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I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Depends on who’s asking,” I yelled back.
“I’m not going to do this in a shouting match.” Chase was doing exactly that.
“Try.”
“I’m sorry.” Chase’s voice carried better than mine. That deep tenor had a commanding quality to it.
Jax kissed the back of my neck, and nudged me toward the door. I grabbed his hand as I stood, and tugged. “He owes you at least as much of an apology as he does me.”
I recognized Chase’s posture when we stepped into the living room. He had his back to the front door and his arms were crossed. He looked me over, eyebrow raised. I stared back, unblinking.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I didn’t realize you’d held onto that, but I shouldn’t have said it anyway. I was young. Stupid.”
“Was? Past tense?” Jax said.
Chase snorted.
“Did you tell them to keep their grubby dicks off me?” I had to know. Because that wasn’t nearly so long ago.
Chase nodded. “And they laughed at me for it.”
Grayson had moved to the side, so we could all see each other, and adopted a similar defensive posture to Chase’s. “That’s being kind.”
“We told him to go fuck himself,” Jax said.
Chase’s shoulders drooped. He looked at all three of us again. There was no questionsomethingwas going on, given my clothing. He didn’t look upset, though. Not that his opinion would change my mind, but it would delay me forgiving him.
“They’re good guys.” Chase crammed his hands in his pockets. “I trust them implicitly, but you’re more important. You’re family. My baby sister even if it is only by a year. If they make you happy... I can accept that. If that changes, I’ll start smashing skulls.”
Grayson rolled his eyes. “How very caveman of you.”
“Yup.” Chase gave me all his attention. “I’m sorry. I really am. To both of you. I can’t take it back, but I know it was stupid.”
“I get it. I forgive you. But if you do something like that ever again...” I was happy letting the unspoken threat hang in the air.
“That’s fair.” Chase crossed the room to wrap me in a tight hug. He stepped back and looked at Jax, questioningly.
Jax’s sigh was exaggerated, and I had to fight a smile. “I guess we’re cool.” Jax only held his stony expression for a few seconds before it shattered into a smile.
Telling our parents needed to be even a quarter this easy.
We sent Chase on his way, and I headed home to grab a change of clothes, and take a quick shower where flipping a coin to see if anyone got to share wasn’t required. Not that I minded the playful struggle between who got to spend more time with whom.
I was back at their place not long after. It wasn’t as though I was moving in, but with Jax having the rest of the week off, and Grayson and I taking breaks from streaming, we were going to steal as much time together as we could.
Friday morning, I was surprised to see a phone call from an unknown number in California. “Hello?” I was prepared to hang up on a robodialer.
“Sadie? Hey, it’s Chet Stanford.”
My brain stumbled on the name, before catching up. “Yeah. Hi. I mean, how are you? How was your holiday?”
“Great. Look, I won’t take a lot of your time, but I wanted talk to you sooner rather than later.” He spoke more quickly than when we’d met in the courtesy suites, but he was just as friendly. “I’m sorry it took so long to get back to you. People have been in and out of the office all week, but I’ve got the answers I hoped for.”
I was missing something. “That’s great?”
He laughed. “I missed a step. I do that when I’m excited. I loved your proposal, and so did the execs. We want to bring you on to do costume creation, based on our specs, so our artists have something tangible to work from. But I needed a promise from Legal first that they could handle the fallout from the company pursuing you. They looked over your case, and they’re going to take care of you.”
I stared at Grayson and Jax, who were watching me with hopeful curiosity. Was this... It was the job I wanted. Really? Creating for someone in public media. “Would I get artist credit?”
