Wedding Bet (Fixer Brothers Construction Co #8)

20. Landry

20

LANDRY

My Italian leather loafers slipped against the little narrow staircase as I made my way down toward the water, my breath catching in my chest. Coming down to Stellara Beach on a moment’s notice was the quickest and easiest decision I’d made in my life, but also one of the most nerve-wracking.

My heart was slamming inside me.

I had no idea what the hell I was doing, but somehow I also knew that it was one hundred percent, unquestionably, the right thing.

The sound of the waves drowned out my own pounding heartbeat as I saw a dim figure sitting on a patch of sand in front of the water. I would have recognized Jamie anywhere, but especially here, where he seemed to belong.

He turned to look at me as I walked up, his eyes wide as a deer in headlights. He was shirtless, his tanned, lean muscles on display in the moonlight, his hair a thick swoop of dark blond.

“You’re here ,” I said, my voice barely louder than the waves. “And you’re not a marshmallow anymore.”

He stood up, the ghost of a smile on his face. That smile hid more emotion behind it than I could process, so much pain and longing and disbelief. It was how I felt, too, seeing him here.

“If you want the honest truth, I left this beach and then came back twice already in the last hour and a half,” he said, his gaze dancing across my face. “I thought I couldn’t do it, Landry.”

I swallowed hard. “Couldn’t do what?”

He shook his head slowly, and I could tell he was holding back an ocean of thought. “Couldn’t let myself try ,” he finally said.

It was as if he’d reached inside my chest and gripped my heart.

“That’s the scariest part, isn’t it?” I said, giving him a sympathetic look. “Letting ourselves try.”

“God, yes.”

A wave crashed up against the nearby rocks, and the breeze blew through Jamie’s hair.

“I want to try with you, Jamie,” I told him. I reached out and grabbed his hand because I couldn’t stand it any longer, couldn’t stand being so close to him and not touching him. “I want to keep trying, every single day, if you’d let me. I don’t want to buy your affection. Hell, I think I could spend an entire year with you just visiting this beach, if that’s what you needed.”

He puffed out a quick laugh, then shook his head as he looked out at the sea. “Is it sad that I haven’t felt alive since the last time I saw you?”

“If it’s sad, then I guess we’re sad together,” I told him. “Because that’s how I’ve felt, too.”

“We’re definitely also crazy together,” he said. “I still have so much to learn about you. What if you collect gerbils? What if you drive like a maniac, or god forbid, you hate peanut butter?”

A fizzy feeling bubbled up in me, almost a laugh. “You’ve been the brightest spot in my life in a very, very long time,” I said. “We have a lot to learn. But I want to learn all of it. I feel like we’ve still only seen the tip of the iceberg.”

His eyes sparkled. “I want to make a joke about ‘ just the tip’ so badly, but I’m not going to.”

I finally laughed out loud, because being around Jamie had that effect on me. He could bring humor to the most emotional moments, in a way I’d only dreamed about in the past.

“See?” I told him, reaching out to hold him by his arms. “That is your magic. Making me laugh when I’m two seconds away from crying like a fucking baby.”

“Well, that makes me feel better, because I cried like a baby earlier today,” he said, exhaling. “Shit’s been less than great for me, since I got back. Landry, I’m so sorry I called off meeting up with you—”

“Forget about it,” I said. “You were doing what felt right.”

He clicked his tongue. “You’re the only thing that’s felt right to me in a long time,” he said, his voice getting a little hoarse.

I pulled him in closer, erasing what little distance we still had between us. I tucked him up against my body, running my fingers through his hair and nuzzling against his head, breathing deep.

He lifted his head a moment later and looked up at me, and the look in his eyes was a question that I desperately needed answered.

He crushed his lips to mine, and there it was.

My answer. Everything I’d been pinning all of my hope on, spinning around in my mind like a tornado for the entire drive down here—and really, since the moment I’d met Jamie.

He kissed me like he wasn’t afraid, and I knew right then that even with the odds stacked against us that we were going to try .

