Page 114 of Deal Breaker
She waves us off. “Go. We’ll be fine.”
Poppy is already dragging out a deck of cards from the drawer. “Grandma’s gonna teach me Go Fish! Wanna play too, Grandpa?”
“You’re in good hands, then,” I say, smiling at my daughter and her grandparents.
Landyn’s fingers brush mine as we stand. She gives her mom a hug and kisses the top of Poppy’s head. I do the same.
“Ready?” I ask as we step onto the porch.
Landyn nods. “I think so.”
“There’s a great place around the corner,” she says as we pull out of Landyn’s parents’ driveway. “They make this cakethat is so decadent. It’s basically just a slab of pure chocolate.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Five minutes later, we pull up to a tucked-away café with a bright fuchsia-pink door. We debate over the incredible desserts on display at the counter but in the end order a slice of chocolate cake to share and two espresso macchiatos.
“This place is great,” I say after we’ve found an empty table at the back of the café. “It’s been while since I’ve had a good piece of chocolate cake. Me and my brothers…we all used to ask for it for our birthdays. Our mom made us one from scratch a couple of times when we were little. It was gone in a day. Sometimes in a few hours.”
Landyn smiles, and it hits me square in the chest. “You never told me that before,” she says with colour in her cheeks. “I like knowing that about your past.”
There’s a pit in my belly as memories of my mom come rushing back to me. Love. Longing. Heartache. They all twist together, heavy and restless inside me. I smile as I bite into a forkful of the rich dessert. “Okay, you’re right. This is amazing. I’d take chocolate cake over steak any day.”
She laughs and for a second, it feels like nothing’s changed. She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear then dips her fork into the cake and lifts it to her mouth, the movement slow and deliberate, like she’s savoring every part of it.
Her lips part slightly, just enough to show the soft pink of her tongue and the flash of white teeth. Then—fuck me—she closes them around the bite like it’s the first real pleasure she’s had in weeks. I watch her lick a crumb from her finger and I swear time bends.
My cock stirs.
“Mmm,’ she hums as she chews. It’s not even a sexualsound, but my body doesn’t know the damn difference. There’s icing on the corner of her mouth. I want to lean in and lick it off.
Jesus.
I grip my coffee cup a little tighter, take a sip, and remind myself that now is not the time to fantasize about making out with Landyn. Still, I can’t stop watching her. The curve of her mouth. The way she moves, graceful and totally unaware of the slow, sexy death she’s dealing me from across the table.
She looks over and catches me staring, so I clear my throat, reach for another forkful of the cake, and do my best to chew like a normal human being. Not like someone who just had a full-body reaction to a goddamn dessert.
“How are your brothers, really? Jesse and I have talked, but we haven’treallytalked,” she says. “He seems just like I remember him, though.”
I lean back in my chair, rubbing my palm across my jaw as I think about how to answer. “Jesse is Jesse. Still single. Loves being in the spotlight, hates anything that smells like commitment.”
She nods like that tracks. “What about Wes?”
“Quit flying commercial,” I say. “He liked it, but the schedule got to him. Now he’s doing private charters, he says it gives him more freedom.”
“That sounds like Wes,” she says with a smile. “Always wanting to do his own thing.”
“And Noah’s still skiing every chance he gets. Spends half his life up at his place in Whistler.” I shake my head, smiling faintly. “I don’t know what he does up there all on his own, honestly. He says it clears his head. I think he just likes the altitude.”
Landyn laughs softly, and the sound settles something inme. We fall into silence again, the conversation lagging, but it doesn’t feel awkward now. I look at her across the table, and for a second, I let myself remember what it used to be like between us. Back when I didn’t know what she’d kept from me, when just sitting with her like this felt like everything I’d ever need.
She breaks the silence first. “You’re lucky.”
My brow pulls together. “How come?”
She looks at me with tenderness in her eyes. “Your brothers. You’ve always had each other.”
I nod, swallowing against the sudden thickness in my throat. “Yeah,” I say. “We didn’t have much growing up. But we had that. Each other.”
