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My dad is glaring murderously at the door. He mutters under his breath, “Can she fucking die already.”
agree
I race Farrow. Step-for-step, our powerful legs pumping, and we’re running towards the shimmering blue pool. Water glowing with a single light, and his hand—his hand finds mine before we jump. We plummet into the brisk water fully-clothed. Weight is ripping off my chest, and the air I need, I can’t reach above the surface. I stay submerged, and Farrow swims closer. He nods me on. Knowing what I need, and I scream, the anguished sound dying in the pool. Heaviness barrels out of me, and I’m honestly crying. Tears lost in the water.
I can’t breathe under water, but more oxygen has never flooded my lungs than now. And when we breach the surface, I’m holding him and he’s holding me—and I feel free.
All I know now is that we’re jumping headfirst together.
I like that we’re taking action. And I wanted to do this for Maximoff, not just for Lily and Lo. He has this intrinsic need to protect his family, and he can’t live knowing he didn’t try. Fuck, he would be a shell, and I crave to give him everything that makes him whole.
“Noooo,” Luna says slowly. “Me and Donnelly—that was a one-time experiment.” Donnelly elbows his slipping reading glasses up his face. I chew my gum and try to decipher his feelings, but it’s hard. He’s not really a heart-on-the-sleeve type of guy when it comes to girls. Unpopular opinion time: I don’t hate them together.
Donnelly nods to me and my fiancé. “Your baby is a blood-relative of mine, and I’m Xander’s bodyguard. Which means that I’m like family. Murdering me is like murdering one of his own.” “Man, you’ve got Cobalts Never Die tattooed on your knee. Loren Hale isn’t going to think you’re one of us.”
Loren Hale is the Emperor of Petty, and he’s extremely protective of his daughter.
“On the plus side,” Thatcher continues, “Connor has sniffed out Tony’s horseshit. The shitbag gets reamed about every fucking day. From what I hear, Connor told him he’s on thin ice for staring at his assistant’s ass.”
Thatcher glances from me to the road. “Are you scared of getting attached?” “No. I’m going to take the bad shit when the bad shit comes. Whatever happens now, I’m all-in.”
“I must confess, I think this unit is a bit big for just the two of you and your little one, but I do think you make such a lovely couple.” I choke on air, my brows high-jumping. “No, we’re not—” I start saying just as Thatcher tells her, “Thank you, ma’am.”
“He’s our son right now.” Our son. I love him like he’s mine, and he deserves that. He deserves all of what Farrow and I can give him. Even if we have to say goodbye.
Unlike Farrow, I’ve never seen Call Me By Your Name before.
added to my watchlist ✔️
Farrow swallows hard and nods a couple times. “I’m not a three-month philosophy major like you.” I groan. He could’ve just said “philosophy major” and not mentioned my short timespan in college.
The baby that hates me. The one that wails unless he gets a dumb parrot or wolf scout’s attention. He’s shit on me. Laughed at me. And finds Maximoff to be the most precious human in the world. It’s perfect. The entire thing. And fuck, I really love him.
I don’t blame them for wanting pictures of my bachelor party. All of SFO is here, and we’ve always been the hottest fuckers in security.
“You’ve been pretty good at Jenga tonight,” Jack says to Oscar with a bright mega-watt smile. “Which would you suggest? Top or bottom?” He points between a top and bottom block. Okay, I’m not even sure if Highland knows what he’s saying.
Donnelly looks around, confused, before he speaks up. “We’re all just going to ignore the giant elephant in the room?” “Definitely not,” I say, and cast a glance to Oscar. Donnelly and I aren’t about to let him off that easy. “So when’s your sex advice column going out?” “Yeah, sign me up.” Donnelly nods. “Not that I need it. Just curiosity and all.”
Lily and Daisy keep sending videos of the baby asleep. Snoring. Nothing else. I texted back asking if he ever woke up, and the next message was from Rose Calloway. She sent a video of Ripley screaming at the top of his lungs.
💀💀💀
It’s not just that one instance or even just Donnelly. The coy, almost unseen protection happens around us with other SFO bodyguards and my family—and this is one of the many times that I’m just really damn happy they’re here. They don’t have to care about us. They don’t even have to shield us right now. Their friend is one of the grooms. Easily, they could be shit-faced plastered, and I wouldn’t fault them. But they’re choosing this. To keep us safe.
Kinney. Kinney is here. My brows cinch. “You sure it’s her?!” He slips me an annoyed glance. “Black hair. Bangs. Looks at you like she wants to eat your soul.” He puts a cigarette to his lips. “Basically wishes she were my mom.”
“Charlie! Charlie!” A girl grabs at his shirt. “Will you sign my clutch?!” “No.” He shakes her off like she’s a pest. For some reason, it has the opposite effect. She says a breathy, “I love you.”
same
“I thought the first time I’d take her to a club, she’d be eighteen. It’d be a gay bar. We’d have fun.” He’s mourning this first.
