Page 167 of On The Edge
“Come here,” Markus growls, losing his patience, and pulling her—more like picking her up—from Kai’s lap and holding her to him. He whispers in her ear, placing kisses all along her ear and neck. Melody’s eyes flutter closed and her head falls back.
I smirk, sitting back, watching the reunions unfold in front of me.
It’s like every time she touches someone, their whole energy shifts. We were terrified, worried, dark, gloomy. We’d decided this was it, we would be whatever she allowed us to be. But now? She whispers she loves me and it’s like I can see in color again. I know the others feel that way too because their eyes don’t leave her.
Like if they look away for a moment, the world will come crashing down around them again.
When Markus releases her, she turns to Reis and pauses.
I hold my breath and I see Kai shift in his seat.
These two have always pulled the best and the worst out of each other, but it stemmed from fear of losing the other. The way they look at each other is intense; Reis looks terrified she won’t accept him, and Melody’s biting her lip like she’s worried he’ll pull the rug out from under her shaky footing again.
Instead, they both surge forward at the same time and wrap their arms around each other. Reis' hand goes to the back of her head and I hear him murmur in her ear and she sobs softly.
When they pull apart, I smile. The hole in my chest is gone. The worry, the ache, the fear… it’s all gone and filled completely with her.
Melody.
Our Melody.
FIFTY-TWO
EPILOGUE
About three years later…
The lights flashacross the stage and momentarily blind me as I’m watching my guys play at their final show of their ‘comeback’ American tour. We’ve spent the last five months touring around the USA, hitting all the major hubs and some smaller places, for their new album,‘Never Too Late’. We started the tour in New York City and are ending it here as well.
Just as well, my due date is in two days and I just want to be near home.
I moved back in with the guys the same week they told the world about our relationship three years ago. It was bumpy for a little while. They had to essentially go into hiding for a few months until our ‘scandalous, hedonistic relationship’ wasn’t the most talked about thing in the news circuit. We didn’t mind. It was more time off for the guys to spend making it up to me and making up for lost time.
The guitar rift pulls me back into the moment. The way Markus' fingers fly along the frets and his lips push together as he concentrates, letting the music flow from him, is so mesmerizing to watch. This album might be my favorite. I’ve finally been able to listen to their entire discography and was more blown away than I ever thought possible. They’re… amazingly talented. I always knew that, but hearing the range in how they play their instruments, how they weave stories through their songs, how they make their audience feel something, how each song is so fucking relatable for a multitude of reasons. They’re fucking astonishing.
And they’re all mine.
“You walked right back in/ Let me see you completely/ And finally, finally, it’s like the world fell back into place,”Reis sings softly. Their title song, ‘Never Too Late,’ is a slow rock song—not new for them, but also not common. Their label tried to convince them to have one of their more pop-centered songs be their single, but the guys pushed for ‘Never Too Late.’ And they were right.
It’s been the top song on the charts for the last three weeks.
I rest my hand on my belly; it’s large, fucking heavy, and tight. I’ve been feeling these little twists of pain all day, but nothing I can’t handle. Shifting my weight from side to side, my left hand sparkles in the low light. The light from the stage reflected on my four wedding bands. They didn’t get me an engagement ring, and honestly, I didn’t want one. Instead, they each got down on one knee and proposed with a band that represented them.
It was the cutest, most thoughtful thing ever. Six months in, I came back from the bodega down the street, setting the grocery bag down on the counter and when I turned, they were all on one knee, looking at me like I’d hung the moon and was the answer to every problem they’d ever had. They all had a little speechabout how much I meant to them, how they’d always take care of me, always love me, and wanted me to stay with them forever. I cried, screamed ‘yes’ and they slipped the rings onto my fingers.
Markus had made a signet ring to go on my pinky, no diamonds, just sleek white gold with a double M that he’d designed just for us. Markus and Melody.
Adam had made me a more traditional wedding band that slipped onto my ring finger effortlessly. It’s a sparkly eternity band with diamonds all along the side and inside he engraved, ‘You echo in everything I do’.
Kai slipped a chainlink, rose gold ring onto my middle finger, where every other link had micro-diamonds embedded into it. He told me that it was like us. Strong, intertwined, beautiful.
And Reis put a solid silver tungsten carbide ring onto my index finger. I was surprised he picked a thin, plain band, but then he told me why. He picked tungsten carbide because it’s the strongest metal they make rings out of. It can go through hell and still stay intact. Like us.
They’d discussed how all four of them would look on my hand and picked rings that would be aesthetically pleasing for me to wear together, because ‘every time you look down at your hand, you can see each relationship, separately and together.” Cue the fucking sobs.
We talked a lot about how we were going to legally be married, seeing as I can’t marry all of them. After looking at all our options, we decided that we were going to literally pull a name out of a hat and I’d marry them, but we’d all change our name so that legally, we’d all have the same last name. They’re all Sullivan’s now.
Technically, I’m married to Adam. But emotionally, mentally, physically, I’m married to all of them and they’re married to me.
