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?