Wedding Bet (Fixer Brothers Construction Co #8)

11. Jamie

11

JAMIE

I knew I wasn’t in my usual space from the moment I woke up, even before I’d opened my eyes. First of all, I was completely naked, when I usually at least threw on a pair of shorts to sleep. The bed was also the most comfortable thing I’d ever slept on—like a cloud had somehow been plucked from the sky and brought down into a hotel room.

Then it all came back to me at once. My eyes shot open and I turned over in bed to see Landry, looking every bit like a male model off-duty as he snoozed away peacefully in the morning light, one muscled arm up above his head.

God.

Good holy Lord .

He was so beautiful. So handsome. So much to take in.

How on Earth had I been with this man last night? How could this man have wanted me, too? It was like nothing I could have dreamed, yet it had been my reality.

His golden skin. His scent. And fuck , the incredible way he’d known exactly how to touch me last night.

You’re not falling for him , I reminded myself.

This is a one-time, wedding vacation fling. So get used to it.

Fake boyfriend, remember?

I breathed in deep, trying and failing to shake off the magical feeling from last night.

I glanced at the clock on the side table behind him and did a double-take.

Suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about last night at all, as panic surged through my veins.

“Shit. Shit . How is it already ten fifteen?”

Landry hummed, reaching out to hitch his hands around my waist, tugging me toward him under the crisp white sheets. He mumbled something unintelligible.

“Landry,” I said. “We’re already late for the brunch. I promised I’d help Chase and Mom with the fresh flower delivery, and the wedding starts in just a few hours—”

Landry’s eyes opened just as quickly as mine had. “Wedding. Fuck. Wedding .”

“We slept so damn long.”

Landry reached his arms up above his head, stretching out, the sheets coming down to expose his bare chest.

Inches and inches of bare, perfectly muscled chest.

“Unfair,” I said. “So unfair. Fuck, you are hot. How does someone look that perfect—”

He hummed, giving me a playful glance. “Oh, hush. And speak for yourself.”

I rolled my eyes.

“What?” Landry protested. “You’re adorable.”

“And now you’re making me blush, way too early in the morning.”

“Except it’s not early at all,” he murmured, stretching again, “because apparently I sleep like a rock when you’re around.”

“So you finally slept well?” I asked.

His eyes looked serene. “Better than ever. Thank you, Jamie. Better than any medicine could do. It’s like I’m in a whole new world.”

“Now you’re making me want to sing that song,” I said. “A whole new world…”

“Sorry,” he said with a shrug. “That’s one thing you should know about me. Cost of doing business with Landry Lucock: you’ll probably get a lot of songs stuck in your head.”

“Okay, okay, I’m getting up,” I said. “I’ve got to go back down to my room and get the right clothes on, and then head to the lobby to ask about the florist. I can’t believe it’s already the wedding day. The wedding day. I’m so damn excited.”

I saw Landry’s expression change as he got out of bed. “It’ll be a beautiful ceremony.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “Hey. If you start, you know, feeling like shit during the wedding or the reception, just come find me, if we get separated. Okay? I’ll be right there. I want you to be able to have a good time at the wedding.”

“You’re too sweet for this world,” he said, giving me a warm look. “Now go do what you need to do. I’ll be just fine.”

As I grabbed all of my stuff in my arm and bolted out the hallway, I heard Landry singing “A Whole New World” to himself.

God, I could get used to this , I thought as I made my way toward the front door.

Waking up next to him, seeing him all disheveled from sleep, and finding out that he sings songs when he’s happy in the morning. I’d half expected him to freak out and go cold on me, knowing that he usually pushed away intimacy.

But he hadn’t turned away from being close with me at all. He’d wanted it. If mornings like today could actually be a part of my life…

It was a useless thought, knowing who Landry was, but as far as mornings went, it was a pretty good one, even with the late wake-up.

I pushed open the front door and a split second later, the door directly across from Landry’s opened into the hallway.

And I found myself staring right into my brother’s eyes.

Shit . So much for getting out of Landry’s room without seeing anyone.

“Chase,” I said, my eyes flying wide. “Good morning!”

“Jamie,” he said before narrowing his eyes. “Wait, Jamie? Isn’t that Landry’s suite?”

I cleared my throat, feeling my cheeks flush with heat.

