“Hey, Landon!” Heidi said with a big grin.
His eyes moved to Heidi’s and softened briefly. “Hey, Heidi. Thanks for the info.”
“For sure. Why don’t you two just…” She trailed off, swallowed, and then darted back to the pool table.
“Do you mind?” Landon asked, gesturing to the empty seat.
I shook my head and concentrated on my drink.
“Emery, I didn’t mean to ambush you,” he said at once.
“Why not? I kind of ambushed you.”
He breathed out heavily. “Not on purpose.”
“True.”
“I just wanted to apologize.”
I turned my head to look at him again. What was with these Wrights that I always got apologies out of them? They were the kind of men who probably didn’t use the word much.
“You want to apologize to me?”
“Yeah, I just saw you there…with him…and I kind of blew a gasket.”
“I noticed that.”
“Which I had no right to do.”
I would have freaked out if I had hypothetically found out he was dating Kimber. Jensen and I should have fixed this long before it got here. I knew that. I’d just been too blissful to consider what would happen and where things were going. I hadn’t wanted to do anything that could hurt something so fragile. And our relationship was fragile.
“How are you and Jensen?” I asked carefully.
Landon ground his teeth and motioned for Peter to give him a beer. “I needed some time to cool off.”
“So, you came to me?” I arched an eyebrow. “Don’t think we were ever the cool-off type. I think we argued most of the time.”
“Only so we could make up,” he said with a grin.
I shrugged, unable to deny it. “You know, Jensen and I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
“I don’t really want to know,” he said, holding up a hand. “It might have been ten years, Emery, but it’s still weird to me.”
“It’s weird to me, too.”
“Just…be careful,” Landon said. He dropped his hand onto my shoulder and looked me deep in the eyes. “I love my brother. But he’s an asshole, and he’s bad with women. Plus, he has more baggage than the rest of our family combined, and I think one Wright has hurt you enough for a lifetime. I wouldn’t want to see you like that again.”
I pulled back and let his hand drop off my shoulder. “I know about Jensen’s reputation and his past. I know that he hasn’t always made the right decisions with women. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s going to fuck this up, too. If I thought he was playing me, I wouldn’t be in his life. This is me we’re talking about, Landon.”
“I know,” he whispered. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
I sighed and shook my head. “You know what? I’ve had enough crap for one weekend. I apologized for not telling you about Jensen, but I’m not leaving him because of it. And I’m not being naive about our relationship.”
“I don’t think you know him.”
“You’re right,” I conceded. “I definitely do not know him like you do. How could I? But that doesn’t mean I don’t care for him and want to get to know him.”
“I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
I stood from my seat and reached for my drink. “It’s about ten years too late for that, Landon.”
Landon winced, and I could see that my jab had cut deep. We both knew it. This was why he’d ignored all my messages after graduation. This was why we hadn’t really spoken since.
“That’s fair. I deserve that,” he said.
“Let me take care of myself. I’ve been doing it long enough without your help. So, why don’t we go and play some pool with Heidi and hang out for a while? I’d love to see Heidi hustle you like old times.”
Landon glanced down at his phone. He grimaced, and I had to gather his wife was messaging him.
“Okay, but I don’t have that long. Miranda is almost finished shopping. It would be bad for both of our health if she found us in the same place, let alone at a bar.”
“She seems a bit…controlling,” I ventured as we joined Heidi at the pool table.
“I really do not want to talk about her.”
I held my hands up. “Okay.”
“What don’t we want to talk about?” Heidi asked. Her eyes darted back and forth between me and Landon. She had this little worried tilt to her mouth.
She was seriously confusing me.
Was she…vibing on Landon?
No way. That couldn’t be it.
It had to be that she was just concerned about me and Landon being in the same vicinity after everything that had happened with Jensen.
“Miranda,” Landon said gently.
“Is she coming here?” Heidi asked, her voice rising an octave.
“God, no.”
“We’re trying to make sure everyone makes it out of this alive. I mostly want to see you kick Landon’s ass in pool. So, hop to. Make this happen for me,” I said to Heidi.
Heidi grinned devilishly. Her eyes swept to Landon. “You rack, and I’ll break.”
“I’d expect nothing less,” he said as he got to work.
And, suddenly, the three of us were back in high school. We’d spent countless nights at Heidi’s dad’s bar playing pool and having a good time. Half of the time, one of Heidi’s boyfriends would show up. There was a lot of making out in back booths and trying to convince someone to get us drinks and a whole lot less actual pool.
So, this felt normal and comfortable.
I never thought I’d feel like this around Landon Wright again.
And it was nice.
Twenty-Four
Jensen
One more call couldn’t hurt.
I’d told myself that after the last five calls.
But Emery still hadn’t picked up.
After Landon had stormed out of my house, I’d called Morgan, and she came over. She hadn’t known that Landon was coming in early either. So, she hadn’t been able to warn me. Though she thought the whole thing was poetic justice.