His tongue slid out against mine, a warm rush of heat, and I clutched at the small of his waist, needing him so much closer to me.

Jamie groaned as he broke off, pressing kisses to my jaw and the side of my neck.

“You want to know something?” he asked in between kisses.

“I always do.”

He let out a frustrated sigh. “I knew that I should call you, and that the ball was in my court, and all of that,” he told me, pausing to press a kiss to my collarbone. “But somewhere in the interim, I figured you must have already forgotten about me. I pictured you all busy with work, living your lavish life, visiting old hookups…”

I puffed out a bitter laugh, squeezing Jamie’s hip. “And I pictured you, remembering me as a big mountain of nothing but baggage ,” I told him.

“So, keeping score,” Jamie said, leaning up to look at me, “we’re both sad, we’re both crazy, and we both have too much baggage. Maybe we can be all of that together.”

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t think I could ever be sad when I’m with you,” I murmured. “Crazy, sure, because I am completely fucking crazy for you, if you want the truth.”

I loved his smile. I loved it so, so much.

“Thank you, Landry.”

I breathed deep. “Why would I give a single fuck about my past when I could have such a beautiful future with you?”

It was a big ask, especially this early on.

A future with you .

These were usually things people talked about after months, maybe even years, of knowing each other. But at this point, I didn’t think I cared. I wanted to know what a future with Jamie would look like, no matter how long it was.

“I hope you don’t regret saying that,” Jamie said, looking at me, his eyes half-lidded with desire. “Because if I’m going to let you in on my life, I’m going to let you all in.”

“Do you have a gerbil collection, or something?” I asked, lifting an eyebrow.

His dimpled smile appeared again, like a gift. “No gerbil collection. Just bad roommates, some debt, and a dash of workaholic tendencies.”

I reached a hand up, tracing his jawline with my thumb. “Good,” I said, my voice low. “Because even if you had a gerbil collection, it wouldn’t be anywhere near stopping me from wanting to go down this road with you. But that other stuff? Doesn’t bother me one bit.”

“If you say so.”

“There’s one thing I need from you,” I told him. “Show me your real self, Jamie. Your real world. Don’t hide things away because you think I’d judge you or hate you or look down on you. I never will. It isn’t going to make me run away. If anything, it’ll just make me fall even harder for you.”

He looked at me with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

“You really think so, huh?”

“Try me.”

He tilted his head back, looking up at the sky for a moment before looking back down to me. “Okay,” he said, reaching for my hand. He grabbed it, leading me toward the steps. “You’re going to come see where I live, then. And if you head for the hills afterward, then it was nice knowing you.”

Finally. Finally he was going to start to let me in on his real life.

I let Jamie pull me along the sand and rocks back over toward the little staircase. He picked up his shirt from a little pile of stuff, tugging it on again and sliding on his socks and shoes.

“Sorry if my shirt smells like french fry grease,” he said as we walked up the stairs.

“It smells like a heavenly mix of cinnamon and sugar, actually.”

“Oh, right,” he said. “I was helping make a batch of cinnamon syrup at the end of the night.”

We started walking away from the coast, up narrow streets full of parked cars and bungalow beach houses. It certainly wasn’t the ritziest part of a beach town I’d seen, but it wasn’t anywhere near bad. It was cute, and quaint, and even the streets a bit further east were still kissed by the sea-breeze air from the ocean.

Jamie held my hand the whole time, leading me down a quiet street filled with more small homes.

“I feel like I’m in high school again,” I admitted as he led me along. “Holding hands, walking home with someone.”

“You’re right,” he told me. “Why does it feel like we’re breaking some rule? In a good way, like we found a loophole?”

“Because we both thought we might never see each other again,” I mused quietly, giving his hand a squeeze. “And here we are.”

I tugged him to a stop, pulling him toward me and wrapping my arms around him. I kissed him again, and he moaned softly at the surprise.

“Needed this again,” I murmured against his lips. “Sorry for derailing us on our journey.”

