Page 94 of Hot Cops

He’d seen Finn walk into the pub just a few minutes earlier. Finn had stopped by the bar for the pint of Guinness in his hand. And he’d seen the kiss he and Sunnie had just shared.

Another kiss. This was becoming a habit.

“What do you mean?” Landon decided to play dumb, drive Finn crazy. He figured he had at least fifteen minutes to kill before Sunnie came back down. He might as well have some fun.

“You just kissed my sister. Again.”

“I know.”

Finn leaned back in the chair and rubbed his jaw, his expression the textbook definition of confused. “Are you two dating?”

Landon chuckled and shook his head. “Not exactly.”

He probably should have chosen his words more carefully, because Finn misinterpreted them, his eyes narrowing angrily. “You better not be fucking?—”

Landon put his hands up, a sign of surrender. “Come on, man. You know me better than that,” he said quickly. “Sunnie is going to help me scare away the damn groupies.”

“How?”

“She and I are going to pretend we’re dating.”

Finn took a sip of his beer as he chewed over that piece of information. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“It’s a great idea,” Landon insisted. “The tabloids keep trying to put us together in some forbidden love affair, so we’re just going to give it to them. Hopefully, this will scare off the women chasing me. What’s more boring than a couple going out to dinner and to the movies? With any luck, this will help things blow over quicker.”

“They’re going to blow over on their own anyway. I can’t see any reason to push the issue.”

“It’s driving me crazy, Finn. I’m not like you and Sunnie. I can’t stand being in the spotlight.”

“You just have to give it time. This shit never goes on for that long. People have very short attention spans.”

Landon shrugged. “I know. And I’m going to try to make them even shorter.”

Finn ran his finger through the condensation on his mug, quiet for a few moments, before looking at him again. “Are you sure that’s why you’re doing this?”

Landon frowned. “What’s that mean? What other reason would there be?”

“You keep kissing her, man.”

Glancing across the pub, Landon tried to figure out how to explain it to Finn. God, he’d like to find a way to explain it to himself. He’d kissed her at that damn party and…God…he just woke up.

But he wasn’t going to say any of that to Finn. He hadn’t even told Sunnie that his feelings for her had changed. So, he’d deflect. For now. “We were drunk the first time. We don’t even?—”

Finn held up his hand, looking slightly annoyed. “Don’t bother trying to feed me that line of shit about not remembering. I know you, bro. Maybe better than you know yourself. You remember every second of that kiss. And so does Sunnie. We let you get away with denying it because you were both drunk, and it was an easy way to let you off the hook on something neither one of you should have done to begin with.”

Landon tried to figure out why Finn’s comment bugged him so much. Did he really believe they shouldn’t have kissed? Why?

Landon knew they were a mismatch in terms of romance. Knew they both wanted different things right now. Knew that the relationship they shared now was special and not something to fuck with. He knew all of that.

But that knowledge vanished whenever he looked at her.

“I get it,” Landon said at last, simply because it was what Finn wanted to hear. And because Finn was his best friend, he knew it was a lie.

Finn shook his head. “No. You don’t. Sunnie is a chronic dater, Landon. Her track record on commitment sucks.”

Landon didn’t think it was a commitment issue as much as bad taste on her part. “She picks gym rats, guys who can’t walk by a mirror without flexing. Personally, I didn’t mind that she wouldn’t commit to the lumberjack, Stunt Man and Naked Ned. They were all clueless assholes.”

Finn snorted as Landon listed Sunnie’s last few boyfriends, using the nicknames he and Finn had given them.

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