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“I’ll bet,” I agreed as I looked between them. It felt so damned good to have them at my side once again, and yet it also reminded me of who was missing. When we were kids it was always the four of them together. It was so odd to have only two of them there. “Where’s Cameron? I’d like to see him,” I asked as that feeling of loss churned in my stomach once again.
“He’s out in his workshop. It’s best to leave him to it when he’s out there. You’ll see him later,” Kai told me as he sent Hunter a glance I couldn’t decipher.
“You should lie down and get some rest. You’re exhausted,” Hunter told me, and I couldn’t deny that. I felt completely wrung out and my entire body ached terribly from Edward’s beating.
As if on cue, a loud thud came from next door as Willow burst into a fit of loud giggles.
“I think Willow has other ideas,” I laughed tiredly, as I made my way back to her room to check what she was up to.
“Watch this, mommy,” Willow said as soon as I stepped into her room, then she hurried across the space to stand up a huge plastic rhino model on top of a rather precarious looking platform. She had built it from some bricks that were half poured out of one of the cube boxes from the shelves. She backed away enough to drive the remote controlled jeep into the bricks so the rhino went tumbling, then giggled loudly in delight at the scene.
“You know, I think we could build a much bigger tower than that to knock over with the car, don’t you Kai?” Hunter mused animatedly.
“Definitely, but we’d have more space to do it down stairs in the living room. Maybe we should take everything down there? And Sam was baking cookies earlier. I’ll bet he’d give us some, to keep us all going while we work,” Kai added.
“Cookies?” Willow’s eyes lit up as she looked to me. “Can we do that mommy? Please?”
“Mommy’s kinda tired. Why don’t we head down while she has a little nap?” Hunter suggested.
“Hunt, no. I’m fine. You’ve done enough. I don’t expect you to take care of my daughter too,” I sighed.
“We want to spend time with her, Maddie. We want her to get to know us and be comfortable with us because we’re not going anywhere. You don’t have to do it all alone anymore,” he told me, his voice quieter so only I could hear him as Kai busied Willow gathering all of the bricks back into the box they came from.
“Fine,” I gave in, too tired to argue with his statement that they weren’t going anywhere. We’d see about that. I’d definitely heard it before, and then they were gone. “Maybe just for an hour.”
“Good girl.” He leaned in and kissed my forehead as I fought to ignore the way my center throbbed at those two simple words from him. “Anything we need to know? Does she have any allergies or anything like that?”
I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face, touched that he even thought to check something like that. He and Kai had shown more concern for my daughter than her father ever had.
“No, nothing like that,” I replied. “But keep her away from the pool. She doesn’t know how to swim yet. I wanted to teach her, but I just never had the time,” I told him with some major guilt. There were so many things I should have done with Willow, so many things I wanted to show her and teach her, but I just hadn’t been able. Edward barely allowed us out of the house, and even if we could have gotten out, I never had money to pay for trips to the local pool or anything else like that.
“It’s okay, baby. We can teach her and until then we’ll keep her close. She’ll be fine, promise. We’ve got her,” he told me and I didn’t miss the fact he’d called me ‘baby.’ I knew I was supposed to be focusing on bigger things, but it was hard to deny how good it felt to feel cared for.
“I know,” I agreed confidently. I had no concerns about them taking good care of my child. I trusted them, and I knew that was way too easy, but they were still the guys I knew all those years ago. My time with them to that point had already assured me of that. I knew I could depend on them just as I had as a messed up teenager. They had my back.
“Good.” He leaned in to kiss me again on the forehead and cradled my face in his hand. “Rest, take a soak. Do whatever you need to relax. Kai bought you everything he could think of, but if there’s anything you need, just text me, okay? There’s a new cell on the nightstand. It has all of our numbers, and Nico’s. I had Kai text the new number to him, so he likely already tried to contact you,” Hunter chuckled as he nodded to a shiny black cell phone behind me. Nico had asked me to leave my old cell with him so he could monitor messages from Frank and Edward and I had easily agreed. I didn’t want any way for them to get to me. Nico would warn me if there was anything I needed to worry about, and I was happy to live in ignorance otherwise.
“You guys are killing me,” I whimpered as I unexpectedly teared up again. I was just so overcome with the small details they had considered to make me feel safe and comfortable. “You literally thought of everything.” I applauded them if this was their strategy to gain back my trust. They were just so thoughtful.
“I doubt that. We’re guys, Maddie, who have dated very little in our lives. We will forget shit that matters and we will screw up, but never doubt that we care very much for all of you. There’s nothing we won’t do to care for you and protect you.” He placed a hand on my stomach as he spoke, assuring me he hadn’t forgotten the little one growing in there, and his gentleness was more than I could take. My tears slipped free once more and I hurried to swipe them away.
“Come on Hunter! We gots towers to build and smash down!” Willow called to him as she giggled to herself. I looked to where she clutched the giant rhino under one arm. Kai stood beside her, his arms filled with toys but his eyes focused on me. The intensity of his gaze told me he had heard every word Hunter said and was pleading with me to believe them.
“Coming now, pumpkin,” Hunter told her. I nodded, telling them I heard Hunter’s words, and they both smiled a little, seeming relieved.
“We’ll just be downstairs,” Kai assured me, then they all slipped from the room, Willow talking a mile a minute as they moved down the hall. I knew she was content because she wouldn’t have chatted away so easily if she wasn’t and that allowed me to relax a little. As long as she was happy and my baby was healthy, I could survive anything else.
I went through to the bathroom and stared longingly at the huge clawfoot tub. A soak would be heaven, but I wasn’t sure I could navigate in and out of the deep bath with my growing bump and the bruising and injuries I had. Instead I moved over to the large shower and opened the glass screen to try and work out how to get it running. A long, hot shower would work too. Finally I figured out the futuristic looking controls and the water thundered down from the rainfall shower head above. I closed the door to let it warm up and looked around me at the large bathroom as I got undressed.
The walls and floor were tiled with black, white, and grey mosaic. To my right was a long vanity with twin sinks, over which hung a huge mirror. The toilet was in a separate little space off in the corner, with a door separating it from the rest of the room.
I smiled as I looked over the products in small baskets on the counter. One basket was obviously for Willow, filled with skin friendly, chemical free, bubble baths, soaps, and shower gels. There was also moisturizer and a few fun looking bath bombs. Beside that was a basket filled with rubber ducks, cups and a little watering can for her to play with when she was in the tub.
On the other side was three baskets, all obviously for me. One was filled with bath and shower products like shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and bath salts, every one of which was a high end brand and all vanilla scented – once my favorite scent. I had stopped using it when Edward told me it smelled too sweet, but I smiled as I thought of using it once again now, and fuck him. I marveled at the tiny details Kai had remembered about me. They obviously didn’t hate the smell of vanilla.
In the next basket were cleaners, toners, and moisturizers and in the last was a whole array of makeup in a variety of tones. Some of it was even the brands I liked to use, but the rest was way fancier than Edward was ever willing to pay for. On the counter there were hair products for both Willow and I , along with hair ties, barrettes, and pretty little bows and clips Willow would adore. Kai had literally thought of everything and I was overcome with their kindness.
The steam filling the room around me reminded me of what I should be doing, so I quickly shucked the last of my clothes and grabbed some shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel before slipping into the glass cubicle.
