Page 7

Chapter seven

Landon

ESPN notification – Week One is only a couple of weeks away: Here’s what Colton Beaumont and his Sabertooths have to fix for another championship run (hint: it’s not much!).

Bay Area News 5 – Fight breaks out at downtown San Jose bar—Myles Young and Landon Beaumont among Sentinels players kicked out.

Landon listened to the sportscasters discussing statistics and predictions for the last preseason game, which signaled two short weeks until the start of the season in September. A couple of seasons ago, that wouldn’t have meant much for Landon’s after-dark activities, but since Landon had gotten closer with Ikaika, who almost completely stopped going out during the season, Landon’s partying had decreased too.

Somewhat. He was still easily convinced to go out with Myles and the rest of his teammates occasionally.

The change meant that Landon spent more of his evenings playing video games or watching other teams at his or Ikaika’s apartments instead of hitting their favorite club and finding two—or more—willing women to take home with them.

Hence why he was at Ikaika’s that evening, waiting for the Pittsburgh game to start. He looked around Ikaika’s apartment with fresh eyes now that he knew who his Wednesday evening had been spent with. Or at least half an hour of his evening.

To be fair, Ikaika had been adamant that they not go back to his apartment the last couple of months of the offseason. They’d been partying a lot and coming home at odd hours, usually loudly, and Ikaika hadn’t wanted to disturb his cousin. Landon just hadn’t realized said cousin looked…as good as she did.

His friend was very family oriented, and pictures with his family in Hawaii sat on the kitchen counter by the sink and along the TV stand. Landon had never looked at them too closely. Only one frame featured the woman who Landon had spent an inordinate amount of time scrolling through Ikaika’s social media following looking for. All he’d found was a rather innocuous private profile that had given him no information but her name.

Keala Lōkahi-Price.

The only reason he’d known it was her was because her last name was hyphenated with Ikaika’s last name, and the profile picture featured what was likely a younger version of the woman he’d met.

San Jose was huge, filled with tons of people. It was no surprise he hadn’t recognized the similar features until she’d been in his car, giving him her address. That was when the pieces had begun falling into place.

Now that he was looking at the photo of them with their cheeks pressed together and big smiles on their faces—or as big a smile as one could pull from Ikaika—Landon could see the resemblance even clearer. Their eyes scrunched the same way when they smiled, and both their noses hooked upward slightly at the end.

But her hair was lighter, brown with a bit of blonde, like she’d gotten highlights. Her eyes were lighter too—hazel that nearly tipped over into green. Freckles dotted her smooth cheeks and the bridge of her nose, and when he’d met her, Landon had thought she was the prettiest woman he’d ever had the privilege of almost hooking up with. Even if she had been drowning in a sweatshirt and overthinking the entire time.

He’d liked that she hadn’t treated him like a celebrity, and now he knew why. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her and what arguably may have been the best kiss of his life. But the things that kept buzzing around in his head were the words that had tumbled out of her mouth like rocks down a hillside.

It was clear she had let him in on pieces of her life that were immensely private, and now that he’d had a taste, he was intrigued. He wanted another shot with her. Something in that kiss had left him more out of control than usual, and he desperately wanted to finish what they’d started.

For closure’s sake.

He couldn’t imagine she would be too happy when she realized how close he was with Ikaika and how much time that meant they would be spending together.

A part of him was excited to see what she would say when she found out. If she would get angry. If those pretty lips would pout.

“What the hell are you doing?” Ikaika asked as he brought a bowl of food into the living room, Chowder rubbing against his legs as he walked.

“Huh?”

“Why are you staring at that picture so intently?”

I should tell him . It was the right thing to do. He wasn’t sure Ikaika would care, especially since he hadn’t known until after, but…

The front door opened, and Landon jumped away from the stand, slamming his leg into the coffee table and garnering an odd look from Ikaika.

“My shift was awful and practice at Zoe’s ran so long. I need a shower immediately. Have you eat—” Keala had finally turned his way.

Ikaika placed his bowl on the coffee table, picking Chowder up with one hand as he stood and nodded between Landon and Keala. “Keeks, this is one of my teammates, Landon. Landon, this is my cousin, Keala.”

She was stunning, just like he remembered, only now she was in a tight-as-fuck two-piece workout set that showed off how exquisitely toned she was. Her hair was in a ponytail, a little wet, and a few strands framed her face. Dark crescents were stamped under her eyes, made more obvious by her glare.

Keala walked toward Landon with a hand outstretched. Landon flashed a grin, sensing she was upset. Which was confirmed when she squeezed the ever-loving hell out of his hand.

Screw pouting. He liked when she glared. A lot.

“Ah, so this is why we haven’t been coming back here for the last couple of months.”