“I’m not complaining,” he said. “Derail me all you want.”

I hummed softly, kissing his earlobe. “If I did it as much as I want, I think we’d end up in my bed for the rest of our lives, and that’s just not productive for either of us.”

He turned his head to the side, catching my lower lip between his teeth. He gently gave it a tug, and I sighed.

“You taste like honey,” he said softly.

“I had some sort of calming tea in the car on the way down,” I admitted. “Felt like I was going to jump out of my own skin with nerves. Not that the tea really did anything.”

“Other than make you smell and taste amazing.”

“Worth it, then.”

“Come on,” Jamie said, breaking off again and leading me down the street. “We’re almost there. I have to show you now, or else I’ll never want to.”

A few more houses down the way, he turned and walked up a little pathway in front of one of the homes. It was small like all the rest, and some of the plants in the front were certainly in need of a trim, but overall it looked like any other adorable beach house. We got to the door and he led me inside, and in the living room, his roommates were watching some reality TV show.

“Oh, hey,” one of them said.

“Hey, Marcus. Hi, Nicole. This is Landry.”

“Nice to meet you, dude,” Marcus said, reaching out to shake my hand. He was wearing a backwards hat and a basketball jersey. The other roommates looked like they were already passed out on the other couch. “Feel free to come chill and watch shit out here.”

“We’re just going to hang out in my room. Thank you, though.” Jamie nodded once, taking me down the short hall to his room at the end. I glimpsed the kitchen on the way down, and noticed that it was a bit cluttered, but nothing too bad.

And when I stepped into Jamie’s room and he turned on a little lamp by the bed, I was speechless for a moment.

He shut the door softly behind us, and I looked at one of the coziest rooms I could imagine.

“Holy shit,” I said, glancing around. “Did you do all of this?”

The room wasn’t just any small bedroom. It looked like it had been carefully considered for years. There were shelves on the far wall opposite the bed—very simple planks of wood that were covered in various books, objects, photos, and art. There was a small chair and desk under a window, just the right size to fit next to the bed. The walls were painted a dusky, dark, calming blue, and with the glow of the lamp, it felt like a haven.

“Just about everything you see in here was either something I made from scrap wood, something handed down from my mom, or random finds from garage sales and secondhand shops,” Jamie said. “It was a lot emptier for the first year or two that I was here, but slowly, it’s become what it is.”

“It’s fucking beautiful,” I said, still in awe.

“I’ve never had a lot of money, but I’ve always wanted my room to feel like a peaceful place.”

“Better than peaceful,” I said. “A lot of rich people I’ve known don’t have bedrooms that feel anything close to this personalized.”

He nervously scratched at the back of his neck as I went to sit on the corner of his bed. “Thank you, Landry.”

“Why on Earth would you be afraid to show me this?” I asked as he came to sit next to me.

He shrugged a shoulder. “I know my room is okay. But you… you’re used to mansions. Penthouse lofts. Resorts. I didn’t even know if you’d ever stepped foot in a house this small.”

I shook my head, pulling him close and pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “I’ve been to a lot of places. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bedroom that feels more like home than this.”

He squeezed a hand on my thigh. “You’re too nice to me.”

I breathed next to him for a moment, just enjoying the room, the utterly relaxed vibe it had, and the fact that the whole thing smelled like him.

“You won’t be with these roommates forever,” I assured him. “But even right now, you are living beautifully, Jamie.”

I pulled back to look him in the eye again, and he squeezed my hand.

“You make me feel like I’m worth something,” he said softly. “I haven’t really ever felt that before. Not like this.”

“I want you to feel that way all of the time.”

His blue eyes glimmered, gorgeous and hopeful. “I think I’m finally starting to.” One of his dimples appeared as he smiled, and I leaned in to press a kiss to that spot of soft skin.

I didn’t stop. I kissed him from his cheek to his jawline and down lower.

And in that moment, I knew I didn’t regret a single thing that had led me here.