Sway (Landry Family #1)(98)

His voice breaks and I can't take it. I pull him into a hug and fight not to cry. I've never seen my father like this and I don't know what to do.

"Dad. Stop. It's fine."

He sniffles and pulls away, wiping his eye with a handkerchief. "It's fine because you're a lot smarter than me. I've always known you were a better version of me, Barrett. But, even then, I didn't understand what kind of a man you’ve become. I couldn't be more proud of you today. Whether you win or lose, you won in my eyes for standing up to everyone . . . including your old man."

I can't say anything. I just stand there, feeling like a little boy that brought home a good report card. It's silly, yet it's the best feeling I've ever had.

"Barrett!" Graham shouts from the porch, Linc at his side with a shit-eating grin. They point down the driveway and I see a little red car, sounding like a bucket of screws, ambling towards us.

I take off running to the driveway and am at her door before she even gets it stopped. I pull it open and her into my arms. She melts into me, her arms around my waist.

A million things want to come out of my mouth, but none of them do. None of them can. I’m afraid to say the wrong thing, to get too serious too fast, or to apologize when I shouldn’t. If I can just hold her, make her feel what I want to say, that might work best.

Hux gets out of the passenger seat and grins.

“Thank you,” I mouth to him, reaching a hand out and motioning for him to come to me. Instead, he waves, and runs straight for Lincoln.

I can’t help but laugh and realize this is the way things should be. Whether I win or not, this is my world being right.

Ali pulls back and I try to fight her on it, not wanting to spoil the moment, but eventually, I let her. Her eyes are filled with tears, a nervous smile on her face.

“I love you,” I say, looking as deeply in her soul as I can. “I love you so much. I—”

“And I love you. I’m sorry for running.”

“I understand.”

“No,” she says, shaking her head. “I should’ve had faith in you. I should’ve been stronger. I told you to believe in yourself and then I didn’t. No, I did,” she rambles, “I just—”

I kiss her lips, effectively silencing her with a simple gesture that’s more to tell her it doesn’t matter than anything else. “I should’ve listened to you. I should’ve believed in me and just done things the way I knew they should be done before today.”

“Before today?”

“Well, yesterday,” I grin. “I fired Nolan. I heard what he said to you and a bunch of other stuff I don’t want to get into. Let’s just say Nolan is at the police department this morning answering some questions.”

“What?” she gasps.

I run my thumbs down her delicate jaw line. “I made a speech today where I said I will support the Land Bill and that you were the love of my life and that I kind of like your kid too.”

“You did?” she whispers, her lip quivering.

“I did. Because I want everyone to know it from my mouth, not from some angled statement from Nolan or Rose or PR. From me.”

She hugs me again and I squeeze her tight.

“I’m never letting you go,” I tell her. “You know that right? If you can’t handle me being overbearing and protecting you and Huxley, doing what I have to do to sleep at night, then you better just get over it.”

“One thing at a time. You have an election today.”

“The vote that means the most is yours,” I say, leading her in the house.

“I’m pretty sure you’ve sealed the deal on mine, Mayor.”

My brothers and father are in the kitchen when we enter. They see us and stop talking, waiting for the verdict.

Grinning, I go to her and pull her against my side. "Guys, meet Alison Baker. Ali, you know Graham and Lincoln." They exchange a small wave. "That's Ford, and my father, Harris."

"Nice to meet you," Ford says with a nod of his head.

My father extends his hand and smiles. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Alison."

"Likewise, Mr. Landry." She takes his hand and shakes it.

"Please. Call me Harris."

“Where’s Huxley?” I ask, looking around.

Lincoln laughs. “Where do you think? Getting my baseball stuff out of my car. Come on, Ford,” he says, “let’s go play some catch.”

“Sounds good.”

My youngest brothers head outside and my father and Graham head into the den, leaving Ali and I together.

“What happens now?” she asks, biting her lip.

“My sisters will be coming in today and . . .”

“Not with that, Barrett. With us.”

“Well,” I grin, trying to compensate for my nervousness, “I had a talk with Huxley last night.”

“What?” she exclaims.

I shrug. “He called me. We talked.”

Gasping she says, “I had no idea!”

“Well, I told him he could call me anytime and he took me up on that. We talked about you and me and him and how we were going to deal with this whole thing.”

Her cheeks turn pink and I stroke them with my thumbs.