Chapter Twenty-Eight
My eyes flew open when I suddenly realized that Layla wasn’t in the bed with me. I looked to the window and noticed the sun shining brightly through the curtains. I jumped up, threw on my jeans and ran downstairs.
A delicious smell filled the air and my stomach growled.
“Layla!” I called out. God, that little girl. I hope she hasn’t broken anything of Adam’s yet. “We’re in the kitchen!” Adam called back.
Oh, thank goodness!
When I rounded the corner of the stairs and into the kitchen I hit a brick wall. Landyn and Adam were both in the kitchen. Together. Cooking.
Adam was at the stove with a spatula. He wore boxers, socks and a white t-shirt while Landyn was at the counter holding a mixer and wore boxers, an apron, no shirt and no socks.
What the hell?
Layla sat at the breakfast bar giving orders.
“Mama likes pancakes with chocolate chips and lotsa syrup. And cereal with two dashesa sugar. And donuts with pink icing and sprinkles. If you go buy her that stuff, it would make Mama not mad at you anymore Daddy.”
The little fibber! Those were all her favorites.
I sighed inwardly. She was so young and already she knew how to work a man to get what she wants.
If anyone noticed me, they paid me no attention.
“Well, in that case, your mom will rarely be eating chocolate chip pancakes, cereal with a dash of sugar or donuts with pink icing and sprinkles, because I don’t plan to make her mad very often, precious,” Landyn replied sweetly and then he turned his head in my direction and made eye contact.
I swallowed hard when I suddenly realized that my dream last night was no dream. It was real. He did come to me.
I wanted to run up to him and throw my arms around his neck, but I held back. I felt a little foolish for my shocking reactions last night.
Who nearly starts a fight while pregnant? I think somehow, subconsciously, I knew neither of the guys would let it get too far, but I would never regret hitting Destiny.
I walked further into the kitchen at a snail’s pace. Adam and Layla had turned and were watching me with probing gazes now.
“Good morning,” I said softly in the uncomfortable silence.
“Lexi, baby, come here,” Landyn ordered as he pointed to the spot at his feet. I went to him at my continued slow pace until I was in close enough reach for him to grab me around the waist and haul me securely against his chest. My hands went to his shoulders, forehead to his chest and I cried, “I’m so sorry.” I was sorry for a lot of things.
He squeezed me harder and pressed a kiss to the crook of my neck.
“Layla,” Lan called out while still holding me. “Take over for me here and tell Adam how much you like football, okay? Your mom and I will be right back.”
“Yes!” she hissed and clapped excitedly. “Uncle Adam, can I mix the pancakes?” Layla screamed. All I heard was mumbling from Adam, as Landyn shuffled me out of the kitchen and into the living room.
Wait... Did Layla just call Adam, Uncle Adam? What the hell?
Landyn stopped us in the living room and tilted my head up to look at him. He looked lovingly at me while he studied my face. The arm that held me at the waist suddenly came around and I felt his knuckles gently caressing my stomach through my shirt.
“I can’t believe we made a baby so fast,” he whispered gently.
Then he reached down and tried to lace our fingers together, but it was the hand that, until that moment, I didn’t realize was very sore. I winched. Landyn saw it and looked down; my eyes followed. There was slight bruising across my knuckles.
Landyn looked back up and this time his expression was not happy.
“Don’t run out on me again, Lexi. I swore I’d never hurt you and I won’t. I expect we’ll have the same problems every other family has, but we’ll work through them. I’ll never cheat on you.”
When I didn’t say anything he exhaled noisily. “Destiny came to see if I found out where you lived. She was looking for Trish. She showed me pictures-” he was about to continue explaining, but I stopped him.
“Trish told me about the pictures and what she did. She didn’t sleep with that the guy in the photos; who is, or was Destiny’s fiancé by the way. Trish took the pictures as a way to pay Destiny back for having sex with you.”
When one of Lan’s eyebrows rose in expectation, I clarified. “Six years ago, when you had sex with Destiny, Trish swore up and down that she would pay her back. Those pictures were pay back.”
Lan gave me a smirk. “I figured there was more to the story. I didn’t actually think she would hurt Tony like that purposely. Destiny yes; Tony no.”
The situation with Trish was painful for me. If she hurt, I hurt. I swore to myself that I would help her make things right with Tony. It was the least I could do for her after everything she’s done for me. This, I knew, was going to take time, but I’d do it. So for now, I focused on the matter at hand.
“Landyn, I’m so sorry about last night. Well, I’m not sorry for hitting Destiny, but I am sorry for not trusting you enough to let you explain. If you look at it from my perspective, you have to admit it looked bad; you unexpectedly get called into work, one of your worker’s tells me you were in a meeting and then I show up and find Destiny there-” Lan put his finger to my lips and shushed me.
“I did go in for a meeting Lexi. Just... stay right there and don’t move,” he ordered before he hustled out of the room and up the stairs. I watched him go and he looked so freaking sexy wearing nothing but boxers and an apron.
Strange, but sexy nonetheless.
A moment later he was jogging back down the stairs while he dug around in the pocket of the jeans he now carried. When he made it to me, he threw the jeans down, lifted my uninjured hand and placed a beautiful princess cut diamond engagement ring on my finger.
“Oh my God,” I breathed, as tears filled my eyes.
“Lexi, baby, I wanted to do this right, I wanted my proposal to be perfect and I wanted our wedding to be everything you’ve ever imagined, but it seems like everything having to do with us as a couple is more than unusual. Do you remember John Sanders?”
That was an odd question, but yeah, I’d never forget what happened at his house.
I nodded.
“He owns a jewelry store in Bellaire. I had him meet me at the office so I could pick out your ring. I hope it fits, I guessed at the size.” I was speechless, and the ring fit flawlessly.
