by Force, Marie
And it wasn’t Lucas.
Chapter Six
“You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one.”
—Harry S. Truman
That went well, Landon thought after a shower as he changed in the bedroom into jeans he wore only on special occasions and a red Henley. In deference to the fact that this was a date, he put on the sweater his sister Ella had given him for Christmas. It was white with a red design on it. Not his usual style, but he trusted Ella’s judgment. If she liked it, Amanda probably would, too.
Was he actually hoping he was wearing something a woman would like on him? This situation had gone from bad to worse in the course of thirty minutes of sexy kisses that had his blood running so hot, he wondered if he should skip the sweater even though it was still cold outside. Only because he wanted to look nice for her did he leave the sweater on and go in search of “dress-up” boots that qualified as such because they hadn’t been dragged through mud and slop and snow.
He so rarely gave a shit about what he wore that he didn’t have a lot of nice clothes. Would that put him at a disadvantage in comparison to the men she usually dated? And what kind of men did she date? Probably suit-wearing dudes with cushy jobs in offices. That’d never be him. If that was what she wanted—
“Stop, will you?” He sat on the bed and bent to tie his boots. “She just kissed your freaking face off and asked you to go wild with her. She’s here, when she could be anywhere. That has to count for something, right?”
A throat clearing had his head whipping up to find Amanda leaning against the doorframe. Had she heard him muttering to himself? Shit…
“Ready when you are.”
“Okay.” He stood and really looked at her, and holy wow. “You look…” She’d done something to her eyes that made them pop. Her brown hair fell in shiny waves around her shoulders. “Really pretty.”
“So do you.” She flashed a saucy grin and turned to hobble back into the living room.
Landon watched her go, his gaze fixed to tight jeans hugging a sweet ass. Holy shit. She was so fucking sexy, and she kissed like a dream. He couldn’t wait to kiss her again, but first things first. He told his hot blood, his libido and everything else to stand down and shut up. This was not the time for random boners or acting like a dog in heat.
It was funny, really. If you’d told him a few months ago that he’d be panting around after any woman, he would’ve laughed. Women had always been about harmless fun. He didn’t do serious or committed or any of the stuff his siblings had gotten into in the last couple of years. One by one, they’d fallen like felled oaks into relationships destined to last forever.
Before Amanda had come to town and blown him away with her fresh-faced sexiness and blunt talk about sex and sex toys, he would’ve scoffed at the idea of settling down with one woman when he could have all the women. How was it possible that she could’ve come storming into town and turned his whole world upside down in the span of an hour-long presentation?
That didn’t happen unless you allowed it, he reasoned, except reason didn’t play into his reaction to her. He thought about his brother Will, who’d met his wife, Cameron, a couple of years ago after she slammed her Mini Cooper into Fred, the town moose. And his brother Colton, who was now married to Cameron’s business partner, Lucy. Or Hunter, who’d been in love with Megan for years before he finally did something about it. And when he had, that was it for him. She was it for him.
They had fallen one after the other, Ella with Gavin, Charley with Tyler, Hannah with Nolan, Wade with Mia and now Lucas with Dani. Even their cousin Grayson had joined the parade, falling for Lucy’s sister, Emma. Not to mention, Cameron’s dad, Patrick, was off traveling the world with Mary, their former office manager at the store.
As all this had played out right in front of him, Landon had remained on the sidelines, perplexed, though happy that people he cared about had found true love. But he hadn’t had any burning desire to experience happily ever after for himself.
Until that day in the conference room when everything had changed.
He ought to be annoyed with Amanda rather than following her around like a besotted puppy. Everything had been going along just fine for him until she showed up and sent him spinning. The pre-Amanda Landon Abbott didn’t go seeking out advice about women from the likes of Hannah, who’d never let him hear the end of it. No, he hadn’t needed Hannah’s help pre-Amanda, or anyone else’s when it came to women.
So it ought to piss him off that he’d become this insecure, uncertain idiot who was worrying about what to wear to freaking Kingdom Pizza, where he ate two or three times a week usually.
He whipped the sweater over his head, tossed it on the bed, took two steps toward the door and then stopped, turning back to grab the sweater and put it back on. “You’re such a fucking idiot,” he muttered.
“Did you say something?” Amanda asked from the living room.
“I was looking for my keys.”
“You left them on the kitchen counter, next to the flowers.”
While telling himself to calm down and stop acting like a fool, he went to get the keys. He realized he should call Lucas and Dani to see if they wanted food and ask if it was okay if they came by. He found Dani’s number on the notepad he kept by the phone.
She answered the phone. “Hi, Landon.”
“How’s it going over there?”
“Good. Luc is having a really good day. He was awake for most of it.”
“That’s great news. Are you guys up for a quick visit? Amanda asked if she could see him.”
“Of course. We’d love to see you guys.”
“We’re going to grab dinner at Kingdom Pizza first. You want anything?”
“Nope, we’re good. Your family made sure of that.”
