Page 90 of On The Edge
“Oh yeah? What’s today?”
“Just a boundary-setting conversation we have to have with our manager.” I shrug. I don’t want to tell her that Louis' probably just a jealous tool, but I’m also not going to lie to her.
“That guy from the dressing room, right?” She furrows her eyebrows, disgust coloring her tone.
“Yeah, that asshole.”
“But he’s a necessary asshole.” Melody chuckles. “What do you guys have to tell him?”
“Just laying down the law. Louis likes to think he’s tougher shit than he is, and there are some things the guys and I aren’t willing to compromise on.” Her head tilts to the side as she looks at me.
“Me?”
“Exactly.”
“Does he not want me there or something?” She asks, and I bite my tongue. “Maybe… Maybe he has a point. I don’t think the world would be very understanding of this kind of relationship. And your world is very big. Maybe…”
“No. Nope. We aren’t even going down that train of thought, Echo,” I say strongly, pulling her in closer. “You're ours, and we’re yours. End of story.”
“I can’t ruin your careers–” she tries to explain, but I cut her off. But what did she think was going to happen? Explain that our careers might be affected and somehow we’d drop her? No. Not happening. Not now, not ever.
“You won’t.”
“That’s what Louis is so scared of. Me ruining your careers,” she says and I don’t want to lie to her, but she’s right.
“That’s not it,” Kai says boisterously as he walks in, shirtless with a chest scattered with small hickeys.Lucky fucker.“And even if it was his problem, we wouldn’t care at all. Louis' got a lot of opinions about work. But personally? Most of the time we ignore him.”
“Then why pay him?”
“Because we signed on with him three years ago and signed a five year contract.” Shaking my head, resting my forehead against her shoulder. We had thought it was a good idea. But honestly, we signed on pretty instantaneously becausesomeonewanted to represent us. Louis hasn’t been a bad manager, on the contrary. He’s been great for our career. But, he’s pretty narrow-minded and sometimes does shady stuff that we don’t necessarily agree with.
Prime example; his shitty attitude to Melody. We aren’t going to stand for that.
The four of us have let a lot of things go in the past, not really caring enough to ruffle any feathers. But not anymore.
“Good morning again, baby.” Kai dips to give Melody a quick kiss while I keep a tight grip on her. He had her all to himself last night, I want to hold her today.
“Good morning again,” she says with an easy smile. “I still… I feel guilty. I just come into your lives–even if you did kidnap me–and I could potentially bring it crashing to the ground? That’s…” She stops talking before shaking her head. “I should get breakfast started.” Melody starts to pull away, but I’m saved from having to give her up because a shirtless, messy-haired Markus walks in.
“Oh, no, Songbird. Let me do that,” he says kindly, brushing his messy curls back while walking faster to stop her from reaching for where he keeps the pans.
I whisper against her cheek, voice low, just for her, “You do nothing but make our lives better.” Melody looks down with a shy smile before squeezing my thigh and turning to Markus.
“No, it’s okay. Let me cook for you guys,” she tries to insist, and the guys and I share a look of terror.
“Really, Mel, just let him.” I scramble to try to find a reason that wouldn’t make her upset. “He, uh, he really likes to cook. Don’t you, Markus?”
“Yeah, I do actually.” He nods, going to the fridge and pulling the eggs out. “Just relax, babe. Call it a perk of having four boyfriends.” He winks at her, and Melody’s cheeks turn an adorable shade of pink.
“That’s right,” Kai says with a loud laugh. “We’re boyfriends now.”
“Notwe’reboyfriends,” I jump in quickly.
“We are. We are boyfriends.”
“No, we’reherboyfriends. There’s a difference.” I point out, cocking an eyebrow with a pointed expression to Kai.
“Potato, poh-tat-toe.” Kai waves his hand at me like it’snota big difference, before getting his own coffee mug and pouring himself a cup.