“It’s up to you when, where and how you want to get married, baby. Just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean we have to go to the Justice of the Peace or Vegas; we could have something small or we could have a big wedding, it’s your decision.”
I was occupied with wiping my tears, but I managed another nod and whispered, “Okay, I’ll have to think about it. I’ll have to get with Trish.” I paused. “I love you Lan and I’m so sorry.”
Landyn wiped away my tears with his thumbs. “I love you more, baby.”
At that moment, I turned when I heard a noise and saw a disheveled Trish dragging herself down the stairs. Her hair was mess, her clothes were wrinkled and she had make-up smeared all over her puffy, pale, cried out face.
Poor thing.
I turned again, in the opposite direction when I heard noise coming from the kitchen that sounded like it was coming closer. Eventually, Adam and Layla walked into the room hand-in-hand.
I didn’t like that. I didn’t think it was appropriate for Adam to be holding Layla’s hand and I figured Landyn would like that even less, but when I glanced at him, he looked calm. I silently wondered if it was only the calm before the storm.
Adam looked between Lan and me. “Looks like you two worked things out.” Then he turned to Trish and grinned. “You’re a hot mess,” he called out to her and I heard Trish growl “asshole.”
He held up his hands defensively. “Hey, I just call it like I see it, honey. You’ll feel better when you eat; food’s ready.”
“Yeah, and Uncle Adam let me make all the pancakes!” Layla exclaimed happily.
Now my happy mood was slowly slipping away.
“Layla, why do you keep calling him Uncle Adam?” I asked her curiously. Layla’s eyes moved to Landyn and then came back to me.
“Because he’s my Uncle, duh, Mama!” Layla said sassily as she put a hand on her hip and worked her neck back and forth as if to say “booya!”
Geez! She might as well have snapped her fingers at me too.
I had to force myself not to lecture her on talking to me that way. However, I did give her a warning look just before turning my attention to Lan, who had a very unmistakable guilty look on his face.
“What is she talking about?” I asked him suspiciously.
The whole room grew quiet; not that it wasn’t already quiet, but it had now grown so quiet I could nearly distinguish each person’s individual breathing pattern. It was creepy.
As I waited for a response, I caught Landyn and Adam and Layla looking back and forth between each other. Now I was getting pissed.
“What?!” I shouted.
Still no response.
I continued to look between the two men waiting for either one to answer me when, out of the blue, it dawned on me...
Now that they were standing together in the same room with hardly any clothes on, I could easily compare. The answer was staring me in the face; I just had to put the puzzle pieces together.
Was it the body? Maybe, they had the same muscular build, but Landyn was possibly half an inch taller.
Was it the face? No, they had different face shapes, one was square and rugged, and the other was round and baby-faced. Their skin coloring and texture was identical though.
Was it the eyes? Yes, it was the eyes. The color wasn’t the same, Adam’s green, Lan’s amber, but Adam’s were just as bright as Landyn’s. They were the exact same shape and they both had extra-long unruly eyelashes.
And the hair! Even though Adam’s hair was in a short buzz cut, I could tell it was jet black and thick, just like Landyn’s.
There was also a little something in Adam’s face that said he was older, but not by much. Maybe it was the deeper laugh lines he had in the corners of his eyes.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” I shouted when I finally put it together. I felt like I had been slapped.
“You’re brothers,” I hissed furiously without even needing them to confirm it. “I can’t believe you’re brothers and neither one of you told me!”
“Holy cow,” I heard Trish say from somewhere behind me.
“Layla, cover your ears and don’t listen,” I ordered even though I knew little Ms. Nosey Rosy would be eavesdropping. I still waited until she did what I asked before facing Landyn who looked sheepish.
“Is that why you got so mad when I was thinking about telling Trish how hot the detective was? Because he was your brother?” I watched Landyn’s remorseful expression rapidly change to anger. His lips grew tight, a muscle ticked in his jaw and his narrowed eyes hit Adam’s like this situation was his fault. I could feel the energy radiating off Landyn’s fury infused body.
“Oh, don’t even pull the macho man, possessive guy crap with me now Lan. You know I’m stupidly, madly in love with you even though you make me want to pull out my hair most of the time. I’m mad at myself for not figuring it out myself. You two look so ridiculously alike.”
I turned to Adam. “And you’re such a jerk, flirting so shamelessly with your brother’s woman. You were just using me to bait him weren’t you?”
I didn’t let him answer and took a deep breath.
“I knew you two were having some kind of secret mind reading conversation last night. How did I not realize this?”
I turned to Trish. “Why didn’t you see this?” She opened her mouth to speak, but Landyn butted in.
“Baby, I was going to tell you, but I assumed I’d never see him again and I didn’t want you to get involved. I told you that the other times I’ve seen him were only by chance. We’ve always known who each other were, but other than that we haven’t talked, at least not until you came back into my life. You brought him with you and now he’s not leaving. I got here at two this morning. It took me nearly two hours to find out exactly where he lived, but I knew he’d keep you with him.”
He quickly glanced at Adam and then back to me. “We talked about a lot, Lexi, and we’re going to get to know each other. It seems that in just one night you’ve made quite the impression on him and he wants to get to know us as a family.”
I was stunned. I looked to Adam.
His eyes were already on me. “Brother or not, if he fucks up again, I’ll be waiting to steal you away.” He sounded completely serious, but the twinkle in his eyes gave away his mischievousness.
“Watch it,” Lan mumbled. “You don’t know me well enough to joke around with her like that.”
I sighed. Adam grinned. I heard Trish’s broken sobs behind me.
“Please tell me my life won’t always be like this,” I begged out loud to anyone who could tell me otherwise.