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“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
His deep voice rolled down my spine. “Don’t fall for me, Lila. I’ll break you.”
His arms clenched around me, and he nuzzled his nose into my neck. Hold me tighter, he said without any words. I got you.
He grasped my shoulders and turned me around to face him. I kept my face lowered, but he was having none of that. His fingers grazed my cheeks, and he brushed my hair away from my face.
He took a long moment but finally gave me a slow nod. Maddox silently peeled his blazer off his body. I didn’t expect it, but he stepped closer to me, his body flush against mine. He was a whole head taller, so he towered over me.
“Because I need the world to know they can’t mess with what’s mine.”
The moment Maddox and I did that pinky swear outside of my Gran’s grocery store, it became obvious that my business was his and his was mine.
That day, we somehow sealed our friendship. Friends? Yeah, friends.
I was MC – Maddox Coulter, Berkshire’s reckless quarterback and Casanova.
Lila was truly and honestly my…friend.
But too soon, Lila became someone important to me.
She was someone I wanted to protect. From the world. From me.
I curled into his side; our fingers still intertwined. He needed me; he needed his friend. “I’m not leaving. Pinky swear.”
I realized Maddox Coulter was a little bit ruined, a little bit messy, a little bit broken -- a beautiful disaster. Like me.
“Because you’re my friend,” I simply replied. Because I care.
I elbowed him, grinning. “We make a good team, don’t we?” He smiled. A real and sincere smile.
Maddox Coulter wasn’t invincible. He had multiple cracks and scars in his soul.
One dare at a time, I’d chase his smiles – because I realize Maddox needed someone who cared enough about his happiness and his anger. And I did.
I was flung upside down and over his shoulder.
I need my favorite person there.”
Maddox and I spent way too much time together. He’d hold my hands, kiss my cheek or throw an arm over my shoulders while we walked down the halls.
Lila had me.
But she meant more. We had each other – she got me and I got her.
She was the calm in my reckless life. I was the chaos in her peaceful one.
“Lila’s my best friend,” I finally confessed, with a curl of my lips.
Lila was meant to hold my broken pieces together; just as I was meant to hold the shattered pieces of hers.
No, she didn’t fix me, and I didn’t fix her. We just… held each other; it was that simple.
This was Maddox, my best friend.
“Now, I have someone to lose, and I know it will break me. I know what it means to fear losing the person who means the most to you. That person has the power to destroy me.”
He tsked before he looped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. I stumbled against him, and our bodies clashed together.
“Friends?” I asked, showing him my pinky. It was something so silly to do, but it was us. He grinned and hooked his finger around mine. “Friends.”
Love was too simple of a word to describe it because love was black and white. Love or don’t love – there was not really an in-between. What we had… it was a kaleidoscope of colors.
I was just a bit territorial of my best friend.
Lila let me in, not because she needed me. It was because she wanted me – as a friend, a companion and a partner.
My head descended toward hers, and my lips brushed against her forehead, a simple kiss.
I leaned against his side and sipped my tea. Maddox casually looped his arm behind my shoulders, probably doing it without realizing.
Yeah, it was the little things. I needed my partner in crime.
“Beautiful,” he rasped, his breath caressing the tip of my earlobe.
“The necklace or me?” I asked, my eyes still closed. Why… did I just ask that? “You,” he said. “Always you.” His voice was soft and hot, leaving me feeling things I couldn’t explain, couldn’t put into words.
“It’s me and you, Garcia.”
Maddox and I against the whole world. Partners in crime and best friends.
Fate really had a way of playing with us.
And now he was the most important person in my life.
If Landon had caused my Lila any pain… if he hurt her…
MY LILA
My Lila.
“He fucked with one of ours.”
“I got you.” I wrapped my arm around her, lifting her so her feet were dangling an inch from the ground.
Lila sniffled, and my heart twisted. My lips brushed against her forehead, and she hugged me tighter. “I’m sorry.”
“I love you,” I whispered. His arm flexed around my hips. “I know.” His hold tightened around me in the slightest bit. His lips feathered over my forehead in a whisper of a kiss, before he placed his cheek on top of my head again. “I love you, too.”
Maddox hooked his pinky around mine, and I could feel his smile without even having to look at him.
