Page 45 of Tangled Like Us

I’d been in deep conversation with Maximoff and Farrow before I went to retrieve milk next door, and I knew they’d be here when I returned.

I just didn’t expect to bethisdistracted by my bodyguard.

“No, no panting.” I intake a normal breath and step away from the door. “This is my regular breathing pattern.”

The living room décor is frilly and pastel due to my taste. But Moffy didn’t mind that I decorated our townhouse. I brought in a rocking chair, a pink Victorian loveseat, mint-green rug, framed pictures on the fireplace mantel, and a small iron café table.

Our home smells of coffee, tea, and candles, so very unlike the cedar and musk of security’s townhouse.

“You lookflushed.” Maximoff gestures to me with his Batman mug, full of steaming hot tea. He also grips a pack of pushpins.

“I am,” I say in a shallow breath, “so very flushed.”

I have no desire to skirt around the truth with my best friend and his fiancé when I want them involved in my life as much as I love being a part of theirs.

Really, I can’t remember a time where I haven’t been a part of Maximoff’s life. As the firstborns of the Hales and Cobalts, we’ve faced the brunt of the media spotlight and harassment together since birth.

I remember a school field trip to the zoo. Paparazzi were waiting outside the gated entrance, swarming the ticket booths. Two middle-aged cameramen kept shouting at us,“Jane! Maximoff! Have you started dating anyone yet?! Is there someone you like in school?!”

We were only twelve.

It was our normal. One we had to accept fully or else we’d go mad with irritations.

So once we entered the zoo, Maximoff looked over at me with confidence and a smile.

I smiled brightly back, and for the very first time, I told him, “It’s just you and me, old chap.”

He squeezed my shoulders in a side hug.

We were one another’s comfort and refuge. As teenagers, we’d deal with worse, but we had each other.

And we felt responsible for our siblings and cousins.

Maximoff very much enjoys responsibility. And I do, but to an extent. I don’t prefer leading anyone anywhere. It’s a terrible pressure to make decisions for large groups.

But I love holding the torch with him. Helping those behind us avoid falling into the dark underbelly of fame.

Because we knew whatever we experienced, our younger brothers, sisters, and cousins could soon experience after us. We tried to protect them from the cruelest parts of our reality. Blocking the numbers of porn producers off their phones, bartering with paparazzi so they’d leave them alone after school.

And then we’d take deep breaths. We’d hug and share secrets—late night in the Meadows treehouse, parked outside the school’s football field, after his swim meets and my mathlete competitions.

It’s just you and me, old chap.

And then it wasn’t.

Not anymore, not entirely.

Farrow Redford Keene came into vivid focus. With a picturesque know-it-all smile, unflappable confidence, and cascade of pirate tattoos. He’d comb a hand through his dyed platinum hair, roll his eyes, wear a teasing grin, and send my best friend into a fit of agitation.

Agitation that roused attraction.

He truly had this magnetic exchange with Maximoff that no one else did, and I saw it more up-close when he became Moffy’s bodyguard, and then closer, when they first dated and trusted me, out of everyone, to keep it secret.

I could’ve been bitter that I’d have to share Moffy, I suppose. Or I could’ve been awfully afraid that Farrow would take my place in my best friend’s life.

But I was cautiously optimistic instead.

Maximoff—my compassionate, stubborn, strong-willed best friend with a great aversion to big life changes—was willing to complicate his world by letting Farrow in.