She stepped away, her glare morphing into a genuine smile as Ikaika approached her. They hugged, and Landon wanted to know how they seemed so close and yet he had no knowledge of her. Granted, he and Ikaika had only been good friends for about a year, but Ikaika’s hot cousin seemed like a great topic of conversation. At least for Landon.

“Keala’s busy. She’s a nurse practitioner and a Sentinels Siren who barely sleeps as is. The last thing I wanted was to have us stumbling home drunk at odd hours when she was trying to sleep.” Ikaika set Chowder down, and she gave Keala an unimpressed look before following him back to the couch.

A Siren? No wonder she hadn’t wanted to be seen with him. If being a nurse practitioner was the job she didn’t like, the Sirens must have been the one she’d mentioned losing that night. Was she still off the team or…

And now he was picturing her in those little outfits.

Keala grimaced. “Oh…that was so sweet of you.”

Ikaika shrugged. “Now that the season is beginning, we won’t be partying as much, so I didn’t think it would be a problem if we started hanging around again.”

“Right. Of course not. It’s literally your apartment—you should do whatever you need to. Please don’t feel like you have to change anything for me.” Angry eyes found Landon’s again, and he tried not to crack another smile.

“Have you eaten yet? There’s pasta from the facility in the kitchen.”

“I had a protein bar, but I’ll grab some. Thanks. I’m going to take a shower and get to bed.”

“You don’t want to hang out?”

She looked at Landon for a split second. “I have to be up early.”

“Your shifts still haven’t changed?”

“Not this week. But they do next week. Monday, Friday, Saturday instead of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.”

“Good. Hopefully Angelica will get off your ass now.”

She hummed, disappearing into the kitchen. Landon found it amusing and even a little adorable how badly she didn’t want to be in the room with him.

Landon knew he had said all the wrong things Wednesday when he was normally so good with his words, but everything about her confession had thrown him off. Her propensity for emotional vulnerability was jarring, the complete opposite to him. The thought of being open the way she had been made his skin crawl, and yet he wasn’t running in horror the way he expected most people would if he were to ever express emotion like that. He had actually kind of…liked it, even if he hadn’t known what to say.

When she had taken her bowl of food and bags into the hallway, refusing to look back at him, Landon finally took a seat on the couch.

Not wanting to go any further without being honest, he told Ikaika, “I’m going to be real with you. We almost hooked up a few days ago.” Five, to be exact. “She was at Ole Faithful, and one thing led to another.”

Ikaika knew Ole Faithful was the place Landon went on the few evenings he wanted to get out of his apartment but didn’t want to be seen. Landon had discovered it a few years ago when he’d first started renting the penthouse and realized that being all the way across the country from Colton and his father still might not have been far enough. If the managers or staff knew who he was, they never said. And they never tipped off the media. So, in short, it was one of his favorite places and would be dearly missed when he moved.

Ikaika made a disgusted face, setting his empty bowl down. “That’s why you’ve been acting weird.”

“I didn’t know who she was, and nothing came of it. I brought her home, here, and that’s when I realized.”

Landon waited for some kind of anger or, at the very least, a question about why he’d waited so many days to tell him when they had seen each other at practices since then, but Ikaika just shrugged. “What she does isn’t my business. As long as she doesn’t get hurt, I don’t need to know about it.”

Oh. That was a surprise, but it made him feel better about his desire to pursue her.

Ikaika continued, “Is it going to be weird with you moving in across the hall?”

With Landon’s landlord moving back, he had finally decided to purchase his first luxury apartment. He’d thought it would be great to live across the hall from the guy he spent the most time with, so when the place happened to be for sale right around the time his landlord had messaged him a few months ago, it had seemed fortuitous.

“You know I don’t care about stuff like that. Will it be weird for you?”

“Nah. And Keala’s super busy. Even with her shifts changing, I don’t know if she and I will see each other much, let alone the two of you.”

Landon didn’t know why that made his shoulders slump.

“But if she is around enough, are you planning on…” He waved his hand in Landon’s direction.

Landon cleared his throat, trying to find the right words. “If you don’t think it would make things uncomfortable.”

A look of disbelief. “Wow, I expected you to say no.”

“So it would be uncomfortable?”

“No, I mean I’ve just never seen you focus on someone after things didn’t work out. Or even after they did. This summer, you had a new girl almost every day. The few times you took the same girl home more than once, it was because she was persistent as hell—low-key stalking you to know which club you’d be at—and there were no other prospects. I’m shocked.”

Landon shrugged. He couldn’t explain it either. If he could, maybe he’d have found a solution to push her out of his mind once and for all.

Ikaika turned to the television. “Again, she’s an adult. If it’s something she wants and it doesn’t bleed into my relationships with the two of you, I don’t care. But I don’t want to hear anything about it.”

Landon nodded in understanding.

Ikaika increased the volume, and Landon tried not to put too much stock into the fact that Keala was the first woman he had ever thought about after he’d been with her.

And she didn’t seem interested in him in the slightest.