All In (Keep Breathing Book 2), стр. 83
“Dinner was an event. His brother showed up and I thought there was going to be a blood bath.”
“Mama, here.” Matty plops a cowboy hat on my head.
“Thanks, baby.” I bop his nose.
“A blood bath? Why?”
“Without getting into all the details. His brother is a ‘you know what,’ and I swear Landon was trying to egg Liam on to make him snap. I also feel he has something against me without even knowing me which added to it all. It was tense all the way around.”
“T-T.” Matty taps Terry on her shoulder. “You bad guy.” He hands her a fake curly mustache.
“Me?”
“Uh-huh.”
She sticks the mustache to her upper lip and then wiggles her fingers at Matty. “I’m going to get myself a scallywag.
Matty falls onto the floor into a sea of laughter as Terry tickles him in the sides. “Mama, save me,” he begs, reaching out for me.
“She can’t save you this time, Captain Matty.” Terry pulls on her cheap curly mustache and then attacks Matty again with tickles. “I’ve come for your treasure.”
The doorbell chimes, followed by two loud raps that breaks up the tickle fest. Who the hell is banging at my door?
“Are you expecting someone?” Terry asks, throwing the tiny scallywag over her shoulder. “Someone else to come and steal the treasure?” she says in her best and worst pirate voice, making a pretend hook finger.
“I don’t know. I’ll go find out.” I rise to my feet, laughing at the craziness of my best friend. “Don’t have too much fun without me. Protect the booty, my son.”
“Booty.” He giggles, still hanging upside down.
I leave the two playing and make my way to the front door as the doorbell rings three more times, obnoxiously. What’s the urgency?
“Who is it?” I yell, placing my hands on the door as I peek out the peephole.
I do a double take at the person on the other side.
“It’s Landon.”
What the hell is he doing here?
“What do you want?” I hiss.
“I need to talk to you, Holly. It’s urgent.”
I unlock the door, and only open it halfway, blocking his entry. “How did you even know I lived here?”
“The information isn’t hard to find.” He chuckles. I roll my eyes, forgetting the twins work in the field of hacking and being nosey. “I need to talk to you.”
“Whatever would you need to talk to me about?”
“Can I come in? I don’t need your neighbors to hear this. Especially when they probably think I’m your boyfriend.”
Sure enough, my neighbor, Ms. Shirley, has her head peeking out of her door. She’s sixty, never has been married, I’m pretty sure has the cliché dozen cats, and is always in everyone’s business.
“You haven’t told me what it is you wanted to talk about. You might be Liam’s brother, but we don’t know each other.”
He tilts his head and smirks cockily. It’s crazy how Landon—a man who looks exactly like the man I love—can make me feel so uneasy. “Holly, we need to talk. It’s important. Trust me. A family matter. Please”
Ms. Shirley’s door creaks, and I relent. "Fine. Come in."
“Cute hat, by the way.” He grins tapping my hat as he walks in. I close the door and yank the cowboy hat off my head, tossing it to the couch. I'd offer him a drink, but I want him to tell me what he needs and go. I already know Liam won't be happy to learn he is here.
“Listen, if this is a family matter, shouldn’t Liam be here? I don’t feel comfortable being the middleman between you two,” I say, as Landon muddles across my condo. I’ve already been one between him and his father.
“You wouldn’t be the middleman, Holly.” Landon lifts a silver picture frame from the side table by my couch. He stares at it for what seems the longest time. It’s a picture I took candidly of Liam and Matty at the park. Liam is holding Matty on his lap as they go down the slide, but Matty takes a moment to kiss Liam on the cheek. It's one of my favorite pictures. “Precious,” he mutters and places the frame back down.
“What is going on, Landon?”
“I came to correct a few things.”
“Correct things? How would talking to me help correct things?” I ask confused as he continues to walk around looking at the pictures I have on my bookshelf.
"Holls, you're missing all the fun," Terry yells out from Matty's room.
"You have company?" Landon points down the hall, looking a bit green in the face.
"Yeah. My best friend is here with me and my son.”
“Matty is here?” He gives a half smile, but it quickly falls from his face.
“Where else would he be?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know. Sorry.”
“Maybe this isn’t a good time to do this.”
"No. It needs to be now. I have to do this before Liam gets here." He moves towards me and I step back. A knot twists in my gut from the uneasiness settling in. I don’t like this. Everything inside of me is telling me to flee.
"I don't get what could be so important?"
"I slept with you that night." He blurts and I feel as the world has stopped spinning. What kind of sick joke is this?
"What did you say?"
"Three years ago. At Comic Con. It was me you slept with."
Bile rises from my stomach and spots dance in front of my eyes. No. What the hell kind of game is he playing at?
"No,