ones?” she asked in a teasing tone.
“I’d love to.”
His quick, serious reply threw her. “Landon…”
“Shhh, get some sleep. I’m right here, and everything is okay.”
Amanda took a deep breath and released it, trying to calm her fears and relax so she could get some badly needed rest. While he slept next to her, she dozed, dreaming of fire. She woke with a start when the phone rang.
Groaning, Landon rolled over to pick up the bedside extension. “Abbott.” After a quiet second, he said, “Hey, Charl.” He listened for a second. “Yeah, we can do that. Tell Dad we’ll be there.” Another pause. “Yes, she’s here. Hang on.” He handed the phone to Amanda. “My sister Charley for you.”
Amanda wondered why his sister was asking to talk to her. “Hello?”
“Hi there. How’re you feeling?”
“Much better, thanks.”
“That’s great. I wanted to tell you the girls are all getting together at my house tonight. We’d love to have you join us, if you’d like to come.”
“Oh, sure. That’d be fun.”
“Great, put Landon back on, and I’ll tell him to bring you before his shift. One of the others will take you home after.”
“Thanks for the invite.”
“Of course. See you soon.”
Amanda handed the phone to Landon. “She wants to talk to you.”
He took the phone. “Yes, Charley, I’ll bring her. Yes! Shut up. I’m hanging up now.” The phone beeped when he ended the call. “Such a pain in my ass.”
“What did she say?”
“To make sure I get you there, as if I couldn’t do it without her saying that.”
Amanda turned so she could see him and smiled at the scowl on his face. “I have a feeling you’ve given your sisters ample reason to be bossy with you.”
“Maybe,” he conceded, returning her smile.
“What did she say about your dad?”
“He’s having an all-hands family meeting tomorrow at three and wanted to know if we can make it.”
“What goes on at those meetings?”
“Could be anything, knowing him. We all have a small stake in the business, so he keeps us in the loop.”
“It’s cool that you’re all part of it.”
“My grandfather wanted all eighteen of his grandchildren to be part of the business, even if most of us aren’t active in the running of it. Hunter, Will, Wade, Charley and Ella have bigger shares as managing partners with my dad, but the rest of us stay involved in a variety of ways. My contribution is the Christmas tree farm.”
“Your family and the business fascinate me.”
“We’re positively fascinating,” he said with a grin. “He asked if you could come, too. Hope it’s okay that I said you’d be there.”
“Of course. I know they’re waiting on me to get back to work to train the staff on our product line.”
“That ought to be an interesting day in the history of the family business.” He glanced at her as he played with her hair. “Did you sleep?”
“I did.”
“Do you feel better?”
“Sort of. I had weird dreams.”
“What kind of dreams?”
“I was chasing you through a fire, trying to rescue you.”
“You won’t have to rescue me. I can take care of myself. I promise you don’t have to worry about me.”
“And yet…”
“It’s kinda nice that you worry about me. That means you like me.”
“Of course I like you. Why would I be in your house and your bed if I didn’t like you?”
“Just checking.”
“I can’t believe you’re still wondering about that.”
“So we’re on the same page?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Are we?”
“If you want this, you and me, then yes, we’re on the same page.”
“And that’s what you really want? When you could have anyone—”
He pounced, kissing the words right off her lips, wiping her brain clear of any thought that wasn’t about more of him. “Any questions?” he asked much later.
Amanda emerged from the kiss to realize her arms were around him and he was more or less on top of her. “Um, no. No questions.”
“Good.”
“No, wait. I do have one question.”
“What’s that?”
“I told you how I want to shake things up.”
“What about it?”
“It’s okay if you’d rather put this on pause until I figure things out.”
“The fire at the inn taught me something, too.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “Right now is all there really is. We can make plans for the future, but my Gramps likes to say that plans have a way of making fools of us.”
“I like that. It’s so true.”
“I understand where you’re at and what I’m getting into. I want to help you get what you want, whatever that might turn