Twenty-Three

Emery

After checking on my sister, I hurried over to Flips to meet Heidi. Peter was working the bar when I entered. He waved distractedly as he poured out beers for a few guys.

“Heidi here?” I asked.

“Pool table.”

“Of course. Should have known.”

I grabbed two tequila shots from Peter and then brought them to the back. Heidi was running the table, but it was a slow night, so she wasn’t hustling anyone…yet.

“Shot?” I asked.

“God, yes,” Heidi said.

We tossed back the alcohol, letting it course through our veins and make our minds all fuzzy. I needed a good fuzzy mind after the day I’d had.

“Good to have you back, baby,” she said, winking at me. “Now, tell me all about your Wright brother. Is he the right brother?” Heidi cackled, as if her joke were hilarious.

“How many drinks did you have before this?”

Heidi innocently fluttered her eyelashes at me. “More than one.”

“Whore.”

“I didn’t know you were back yet! And Julia is in Ohio or wherever she’s from. Somewhere cold and snowy.”

“It’s cold and snowy here.”

“Yeah, sometimes. But not today!”

“No, not today. But snow is on the forecast for forty-eight of the fifty states next week. Everywhere is cold, except for Florida and Hawaii.”

Heidi sighed. “If only. Now, tell me about your sexy weekend. There were sexy times, right?”

“Yes,” I conceded. “We ran into my ex-boyfriend, and Jensen bought a million-dollar company from a man who his ex-wife cheated on him with. Then, when we came home, Landon was waiting for us at Jensen’s house.”

Heidi blinked twice and then burst into laughter. She dropped the pool cue onto the table and then doubled over. “Oh my God,” she cried. “Oh, phew! Wow!”

“What the hell are you laughing about?”

“Did you not hear how ridiculous you sounded?” Heidi asked. She swiped at her eyes.

“I just told you what happened!”

“Yeah. Yeah, you did. Wow!”

Heidi chuckled some more, and I couldn’t help it; I joined in.

“God, you’re such a bitch.”

“You love me anyway.”

“True,” I admitted.

“So…Landon is back in town?” Heidi asked. Her eyes met mine, and then she glanced away immediately.

I narrowed my eyes in confusion at her strange body language. “Yeah. He just got into town with his wife. Not so great timing.”

“Did you see Miranda? Was she there?”

“Nah. Lucky for us. Sort of, I guess.”

“Yeah. She’s a nutjob.”

I nodded. “That’s true. But Landon got upset when he saw Jensen and I together.”

“Landon is a big boy. He’s a grown-up and married and living halfway across the country. He shouldn’t be upset.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But you didn’t see his face when he saw us together. I know I haven’t talked to him in forever, but I feel bad for Jensen that we didn’t tell him. After all, he’s his brother and, we probably should have said something when we realized things were getting serious.”

“Serious?”

“I guess we’re official now,” I told her with a grin.

The idea that Jensen was my boyfriend was too exciting to contain.

Heidi screamed and jumped up and down. “Okay. Well, we definitely need to toast to that.”

We hurried over to the bar, and Peter poured us some fancy shots that promised to knock us both on our asses. I tipped back mine and could already feel the ramifications of that drink coming on strong. I excused myself to use the restroom, and when I returned, I told Heidi the full details of my weekend with Jensen. I still felt rotten about leaving Landon and Jensen together like that, but it was good to be with my girlfriend. To not have to worry about it at all.

I was on my third round, and I was unsure of where that put Heidi. If we kept this up, both of us were going to have to cab it back home. I was just debating whether or not to nurse this one for the rest of the night when Heidi perked up in her seat.

“What?” I asked. I was more attuned to my friend’s behavior than anyone else I’d ever known.

“Don’t hate me.”

“Oh God, I already do.” I glanced over my shoulder and saw none other than Landon Wright walking into the bar.

He looked the same as I’d left him back with Jensen. Dressed down in a polo and jeans, he shrugged out of his jacket to reveal his perpetually sun-kissed skin from hours of golfing outdoors in Florida.

“Did you invite him here?” I accused.

“Well, he texted me to find out where you were…and ta-da.”

“You’re right. I do hate you.”

Landon’s gaze caught mine from across the room, and his mouth ticked up into a smile. He strode toward us with a purpose that I recognized from my recent, vivid acquaintance with his brother. It was a swagger that I was very familiar with. Strange, considering I didn’t really compare Jensen to Landon when we were together. But it felt impossible not to compare Landon to Jensen.

“Hey,” he said, slinging his jacket onto the back of the seat next to mine.

“Hi.”

