Page 23

KENJI – TWO MONTHS LATER

“A little bit of you makes me your man…”

“Mambo No. 5” suddenly blasted through the car speakers, scaring the absolute shit out of me. I clicked to accept the call and didn’t even let Landry get a word in before shouting.

“Are you fucking crazy? Stop changing my ringtone, you asshole! I almost wrecked the car!”

His honeyed voice came through the speakers, calming me against my will. “I’ll be honest. I feel a little bad about that one because I didn’t mean to imply that ‘a little bit of you’ referred to a certain body part. No worries, I’ve discovered a song called ‘My Dick’s Too Big’ by the Saddle Tramps to undo the damage. I can switch it out when you get back to the house. Wait. That still sounds like an insult? Maybe I can?—”

I pushed the button to end the call.

Three seconds later, the ringtone blared again. “A little bit of you makes me your man…”

I jammed the button. “Goddammit, Landry. What do you want? This is honestly worse than the time you made me watch a reality show about artisanal salad crafting, aka twelve hours of my life I’ll never get back.”

“I wish you hadn’t brought that up.”

“It’s triggering, I know,” I agreed.

“Because now I’m craving honey ginger dressing and pepitas.” His voice sounded muffled like he was turning away. “Tully, do you guys have pepitas for a salad?”

I hung up the phone before remembering the damned ringtone.

“A little bit of you makes me your man…”

Now that I was married to a billionaire, I was tempted to throw my phone out the window just to be rid of the nuisance. But I was neither wasteful nor a litterbug.

And I was still, in fact, a phone addict.

“Everett Landry Davencourt,” I gritted after answering the call. “You’re the one who sent me to the store for red peppers and corn because… you know what? No. I’m not getting into another salad argument right now. I am one minute from turning into the ranch. Can you slow your fucking roll and wait for me to get there? I know you’re in a hurry to show me something, but?—”

He cut me off, his voice suddenly sounding serious. “Don’t turn into the ranch. Keep going straight for one more mile and then turn left when you see the old wooden barrel.”

I knew the barrel he meant. It was sun-bleached and weather-worn, sitting crookedly at the end of an abandoned gravel drive. In summer, it sprouted colorful volunteer wildflowers that tossed their heads in the breeze. In winter, it was mostly buried by snowdrifts.

Now that it was very early spring, I imagined it was dark with damp from the recent snowmelt.

“What’s wrong?” I asked quickly, already assessing what our options were if there was an emergency.

“Nothing, promise. I just want to show you something.”

Landry’s calm tone immediately set my mind at ease. Despite the stress of the past two months—of traveling back to New York for work, returning to London for Ed’s retirement dinner, and sitting through hours of legal work with Tully in Majestic to update Landry’s and my estates—I was happy.

Our hope was to split our time between Majestic with the Brotherhood and Lellie and London with Landry’s family. Yes, I would still continue to travel back to New York periodically to oversee Sterling Chase administrative personnel, but my hope was to do most of that work remotely.

Landry had already had my apartment moved in its entirety to his penthouse, which had resulted in a highly inappropriate but admittedly very satisfying Spite Suck in the men’s room at Liberty London while I was picking up a few things for my grandmother’s birthday.

Of course he’d waited until we were in public to tell me about it, which meant, in addition to the semi-public fellatio, I decided he could spring for a Birkin bag for my grandmother after all.

Which reminded me…

“I was thinking about heading down to Boca a few days earlier than we planned,” I began, seeing the low outline of the old barrel in the distance. “My grandmother has a friend named Agatha, who has a nephew?—”

“No.”

I glanced at the phone display on the dash in surprise. “No? No, I can’t travel of my own free will to visit my grandmother a few days early for her birthday? I’m sorry. Since when are you the boss of me?”

And why do I always turn into a petulant teen in an argument with him?

“You’re not going early because I need you here. And whatever your plans were with Ethan, you can forget them.”

My chest lightened as I realized I wasn’t the only petulant teen in this relationship.

“But he sounds so lovely,” I said, putting as much earnest naiveté into my tone as possible. “Did you know—” My brain screeched to a halt. “How do you know his name is Ethan? I didn’t even know his name.”

Landry hesitated. “Mpfh. Just made it up. Lucky guess. Don’t give a fuck. Where are you?”

As I reached the turn, I noticed the broken barrel had a shocking display of fresh daffodils in it, set off in the warm light from the setting sun. “Turning in now, but how the fuck does this barrel have bulb flowers in it? Someone must have put them in last fall. I don’t remember any daffodils last year. It was mostly…” My voice trailed off as the driveway curved around a stand of large trees and revealed a breathtaking view of the mountains.

