Page 4 of June Kisses

Landon held his hand out, palm up. “Sorry ’bout your bad luck, bro,” he teased. “Guess you don’t know true musical talent like I do.”

Sunnie snorted. “You weren’t betting on Rory’s talent. You have the hots for her, same as every other guy in here who put money down on her to win.”

Landon didn’t even bother to deny it. “Maybe. But the fact still remains I now have fifty bucks to woo her with when she shows up later for the after-show celebration.”

Finn slapped the cash in his best friend’s hand, losing it with zero good grace. “It would take a hell of a lot more than fifty dollars to get her to look at you…especially with me here.”

Landon and Finn had been friends since preschool, and their constant games of one-upmanship and practical jokes had become the standard operating procedure. Sunnie and Finn’s dad, Aaron, had refereed more than his fair share of fights between the two when they were young, when the competitiveness got too heated. Dad claimed the two of them were more like brothers than best friends, and no one had ever disagreed with that assessment.

“Tell your brother he’s delusional, Sunshine.”

She raised her hands. “Nope. Personally, I think you’re both out of your minds if you think someone as talented and cool as Rory would give either of you a second glance. Besides, Landon, you’ve got a girlfriend.”

Landon glanced around the bar, caught Allison’s eye, and waved in a terribly lovestruck, smitten way that had Sunnie rolling her eyes. She pretended she was going to be sick as Finn laughed and picked up on the joke. “I keep trying to figure out what a hot ticket like Allison sees in Landon.”

Typically, Landon would have enjoyed the teasing, would have started giving it right back, but instead, he sobered up. “Allison’s planning to move to New York.”

“What?” Sunnie asked. “Since when?”

“She’s an actress, you know that. I think it’s always been in the back of her mind that she would take the leap, would try to make it on Broadway. I slowed that process down.”

“What about you?” Finn asked.

“Allison wants me to come with her.”

Sunnie wasn’t sure how to respond to Landon’s news. He could have dropped a bomb right in the middle of the pub and it wouldn’t have shaken her like this.

Ever since she could remember, it had been her, Finn and Landon. Well, prior to high school graduation, it was more accurate to say it had been Finn and Landon, with her trailing along behind, but that had changed in the past few years.

The idea that their gang of three might drift apart bothered her. There were constants in her life—things she could always count on to be true no matter how old she got. Things like her family’s love, a Collins manning the bar at Pat’s Pub, her love of Guinness…and Landon’s presence.

Those things were solid. Forever.

Finn recovered first. “Are you going?”

Landon shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Sunnie asked more hotly than she’d intended. “What about your job?”

When Sunnie considered her unwavering adoration for her family, she figured the only person on the planet who might love them as much—or maybe more—was Landon. She’d seen firsthand the hero worship Landon had developed for her dad. Not that she blamed him, of course. As far as Sunnie was concerned, Aaron Young walked on water. She knew Landon felt the same way.

He’d idolized her dad so much, he had gone to the police academy after graduation, and he now worked as a police officer in the same precinct as Dad. Hell, Dad was his superior officer.

Landon sighed, and Sunnie realized he’d been struggling with this decision for longer than just tonight.

“When did she tell you about the move?”

Landon shrugged. Which meant he didn’t want to answer.

She and Finn leaned forward, waiting for the reply.

“Right after the New Year.”

“Two months ago? And you didn’t tell us?” Finn asked. Sunnie heard the slight tone of hurt in her brother’s voice. Finn and Landon were practically brothers, their relationship as tight as Colm and Padraig’s, who were legit twins, connected by some sort of invisible thread that meant they were always in each other’s heads.

“I don’t know what I’m doing yet, Finn.”

It was a simple answer, and one she and Finn should have expected. Landon didn’t do anything without thinking through every conceivable consequence.

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