What was I supposed to say?

We spent the whole night together, and it was one of the most magical nights of my life, and I’m pretty sure I’d fall for him if he wanted anything to do with real relationships?

The truth was too much. But I’d been caught, red-handed.

“What are you doing up here?” I asked, trying to deflect. “Didn’t the guys’ brunch start thirty minutes ago?”

“I just came up here to grab my phone charger,” Chase said, holding up a cord. “Got to give it some juice.”

I nodded slowly. “Right, right. Well, um, I got up earlier— way earlier, and took a shower this morning. In my own room. Obviously. But, I came up here , and then I was asking Landry for some help with the florist delivery.” I cleared my throat. “Figured I could use an extra hand.”

God, I was a terrible liar.

Nearly incapable of it, really.

I planned on having a good, long video call with Chase sometime long after the festivities had died down, and eventually I’d explain everything. My weird attraction to Landry. The strange little connection we’d had.

But today was Chase’s wedding day, and I wasn’t about to get into all of that now. After we’d all left the ski resort, and I’d been back home in California for a while, I was sure that all of my feelings about Landry would die down and be nothing but a distant memory. It could be a funny anecdote, one day.

“I gotcha,” Chase said. His expression looked different than usual, but I couldn’t figure out if it was because I’d come out of Landry’s room, or something else entirely.

“You ready for the big day?” I asked my brother as we shared the elevator down toward my own floor.

Chase was pulling at a thread on his pants, and chewing on the inside of his cheek.

Shit.

He was the nervous one.

Chase reached out to gently grab my arm. I turned back around to look at him, and now the look on his face was one of sheer terror.

“Tell me it’s going to go okay?” he asked, practically holding his breath.

My poor brother.

My sweet, social butterfly of a brother, who usually didn’t worry about a damned thing, was asking me for reassurance.

I’d never loved him more.

“Holy shit,” I said, turning to step back, standing so that the elevator wouldn’t close. I was shocked. “Chase, you’re going to absolutely fucking rock it.”

“Adam is the most amazing person I’ve ever known,” Chase said, in a rare moment of anxiety. “I want to do right by him. I really do want it to be forever , Jamie. And that’s as scary as it is incredible. He’s so out of my league, it’s not even funny.”

I looked at him like he was losing his mind. “Excuse me, is this the Chase Blau I’ve known and loved for years? Have you been replaced with an alien, or something? Adam isn’t out of your league, he’s perfect for you.”

He let out a breath, nodding once. “You really think so, huh?”

I puffed out a laugh. “Of course I do. If you want to talk about someone being out of somebody else’s league, look at me compared to Landry, or something. You and Adam are forever material.”

I was blabbing, but I really couldn’t believe he had anything to worry about. I’ve never really seen Chase get anxious, but I supposed wedding days could make even people with nerves of steel get a little shaky.

He nodded and reached out to squeeze my arm. “It means so much to me that you’re here today. And no one’s out of your league either, by the way.”

I cracked a smile. “You’re too generous.”

“Landry doesn’t do relationships, but if he did? I bet you two would hit it off and be riding off into the sunset by tomorrow night.”

I puffed out a laugh. “Now I know you’re either criminally insane or have been replaced with an evil clone version of yourself.”

“Is the clone going to be able to get through this wedding without bawling on Adam’s shoulder, at least?” Chase asked me.

“No question,” I told him. “You definitely might cry, but I think it’ll be tears of joy.”

He took a deep breath. “I’ve got to get down there before they think I’ve run off. Thank you, Jamie.”

“Knock ‘em dead,” I said. “I’ve got to shower and change before I go meet with the florist.”

Chase turned his head to one side. “Shower? Didn’t you say you already washed up before you went up to Landry’s room?”

Fuck. Shit.

Caught red-handed, again.

I just gave him what I hoped was a convincing, breezy laugh as the elevator slid shut behind me and I made my way over to my room.

My heart was pounding faster than usual in my chest, but the truth was that it had given me the type of thrill I hadn’t had in years. Probably since high school, when I’d first realized I was fully, definitely attracted to men, and I’d kissed my first boy behind a lifeguard tower on Stellara Beach at night.

I didn’t want a relationship that had to be a secret, and I couldn’t have any relationship at all with Landry.

