Swing (Landry Family #2)(35)

“It’s not crazy. It’s like . . .” I look at the ceiling for inspiration. “Imagine this: you grew up with a family that loved sugar. It was their weakness, okay?”

“I did.”

“Follow along,” I reprimand her. “Let’s say they were so addicted to it that they couldn’t stand for any of it to be in the house. They’d eat it all. All of it. Gone.”

“Okay . . .”

“So you move out. Start your own bakery. You’re safe because they aren’t there to eat your sugar, right? Then imagine you fall for some guy. He’s perfect . . . except he too is a sugar addict.”

She looks at me blankly.

“Don’t you see what I’m saying?” I ask.

“Yeah, but if he looks like Lincoln, I’d just handcuff him to the bed.”

Rolling my eyes, I grab the bag and turn towards the door.

“Hey,” she calls after me. “I want details. Don’t think you’re getting out of it that easy!”

The bell chimes as the front door closes behind me. I’m to my car in record speed. I need space. I need air. I need to think. When my phone buzzes right before I pull out of the parking lot, I know it’s Pepper and she’s not going to quit until I give her something to occupy her mind.

“Fine!” I nearly shout into the phone. “His cock is about ten inches, if I’m guessing, and he fucked me in about every position I could explain. My favorite, though, was the corkscrew. Not sure what that is? Google it.”

My finger goes to swipe off the call when I see the name on the screen and drop the phone. “Shit!” I cry, digging through the items on my passenger’s side floorboard until I find the glowing device.

My heart is pounding as I try to decide whether to end the call or talk to Lincoln. Mortified, I bring it to my ear and squeeze my eyes shut. He’s silent.

Maybe he didn’t hear. Please, God, don’t let him have heard that.

“Hello?” I eke out.

“I’d say ten inches is fair and I’ve made a note about the corkscrew. Glad I called,” he chuckles.

“Hey, Landry.” I want to slink into the seat and melt into the leather.

“That’s one way to make me a little less pissed that you snuck out on me.”

“I didn’t sneak out on you. I left a note.”

“For the record, the note didn’t help. But hearing you talk about my cock—who were you talking to, by the way?—that helps. That really helps.”

“Fuck off,” I say, smiling. Ready to change the subject, I flip on the Bluetooth and pull onto the street. “Why did you call? Hoping you’d overhear me embarrassing myself?”

“Baby, there is nothing embarrassing about having a man hear you talk about how much you liked being with him.”

I don’t know what I swoon harder over, him calling me “baby” or the husk in his voice. Sure, he’s called me that before, but hearing it when he’s not inside me is different. More meaningful. Maybe more like a word choice instead of a reaction.

He clears his throat. “I called because I need a favor.”

“Really, Landry?”

“Really, Dani,” he mocks. “My brother needs someone to watch his girlfriend’s kid overnight tomorrow night. They have something to do in Nashville and want to take the kid with them, but he can’t go with them that night. And Alison, my brother’s girl, doesn’t believe in nannies.”

“What do you need my help with?”

“Come over and have dinner with us. Help me entertain him. He’s ten or eleven or something and is a pretty cool kid. His name is Huxley and he’s a big baseball fan. So, naturally, we hit it off.”

“So why do you need me? Sounds like you have this figured out.”

“I’ve never been left alone with a kid all night.”

“I’m not staying the night with you and your nephew, Landry.”

“I’m not asking you to,” he says, mocking me again. “I’m asking you to come for dinner, watch a movie, build Legos, or whatever. Just hang out with us.”

I blow out a breath as I turn onto my street. Again: kryptonite. I can’t say no to this man. Even though I should back away slowly from the predator he is, I can’t. I like being his prey.

“What time?”

“Six,” he says and I know he’s grinning. But that’s fair. So am I.





Lincoln

MY WEIGHT POUNDING DOWN THE hallway causes the pictures hanging to knock against the wall. “I’m coming!” I shout as the doorbell chimes again. Like a kid at Christmastime, I pop open the door. “Hey!”

“Uncle Linc!” Huxley lunges forward, wrapping his arms around my waist.

Chuckling, I rub my knuckles across the top of the Arrows cap I gave him. Then I look up and wink at Alison. “Why’d you bring that guy?”

“Because that guy is her fiancé,” Barrett says, a smile thick in his voice.

“Officially?”

“No,” Alison sighs, rolling her eyes. “He better ask me soon or I might just up and leave him.”

“Try me,” Barrett growls, making her laugh.

I untangle myself from Hux and pull my brother into a quick hug. “How are you?”