Page 112 of Hot Cops

Finn spotted them as well.

She wasn’t sure what she expected…but it wasn’t her brother’s tired sigh.

“What are you doing, Sun?”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. You and Landon.” He gestured toward the couch. “What is this?”

“We’re just pretending to?—”

“Don’t,” he interjected. “Don’t tell me it’s all just a game. Please.”

She was about to do just that when he reached up and ran his knuckles over her cheek, near her lips.

“You have a bit of beard burn there.”

Her fingers flew up to touch it. “I—” She blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know what this is,” she confessed, feeling a ridiculous amount of relief at having finally said those words aloud. Typically, she didn’t have a thought she didn’t share, either with her brother or Landon or her cousins.

This thing with Landon had thrown her for a loop. So much so, the words had gotten trapped inside with her jumbled-up feelings.

“Yeah. That’s what I thought.” There was no rebuke in Finn’s tone. In fact, it was the opposite. He gave her a sympathetic smile that comforted her. Her big brother was here, and even if he didn’t know how to make things right, he’d help her until she found her way.

“You’re not mad at me?”

He snorted out a hard breath. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not acting out of character. Let’s face it. You never walk the straight and narrow. The wind blew you this direction and you went with it. Classic Sunnie.”

As far as helpful, Finn’s comments fell way short. Until she considered them more closely. Then she brightened up.

“You’re right. It’s not me who’s acting strangely. It’s Landon.”

Finn shook his head. “No. He’s not acting out of character either.”

Sunnie was lost again. “I don’t understand.”

“Things have changed between you and Landon. Ever since that kiss. No, those kisses—the one at the party, and the one the night of the mugging. Landon sees that…but I don’t think you do. And that’s the problem. You’re looking at this through the same Sunnie-colored glasses as always.”

“Sunnie-colored glasses?” she asked with a grin.

One that vanished when he said, “I thought you’d take that description better than ‘blinders.’”

“Finn—” she started, but before she could take her brother to task, Landon’s voice drifted down the hallway.

“Just need a couple more minutes,” he yelled from the direction of his bedroom. “Sorry I’m running so late, Finn.”

“Promise me something, Sun?”

She didn’t want to. Not because there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for her brother, but because she knew whatever he was going to ask for would be difficult for her to promise. “What?”

“Be careful.”

She nodded without hesitation, his request surprisingly simple.

Or so she thought.

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