“Farrow to Thatcher, are you with Jane?” One second later, his strict voice is in my ear. “Yeah.” He’s a beat too slow to unclick the mic, and I hear a short moan over comms. Every bodyguard in my sight flinches like they just heard their little sister come.
💀💀💀
Eliot crouches and tosses some loose dirt on the grave. “‘Good night, dear heart. Good night, good night.’” He quotes Mark Twain.
My dad blinks like his brain short-circuited. He reanimates and licks hot sauce off his thumb. “He’s now Ham Junior. Sorry not sorry.” He flashes a half-smile.
“I know, but sex is one of the things that I excel at. Like A-plus-plus-plus, top marks, gold stars, and fucking fireworks. I’ve never been a shit lay.” His brows rise. “You are the most arrogant lay.” “Thank you,” I say with a nod.
Happiness is easy with him. And I might appear okay with whatever comes in my life, but there is nothing more I’ve wanted than this. Than for a man to love me like Maximoff Hale does.
My father has taught me a lot in my life, I’ll give him that. He’s taught me about medicine. About how best to care for people. But his greatest lesson was one he never saw coming. He taught me that fatherhood is more than daily chitchats and brief insignificant check-ins. It’s about what he never gave me. Love without reason. And through my actions, my child will know that he’s a top priority to me, for no reason but love.
Kid you not, the baby immediately stops crying like heaven is cracking open and light is beaming through. As though Maximoff Hale is Zeus, godly enough to rain thunder. And I’m just waiting for our son to realize that I wield the lightning.
“What?” Rose snaps. “He’s not immune just because he’s marrying your son. I’d say the exact same if my own husband tried to worm his way over here.” She cringes at him in the distance. “Ugh, he’s looking at us.”
For a second, I remember the years I spent protecting Lily. Good days. Better years. But I can’t lie, here and now with her son is my favorite time I’ve ever lived, and I have a feeling she’d be perfectly happy with that.
“So I never had a chance to really know my mom.” She nods firmly, listening carefully. “And I like to think she would’ve loved me like you do. No stipulations, no requirements. Just because I exist.”
“I admire you, and I think you’ve raised strong as hell children, just like you are. They’re extremely lucky to have you as a mom.”
“You’re my son too,” Lily suddenly professes, tears streaming down her round face. “You know that, right, Farrow? You’re a part of this family forever.”
“I’d really love for you to walk me down the aisle.”
😭😭😭
“Later tonight, Maximoff is asking Lo to walk him down the aisle.” Lily covers her eyes, overcome. “He’ll love that.”
Banks looks down at Sulli. “Want a higher view, mermaid?” Her eyes grow. “On your shoulders?” He nods. “Fuck, yeah…definitely.” She pauses. “Are you sure?”
😏😏😏
She flushes a little bit, glancing between Akara and the guy she’s sitting on.
Maximoff runs a hand through his hair. “My sister wouldn’t go swimming at night.” “Mine fucking would,” Sulli says, worry cinching her brows. “So would Vada,” Maximoff realizes, voice tight. Jane leans over Thatcher to speak to us. “My sister would join them in solidarity.”
“You’ll live,” Charlie says. “But we can still throw you a funeral to celebrate the death of your common sense.”
“I want to be the best brother, the best cousin, but I think risking my life over a bunch of cellphones makes me a bad father…a bad husband.”
“If you really don’t think I should, then I don’t want to do it, man.” His eyes are on mine, relief in them like he just wanted me to help him stop. His mind was already there.
It’s okay. He’s allowed to stop. “I’m proud of you, wolf scout.”
I have to protect him. I’m not letting the guy I’m with, the only one I love, enter a fistfight alone. He’s never going to be that nineteen-year-old again being beat to shit in a yacht cabin, while I laugh and drink with my friends on deck.
😭😭😭
“Let me at them!” Sulli yells, and out of the corner of my eye—while I kick a college-aged guy in the gut, pushing him out of Maximoff’s path—I see Banks restraining Sulli, drawing her away from the brawl. She elbows Banks in the chest, and he quickly tosses her over his shoulder. Akara cups her face between his hands. “It’s over, Sul.”
I’ve never seen Sullivan fight like this. In fact, there’s a time where I distinctly remember Sulli saying she’s “a lover, not a fighter.” “They fucked with my sister,” she says through gritted teeth.
He acts like I lifted the weight off this night. But he’s the reason this weightlessness exists inside of me, the reason I smiled in the first place, and I’m not sure he realizes it.
Putting on a superhero cape for my cousins and siblings isn’t always what my heart wants to do, I’ve realized, and Farrow makes me feel less guilty for choosing to be the human me.
I’m typically not a petty person, but I’d love to throw his frozen dessert in the fountain behind him.