But for this week, in our little snowglobe, I savored it.

Like something delicious that was slowly disappearing.

“You told me that you would be there, and you were not there,” a very red-faced florist with an accent yelled at me an hour later in the hotel lobby. “I have many appointments today. This world does not revolve around you!”

“You’re right, sir,” I said. I’d apologized profusely many times for being fifteen minutes late, but he was not having it. “I will give you a very large tip.”

He scoffed. “Americans and your tips ,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “But, yes. Sure. It better be big .”

Chase had given me the check for the florist, but I pulled out my own cash for a tip. When I held out one 20-dollar bill, he looked at me like I was a bug he’d like to squash, so I bit back a grimace as I swapped it to a 50-dollar bill. I only had 20 more bucks for the rest of the trip, and I was leaving tomorrow night.

“Feels just like being back home,” I muttered, kissing my money goodbye.

“There,” he said. “I must go to my next appointment.”

“I’m very sorry,” I called to him again as he huffed out through the hotel’s front doors.

“You handled that very well,” one of the workers behind the front desk said as I went back over to the delivery of flowers, which I’d placed on a bellhop cart.

“I thought I might lose a pinky finger,” I said. “Thank you.”

I was tasked with taking the cart full of fresh flowers down the hall and toward the grand ballroom where the wedding and reception were being held. But as I turned the corner into the ballroom, one of the hotel staff, along with Adam at her side, intercepted me.

“There they are! Beautiful,” the staff member said. She took the cart from me. “We can handle it from here.”

Adam was still in his regular clothes. He leaned in to give me a quick hug. “They look amazing. Thank you for handling the florist, Jamie. When I spoke to him on the phone, he seemed like such a sweet man.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, nodding once. “Right. Sweet. He was a very nice guy.”

“I just saw your mom, by the way. She’s with your brother’s wedding party and she looks incredible already.”

My heart swelled with pride. Chase and Adam weren’t having traditional groomsmen, even though they’d had various bachelor-style activities leading up to the wedding. But they’d offered to have professional makeup and styling for my mom, and I knew she was going to love it, even if she tried to refuse at first.

“I know she’s going to have a great time. And bawl like a baby, but still.”

Adam squeezed my shoulder. “Thanks again for grabbing the stuff from the florist.”

I knew that if I mentioned the tip, Adam would have arranged to have me paid back in full. But my pride wouldn’t let me mention it. I didn’t want him to have to think about anything else on the morning of his wedding, when he was already swimming in plans and to-do lists.

He looked serene, though, with none of the nerves that Chase had shown me earlier. “It’s all happening,” Adam said with a smile. “I suppose the next time I see you, I’ll be getting married.”

“Are you sure you don’t need anything else?” I offered.

“You are free,” Adam said. A moment later, a person carrying multiple different cufflinks came up to him, whisking him off.

I was left to my own devices again, and I had a good few hours to kill before the wedding began. I walked down the street to grab a small coffee and an egg sandwich, since I hadn’t had a chance to get anything yet today. But after I’d fueled up, I was aimless.

I was faced with a few hours of totally free time—something that I rarely had back home, but had a surprising amount of here in Colorado. For some reason, I’d thought that every moment would be jam-packed with things to do—Chase had always been one for adventure, and he’d definitely had a little bit of that with the skiing lessons.

But as I walked around the cobblestone sidewalks this morning, I realized that for the first time all week, I was… lonely.

Lonely, even though I was about to attend my brother’s wedding.

Lonely, even though I’d literally slept right next to the most attractive man on the planet last night.

I walked up and down the street for at least an hour, just watching the world go by. I stopped on a bench for a while. I dipped into a tiny bookstore. I spent almost all of my remaining money on little tourist gifts for Mom and Nicole.

And then all it took was seeing a young couple walking down the street, stopping to kiss and take a selfie.

I realized what felt so off for me this morning. It was as if everybody had something going on in life, and I was just… a cheerleader. So many people were in love. Not Landry, but he didn’t even want love to begin with, so it didn’t count. He had a thriving business life and the opportunity to have plenty of fun one-night-stands and hookups.

I was getting older and I had nothing to show for it. By this time in my life, I had always thought I’d have more .

A house. A marriage. Maybe even a kid.