“Okay, see you soon.”
He returned to Amanda in the living room.
“What’d you do to your hair?” She reached up to smooth the strands. “It’s standing on end.”
“It’s the sweater’s fault. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to wear it.”
“It looks nice on you.”
“You think so? It’s not really my thing, but my sister gave it to me, and…” Why was he babbling about a stupid sweater that had already gotten way too much of his mental energy?
“I like it. You look very handsome.”
That sealed it. He was wearing the sweater, and maybe he’d thank Ella the next time he saw her. “You ready?”
“Whenever you are.”
Landon got the coat he’d chosen for her at the store, a black parka that was really more like a blanket than a coat, according to his sister Charley, and held it for Amanda. With his coat on, he offered her his arm to hold as he walked her slowly toward the truck that had red lights on top and fire department license plates. “You want me to grab your crutches?”
“I really don’t need them if I can balance on my toes.”
When they reached the truck, Landon opened the door and gave her a lift into the high-profile truck.
“Thanks. Not sure I could’ve pulled that off.”
“I gotcha covered.”
He drove them into town, watching for Fred, who was often found standing in the middle of the road, oblivious to cars, and everything else, for that matter. Fred followed his own set of rules. The last thing Landon needed was to smash his relatively new truck into the side of an unyielding moose. In cases of vehicle versus moose, the moose almost always won.
Recalling the state of Cameron’s poor little car after her altercation with Fred had Landon chuckling softly to himself.
“What’s so funny?” Amanda asked.
“I was thinking about how my brother Will met his wife, Cameron, when she crashed her car into the town moose—and how the car came out on the poorer end of the altercation. The moose was fine. The car? Not so much. And when I met Cameron, she had two black eyes from the air bag.”
“Damn, that moose is tough.
”
“I know. That’s why we have to really be careful when we drive around here in the dark. You never know where he’s going to plant himself.”
“That’s kind of scary.”
“Nah, he’s a pussycat. You just don’t want to crash your car into him.”
“How can a massive moose be a pussycat?”
“You’ll have to meet him to fully appreciate him.”
“That’s fine. I’m good.”
Landon laughed at her emphatic statement. “Oh, come on. If you want to truly go wild in Butler, Vermont, you have to meet Fred. If you stick around here long enough, you’ll have a Fred encounter. We think he has a crush on Cameron.”
“How can a moose have a crush on someone?”
“He seems to show up wherever she is. Such as when he came strolling into the tent during their wedding.”
“Stop it. He did not!”
“He did. We’ve got photos to prove it. My sister Hannah is the family moose whisperer, though. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen tiny Hannah turn that thousand-pound bull moose to putty in her hands.”
“How does she do that?”
“We have no idea. But she marches right up to him and gives him hell, and he does whatever she tells him to while Nolan has a meltdown over her staring down that massive moose.”
“I love your family,” she said, laughing.
“They’re certifiable.”
“I bet it was never boring growing up in your house.”
“God, no. Never. It was a madhouse.”
“I can only imagine.”
Landon glanced at her. “Do you have siblings?”
“Two who are much older than me. They were both in college by the time I hit high school.”
“Where are they now?”
“My brother lives in Alaska, and my sister is in Oregon. I haven’t seen them in years.”
“I can’t imagine not seeing my siblings for years.”
“You’re lucky to have them all close by.”
“I know, even if sometimes I don’t feel lucky when they’re all up in my grill about something. It’s not easy being one of the younger brothers. Every one of them has an opinion about everything I do.”
“You had a lot of parents.”
“Yep, and I still do. They drive me crazy.”
“I’ve seen you with them. You also love them like crazy.”
“Sometimes.”
“All the time.”
“If you say so.”
“I say so. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. You’re so lucky to have nine siblings you’re actually close to. Do you know how rare that is?”
“Yeah, and I appreciate them, as well as my eight cousins, who are also like siblings to us. We grew up in a gaggle.”
“Lucky. We didn’t have any other family close by when I was growing up, so it was mostly me and my parents. They split when I was in high school, and my dad took a job out of state, so I hardly saw him either.”
“That must’ve been tough.”
“It was. I was closer to him than my mom, but he traveled so much for work that I couldn’t stay with him. My mom and I went through some tough years before we found our groove. We’re close now, but back then, we did nothing but fight. I never imagined for a second I’d end up working with her.”
Landon pulled into a parking space at Kingdom Pizza. “You’ll have to tell me how that happened. Hang on. I’ll come around for you.” He got out of the truck and was on his way around the front when a blond woman came out of the restaurant, let out a squeal and launched herself at him before he had a second to prepare or fend her off. He was nearly knocked off his feet by the impact.
“Where have you been?” Chrissy and he had been “friends with benefits” over the years. “I haven’t seen you in weeks!” She playfully slapped his chest. “I left you a couple of messages.”
As he struggled to catch up, she kissed him square on the lips, with Amanda seeing the whole thing play out from the passenger seat of his truck. Landon tried to gently extricate himself, but Chrissy wasn’t having it. Somehow he managed to pry her hands off him.
