Barely keeping it together, he mutters, “Oh god, this is really fucking bad. Why did you think we could handle this? We can’t handle this, man. Are you okay, Olive? How’s our girl doing?”
Olive coos in response to him, offering a cheeky toothless grin. How ironic that we’re all about to die, and the culprit is smiling and giggling like she knows exactly what she’s doing.
Rotten thing.
Literally.
“Just keep spraying. We’ll get the majority off of her. What did YouTube say? Should we torch the outfit? Is it salvageable? I mean… can you even wash this out?” I look at Hudson, who’s shrugging. “Fuck, this is one of Maddison’s favorite outfits.” It’s frilly and girly and shit.
The exact thing women love, and if Maddison finds out that I let it get destroyed in an act of war, she’ll probably never leave me home with Olive again.
I groan. I feel like I’m failing, even though I’m giving it everything I’ve got. I just hope that Olive and Maddison both realize it.
Graham reappears in the kitchen, still looking a bit green. He keeps his distance by the doorway, with his hand covering his mouth.
“Why is it so… green?”
I shrug. “I don’t know, probably something from the breast milk.”
Together, Asher and I manage to get most of the poop off of her, so with two fingers, I carefully begin removing the outfit, as best as I can, making sure I don’t drop her in the process.
“Olive, I hope you know how much we love you,” Hudson tells her, as I get off the outfit and hand it over to him.
He walks out of the room and then returns with her baby body wash, something I forgot in the process of trying to get her hosed off.
Somehow, a damn miracle in itself, we get her completely clean, get the shit off of every surface that we possibly can, and then I feed her a bottle. She’s asleep, clutching my finger on my chest, when the guys pile onto the furniture next to us. Graham sprawls on the floor while Hudson and Asher flank each side of me.
“That was traumatizing. Not going to lie,” Graham says, staring at the ceiling flat on his back.
“Don’t be dramatic, it was just a little poop,” I retort.
Hudson’s brows rise in shock. “If that was your definition of a little, I’d hate to see a lot. That was an explosion. Don’t downplay what we went through.”
I laugh, causing Olive to stir on my chest. I rub my thumb along the smooth, baby soft skin of her cheeks, gazing down at her.
“How are things going anyway? With Maddison?” Asher asks.
I shrug. “I don’t know. We’re co-parenting Olive. She’s not interested in… rekindling things. Hell, I don’t even know how to define what that weekend was. I just know she said she wants to keep things uncomplicated and focus on Olive, which I respect. It’s just… I don’t know, now more than ever, I want her. I want her even more than I did after the weekend we spent together.”
Whipping his head toward me, Graham abruptly sits up. “The real question is, do you want to be with Maddison? Even if there was no Olive, sorry baby girl, would you still want to be with her?”
I don’t hesitate, or even need to think about it. I already know the answer. “Without a doubt. All Olive did was cement my feelings toward her. Man… it’s just, it’s amazing seeing them together. Knowing we made this amazing little girl together. And we co-parent together so well, everything just feels so easy. We just, I don’t know, click.”
“So, you know what you need to do…？” Graham says, sitting up on his elbows on the threadbare carpet, “You have to make her fall in love with you.”
He says it as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. Making Maddison fall in love with me. Like I hadn’t already thought of a million different ways to be with her again.
“Make her fall in love with me.”
Asher nods. “No, Graham is on to something. Look, if you want to be with Maddison, then you have to remind her what she loved about you in the first place.”
Maybe they’re right. I can tell something is holding her back, and I don’t want to push her too far. It’s almost like she’s skittish about things.
Ultimately, I get it… she’s worried that things could go badly between us and affect our co-parenting relationship, but maybe the guys are on to something.
“You have to woo her,” Graham says simply, as if it’s just the easiest solution in the world, and he can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself.
"Show her what she’s missing, how great you two could be together. That’ll do it, man. Now, if we’re done talking about our feelings and braiding each other’s hair, I’m fucking starving. Y’all wanna go to Chipotle?”
Asher and Hudson immediately jump off the couch. “Fuck yes.”
“Send me pics of Olive-you later.” Graham throws over his shoulder as they leave.
I’m dozing off when Maddison walks through the door. She shuts it quietly behind her, gazing at Olive on my chest with a soft smile that makes my stomach tighten.
“Hey,” she whispers, taking off her purse and hanging it on the hook by the door.
“Hey, sorry, I must have fallen asleep with Olive.”
She shakes her head, smiling. “No, it’s okay. I think it’s so sweet when she falls asleep with you.”
“How did your appointment go?”
Walking over, she sits on the other end of the couch and tucks her legs underneath her, “Everything is… good. I’m able to resume normal activities.”
The look I give her makes her blush under my scrutiny. “Like the gym,” she quickly says.
“I gained a ton of weight with Olive, and I’ve been really trying to cut back and watch what I’ve been eating, but I’m excited to be able to get back into the gym and work on myself again. I can use the time off from school to focus on it, since my side job is… online.”
"You’re perfect, Maddison,” I say in complete honesty. If anything, pregnancy has made her even sexier. Her hips flare even more, her breasts larger, full of milk to feed our daughter. My mouth waters just thinking about the shape of her body, and the need to feel every inch of her in my hands.
I realize then, Graham’s right.
I’ve got to woo her. Remind her of what it was like when we were together, and how something so beautiful came from it. Show her that together…We just work.
The plan? Simple.
Make my baby mama fall in love with me.
Eighteen
“Maddison?” I call out, as I unlock the door with the key she gave me yesterday and let myself inside.
A few days ago, I sat down and brought up the conversation of her and Olive moving in with me again. It had just been weighing on me… The nights that I had to leave Olive; they broke my heart. I was constantly wanting to text or call Maddison to check on her.
Reed said that’s a normal dad thing, but I also don’t want her to feel suffocated in anyway. So… I just approached the topic with caution, especially seeing the hesitancy in her eyes.
I get it, it’s a huge step… and we’re not even together, we’re just co-parents for Olive.