But I was as free-floating as a snowflake in a snowglobe, just waiting for the world to put me where I belonged.

As I stepped out of the little tourist shop the midday sun was just starting to peek out as all of the morning’s clouds faded away. I squinted into the sunlight and saw a familiar face, and suddenly it was as if everything inside me felt warmer.

“Landry,” I said, a breeze blowing through my hair. “Fancy seeing you here.”

God, I felt too good seeing him.

I wasn’t supposed to be feeling any attachment to this man.

“Could say the same to you,” he told me. “But I suppose there isn’t a lot for us to do until the big wedding, huh?”

“Tell me about it,” I said. “It’s the definition of hurry up and wait . Why did I think delivering flowers from the florist would take all morning? After about ten minutes, it was over. I’ve been just floating ever since.”

Landry laughed, letting out a long breath of air. The faint sound of music came out into the street from a cafe nearby, and in the light, Landry looked like an angel. A sexy, mischievous, really-good-at-sucking-dick kind of angel, but an angel nonetheless.

“Well, do you want to… float together, then?” Landry asked softly, almost as if he was afraid I might say no.

“Nothing I’d rather do,” I told him.

We paused for a beat. Part of me hated that Landry had the ability to turn my mood around just with one simple question, but I couldn’t care about that right now. He was here , and he wanted to spend time with me, too.

In a flash of impulse, I leaned over and pressed my lips to his.

It was an innocent kiss, nothing more than a soft peck. But something about it felt even more forbidden than everything we’d done before.

We were in public, right here on the street. We hadn’t been drinking. And there was no warning to the kiss—just the slow, gentle warmth of my lips on his as a cold breeze tousled my hair.

I reached for his arm as I pulled away an inch, surprised by my own actions.

“Sorry,” I mumbled softly, still so close to his face I could smell the clean scent of his skin.

He just groaned and slowly shook his head, putting a warm hand to the side of my face. “Kiss me again.”

Suddenly every cell in my body felt molten.

Landry wanted this just as much as I did. He was also giving me permission , directly, and asking me for more.

I didn’t skip a beat. I kissed him again, letting my lips linger on his for a while longer. I’d never been a big fan of public displays of affection, but I couldn’t think about a single thing in the world other than him, right now.

Landry, Landry, Landry.

We were in the snowglobe again. And for the first time, it didn’t feel naughty or like we were getting away with something.

It just felt right.

As we broke off the kiss I leaned my head against his shoulder. He smoothed my hair with his hand, holding me there.

“Everything feels different with you, Jamie,” he said, and I could feel his voice through his chest.

“I know exactly what you mean.”

My hand naturally laced into his as I leaned back, looking up at his brown eyes. They’d come to feel like a home away from home, and as much as I’d tried to ignore that fact, I couldn’t see him any other way right now.

“Let’s walk around,” he said, squeezing my hand.

A day that had felt aimless now felt full of possibility because we were together. Nothing really changed—I was still just wandering the streets of an unfamiliar tiny ski town, but doing it with Landry made it into an adventure. He led me around a corner I hadn’t noticed before, and we came upon a marble fountain that was drained for winter, but still a gorgeous sculpture. There was a handmade candle shop where Landry got a few gifts for friends. Finally we ended up on a small walking path, and I thought back to the first night I’d met Landry, when he found me alone on the path beside the hotel.

A vendor selling Colorado flag branded hats called out to us as we walked by. It was an old woman with what looked like her young granddaughter by her side. “Two-for-one deal, just for you!” she said.

I smiled at the hat vendor. “No thank you.”

“For the happy couple,” she said, with a smile and a twinkle in her eye.

Landry dropped his hand from mine immediately. “No, no,” he corrected her. “We definitely aren’t a couple.”

I felt like I’d just had the wind knocked out of me.

If it were anyone else, I’d have wondered if they were harboring some secret shame about being seen with another man. But I knew Landry had zero shame about that. I knew he’d been out and proud for a long time, and really the only shame he had was… me .

It was like he couldn’t stand to be mistaken for my boyfriend unless it was in front of his awful ex.

As we continued down the road, with Landry’s hands stuffed squarely in his pockets now, I was thrust back into reality. So much for our snowglobe.

