The Millionaire Affair(46)

"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?"