A familiar view of the mountains. In fact, this was the exact view of Three Daughters that had graced my bedroom wall in my apartment and that now hung in our bedroom at the penthouse in New York.

Now that I was here in person, I could see there was an old barn off to one side that made the scene even more charming despite the fact it was clearly on its last legs.

“Park the car, sweetheart,” Landry murmured, a smile evident in his voice.

I threw the car into park as soon as I saw him step out from around the old barn. He strode toward me with a bunch of daffodils in his hand and a giant grin on his face.

With the whirlwind surrounding our marriage and then all of the travel, we hadn’t celebrated Valentine’s Day. Was this some kind of belated romantic gesture? Him finding the view from my painting and surprising me with it?

It was sweet, of course, but trespassing wasn’t my idea of fun.

“Please tell me you got the owner’s permission for us to be here,” I begged. “Because Foster’s been in a mood lately and would like nothing better than an excuse to arrest us after he caught us kissing at lunch yesterday. And homeowners around here shoot first and ask questions never.”

Landry pulled me into his arms and pressed a warm kiss against my cool cheek. “I didn’t get permission from the owners, but how about I do that right now?”

As he began to pull back, I reached up and grabbed his face, pulling him back in for a proper kiss. If I was going to get shot to death, I wanted the taste of Landry’s lips on mine first.

I took my fill of him before finally allowing him to make his call.

He dialed the number and held the phone up to his ear.

“A little bit of you makes me your man…”

My phone rang at the same time, so I stepped away to take it. Cora had sent me information about a joint charity effort that I hadn’t had time to look over, and it would be just like her to…

Before my brain kicked in to remind me that the ringtone was only for Landry, I saw Landry’s face on the screen.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, not bothering to answer the call.

He grinned at me like a loon. “Asking the owner for permission to bring my husband here.”

I waved my phone in the air. “You accidentally dialed me, asshole.”

It took me a beat to realize I was the asshole. “Wait.”

Landry slid his phone back into his pocket and nodded. His newly brunet hair caught the setting sun, throwing off threads of chestnut and auburn that hopefully represented the natural colors that would emerge as his own color gradually took over the color-corrected brown his stylist had done.

“Wait,” I said again, glancing back at the view of Three Daughters. The one from my painting.

The river was still partially frozen as it meandered between the flat land and the foothills. The distant peaks of Three Daughters were white-tipped but bathed in orange and pink. It was a slightly different angle from the one at Dev and Tully’s and a completely different one from Silas and Way’s place.

It made sense Landry would want to build a place here, too. A place just for us.

On my dream spot.

“You bought us a place in Majestic?” I asked, the words tumbling out of me without passing through any filtration system. “Without asking me? Without consulting me at all?”

His smile faded a little. “Not exactly. I didn’t buy it for us. I bought it for you. Last year, in fact. I couldn’t consult you because you would have murdered me for my presumption.”

My eyes snapped back to his. “Last year?”

He shrugged and looked off to the mountains. “I, uh… yeah. I mean… You said something about it being the place you went to in your mind when you meditated, and I thought it would be nice if you could go there in person, whenever you wanted. But that prick McCusker wouldn’t sell. It took me over a year to wear him down.”

He’d bought it last year. Which meant this gesture actually went back to the early days of our time visiting Majestic.

“Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

Landry shot me a look. “Well, first of all, I wanted to show you in person, and we’ve been a little busy the past couple of months. Before we were together, I couldn’t think of a way of gifting you a large parcel of prime Wyoming acreage without you immediately refusing me and calling me names in the process. Are you suggesting you would have accepted my gift?”

I stepped closer and threaded my arm through his, clasping his hand and looking out at the view from his side. “Not sure I would have been able to say no.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Liar. You were, and still are, entirely capable of cutting off your nose to spite your face. In fact…” He turned and tweaked the tip of my nose. “I believe that’s why it’s so petite.”

I swatted his hand away and moved into his arms. “I might have refused it at the time, yes. But I’m definitely not refusing it now. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

He kissed me for a long time before pulling back with a murmured “Welcome.”

I inhaled the still-cold mountain air and spun slowly to take in the entire vista as his generosity sank in. “How much of this is ours?”

He turned to take in the expansive view. “Forty-eight acres. It goes to the base of the hills.” He gestured to the foothills leading to the mountains. “All of that is forever wild. And to the south is Dev and Tully’s ridiculous acreage. To the east is the road to town. Which leaves our neighbors to the north, and they can’t ever build too close to the river, which leaves us plenty of?—”

“Nobody cares about your neighborhood roster,” Foster called, stepping out from behind the barn. “Let’s get this show on the road. It’s going to get cold as balls once the sun goes down.”

