Page 113 of Finding Lord Landry

“But he sounds so lovely,” I said, putting as much earnest naiveté into my tone as possible. “Did you know—” My brain screeched to a halt. “How do you know his name is Ethan? I didn’t even know his name.”

Landry hesitated. “Mpfh. Just made it up. Lucky guess. Don’t give a fuck. Where are you?”

As I reached the turn, I noticed the broken barrel had a shocking display of fresh daffodils in it, set off in the warm light from the setting sun. “Turning in now, but how the fuck does this barrel have bulb flowers in it? Someone must have put them in last fall. I don’t remember any daffodils last year. It was mostly…” My voice trailed off as the driveway curved around a stand of large trees and revealed a breathtaking view of the mountains.

Afamiliarview of the mountains. In fact, this was the exact view of Three Daughters that had graced my bedroom wall in my apartment and that now hung in our bedroom at the penthouse in New York.

Now that I was here in person, I could see there was an old barn off to one side that made the scene even more charming despite the fact it was clearly on its last legs.

“Park the car, sweetheart,” Landry murmured, a smile evident in his voice.

I threw the car into park as soon as I saw him step out from around the old barn. He strode toward me with a bunch of daffodils in his hand and a giant grin on his face.

With the whirlwind surrounding our marriage and then all of the travel, we hadn’t celebrated Valentine’s Day. Was this some kind of belated romantic gesture? Him finding the view from my painting and surprising me with it?

It was sweet, of course, but trespassing wasn’t my idea of fun.

“Please tell me you got the owner’s permission for us to be here,” I begged. “Because Foster’s been in a mood lately and would like nothing better than an excuse to arrest us after he caught us kissing at lunch yesterday. And homeowners around here shoot first and ask questions never.”

Landry pulled me into his arms and pressed a warm kiss against my cool cheek. “I didn’t get permission from the owners, but how about I do that right now?”

As he began to pull back, I reached up and grabbed his face, pulling him back in for a proper kiss. If I was going to get shot to death, I wanted the taste of Landry’s lips on mine first.

I took my fill of him before finally allowing him to make his call.

He dialed the number and held the phone up to his ear.

“A little bit of you makes me your man…”

My phone rang at the same time, so I stepped away to take it. Cora had sent me information about a joint charity effort that I hadn’t had time to look over, and it would be just like her to…

Before my brain kicked in to remind me that the ringtone was only for Landry, I saw Landry’s face on the screen.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, not bothering to answer the call.

He grinned at me like a loon. “Asking the owner for permission to bring my husband here.”

I waved my phone in the air. “You accidentally dialed me, asshole.”

It took me a beat to realize I was the asshole. “Wait.”

Landry slid his phone back into his pocket and nodded. His newly brunet hair caught the setting sun, throwing off threads of chestnut and auburn that hopefully represented the natural colors that would emerge as his own color gradually took over the color-corrected brown his stylist had done.

“Wait,” I said again, glancing back at the view of Three Daughters. The one from my painting.

The river was still partially frozen as it meandered between the flat land and the foothills. The distant peaks of Three Daughters were white-tipped but bathed in orange and pink. It was a slightly different angle from the one at Dev and Tully’s and a completely different one from Silas and Way’s place.

It made sense Landry would want to build a place here, too. A place just for us.

On my dream spot.

“You bought us a place in Majestic?” I asked, the words tumbling out of me without passing through any filtration system. “Without asking me? Without consulting me at all?”

His smile faded a little. “Not exactly. I didn’t buy it for us. I bought it for you. Last year, in fact. I couldn’t consult you because you would have murdered me for my presumption.”

My eyes snapped back to his. “Last year?”

He shrugged and looked off to the mountains. “I, uh… yeah. I mean… You said something about it being the place you went to in your mind when you meditated, and I thought it would be nice if you could go there in person, whenever you wanted. But that prick McCusker wouldn’t sell. It took me over a year to wear him down.”

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