Page 92 of Clean Sweep
“Dude,” Max cried. “You’rethe one thatcleaned the house! I called it!” He high-fived Nicholas. “I totally called it. I thought you had people that worked for you. It was never that clean, for the record. I mean, there’s no dust.”
I nodded, lips pursed to control my smile.
“Okay, so let’s say you break her heart,” Landon said, then pointed between the four of them. “Who gets to deal with you after that? Oh, right.All of us.”
I held up two hands. “Heartbreak is not on my list.”
“Better not be,” Max mumbled.
“Mom likes you,” Blake said, then shrugged when his brothers looked at him. “What? She does. I heard them talking on the phone a few times. She giggled. It was super weird. Plus, she talks to Lizbeth about him.”
I grinned. “Yeah?” I asked. “What did she say?”
“Fine,” Nicholas broke in, “We’ll give our blessing but . . . only after you grovel about the whole thing with Landon.”
I sighed. “Yes, there will be groveling involved. Flowers, too. Another round of expensive chocolates, if that’s her thing, but more likely another Irving Berlin movie, or something. I haven’t had a chance to gauge her on this yet.”
“Groveling?” Blake asked. “What thing with Landon?”
“Coach helped me with a few things,” Landon said before I could. His gaze remained on mine. “He didn’t tell Mom about me and Starla because I asked him not to. Then Mom found out and was mad. It’s all on me.” Landon spoke right to me then. “I’m sorry, Coach. I’ll help you get her back.”
“Knucklehead,” I muttered, then smiled. “The last thing I need isyougetting a woman for me. Please, don’t bother. Your mother will decide if I receive redemption or not, all right?”
“Redemption depends on how well you grovel.”
The feminine voice came from behind me. As one, the wall of testosterone grinned. Max tilted his head back and started to laugh. I whirled around to find Leslie standing back there, a vision in a black dress, the way I’d expected.
She wore her hair down around her shoulders, but pulled away from her face at the top. Her eyes looked wide, and a bit darker than usual, with thick lashes and a wary expression. Her tasteful black-and-silver dress glided to the ground, hinting at a pair of heels.
As far as mother-of-the-brides went, she was the most stunning I’d ever met. Words failed me. Staring at her in the falling snow, her cheeks heightened with color. Low wolf whistles and long drawls of “oooh, he’s in trouble now!” rang behind me.
How long had she been standing there?
“Miller boys,” she called without taking her gaze off of mine. “Go inside. It’s twenty minutes until the ceremony begins. Landon, find your bride. The rest of you go straighten up and get into your places. I’ll be there in just a minute.”
21
LESLIE
The moment the door closed behind my sons, the pressured, days-old words came out of me.
“I’m sorry.”
Confusion registered first on Tanner’s face. He tilted his head to the side, gaze tapered.
“What?”
“I overreacted. I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I snapped at you, made you leave Landon’s, didn’t call you after, and that it’s taken me so long to apologize. I wanted to, I promise. I just . . . I wasn’t sure and—”
His eyes widened. “Leslie,” he said quietly, “you have nothing to apologize for. I’m the one that should be saying it first.”
We fell to an impasse for a full ten seconds. He wanted to apologize first? Did he need to? The past few days had been a rolling question in my mind of whether we both held guilt, or just me.
Apparently, he’d had something of the same battle.
“No, you helped Landon,” I said. “You . . . you respected my son and his adult life. I get it. Starla and Landon explained everything. Once I stepped out of my need-to-control-and-make-safety-haze, I learned that you’d actually been helping my son all along. If there was anyone else I would have wanted to be there for him when I couldn’t be, it’s you.”
The intensity of his expression softened slightly.
