"That went well," Landon muttered to himself.
Shane lifted his own beer bottle and chuckled.
"What's the best way to slip him some cash?" he asked his billionaire cousin.
Shane shook his head. "If there'd been a way to do that, I'd have done it already. You know that."
He did. Aiden and Shane were close, and there was nothing his cousin wouldn't do for any of them. "What about Sadie?"
"Not a prayer, man." He pointed at the couple with his bottle. "Those two are a unit. And you don't want a piece of that feisty blonde." He'd meant it as a compliment, Landon could tell. Aiden, far from the henpecked husband, strolled over to where they were standing, Sadie wrapped around his waist.
"Sorry for the pizza." She wrinkled her nose. "I'll get Mrs. Downey's lasagna recipe right one of these years."
Aiden mouthed the words No she won't. Sadie caught him and tagged him in the arm. "It's okay, beautiful," he said, pulling her close and kissing her forehead. "I didn't marry you for your culinary abilities."
"Yeah, he married me for my rad tree house skills." She winked at Crickitt, who joined them, BK cradled against her chest asleep.
Aiden flushed-actually flushed-and smashed a kiss onto Sadie's mouth, preventing her from saying more. Landon raised a brow. Shane looked equally confused, while Crickitt looked suspiciously in the know. Landon was pretty sure he didn't want to know.
Lyon's friends left and Dad took Evan and Lyon back home where they were staying the night. Landon had planned on sleeping here tonight. Angel, too, who was now helping Sadie clean up the remnants of the party.
Landon pulled down the last of the balloons and shoved them into a trash bag. "Want to get plowed?"
Aiden sent him a sideways glance. "Hell, yes. But I don't have any scotch."
"Brought my own." Sadly, Landon had planned on getting tanked tonight. After the stress of losing Kimber and worrying about the baby-and the irritating call from Lissa-he had made a beeline for the liquor store. Macallan Limited Release was costly, and usually reserved for celebration, but what the hell?
He was celebrating being a dumbass. So there.
Shane wandered back into the living room, keys in hand, little BK in her car seat, snoozing away. "What are you guys doing tonight?"
"Getting hammered," Aiden said with a smile.
"Nice." Shane raised an approving brow. "Any reason why?"
"Other than Landon getting his girlfriend pregnant? Nope." Landon coiled his hand into a fist, but Aiden's smile only widened. "They had to find out sooner or later, man." He slapped Landon's shoulder.
"Who's your girlfriend?" Crickitt asked, brightening for the first time tonight.
"Kimber," Sadie chimed in, stepping into the living room from the kitchen. "Angel's friend who spent a summer with their family when they were kids. She had a crush on Landon."
Crickitt melted. "Aww."
Angel came into the living room, drying her hands on a dish towel. "I heard my name."
"We were talking about Kimber," Aiden filled in. "And how she and Landon have been knockin' boots."
Landon shot his brother a look. Really?
"I knew it!" Angel said, waving the dish towel at Landon. "I guess that drink went well."
"And she's pregnant, in case you didn't overhear that part." Aiden took a step away from Landon. Smart move. Landon was already coiled to throw a sucker punch in his direction.
Angel's eyes grew wide. "Kimber is pregnant?"
"Yes." Landon's eyes sank close. Defeated. "Kimber is pregnant."
"Well, where is she?" Angel looked left, then right, as if Kimber had been hiding in a nearby closet the entire party.
Landon tried to say something to the effect of, In Chicago. Avoiding me, but the words wouldn't come. He shook his head instead.
"Oh," Crickitt muttered after no one spoke. "Oh no." She put a palm against Landon's chest and gazed up at him with earnest concern. The warmth of her hand over his heart caused his cheeks to heat. The confusing emotions simmering under the surface this evening suddenly clawing to get out.
Crickitt, the human tuning fork, picked up on it. Sympathy filled her eyes. "Things will work out for the best," she murmured, patting him. "Look at Aiden and Sadie. Look at Shane and me." Tears shimmered in her eyes. "Keep the faith."
