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“Ari is my son, Micah. Arizona, actually. What you overheard was a very large, very ugly family misunderstanding.” He smiled down at me and rubbed his bruised jaw. “I would never cheat on you but now I know what’s waiting for me if I do stray. You pack a solid right hook, baby.”
“Your…your son? You were talking to your son?” I couldn’t believe I’d made such a huge fuck-up…a fuck-up that had nearly cost me my life. Communication—that shit’s important. I wouldn’t be good at it because I’d always been alone, but I damn sure vowed to do better in the future.
If there was a future.
Landon blushed. “Yes, Micah, my son.” He looked at my mother and then back at me. “He’s your age, baby. It’s embarrassing to me and I know it will be to you, as well. If all this is too much…if I’m too much, just say the words. You have your whole life ahead of you. You’re gorgeous, smart, witty—hell, you’re the entire package. I don’t want you being tied down with an old man like me.”
“Old?” I rebutted with a chuckle. “You’re thirty-nine years old, Landon. That’s hardly old enough for us to begin looking for retirement homes for you…maybe assisted-living, but not a nursing home.” His son! Yes! A thrill shot through my body. He was mine!
Maybe.
Was he mine? I still felt like I was standing in quicksand.
“Who’s calling my old man an old man?” a voice rang out. My eyes shot toward the doorway where Eli, Sammie’s half-brother and my protector since childhood, stood next to a handsome blond guy. Well, shit. What I fantasized would someday be my stepson was fucking gorgeous. The thought was so ridiculous, laughter bubbled up my throat, causing every eye in the room to return their focus to me. Ari’s eyes, so much like his father’s, narrowed when he looked at me. I watched Eli give him a nudge forward after giving me a reassuring wink.
Ari walked closer, studying me like a science project. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime to me, he looked at his father, back at me, and then back to his father. “Because whoever called him an old man should have called him a dirty old man! Damn, Dad. Cradle-rob much?”
Eli swatted Ari’s ass hard enough to almost knock him into the bed with me. “Watch that mouth. We’ve just now managed to call a truce between the two of you, and I for one am not in the mood to listen to any more of your bickering.” Eli gently moved Ari aside and reached in to give me a hug, careful not to touch any of my injured spots. “Hey, Sweetness. How are you feeling?”
He’d called me Sweetness for as long as I could remember but never told me why. “Hey, Eli. How are things?”
He grinned and glanced over his shoulder at Ari. “Good…really good.” His eyes drifted to Landon and then back to me. “How are things with you?”
What to say? Oh, I fell in love with your future father-in-law? How funny is that? We might be related one day. Wait, I don’t know for sure how he feels about me. I thought he loved me. Then I thought he didn’t. Now, I don’t know.
Instead of all that, though, I said, “Not bad.”
“Arizona’s a sweetheart when he isn’t in bitch mode. I promise. The two of you will get along famously. Right now, he’s got some crap going on in his life that he’s trying to deal with. Him and Landon—cut both of them some slack,” Eli said.
Landon stepped up and bumped Eli aside. “I hardly think I need you vouching for me, asshole.”
“Don’t call my brother an asshole, you jackass!” Samantha popped off.
I stepped out onto a limb…for the first damn time in my life. I had no idea where I stood with Landon, but I knew where I wanted to stand. “Don’t call my boyfriend a jackass, Sammie. It’s rude and pisses me off.”
There. I’d said it. The room was deathly quiet. It probably wasn’t, but it felt that way to me. I wanted to crawl under the blankets and pretend I was invisible. My mom must have sensed my distress. She stepped up and wrapped an arm around Sammie’s waist. “You heard my son, baby, don’t pick on his boyfriend.” She winked at me, but I didn’t feel a bit better. Landon had remained eerily silent after my remark.
Finally, Landon spoke. “Why don’t we all let Micah get some rest? He’s been through a very traumatic experience—both physically and emotionally. The doctor told all of us that the best medicine would be rest, not us arguing in front of him.”
Well, I guess that was the end of that.
No words of endearments. No confessions of love. Nothing.
My mom cleared her throat nervously but didn’t argue. She leaned over to kiss my cheek, and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Micah. I thought it was what you wanted. I’ll never forgive myself. I love you more than life itself.”