I glanced at him in surprise. “You invited Foster?”

Not that I didn’t like the guy. I did. It was just that he’d been ornery as hell since he’d gotten back from his vacation in January, and we all considered him the Man Most Likely To Kick A Puppy these days.

Way had kindly reminded us that Foster’s actual puppy—a bloodhound in training for search and rescue—didn’t seem the worse for wear, but we all kept an eye out just in case.

“Not just Foster,” Landry said, pulling me by the hand toward the barn.

Others began streaming out from behind the barn. The Brotherhood and their partners, Way’s sister Sheridan and her crew, Foster’s mother and sister, and…

“Baa Baa?” I squeaked, recognizing the woman on Bash’s arm. Her wide grin and open arms were waiting when I ran into her embrace. “What are you doing here?”

“Your husband sent the plane for me. Said he figured you’d need expert advice on how to design a home that had just the right space for visiting grandparents.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Ed, Nan, Cora, and Jamie laughing and talking with Landry. It was clear he’d already greeted them.

“Where did you all come from?” I asked in happy disbelief. Landry opened his mouth, but I cut him off with a raised palm. “And if you say, ‘From behind the barn,’ I will cut you.”

Cora bounced over and gave me a tight hug. “We’ve just landed about an hour ago. Landry said he arranged for some people in town to delay your progress through the store.”

As I hugged and greeted everyone, I thought back to Natana Whiteplume’s odd request for my help selecting between two identical boxes of penne pasta because one of them looked “shifty.” Lake McNair’s insistence that I look at an astronomical number of ultrasound photos their surrogate had sent that seemed to only feature one cell, though Lake had insisted it was an entire fetus. Kicky Winshaw’s long, drawn-out retelling of local gossip, including my own surprise wedding that she cough hadn’t cough been invited to.

Jo Blake waited for everyone to finish saying hello before beaming at me and squeezing my shoulders. “I’m so happy the two of you are building a home here. When my nephew brought back that ornery city boy from Las Vegas a while back,” she said, thumbing over her shoulder at Silas, “I never expected he would bring such a cast of characters with him. We are so happy to have you all here in Majestic.”

She leaned in and gave me a tight hug before Dev approached her and handed an eager Lellie off to her. “Your turn, Auntie Jo. If you’re going to promise this girl candy, then you can take her.”

“Lollypop!” Lellie said, beaming at Jo. “Lollypop!”

As Jo walked away, chatting happily and pulling a toddler-safe lolly out of her pocket, I noticed Foster staring after her with a mixture of emotions. Envy, longing, wistful happiness maybe.

But there was also exhaustion and defeat, which I hated to see on a friend’s face.

“Foster,” I began, stepping toward him.

His expression shuttered on a blink and was replaced with a friendly but polite smile. “Congratulations, Kenji. Mom is right—we’re grateful you’re here. Welcome.” He held out his hand for a shake.

Now wasn’t the time or place to press him on whatever it was that I’d seen on his face. Instead, I asked about his new pup. “Where’s Chickpea?”

He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Jesus fuck. That dog. Don’t ask. I’ll be lucky if she can just stop tripping over her ears by summer, much less come when I call her.”

Landry returned to me and took my hand. “Foster was right about it getting cold if we stay out here much longer. There’s a special dinner planned back at Dev and Tully’s place to celebrate. I got a stack of house plan magazines and some huge sheets of paper to sketch ideas on. You ready to head back to the house?”

I glanced around at the people we loved most in our lives, all gathered here in one place. The sun was slipping ever lower, casting shadows everywhere, but there was still plenty of light.

“First, I want to get everyone together in a picture,” I said, quickly directing everyone to stand exactly where I wanted them.

Somehow, Way was able to move his truck around from behind the barn to the right spot so I could prop my phone on it for the group photo.

When the shutter sound finally began clicking, everyone was laughing and teasing. The smiles that resulted were my absolute favorite, and I hoped the photo would be the first in a years-long series of annual shots taken in that exact spot, ones that would feature the kids Landry and I had already shared dreams about, Lellie and the siblings I knew Dev and Tully wanted to give her, and any other beloved additions to our family. Photos that would include Cora and Jamie, even though their duties at Davencourt would grow to eventually include the earldom. Photos that would include Foster’s own happy-ever-after one day.

My dreams of those photographs came true over time, starting with Foster, whose love story began sooner than we expected. And I wasn’t the only one who took incredible pleasure in watching him fall.

Because it turned out the straight guy who’d had him tied up in knots wasn’t so straight after all…

And the key to our sheriff’s heart was a man named Tommy Marian.