Page 61 of Worth the Trip

Heat climbed beneath my skin.

Nana folded her arms. “You planning to greet the rest of us, or you came over here to stare at my grandbaby?”

That finally pulled his attention away.

“Good afternoon, ma’am. My apologies. Nolani distracted me.”

“That happen often?”

“Been happening since Friday.”

Loretta slapped a card against the table. “I know that’s right.”

“Nobody asked you,” Nana said.

Landon laughed and offered her the cedar box. “Nolani told me you garden. Flowers looked too temporary, so I brought something you can actually put in the ground.”

Nana accepted it and opened the lid. Several seed packets sat inside beside a pair of gardening gloves and small wooden plant markers.

“Heirloom tomatoes?”

“The woman at the nursery said those do well near the coast.”

Nana looked at him. “You cook?”

“Enough to keep myself alive and know cinnamon don’t belong in rice.”

A laugh escaped me.

His eyes came right back.

Of course they did.

He lifted the bakery box next. “Pralines from Magnolia Row. Hershey mentioned the card game, and I wasn’t showing up empty-handed.”

Miss Corrine rose so quickly her chair scraped. “Give me that box. Pearl gon’ have us splitting one praline five ways if she hold it.”

Nana handed it over without looking away from Landon.

“Where you taking her?”

“Marina first. Promenade, bookstore, gallery. Dinner later if she still likes me by then.”

“What time you bringing her back?”

His attention shifted toward me before he answered. “Whenever she’s ready. I planned the date. Her time’s still hers.”

Miss Loretta leaned toward Corrine. “That was a good answer.”

“I heard him,” Nana said.

Landon looked entirely unbothered by the inspection. No extra chest in his posture, no performance designed to convince Nana he was harmless. He simply stood there like a grown man who understood that entering somebody’s life sometimes meant meeting the people already standing inside it.

Nana tapped the tomato packet against her palm. “You coach football?”

“Yes, ma’am. College ball and youth clinics.”

“Then you know how to return something somebody trusted you with.”