24. Share Your Own Story

SHARE YOUR OWN STORY

PENELOPE

I paced the length of the living room, my stockinged feet sinking into the plush carpet with each step. The Mustangs' flight had landed over an hour ago, and I knew Everett would be home soon. My stomach twisted with worry. They'd lost the game and the internet was basically blaming me.

Why they didn't blame Odin for starting shit in the first place was a mystery to me. Well, not really, he was a mediocre white guy. They never got in trouble for anything.

The sound of a key in the lock made me jump even though I was fully expecting it. I turned towards the door as it swung open, revealing Everett. His jaw was set, eyes blazing with barely contained fury. Despite his obvious anger, my heart still skipped a beat at the sight of him.

"Ev," I breathed, crossing the room.

He dropped his bag and enveloped me in a fierce hug. I could feel the tension in his muscles as he held me tight. I hated that I was the source of that tension.

"Those vultures," he growled into my hair. "How dare they suggest we'd distance ourselves from you and Kelsey? As if we're not loyal. As if you're not family."

I pulled back slightly, cupping his face in my hands. "I know, Ev. It's awful. But we can't let them get to us. It's what they want."

If I'd learned anything since the beginning of this disaster, and honestly, even since doing social media for Kelsey in the first place, it was that trolls on the internet wanted a negative reaction to their shit-stirring. They craved the attention, and the smartest thing to do was not only to ignore them, but to be positive in spite of the negative poo they were slinging.

All the posts from the Take Up Space Network, Besties, and others were teaching me life lessons I hadn't even realized I'd missed growing up and clearly, desperately needed to learn. And I think I was. Today, even though the media was doing their best to tear us down, I didn't feel even a smidgen as bad as I had a week ago.

Part of the reason for that was standing right here in front of me. Everett was the supportive man every woman in the world dreamed of having by their side. I was lucky and so grateful he was mine.

Everett's eyes flashed. "They're implying our relationship affected my game. That it made us, me, play badly. It's bull?—"

There was a place inside of me that got a little hot and bothered by how protective of me and our relationship he was being right now. I could hardly wait to show him exactly how appreciative of him I was. Naked. But after I calmed him down.

"Everett," I interrupted gently, guiding him to the couch. We sat down, and I took his hands in mine, but that wasn't enough for him, and he pulled me into his lap. "Tell me about the game. Did all of this affect you? Because I may rethink our positivity only strategy if it did."

I really was all in on the kill him with kindness plan, but if what Odin was doing hurt my man, I was ready and willing to move on to the just kill him plan. Grr. I am woman, hear me murder. Then dig a deep grave, toss an animal carcass on top to confuse any cadaver dogs, and plant a whole-ass field of endangered plant species to make it really damn hard to get permission to even search for, much less dig up, any bodies.

Not that I'd thought about it much or anything.

He took a deep breath, some of the anger seeming to deflate out of him. "Honestly? It was one of the best games I've ever played. Even Shananagan said so in the press conference afterward. When they let him get a word in edgewise."

"But you lost," I said softly. I knew it wasn't my fault, but it still worried me that I might be making his job harder.

A wry smile tugged at Everett's lips. "Yeah, we did. Because sometimes the other team plays great too. It's okay, Pen. Every team loses sometimes. Even the Mustangs. That's part of the game."

"Okay. As long as that axehole didn't get to you." I squeezed his hands. "That's what matters."

"But he did get to the media." He narrowed his eyes again, and I think he even growled. "They are having a field day with this."

"The media thrives on drama." Didn't I know it. I'd seen them come after Kelsey in the past, and I admired her strength in facing them now more than ever. "We can't control what they say, but we can control how we respond."

Everett's brow furrowed. "So what, we just ignore it? Let them spew their lies?"

I shook my head and stroked the delicious stubble across his skin. "No. We stay positive. We continue to show them who we really are."

I reached for my tablet on the coffee table. "Look at this."

I pulled up the video montage Kelsey and I were working on with some other plus-size celebrities and a bunch of the Besties. It showcased women of all shapes and sizes sharing their stories of insecurity and battling through to self-acceptance. It wasn't quite ready to go yet, but when it was, it was going to be powerful.

Everett watched intently, his grip on my hand tightening as the intensity of the messages filled the room. They were heartbreaking, they were empowering, and they were honest.

When the video ended, Everett was quiet for a moment. "This is... wow, Pen. This is incredible. You're right, this is so much better than burning down the internet, which is what Declan and I planned to do."

Something amazing had bloomed this week in the community of women all around me, and it was slowly but surely changing the way I thought about myself. "It's not just us. So many women have been sharing their stories. It's like we've tapped into something that was just waiting to be released."

"It's beautiful. You're beautiful, and I can't tell you how proud I am of you right now." He pulled me down for a long, lingering kiss and slid his hands up underneath my shirt.

"I'm aching for you to touch me, taste me." He'd been gone one night, barely twenty-four hours, and it felt like a thousand million years.

And it was going to be a billion katrillion more because there was a knock at the door, and Declan's booming voice. "Put your clothes back on love birds, we're coming in."

I sagged against Everett, and he shook his head. "After we destroy Odin, my big brother is next on the list."