“Found a really cool microbrewery down that street the other day,” Landry said, pointing down a quiet side street. It seemed like he was just going to brush past the awkwardness with the hat vendor. “I didn’t go inside the other day, but we could try it out now.”

I pulled in a long breath, giving him a nod. Reality was a bitch, but soon I’d be back home in California, to my life and my responsibilities and my home.

He led me down the street and we looked at the little menu of offerings outside the brewery. I tried to hide my shock as I looked over all of the prices.

Almost fifteen dollars just for a single glass of beer?

“Looks amazing, doesn’t it?” he asked.

I hesitated, but Landry seemed to gloss over the price entirely. He probably hadn’t even looked.

“I actually spent most of my remaining money this morning trying to make an angry florist happy again. I’ve got to skip the craft beer for now.”

“Oh, Jamie, I’ll buy you a drink,” Landry said, taking a step toward the door. “Come on.”

I puffed out a laugh, trying hard not to show how much the day had taken a hard turn in the last five minutes. “That’s very nice, but we should just get back. There will be beer at the wedding.”

“Not handcrafted, once-in-a-lifetime beer,” Landry said, one corner of his mouth curling up into a smile. “I said I’d buy you one, but I’ll buy you two. Three. As many as you want. You made my day better, now I want to do that for you.”

I felt a pressure building inside me.

How could he be acting so casual about this?

How could he not see how he’d made me feel, dropping my hand like it was a hot coal back there on the other street?

Landry was trying to be nice and offer me a beer, no doubt about it. At the root of it all, I wasn’t upset at Landry or at myself. It wasn’t just about the money. So many people would also kill to have hit it off the way Landry and I had, but our connection didn’t seem to hold anything special for him.

It was forming a crack inside me that made me feel like an alien dropped into an unfamiliar and hostile place. Landry and I truly were from two different worlds. Or maybe the crack had been there all along, and I’d just hoped like hell, wished like hell that I could ignore it.

“You know you want it,” Landry was saying, still with a playful, unknowing smile on his face. He reached out for my hand but I pulled away, letting out a breath.

“I… I can’t,” I said, my voice barely coming out above a whisper. I walked over toward a bench at the end of the road, stationed at the far end of a little walking park filled with snow-covered trees.

“Hey,” Landry said a few moments later as he sat down next to me on the bench, looking across toward the park. “Did I miss something? What’s going on?”

I swallowed hard over the tightness that had formed in my throat.

Not much.

I just want everything when it comes to you, and I know I can’t have any of it.

I cleared my throat. “This might sound weird, but I’m just going to say it. Um,” I started, wondering if I was about to say something very stupid.

His eyes were so sympathetic it almost hurt. “Go ahead, Jamie.”

“Usually I like my life,” I said. “I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve gotten good with money. I’ve made peace with the fact that my mother will never be a high earner, and my house will never be perfect, and I’ll never be able to whisk off to Europe on a whim whenever I feel like it.”

Landry watched me, sympathy in his eyes. “Oh, God. Did I say something wrong? I never want to hurt you—”

“I just feel like we’re too—” I blurted out, feeling frustration bubble up inside me. “Too different,” I finally said.

All of a sudden I felt too warm under my jacket, and my heart started pounding. He paused for a moment, letting my words hang in the air. Part of me wished I could push them back inside, but what was done was done.

“Different?” he just echoed, processing what I’d said.

Thoughts swirled around in my head, ones I didn’t say but desperately wanted to:

You don’t care about spending money.

But you also don’t care about how shitty it feels when you drop my hand, acting like dating me would be the worst thing a person could do.

He looked up at the sky, then back down at me. “You want to know something?”

I breathed deep. “Of course I do.”

“If we met back in California, I’d still have liked you just as much, you know.”

I snorted. “No way.”

He was making my head swim. Five minutes ago, I was questioning whether or not he’d even liked me at all.

“ Yes way,” he told me, his expression growing serious.

“Yeah right,” I said. “If we met in California, everything would be wildly different.”

“Why?”

“Well, for one, you’d probably be one of those guys that comes into my restaurant, gets really drunk on mimosas, and tries to offer me a drink on the job in hopes of a hookup.”

I said it half jokingly, but in reality, I knew Landry was a flirt. It was totally possible that it would play out exactly in that way.

