Borrowing Trouble(51)

After turning off his truck, Landon made his way into the new house, a brick rancher just outside of town. He was happy to see Jay’d used the day off to finish emptying the boxes that’d been lying around the house.

The house may be owned by a couple of thirty-something men, and neither was too good with decorating, but they could at least not look like hobos when they were having a party for Clint.

Millie came flying out of the kitchen, but stilled when she saw Landon. “Oh, sorry. Thought you were Clint.”

She’d shot up like a weed lately, and even he couldn’t believe how much older she looked at fourteen. He’d only been around the last couple of years, but he had grown attached to Jay’s kids. Lord knows they were as close as he’d ever get to being a parent. And that was A-okay with Landon.

“No. He’s not supposed to be here for another hour at least.”

“Good. Dad is trying—and failing hard-core—to put together that surround sound y’all got. He wanted to use it for the music or something. Meanwhile, he hasn’t put together any of the stuff for the party.”

Landon winced. “Does he know what time it is?”

“Please,” she said with a scoff. “You know how he gets when he’s putting together stuff and not asking for help. He’s been cussing and throwing things around in the den for an hour.”

Landon sighed. “Great.”

“The house looks nice, by the way.” Millie’s compliment was genuine, which made Landon smile goofily. He and Jay both worried how the kids would take it with them actually cohabitating. It’d held Landon up more than Jay until papers were signed and it was all over but the moving.

“You’re cool, right?” he asked.

“For the millionth time, yes.” She shook her head, exasperated, and looked so much like her dad, it hurt. Landon wanted to hug her, but he still didn’t have his footing where that stuff was concerned, so he just patted her shoulder. He heard Jay saying in his head, “You’ll get it in time.”

“Is your mom coming?”

Millie grimaced. “Um. Not a chance. She did a dinner for him with my grandparents last night. I don’t think Clint wanted to tell dad, though, in case it hurt his feelings.”

Landon sighed. Yeah, Bethany still wasn’t on Team Hill-Petty. She wasn’t cruel, and she still spoke with Jay frequently. She even bought Landon a Christmas gift. But awkward was definitely the appropriate way to describe her continued reaction to anything that involved Jay and Landon as a unit. He wasn’t all that surprised she wouldn’t be coming over to their new home for a while. He hoped, for Jay and the kids’ sake, that she’d come sooner rather than later.

“Well, let me go tell your dad and try to get his butt in gear. Will you go get the table cloths put on the picnic tables out back?”

She gave a nod and shot out to the garage where they’d put all the decorations.

Landon walked into the den, which was a separate room from the living room. The sunken in space was one of the features that’d made them jump on this particular house. Watching football had brought them together and still remained one of their favorite activities, so a man-cave had been a dream want when they’d looked around for a house.

Landon chuckled to himself when he saw Jay bent over behind the catty-corner flat screen TV, wires draped over his shoulders.

“Jay. Could you have picked a worse day to do this?” Landon smirked at his boyfriend. God he loved that word as it related to Jay, even if it sounded juvenile to some.

Jay straightened and scowled at Landon. “Damn.”

“What?”

“Dad, really? This was your idea.”

Landon turned to see Clint and Millie looking exasperated and fairly amused.

“I know. I just didn’t know it’d be so complicated.”

“We need to set up for me now, so wing it.”

Jay scowled at his son, who walked over and shoved papers in his hands. “Come on, Millie. This could be a while.”

“No doubt, and they might start kissing.” Millie gave a mock shudder. Landon didn’t get offended. She meant that as a teenager who had to witness their parents kissing, nothing else. They’d both seen Jay and Landon be affectionate by this point.

“Well. Damn.”

“You said that already,” Landon chuckled.

Jay came from behind the TV, dropping wires and cables. “Damn.”

Landon huffed.

“Sorry. I just… last time I did this, someone was pregnant so I thought I’d go for romance.”

Landon’s heart stopped. Jay shuffled from foot to foot. “Jay?”

“So, since we’re leaving tomorrow, I wanted to talk about this today, since you were done with school and we could celebrate and it could be a honeymoon. I didn’t think about having a house full of teenagers and your parents.”

Landon knew his jaw was touching his chest, but he couldn’t shut his mouth. He also couldn’t help Jay out because… hell, he’d been so happy they were living together, he really hadn’t thought of marriage as an option—not in the south. Of course he wanted to be married one day, he’d dreamed of it, but until just the last while, it hadn’t been possible where they lived. As much as Landon wanted marriage, he didn’t think he wanted to move that far from his roots to make it happen.