gym, and Rayne is running late at his studio after his French actor’s tattoo appointment ran over into today and lasted much longer than he anticipated.
It’s just me, myself, and I here to watch Maddie fidget herself into a frenzy. By the fifth time she stands to do something that doesn’t need doing, I decide enough is enough.
“Trouble, are you okay?” I ask, just as she trudges back into the living room wearing nothing but sleep shorts and a cropped shirt that reveals her lack of bra. I’ve done my very best not to notice, because it’s clear that Toby making an appearance again has bothered her more, knowing he’s also appearing at her parents’ home, but I am a man with perfectly working eyes. Seeing her nipples through the material that leaves nothing to the imagination is a test of one’s willpower, and I’ve been fighting mine every second since she changed into comfier clothing.
“Hm?” Maddie hums before nodding and saying, “Oh, yeah, I’m good. Just have a case of unresolved wiggles.”
“Unresolved wiggles,” I repeat, squinting while I try not to laugh at the serious way those words leave her full lips.
She takes her seat once more, tucking her feet under my leg as she’s done since we got home, and I reach for her calf before she can jump up and fix the coffee table’s position for the fourth time.
Maddie looks over at me and blinks, pretty blue eyes a little zoned out even as she smiles, those full lips of hers tugging upward. I don’t like it. I don’t like that Toby is in her head after just one encounter. The last time he wormed his way into her thoughts, we didn’t see her for a week, and it was the most miserable week I’ve had in a very long time.
So, wanting to do something to occupy her mind with anything but that cheating asshole, I turn toward her and tell the blue-haired menace, “I just remembered something.”
“Oh, yeah? Is it where you buried those bodies you mentioned before?” she quips, fast with the little retort that makes me grin, because that means Toby isn’t completely overtaking her thoughts. That’s progress.
“You’d remember, too, if you’d been listening,” I counter, teasing her back into the present.
“Oh my God,” she dramatically proclaims, turning to face me with a playfully exasperated look. “I explained myself already. I’m not a numbers girl, so if you’re going to confess to crimes I’m still not a hundred percent sure aren’t real, then do it before you try to talk to me about stocks and shares. I assure you, I will pay so much attention that I’ll know more about the crimes than you by the end of it.”
I chuckle, squeezing her calf. “I’m serious. I remembered something.”
“Well, that explains the smoke coming out of your ears,” the little smart-ass retorts, lips twitching. “By all means, share itwith me before the thought dissolves and we have to repeat this entire conversation.”
“That sass,” I huff out another laugh. “Do you remember beating me home from Blackline?”
She nods easily, smirking at the TV. “Of course.”
“You remember the bet we made?” I ask, watching her face carefully as she thinks it over.
I catch the moment the light bulb goes off in her mind, and those pretty pale-blue eyes of hers light up like I’ve just presented a gift she’s always wanted. Her mouth parts with a little gasp, and she turns to face me so suddenly that she almost falls right off the couch entirely. “The back tickling!”
Nodding, I tilt my head and ask, “Where would your thoughts be if I suggested you cash in your bet now?”
Maddie perks right up as though I’ve asked her if she wants to go spend five thousand bucks on cupcakes and cookies, and I know my answer before she’s even uttered the words.
“Ryan, respectfully… are seagulls secret cannibals?” she counters, and I pause.
I guess I didn’t know the answer, because what?
Tilting my head, I mutter, “I don’t know the answer to that.”
“The answer is yes, Ryan. And if you hadn’t abandoned me to a fate worse than death yesterday, you would have witnessed the seagulls gobbling down the chicken you knocked over,” she clarifies, and I groan as I drop my head back in defeat.
I’m never living that down.
“God forbid a man wants to feed his girlfriend,” I pitifully grumble, and I’m rewarded with a pretty giggle that has me turning to face her again.
“Girlfriend. That’s the first time any of us have used titles,” Maddie points out, and I suddenly feel like an ass for not doing it sooner. Not that there’s been much of an opportunity toslip the word into normal conversation until now. I find that I love the sound of it on my tongue, though, so I make a note to use it more when she’s around.
“Well, girlfriend,” I start, smirking when a gorgeous blush blooms on her cheeks. “If the answer is yes, why are you still sitting over there? Come here and I’ll pay my debts.”
Maddie is out of her seat before I can even conjure my next thought, and I laugh as she trips on a blanket and scrambles to right herself. She points her finger and demands, “You didn’t see that.”
I nod dutifully, saluting her with a playful gesture that she rolls her eyes at, but then I hold my arms out for her to crawl into and she wastes no time doing exactly that. She kneels between my legs and is about to use me as a body pillow before she pauses and a funny little look crosses her pretty features.