“People don’t really do that, do they?” he balked.

“You’d be surprised what day drinking can do to people,” I said. “And then the moment I found out you don’t believe in love and relationships, I’d write you off as being an asshole.”

“Jamie,” he chided me. “I told you this. I believe in love , I’m just not looking for it anymore.”

Another one-two punch to my heart. I should have been used to it by now, knowing how convinced Landry was that he didn’t want anything serious.

But kissing him on the street, and the way he’d held me, and the way we’d walked around holding hands? How could it mean nothing to him, and so much to me?

I waved a hand through the air. “Still. The fact is that we’d never be friends.”

“ Why not? ” he pressed.

I let out a frustrated sigh “Because I don’t make a habit out of being friends with people who can’t truly care about me, anyway.”

I felt the air between us change the moment I said it.

Like I’d just punched him in the stomach, this time.

Again, I found myself wishing I could take the words back and stuff them right through my mouth, erasing the last few minutes. Hell. Maybe I’d rather have erased the entire day altogether.

“I see,” he said, his eyes going downcast.

“Landry, I didn’t mean it like that ,” I said. “That sounded really bad. I know you can care about other people.”

“No, I get it,” he said with a little bit of a bite in his tone. “I feel like I’m an asshole. I’m afraid of love and commitment.”

I paused for a moment, chewing on what he’d said.

It was the first time I’d ever heard him put it that way. He didn’t say he was “uninterested” in love and commitment, but that he was “ afraid ” of it.

“I’m sorry,” was all I managed to say before he stood up, letting out a breath.

“You’re right, Jamie. I guess we never would be friends if we’d met in our everyday lives. Because I don’t think you actually like me.”

I furrowed my brow. “What? I think you’re fucking awesome—”

“No,” He shook his head. “You like some things about me, but me as a whole person? I like to show people a good time. It’s not because I pity them. It’s because I care about them. The thing you think I’m not capable of.”

“I know you care,” I interjected.

His brief flare of anger had subsided already, but now the look on his face was even more heartbreaking. “Do you really think you know everything about me? About who I would or wouldn’t be with?” he said, his voice sad. “The guy I dated before Parker was recovering from an addiction to pills, and could barely get through a day, let alone pay for a house or a car. Just because I have money doesn’t mean I’m trying to whisk people away on a magic carpet ride made of hundred dollar bills.”

I felt like my heart was about to lurch up into my throat. “Why are you even saying this?” I asked, my voice feeble. “It doesn’t matter if you’d be with me or not. Because you don’t want to be with anyone at all. And I do want it. I want someone to truly be my partner, and I don’t want to apologize for that. Ever. So if that’s really, truly not something you’d be interested in, I don’t think we should be ‘friends’ back in California. Why would I hurt myself like that?”

Landry just watched me, frozen in place, like he’d been stunned.

Confused, even. Like he’d maybe never thought about his actions in quite the same way I did.

I clicked my tongue, shaking my head and looking away. “Listen. You’re crazy if you think I don’t like you, Landry,” I said, my voice a little hoarse. I squinted up at him in the sun, wishing I could rewind time to this morning when I’d been cozy in his bed. “I’ve had more fun with you in the last few days than I’ve had with anyone else in the last couple of years, as sad as that sounds.”

He shook his head slowly. “It’s not sad. Or if it is, then we’re both sad, because… I feel the exact same way.”

I hated the tightness in my throat that formed when he told me he felt the same way. I wasn’t sure if I was angry that he could say that and still drop my hand like a hot cake, or if I wished so damn badly that things could be different.

“So let’s enjoy the rest of this trip. The wedding. All of it. We shouldn’t care about whether we’d make good friends, or whatever the hell this is.”

His expression was unchanged. He still seemed like he was behind some kind of wall, not letting out his true emotions. “I need to get back to my hotel and fix up my hair before the wedding starts,” he said, going into the slick, businesslike persona I’d seen him have on his video conference the other day. “I’m sorry. And you’re right. Let’s just go to the wedding, be good guests, and show Chase a good time.”

With a nod he was gone, walking off back toward the hotel alone.

Every fiber of my being wanted to call out to him. To tell him to wait. To make him turn around and to kiss him again, making everything feel right.

But instead I was frozen in place, watching him walk away.