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Opening the door, she didn’t bother to put Max down.
“Can I help you?” Madison said bluntly, not bothering to hide her frustration.
“Did someone bring the chill pills?” Leia said openly, hefting a toddler up onto her hip. “Look, Luke… see the little boy? You wanna play?”
“Yeah,” Leia’s son said, chewing on his finger and looking at Madison shyly. “We can play cars?”
Max began clapping his hands happily and reaching for the child Leia was holding – as Leia gave her a pointed look, a knowing smirk, and raised an eyebrow.
“I brought pizza,” Lily taunted softly, smiling at her.
“And I baked us a pumpkin cheesecake,” another woman volunteered from the back of the group.
“… And I ran off the dweeb with the camera,” Tabitha volunteered, giving Julia a high-five. “Turns out he got really antsy when I said I was with the police and asked for his private investigator license, so ya’ might file that nugget away for in the future. Those creeps are fake. Bargain basement bullies.”
Madison blinked and her mouth dropped open in shock as a blond-haired little girl walked right past them into the house.
“Mommy, I gotta go potty…”
“That’s my cue,” Lily smiled, holding a baby against her shoulder… and pressing past Madison like she had an engraved invitation. Leia followed, grinning like a Cheshire cat, followed by Julia, another woman holding a cheesecake, then Lucia and Mateo, followed by Tabitha holding a carrier, and Molly, who plucked Max out of her arms, kissing him several times on the cheeks and neck, making her son laugh.
“Oooohhh, aren’t you the cutest,” Molly crooned noisily, cuddling him, before looking at Madison. “Could you shut the door so none of the children escape, and we don’t let in flies?”
She blinked again.
This was her house they were invading. Her home was barely nine hundred square feet and had intended to be a ‘starter’ home for her and Asher. It was never intended to hold this many people, nor this much chaos.
There were women and children everywhere in her tiny house – and she was being asked to shut the door to keep out the flies?
“I don’t mean to be rude, but…” Madison sputtered, floored that this group could come in and just take over without a care in the world.
Molly was plopping down on Max’s blanket without so much as a by-your-leave, and playing with her son like she’d known him since birth. Tabitha was sitting at the small two-person dining room table, already breastfeeding her daughter.
Leia was in her kitchen – with Julia – and some stranger, digging plates out and making coffee… and Lily stood in the hallway, coaching her daughter in the bathroom.
“Wash your hands, Rose, and you can play with Max,” Lily ordered – before turning to smile at Madison… and waving. Reeling, Madison waved back for a moment before snapping back to attention.
“You just…” Madison sputtered, pointing a finger at Lily and shaking it. “You just barged in after I said ‘No’… and…”
Max’s laughter pierced the air, making Madison freeze protectively as she looked at her son, then at Lily’s soft smile, and saw several women watching her… waiting.
“He needs to be around children, learning what love and friendship is,” Lily said softly, in an almost motherly voice. “And our own children need to know that beauty comes in all forms.”
“So, my son is yourscience experiment?” she hissed protectively under her breath as the little girl darted down the hallway into the living room, a bundle of energy as Lily stood there holding her sleeping son in her arms, taking this all in stride.
“Your son is a treasure – just like any of our children.”
“Mama! Max is playing ball with me!” Rose called out happily, before Madison could say anything else. “Oh, I love his little smile…”
“We’re not the enemy,” Lily urged softly, “But part of a family that you might not have realized you had or needed. Come. Let’s have something to eat. Eva owns a bakery, and I promise that cheesecake is delightfully sinful.”
“I already tasted it,” Leia volunteered as several women laughed. “I need a moment to compose myself.”
“Cigarette?” someone joked.
“Maybe… I’ll take another bite and let you know,” Leia volunteered, causing another round of laughter at the insinuating bawdy joke shared between close friends.
“Was there really a guy out there taking photos again?”
