Twenty-Two

Jensen

“What the fuck is going on?” Landon asked.

Oh, fuck!

Fuck!

“Landon, man”—I casually disentangled myself from Emery as she was hastily doing the same, looking shell-shocked—“you’re back.”

I’d been meaning to tell Landon about Emery so he wouldn’t hear it from someone else first. I had known he was coming back for Christmas. But I’d thought I still had a few days. I’d wanted to make sure things were official with Emery before bringing it up with Landon. Now…he was here.

“Cut the shit, Jensen. Just answer the question. What is happening right here?”

Landon pointed between the two of us, but neither of us said a word. We just stared forward at Landon, as if he might be an apparition that would disappear at any moment.

“I meant to tell you—”

“Tell me what?” His posture was stiff. His eyes kept shifting between the pair of us, as if he were trying to decipher a particularly difficult code. “Are you two…together?”

“Yes,” Emery said, regaining her voice, “we’re together.”

Landon’s eyes moved, as if he were watching tennis. “I was only gone a couple of weeks. I don’t understand how this could have happened…and why I was never informed that this was fucking happening.” He shook his head and then glanced away from us.

“Where’s Miranda?” I asked him to try to move the discussion into safer territory. “Did she come in with you?”

“Are you kidding me? After the fit she had when she found out that Emery was still here, you think she’d have let me fly back alone?” he ground out.

“So…she’s here?” I asked warily. I did not want Emery to be here if Miranda was at my house. That was a recipe for disaster.

“She’s out shopping. Fuck, could you imagine if she was here?” Landon ran a hand back through his hair and then glared at me. “Could you fucking imagine? I came back at your request, and you didn’t even tell me about Emery? Is this what you wanted?”

“No,” I said. It had been my request. I hadn’t wanted Landon to miss Christmas with his family. I’d wanted him here because he was my brother, and I loved him. Now, he was pissed off, and I didn’t know how to fix this. But I would have to. “I wanted to tell you in advance about Emery so we could talk about this like men and not just get pissed off at each other.”

Landon looked like he wanted to tell me to fuck off.

“You know, I should go,” Emery said. She took a step back toward the door. “It’s been a long weekend.”

I turned to face her and wondered what she must be feeling. We’d both been anxious about telling Landon that we were dating, because the whole situation felt out of our hands. I didn’t want to piss off Landon. He and Emery might have dated almost a decade ago, but it was tricky dealing with someone else’s past relationship.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yeah. Um…I should go see my sister. Check in, you know.”

“All right. I’ll call you later.”

“Yeah, sure.” She didn’t even lean in for a kiss. Just gave a half-wave and then was gone, out the front door, leaving me all alone with my pissed off brother.

“So, you’re fucking my ex-girlfriend now?” Landon asked. There was fury in his voice. It was something I hadn’t heard from Landon in a long time. Not since Dad had died.

“It’s not like that.”

“What is it like exactly? Gave up on messing around with every girl you came across when you were out of town and decided to dick around with all those in town, too?”

I ground my teeth and felt the hair rise on the back of my neck. Landon was looking for a fight, but I wouldn’t oblige him.

“I don’t want to fight with you,” I said finally.

“Well, you don’t get to make that choice, Jensen. You walked in here with Emery Robinson. We’d dated for two years. You knew her when we were in high school, Jensen.”

“I didn’t know her then, and like you, I didn’t even recognize her at first.”

“Like me?”

“At the wedding,” I bit out.

Landon’s face ignited, and he rushed toward me, shoving me backward. “You met her at Sutton’s wedding? You’ve known who she is this whole time and didn’t say anything?”

“Yes, all right? Yes. I’ve known who she was since that next morning. You were the one who told me that she was leaving town after a couple of days.”

“That wasn’t an invitation to go and fuck her!”

“I didn’t take it as one!” I yelled back. “I was going to leave her alone, but then we kept running into each other. I’ve fallen for her, Landon. I have.”

“For now,” Landon said under his breath. “What happens when you’re tired of her? We all know you bore easily. You can fool her with whatever you’re doing, but I know your reputation.”

“Emery does not compare to any other girl I’ve been with,” I growled. “Comparing Emery to any of my flings is an insult to her.”

“Or is it just an insult to you?”

There were a million things I could throw back at him—namely, his horrible wife—but I knew that wouldn’t get me anywhere. I needed him to understand.

“I should have told you.”

“You said that already.”

“I was planning to tell you before Christmas. But I wanted to make sure this was a real thing. I didn’t want you to find out this way.”

“Whatever, Jensen. Just admit it. It’s not that you didn’t want me to find out this way. It’s that you didn’t want me to find out at all. Everyone else in the family can fuck up, and you solve their problems, but you can’t solve your own.” Landon sneered at me and crossed his arms. “You just hide them.”

“That’s not what I was going to do. I care for Emery. I wanted to make things right. This isn’t a joke to me. And why are you so pissed off anyway? You’re married.” I reminded him. “By the way you’re acting, I’d think you still had feelings for Emery.”

“Fuck off, Jensen,” Landon said. He turned away from me and paced toward the door.

He twitched his hand toward the handle but stopped when I began to speak, “The breakup was ten years ago, Landon. This is all harsh for someone you’ve barely spoken to since high school.”

He whipped around to glare at me. “You don’t know anything.”

I bit out a laugh, harsh and low. “You went to different colleges. You were going different directions. A lot of couples break up for those reasons.”

“If you believe that is what happened, then you don’t know Emery.”

I tilted my head in confusion. Ten years ago, that was exactly what Landon had said about Emery. I remembered it because he had told me after our father’s funeral. They’d broken up shortly after that. I hadn’t ever suspected there was more to the story.

“And you’re smarter than this, Jensen,” Landon said. “You know that you don’t want to bring her into your mess.”

“She already knows.”

“Everything?” Landon prodded.

“Not everything,” I said slowly. “It’s only been a couple weeks. I’m trying to ease her into my life.”

“You better tell her, Jensen or I will.”

“Don’t threaten me, Landon.”

“Fuck! You know I won’t tell her. Though I should,” he said with a glare. “Emery is a good, kind, and genuine person. She’s too good for you.”

With that, Landon wrenched open the door, leaving me standing there in shock. I stared at his retreating form until he disappeared completely.

How had that all gone so completely fucking wrong?