Declan threw the door open before I'd even gotten off Everett's lap, and he had Kelsey in tow. I'd lived with the two of them long enough to recognize Kelsey's sex hair and satisfied smile. Dammit. Everett and I were going to have to practice quickies.

Declan rolled his eyes at me and Everett still entwined on the couch. "Come on, I gave you fifteen whole minutes after Kelsey's third orgasm. You need to work on your game, love guru."

I'd seen how competitive the brothers were with each other, and I was not going to be sad to benefit from some "who can get their girl to come more times" contests between them and us. Everett must have read my mind, or maybe just the lascivious look on my face, because he waggled his eyebrows at me.

Sadly, he moved me to the cushion beside him but not before giving my earlobe a little nip and whispering, "No quickies for us, Penny. I'm going to love you long and hard, bent over the couch, just the way you like it, baby."

Ooph. The anticipation of that was going to be fun for the next few hours. Maybe I could just ask Declan and Kelsey to come back tomorrow?

No. Yes. No. But I was going to try to keep this meeting as short as possible.

A few minutes later, our living room had transformed back into the war room. Kelsey and Declan had dragged Chris and Trixie along too, and the six of us were sprawled across the furniture, laptops open and phones in hand.

"I say we hit back hard," Declan grunted. "And not just online. Have we figured out where this asshat lives yet?"

Trixie raised a finger. "I didn't go to school for years to become a librarian for nothing. I'm excellent at that kind of research."

Everett nodded vigorously. "I'm with Dec. We can't let them get away with this garbage. You sit on him, Dec, and I've got some violent plans for him."

"Don't you boys worry," Chris sat across from us with his arms around Trixie and looking very much like he was gloating. "Trix and I have experience with blow hards. You let your big brother take care of this bully."

I exchanged a worried glance with Kelsey. This wasn't the direction we'd planned for our campaign.

"Guys," I said, trying to keep my voice calm, "I get that you're angry. Trust me, I am too. But fighting fire with fire isn't going to solve anything."

Kelsey nodded in agreement. "Pen's right. We've been making real progress with our positive message campaign. Do we really want to derail that by getting into a mud-slinging match?"

Everett ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every line of his body. "So what, we just let them walk all over us? Let Odin spew his hate without consequences?"

"No, we don't let them walk all over us. We rise above it." I turned to Everett, remembering our earlier conversation. "You said you wanted to contribute, right? What if... what if you guys shared your own stories?"

Declan's brow furrowed. "What do you mean, 'our own stories'?"

Kelsey and I had bandied about this idea yesterday while we were watching the game. "What if you shared times when you weren't completely confident in your bodies too? This doesn't just have to be about women's stories. Men have tons of body insecurities as well."

Showing that men have body insecurities too would reach an even bigger audience of people who needed to hear this kind of message.

The room fell silent as they considered this, and we gave them that space to think. Declan was the first to speak up, his eyes glued to Kels as he did. "Being the biggest guy around, I've had my fair share of body shaming thrown my way too, and I'm a professional goddamned athlete. I think that's part of what pisses me off about this whole thing so fucking bad."

Everett nodded slowly, a smile spreading across his face. "I did already tell you about throwing up at my KnightWear photoshoot. I could tell that story. But I should probably check with them first. They've treated me well, and I don't want to tarnish that relationship."

Chris frowned. "You never told me that."

"Exactly," Everett said. "Because we're always trying to project this image of perfect confidence. But what if we showed that it's okay not to be confident all the time? That what matters is how you push through it?"

"Isn't that giving Odin and the haters more ammo?" Chris shook his head and pulled Trixie closer. He didn't want to see her get hurt.

I got that, but this was a promising idea.

"No," I said firmly. "It's showing strength, it's normalizing. It's saying, 'Yeah, we have insecurities too, but we don't let them define us.' It's exactly what we've been encouraging our followers to do."

"I know you hate showing your vulnerabilities to anyone but me, sweetheart," Trixie ran a hand through Chris's hair, "but look around the room. Do you think any less of anyone here for being vulnerable?"

He stared down at Trixie, his eyes flicking back and forth between hers for a few breaths. Then he gave her a soft nod.

"No. Don't tell them," he stage-whispered to her, "But I think they're all tougher and braver than I am."

"I won't say a word." Trixie smiled up at him with so much love, and I wondered if I looked at Everett that way.

"Okay, I'm in," Chris looked around the room at us and said, "But how do we do this?"

The next hour flew by as we brainstormed ideas, drafted scripts, planned out a shooting schedule, and made calls to their agents to make sure the companies that sponsored them were on board with their stories.

Watching the Kingman men throw themselves into the project with as much passion as they'd initially wanted to use to attack our critics, I was almost overwhelmed with the amount of unexpected support and joy.

This was more than just damage control now. This was a chance to create real change, to challenge the toxic standards that had hurt so many people—including our big tough men.

I caught Everett's eye across the room. He winked at me, a smile playing on his lips. His anger had transformed into determination, and I knew that together, we could turn this mess into something truly positive. Something bigger than Odin and the other fatphobic people out there, bigger than all of us.