She shook her head. “Really? I fly all this way and I have to make breakfast?” But then she got out of bed, smiling. “Landry, you like scrambled eggs?”
Landry nodded again, her face buried in Ello’s fur. She was quiet again this morning. I wondered if she’d have to warm up to me all over again, if this would happen every morning.
“I’ll meet you guys downstairs, okay?” I needed them to leave so I could put on my clothes and hide my wood. Bryan put her hand on Landry’s back and led her out of my room and down the hall.
“You like my sister.”
Oh, yeah, Dylan was still here. I threw back the covers, not giving two shits if she saw it, and grabbed my jeans off the chair I’d tossed them over last night. “Of course I like your sister. I told you, she’s my best friend.”
She shook her head. “No. You like her like her.”
I chuckled. “We in sixth grade now? Boys can’t like girls without wanting to kiss them?”
Dylan crossed her arms over her chest. “You and she have been talking since the music festival?”
I ran my hands through my hair, essentially fixing it for the day. “Yeah.”
“Every night since then?”
I let out a quick irritated sigh, throwing my hands up. “Yeah. So?”
She poked me in the chest. I fought the urge to rub the spot. She was strong for such a tiny person. “So it’s just a coincidence that you haven’t gone out partying since we’ve been here? You haven’t stayed the night out. You haven’t picked up any chicks.”
Ha. Dylan said chicks. We were so rubbing off on her. “It is, in fact, just a coincidence.” I put my hands on my hips. “Despite what you might think, I’m not a sex addict. I like to party, I like girls. But lately, I’ve just wanted to take a break. And that has nothing to do with B.” Right? It didn’t have anything to do with her. Sure I talked to her every night, sure I didn’t want to miss her call… But that’s not what kept me alone in my own bed. Right? Nah. Besides, I was going out tonight.
Dylan narrowed her eyes in that way she always did, clearly not picking up what I was putting down. “Bryan doesn’t stick around. She’s a kiss-and-run type of girl.”
“Have you met me? And we are JUST FRIENDS! I won’t be doing anything dirty with your little sister.”
She sighed, clearly irritated. “Yeah, I have met you. I spent the past few months of my life living with you. Which is why I can see that you like my sister and that you are trying your damnedest not to fall for her.” She put her hands on my shoulders. “Don’t cross that line, Jacks, because I can promise you, you won’t like what’s on the other side. Bryan has a line of broken hearts behind her.” Then she walked out.
I scrubbed my hands down my face. Everything about my life was different than it had been yesterday. I’d been terrified when I’d walked in the living room and seen Landry. I’d wanted to run. But the more time I spent with Landry, the more times I made her smile or laugh… She was so perfect; she was so good. She deserved so much better than she’d had in this life. And I wanted to give it to her. Bryan made me feel like I could too. She made me feel like I was a good man, a man who had something to offer. Granted I had no fucking clue what I was doing, and I’d probably screw up a thousand times…but I was going to do my best. And I was going to stick around. So, I was already doing better than her mom.
As far as Bryan was concerned, Dylan’s worries were wholly unnecessary. I didn’t know how many more times I would have to stress the fact that we were only friends. Only friends for that very reason: we didn’t want to hurt each other or the people around us.
Chapter Eight
Bryan
I was somewhat glad to escape Jacks’s bed. I woke up smiling, with his huge hard-on poking me in the back. I wasn’t shy, and I wasn’t some blushing virgin. But holy hell. The rumors about Jackson Cole were true. I shook my head, trying to clear the images out of my brain. I made scrambled eggs for breakfast, two dozen scrambled eggs to be exact. It seemed that if someone smelled food in this house, it was game on. And these boys (plus Lexi) could eat. Landry helped me crack the eggs and she set the table again. She was such a good kid. Why anyone would want to leave her was beyond me. Why anyone would abandon their kid, good or not, was baffling. After breakfast the guys headed down to the studio to work on their new album. Dylan went to work. I didn’t know what she would do once they all moved to the compound they were building in Texas, but for now she’d kept her job as physician’s assistant at the ob/gyn office. Lexi was sitting in the recliner, flipping through a baby furniture magazine. Landry and I were on the couch, watching Animal Planet. We’d been sitting here for over an hour. There wasn’t really anything else for her to do here. She didn’t have any toys or games. No books…. “Hey, sweet girl, you want to go to a toy store?”
Her eyes lit up. “Really?”