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“Well, yeah. I just never thought I’d hearyousay it.”
He rolls his eyes and sips his coffee. “Stop deflecting, Pita.”
I smile at the use of the old nickname he gave me when we were kids playing the rhyming name game. In the later years, he called me that whenever I was being a pain in the ass.
Setting the coffee mug on the counter, he then crosses his arms over his chest and gives me his best interrogation look. “Are you messing around with Jake again?”
Twin emotions of “oh shit” and anger course through me. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes, I was with Jake last night. And what do you meanagain?”
He gives me a bland look that sayscut the shit. “I know about that summer after graduation.”
“How can you know? No one knew and you weren’t even around. You’d already shipped out.”
“Jake told me.”
I drop my hand, taken aback.
Jake told him?
“When did he tell you?”
Landon drops his gaze from mine and rubs the back of his neck. “A couple of months ago. Right after the wedding.”
He sighs. “There was an accident out on the highway that needed an extra tow truck that day and he was called to help. He missed the ceremony and was late to the reception. He found out you were there but had already left, which led to a few double scotches on the rocks. He was just loose-lipped enough to tell me he was still in love with you.”
My mouth falls open and there’s ringing in my ears.In love with me? There’s no way that’s right.
There’s got to be an explanation for that.
He continues. “When I started asking him questions about what he was talking about, he told me all about that summer. Well,”—he gives me a grimace—“he left details out. Thankfully.”
“Yeah, that’s not awkward at all.”
“You’re telling me.” He shudders.
“Hey,” I say, pointing at him. “It makes me want to bleach my brain thinking about how you got Iris pregnant.”
“Very easily.” His grin is huge and typical man.
“Stop it. You two are stupid-pretty people and you’ll make pretty babies, but I don’t even want to think about the sex part, okay?”
We laugh, but after a moment, my mind drifts back to the topic at hand. “Landon, how drunk wereyouthat night?”
“I wasn’t.”
I shake my head. “Even still, I’m sure you’re mistaken. Jake has never loved me, not like that.”
Not like I want him to love me.
Wait, no. Not like Iwantedhim to love me.
There’s a difference.
Landon holds my gaze with his whiskey-colored eyes. I’ve always wished I’d gotten that unique color like he did.
“You didn’t see what I saw, Lia,” he says after our momentary stare down. “Haven’t you ever wondered why a man who’s such a family man has never settled down?”
I cross my arms with a frown and shrug a shoulder. “He’s a hot guy who I’m sure has no issue getting a woman. What guy would want to change that status?”