“What’re you doing tonight?” She gave him her trademark suggestive smile. “Want to come over?”
“I’m, uh, with a friend.”
Chrissy cast a glare at the truck. “Who’s that?” She turned up her nose like she’d smelled something rank.
“I, ah, I have to go. See you around?”
“Whatever.” After casting another hateful look toward his truck, she stalked off.
This is great. Just what he needed when he was finally on another official date with Amanda. Ugh. He opened the passenger door. “Sorry about that.”
“Sorry about what? I didn’t see a thing.”
Was she really going to pretend that hadn’t just happened with Chrissy? If so, she really was different from every other woman he’d known. “There’s a huge puddle. Let me help you.” He slid his arms under her and lifted her out of the truck, using his hip to push the door closed and setting her down on the sidewalk, holding on until she found her balance. “You good?”
“I’m good.”
Landon held the door for her, waiting for her to hobble in ahead of him. “Take a seat, and I’ll bring you a menu.” He helped with her coat and held the chair for her before going to get a menu. All the while, his mind raced as he wondered when she would get pissed about what she’d seen with Chrissy. That had to be coming, right?
Working behind the counter was another woman he’d dated years ago. Fantastic. Thankfully, Jessica didn’t leap over the counter to kiss him.
“Landon!” She looked a little closer. “You are Landon, right? No beard.”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“How are you? I heard about the fire and that Lucas got hurt. Is he okay?”
“He’s doing great. Thanks for asking.”
“Tell him I’m thinking of him.”
“Will do. Could I please grab a menu?”
Her brows knitted. “Why do you need a menu? You get the same exact thing every time. A large sausage and pepperoni with green peppers and mushrooms.”
“I’m with a friend.”
Jessica looked around his shoulder, apparently found Amanda waiting for him and frowned. “Sure.” She shoved a menu at him. “Let me know when you’re ready to order.”
Yikes, Landon thought. It was dangerous to go out in this town with Amanda. The last thing she needed was to be reminded of how many women he’d dated in the past. That had nothing to do with her or them.
He brought her the menu and sat at the table while she decided what she wanted.
“I’ll do the house salad with grilled chicken and an iced tea, please.”
“Coming right up.” He went back to the counter to order her salad and his pizza and got a beer for himself along with her tea.
“Thirty-two eighty-five,” Jessica said without looking up at him.
Landon ran his card and dropped a five-dollar bill into the tip jar.
“Please be seated, and I’ll bring it out when it’s ready.”
“Thanks.” Landon returned to the table, feeling Jessica’s glare burning a hole in him. What the hell was her problem, anyway? They’d been out a couple of times, had some fun… He wondered if he’d ever understand women or what made them tick or what made them mad. Why would Jessica care if he was out with Amanda?
“What’s wrong?”
He looked up from his internal diatribe to find Amanda watching him. “Nothing.”
“Judging by the way you stomped back to the table, something’s up.”
Landon figured he might as well come clean with her, because there was no point in trying to hide the fact that he’d enjoyed an active social life in the past. “I dated the woman at the counter for a month or two about five years ago. Apparently, I’m an ass for coming here with you while she’s working. Or something like that. Who knows?”
Amanda ran her hand over her mouth
as her eyes glittered with amusement.
“You think that’s funny?”
“I do.”
“I’m glad you do. The next time we go out, it’s not going to be in Butler.”
“Even in this cell phone-free never-never land, I’m sure word is getting out that Landon Abbott is on a date with someone they don’t know. Hearts are shattering all over the Northeast Kingdom as we speak.”
“Har-har. It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it?”
He appreciated that she seemed more amused than annoyed. “Not really.”
Her raised eyebrow expressed a world of skepticism. “Hmm.”
When Jessica brought their food, the plates landed with a clatter on the table. “Can I get you anything else?”
“No, thanks,” Landon said.. “I think we’re good.”
She turned and walked away.
“Chilly,” Amanda said as she poured Italian dressing on her salad.
“She has no reason to be. The thing between us was no big deal, and it was over years ago. Why’s she acting like that?”
“Is that a rhetorical question, or do you really want to know?”
“I really want to know.” Landon took a bite of his pizza, hoping Jessica hadn’t laced it with poison, and chased it with a sip of ice-cold beer. Damn, that was good.
“If I had to guess,” Amanda said, casting a subtle glance at Jessica, “what you deem to be ‘no big deal’ might’ve been a big deal to her.”
“No way. It was nothing. We skied together a few times in a big group, hung out after, partied a little here and there. It was never a thing.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“There you go. It was a big deal to her. You probably broke her heart when you moved on.”
“I’ve never picked up that vibe from her, and I see her all the time. I’m in and out of here a couple times a week, and she’s never acted like she has tonight.”
“Because you’re usually by yourself, and she’s still hoping you might come back around to her. Let me ask you this… When was the last time you came here with a woman?”
