Close to You

“It’s just in a braid,” I reply. “But thank you.”

“You usually wear your hair down.”

“Unless I’m cleaning or working out,” I say, and take another bite of pizza. “So far, this qualifies as both.”

“Do you go to the gym?”

“Not if I can help it,” I reply with a grin. “Addie makes me go sometimes, and I’m pretty sure it’s because she hates me.”

“I don’t hate you!” Addie calls from the living room before returning to her conversation with Mia about a new walk-in freezer for the restaurant.

“So you don’t go to the gym but you work out?” Landon asks with a smile.

“I go for walks. I shovel my sidewalk in the winter. I carry Christmas decorations down from my attic.”

“That’s all considered working out?” Landon asks.

“I have a lot of decorations,” I mutter with a frown. “I jump over the cat.”

“Wait. You have a cat?” Mia asks. “Since when?”

“About a month ago,” I reply. “And I didn’t get a cat, the cat got me.”

“I’m so confused,” Addie whispers.

“He came in my house and he won’t leave.”

“I’ve dated a few of those,” Mia says with a laugh, then sticks her tongue out at her brother when he scowls.

“I’ll make them fucking leave,” Landon growls.

“Can you make Scoot leave?”

“Who’s Scoot?” Addie asks.

“The cat,” Landon replies as he crosses his arms over his chest and keeps his gaze level with mine. “And no. He loves you.”

“He won’t let me touch him,” I counter. “That doesn’t scream love to me.”

“Just come to grips with the fact that you have a cat. He’s cute.” Landon brushes his knuckles down my cheek, but I barely notice. I’m still deep in thought about the damn cat. “Like you.”

“He lets you touch him,” I remind him, and roll my eyes and pull myself out of my own head. “What needs to be put away next?”

“These boxes are empty,” Mia says.

“That’s it, then,” Landon says. “I’ll finish up the kitchen.”

“You are not to hang that horrible owl in the kitchen,” Mia says, wagging her finger under his nose. “It’s ugly as hell.”

“It’s my house,” he reminds her. “I’ll hang whatever I want in the kitchen. Maybe my underwear.”

“Ew,” Addie and I say in unison. “Do you hang your underwear in the kitchen?” Addie asks me with a laugh.

“I don’t wear underwear,” I remind her. “But if I did, they wouldn’t hang in the kitchen.”

“I can’t even believe we’re related,” Mia says with disgust. “Mom raised you better than that.”

But Landon isn’t listening to her. He’s watching me. His eyes are narrowed, just a bit, and his hands are clenched on the countertop. His jaw ticks.

“Landon.” Mia waves her hand over his face, getting his attention.

“What.”

“We’re done. We’re going to leave now.”

Addie and I gather up the pizza box and our napkins and toss them in Landon’s brand-new garbage can, and all the while I can feel his hot gaze on me. Landon’s looked at me in a lot of ways over the years. He’s laughed with me, been proud of me, irritated by me, and even mad at me.

But he’s never looked at me like he’d like to strip me naked to see if I’m lying about the no-underwear thing.

With a look like that, if I did wear them, they’d be soaked by now.

“Landon!” Mia exclaims in exasperation.

“Thanks for coming,” Landon says, shaking himself out of his daze. “It was sweet of all of you.”

“You never know when one of us is going to move and need the favor returned,” Mia says with a shrug.

“I’ll hire movers,” Addie assures him, and pats his arm.

“I’m not moving,” I add, and push my feet into my heels. “I’m gonna be in that house until it’s time to go to the home.”

“It’s a good house,” Mia says. “I like it.”

“Me too,” Landon says, and brushes his hand down the back of my hair. “Thank you, Camille.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Mia and I were here too,” Addie reminds him with a sweet smile. “Just in case you forgot.”

“Thank you too, smartass,” Landon says, ruffling Addie’s hair the way he knows she hates it.

He follows us out of the house and stands on the porch as we all climb into Mia’s car and pull away.

“So, what’s up?” Addie asks from the passenger seat. She turns around to smile at me.

“Well, we just helped Landon unpack, and now I’m going home.”

“No, jerk, with you and Landon,” she clarifies.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. Do you have amnesia?”

Addie rolls her eyes and looks over at Mia. “Help me out here.”

Mia looks at me in the rearview mirror. “You’re being obtuse.”

“There’s nothing to say.”

“Didn’t look like nothing to me,” Mia says, and turns down my street. “Especially when I caught you two all cozied up in the closet.”

“They were cozy in the closet?” Addie asks, her voice shrill.