“Hey, Landon!” Heidi said with a big grin.

His eyes moved to Heidi’s and softened briefly. “Hey, Heidi. Thanks for the info.”

“For sure. Why don’t you two just…” She trailed off, swallowed, and then darted back to the pool table.

“Do you mind?” Landon asked, gesturing to the empty seat.

I shook my head and concentrated on my drink.

“Emery, I didn’t mean to ambush you,” he said at once.

“Why not? I kind of ambushed you.”

He breathed out heavily. “Not on purpose.”

“True.”

“I just wanted to apologize.”

I turned my head to look at him again. What was with these Wrights that I always got apologies out of them? They were the kind of men who probably didn’t use the word much.

“You want to apologize to me?”

“Yeah, I just saw you there…with him…and I kind of blew a gasket.”

“I noticed that.”

“Which I had no right to do.”

I would have freaked out if I had hypothetically found out he was dating Kimber. Jensen and I should have fixed this long before it got here. I knew that. I’d just been too blissful to consider what would happen and where things were going. I hadn’t wanted to do anything that could hurt something so fragile. And our relationship was fragile.

“How are you and Jensen?” I asked carefully.

Landon ground his teeth and motioned for Peter to give him a beer. “I needed some time to cool off.”

“So, you came to me?” I arched an eyebrow. “Don’t think we were ever the cool-off type. I think we argued most of the time.”

“Only so we could make up,” he said with a grin.

I shrugged, unable to deny it. “You know, Jensen and I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“I don’t really want to know,” he said, holding up a hand. “It might have been ten years, Emery, but it’s still weird to me.”

“It’s weird to me, too.”

“Just…be careful,” Landon said. He dropped his hand onto my shoulder and looked me deep in the eyes. “I love my brother. But he’s an asshole, and he’s bad with women. Plus, he has more baggage than the rest of our family combined, and I think one Wright has hurt you enough for a lifetime. I wouldn’t want to see you like that again.”

I pulled back and let his hand drop off my shoulder. “I know about Jensen’s reputation and his past. I know that he hasn’t always made the right decisions with women. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s going to fuck this up, too. If I thought he was playing me, I wouldn’t be in his life. This is me we’re talking about, Landon.”

“I know,” he whispered. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

I sighed and shook my head. “You know what? I’ve had enough crap for one weekend. I apologized for not telling you about Jensen, but I’m not leaving him because of it. And I’m not being naive about our relationship.”

“I don’t think you know him.”

“You’re right,” I conceded. “I definitely do not know him like you do. How could I? But that doesn’t mean I don’t care for him and want to get to know him.”

“I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

I stood from my seat and reached for my drink. “It’s about ten years too late for that, Landon.”

Landon winced, and I could see that my jab had cut deep. We both knew it. This was why he’d ignored all my messages after graduation. This was why we hadn’t really spoken since.

“That’s fair. I deserve that,” he said.

“Let me take care of myself. I’ve been doing it long enough without your help. So, why don’t we go and play some pool with Heidi and hang out for a while? I’d love to see Heidi hustle you like old times.”

Landon glanced down at his phone. He grimaced, and I had to gather his wife was messaging him.

“Okay, but I don’t have that long. Miranda is almost finished shopping. It would be bad for both of our health if she found us in the same place, let alone at a bar.”

“She seems a bit…controlling,” I ventured as we joined Heidi at the pool table.

“I really do not want to talk about her.”

I held my hands up. “Okay.”

“What don’t we want to talk about?” Heidi asked. Her eyes darted back and forth between me and Landon. She had this little worried tilt to her mouth.

She was seriously confusing me.

Was she…vibing on Landon?

No way. That couldn’t be it.

It had to be that she was just concerned about me and Landon being in the same vicinity after everything that had happened with Jensen.

“Miranda,” Landon said gently.

“Is she coming here?” Heidi asked, her voice rising an octave.

“God, no.”

“We’re trying to make sure everyone makes it out of this alive. I mostly want to see you kick Landon’s ass in pool. So, hop to. Make this happen for me,” I said to Heidi.

Heidi grinned devilishly. Her eyes swept to Landon. “You rack, and I’ll break.”

“I’d expect nothing less,” he said as he got to work.

And, suddenly, the three of us were back in high school. We’d spent countless nights at Heidi’s dad’s bar playing pool and having a good time. Half of the time, one of Heidi’s boyfriends would show up. There was a lot of making out in back booths and trying to convince someone to get us drinks and a whole lot less actual pool.

So, this felt normal and comfortable.

I never thought I’d feel like this around Landon Wright again.

And it was nice.