The Wright Brother(57)

With all the revelations that had been shared and meeting the people who had been deeply involved in our lives, I felt closer to Jensen than ever. I’d walked into this whole thing, imagining one night of hot sex. Maybe a date after that. Then, our connection had been off the charts. Now, I couldn’t get enough of him—physically, mentally, and emotionally. Spending three days with him, almost one hundred percent of the time, had not irritated me once.

If we didn’t have to get back to town for work, I would have encouraged him to stay longer. I was reluctant to go home.

Jensen could sense it in me, but I thought he must have felt it, too, because he never commented on it.

After our short plane ride, Jensen drove us back to his place.

I wanted to get back to Kimber and see how she was doing with the pregnancy. She was getting pretty close now. Plus, I definitely needed some Heidi time to fill her in on my weekend. But I also wasn’t ready to say good-bye to Jensen yet. I wanted to discover if he had a Jacuzzi as well. I just wanted…to spend more time with him.

As soon as we parked, I hopped out of the car and raced around to his side. He pulled me into his arms and ducked down to give me a firm kiss.

“God, I’m going to miss you,” I whispered.

“Don’t miss me. Stay here.”

I rolled my eyes. “I can’t stay here.”

“Stay here every night you like. I sleep better when I’m with you.”

“We have not been sleeping at night,” I countered.

“Exactly.”

He slid a hand around my waist and drew me toward the front door. We breached the entrance, my laughter filling the foyer. My gaze was still locked on Jensen’s face when he stilled completely. His smile disappeared.

My head snapped to the side, and my stomach dropped. “Landon…”





Twenty-Two



Jensen


“What the fuck is going on?” Landon asked.

Oh, fuck!

Fuck!

“Landon, man”—I casually disentangled myself from Emery as she was hastily doing the same, looking shell-shocked—“you’re back.”

I’d been meaning to tell Landon about Emery so he wouldn’t hear it from someone else first. I had known he was coming back for Christmas. But I’d thought I still had a few days. I’d wanted to make sure things were official with Emery before bringing it up with Landon. Now…he was here.

“Cut the shit, Jensen. Just answer the question. What is happening right here?”

Landon pointed between the two of us, but neither of us said a word. We just stared forward at Landon, as if he might be an apparition that would disappear at any moment.

“I meant to tell you—”

“Tell me what?” His posture was stiff. His eyes kept shifting between the pair of us, as if he were trying to decipher a particularly difficult code. “Are you two…together?”

“Yes,” Emery said, regaining her voice, “we’re together.”

Landon’s eyes moved, as if he were watching tennis. “I was only gone a couple of weeks. I don’t understand how this could have happened…and why I was never informed that this was fucking happening.” He shook his head and then glanced away from us.

“Where’s Miranda?” I asked him to try to move the discussion into safer territory. “Did she come in with you?”

“Are you kidding me? After the fit she had when she found out that Emery was still here, you think she’d have let me fly back alone?” he ground out.

“So…she’s here?” I asked warily. I did not want Emery to be here if Miranda was at my house. That was a recipe for disaster.

“She’s out shopping. Fuck, could you imagine if she was here?” Landon ran a hand back through his hair and then glared at me. “Could you fucking imagine? I came back at your request, and you didn’t even tell me about Emery? Is this what you wanted?”

“No,” I said. It had been my request. I hadn’t wanted Landon to miss Christmas with his family. I’d wanted him here because he was my brother, and I loved him. Now, he was pissed off, and I didn’t know how to fix this. But I would have to. “I wanted to tell you in advance about Emery so we could talk about this like men and not just get pissed off at each other.”

Landon looked like he wanted to tell me to fuck off.

“You know, I should go,” Emery said. She took a step back toward the door. “It’s been a long weekend.”

I turned to face her and wondered what she must be feeling. We’d both been anxious about telling Landon that we were dating, because the whole situation felt out of our hands. I didn’t want to piss off Landon. He and Emery might have dated almost a decade ago, but it was tricky dealing with someone else’s past relationship.