for my hand, wrapping his fingers around my wrist.
Lifting my head from my phone, I look up at him, my lips parting in awe at the way my heart races and my body heats from just a simple touch. His amber-colored eyes practically twinkle as he watches me.
“I don’t want your detailed notes, I mean, maybe I will, but right now I want to know what house you loved.”
Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I flick my gaze down to my notes, then lift it back up to meet his again.
“There wasn’t a perfect one. They were all good, they were all mostly beautiful, but none screamed home to me.” His eyes widen and my breath hitches before I correct myself. “I don’t mean home, like my home, I mean like a home,” I attempt to clarify.
He laughs softly, then leans back in his chair. “Then you’ll have to come with me to see the rest, tell me which one feels like a home.”
Flicking my gaze to Holden, then back to him. “Are you sure? He’s quiet now, but that’s because he’s eating. He can be a bit rambunctious.”
Landry’s fingers squeeze my wrist, then release and he pulls his hand back to his side of the table. I miss it already and I curse myself for that. How in the hell am I going to be able to work beside him feeling this way day in and day out? I don’t think I can do it. I’ve never felt like this before and I’m a little scared.
“I’ve been around children before, Tennessee. Don’t worry, okay?”
Flicking my gaze from Landry to Holden, then back to Landry, I nod. “Okay. I won’t worry.”
“Yes, you will.” He laughs.
“Yes, I will,” I agree.
Landry pays for our food with his card. I hadn’t planned on using his company card at all for lunch. I was going to use my own money. He already pays me really well and the benefits are insane, but he insisted, so I decided not to argue.
When we walk out of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk, he places his palm against the small of my back and begins to guide us down the street. Holden wriggles in my arms, wanting nothing more than to walk himself next to me.
“You can let him down, I’m in no hurry. The agent can wait.”
“He’s really slow,” I say as a warning.
Landry grunts, applying a bit more pressure to the small of my back. “He’ll be fine. Stop worrying.”
I set a wiggling Holden down on his feet, gripping his hand in mine, and together, the three of us walk down the busy sidewalk. I can’t keep my imagination from racing. What if this wasn’t a work thing? What if we were really a couple? What if we were really a family?
I know that I shouldn’t think like that. I hardly know Landry. Physical attraction doesn’t mean anything other than body parts being hot for other body parts. When we reach a white sedan, I pause.
“What about Holden’s car seat? We aren’t going back to the driver?”
Landry turns his head, tilting his chin down at me, then without a single word, he reaches forward and tugs the back door open. My eyes widen and I shift my gaze back to meet his. There in the back seat of his fancy white car is Holden’s car seat, already strapped in and ready to go.
“You knew we would come with you? You wanted us to come with you before you even met him?” I breathe.
I wish that I could take the questions back, that I could tuck them back inside of my mouth and swallow them down. But when Landry smiles at me, showing his white teeth, he lets out a low chuckle.
“I’m not sure what I knew or didn’t know,” he admits. “I just did it. Felt like it was the right thing to do, the natural thing.”
“Natural,” I whisper.
I feel it too.
Everything with him feels natural, feels right. Every touch, every kiss. I want so much more, a need that fills me and is begging to be sated and he is the only one who can do that. I know that I shouldn’t be thinking or feeling any of it, but I am and there is no way that I can pretend it doesn’t exist—that these desires don’t exist.
LANDRY
The first house we see together is a dud, but this one, as soon as we pull up to the front of it, I know that