She pulled her hand away and turned to Shane. "Do you want to stay here and have too many drinks with your cousins?"
Lucky bastard.
"I can drive him home," Sadie offered. "I'm not drinking since we're trying to get into the same situation you've gotten Kimber into," she told Landon.
Aiden wasn't doing half-bad in the wife department, either.
"No, I'm going to go home." Shane tugged his wife against him. "Try and let Crickitt get some sleep for a change."
Landon didn't know if that was a baby joke or a sex joke-or if couples had sex after having babies, but Crickitt smiled up at her husband, pleased with his answer. Shane probably thought that by leaving, he'd be dodging the relationship-talk bullet, but he'd be wrong. Landon wasn't going to talk about Kimber. The plan was to drink so he didn't have to talk about-or think about-Kimber.
No way was he bringing her up.
"She doesn't want a relationship. She wants an arrangement."
Except instead of "arrangement" Landon had muttered a garbled version of "harranguement," which most assuredly was not a word.
Aiden regarded him with a raised brow.
"This is why people butcher the English language," Landon said, doing a decent job of butchering it now. He lifted his glass again. "It's fun." He took another drink. Relinquishing the glass, he sat back and focused on the dark outline of the fruit trees at the back of the moonlit yard.
They were quiet for a while, until Aiden spoke. "Hell of a pickle you've gotten yourself into."
"It was supposed to be a fling," Landon grumbled, keeping his eyes trained at a distance.
"A fling that turned into a baby."
He slid a gaze over at his brother. Aiden leaned an arm on the edge of the patio table between them. Landon remained silent. Mainly because he was having a hard time speaking without slurring.
Aiden's blond brows lifted into his too-long hair. "Did you literally draw up a contract with her? Like with signatures and a notary public stamp? Because that's effing nuts."
Landon opened his mouth to ream him, but Aiden wasn't serious. His brother offered a crooked smile and sipped his beer. Content to bust Landon's balls, evidently.
"Do you want her back?" Aiden asked after another permeating silence.
Landon's face pulled into a grimace. He rubbed a hand over his jawline, the hint of growth scratching his palm. Had he been this miserable in his entire life? He didn't think so.
"Thing is … " He didn't know how much more he should say. He scrubbed his jaw again while he thought. A woman's voice coming from behind him read his mind.
"You love her." Aiden's smart-as-a-whip-crack wife came around to sit on Aiden's lap. His brother pulled Sadie close and buried his nose in her long, fair hair. She wrapped her arms around his neck, but her attention was focused squarely on Landon. "You love her or you wouldn't be out here drowning your feelings in scotch."
Landon thrust out his bottom lip and regarded his glass silently.
"Should I yell for Angel, or are you going to talk to me?" she demanded. For a petite thing, she was a pistol. Shane had warned him. Aiden shot Landon a smile, one that said he'd be glad to watch Landon go a round or two with his other half.
Landon flicked a look from her to Aiden and attempted to look wounded by her words. "Sadie, et tu?"
She only smiled. Aiden squeezed one of her thighs just below a short pair of shorts, making Landon feel like a third wheel. An incredibly inebriated third wheel, but still.
Sensing her husband's growing impatience, or maybe Landon's growing discomfort, she slipped from Aiden's lap and settled onto the empty chair between him and Landon instead.
But Sadie didn't know who she was dealing with. He was the Tin Man. Impervious to emotion. She stared him down. He stared back. Or tried to. His vision blurred in and out. Maybe she'd forget what she said if he remained silent for long enough. Landon took turns grousing at her and his half-empty glass before realizing the standoff could last until the End of Days.
"Fine," he growled. "I love her."
Aiden sat up in his chair, a confused-slash-concerned look on his face. Was it so unbelievable that Landon could be in love? Then he thought of how often his family had seen him with a woman. How distant he and Lissa had been when she had been around his family. He hadn't brought another woman around before or since.
On a surrendering sigh, Landon went for broke. "I don't want to be a part-time dad," he said. "I want to be a father full-time. I want to be with Kimber full-time. I want … " He lifted a hand, dropped it into his lap. "I want all of her, you know?"