Chapter 9 Landon
LANDON
Venice Beach was exactly as I remembered it, bustling with people. The festival was organized along the promenade, and the vendor booths with wooden toys looked at odds with the palm trees and the people carrying surfboards or cocktails. Will was meeting us here too.
“If we hurry, we’ll be able to stop by every booth before the storm starts,” Lori said. “I can’t believe it. A storm.”
She looped an arm through mine as we walked straight into the madness, Milo bouncing from one booth to the other.
“I forgot what it was like to walk with you,” Lori said with a chuckle. “I feel like we’re in a parade. I caught ten women checking you out. And that’s with me on your arm. They don’t know I’m your sister.”
“I thought you wanted me to date?”
“Oh, I do. But here’s a tip for survival.
If a woman’s lips look as if they were sucked off with a faucet, or she keeps checking her phone and looking at you, run in the other direction.
Many would like to nab a tech mogul. Your net worth is more than anyone’s whose handprints lie on the Walk of Fame.
Your face has been on enough magazines to be recognizable. But don’t worry, I have your back.”
“I’m the oldest brother. That’s not your task.”
Lori scoffed, scooting tighter to me. “Just reminding you how to play your cards in our dear City of Angels. You don’t have a ring on your finger to keep the sharks at bay.”
Even when I was a married man, a ring never deterred those who were out to catch a big fish, but I’d never been interested. I wasn’t now either. My mind was on Maddie.
Will joined us fifteen minutes later, clasping a hand on my shoulder.
“Seriously? You have to boast that badge wherever you go?” Lori challenged. “You’re off duty.”
“The badge comes with advantages. People think twice before trying any funny business.”
Lori’s gaze followed Milo from one booth to the other, and then she looped her other arm around Will’s.
Some days I still couldn’t believe Will was part of the police force.
It had come as a complete shock when he’d announced his career choice.
Growing up, he’d had a healthy disregard for rules, even a few encounters with the police.
Talk about contradictions. Val had cracked so many jokes about police officers when he told us that I knew for sure something was off.
The moment he’d left, she’d started sobbing.
“He’s going to have a gun. He’s going to be around bad guys. What if something happens to him?”
Secretly, I agreed with her, but if that was what he wanted, there wasn’t anything either of us could do.
Val had hoped it would be a phase, but I knew better.
Will was determined, and when he decided on something, he went through with it—which he did.
I was proud of him even though he skirted too close to the danger line for my peace of mind.
When dark gray clouds gathered above, my thoughts flew to Maddie and her determination to keep the project on track. Did she account for bad weather when she drew a timeline for a project? Or would she stubbornly work through the rain? Somehow, I felt I already knew the answer.
“They weren’t kidding about that storm warning,” I said.
“Storm warning?” Will asked.
Lori nodded. “They announced it this morning. I wonder if it’ll have an impact on the whole terracing business.”
“I’ll check with Maddie when I get home,” I assured her. Lori cocked a brow and failed to disguise a knowing smile.
“So, what other plans do you have today, Landon?”
She didn’t say “besides checking on Maddie” out loud, but I picked up the gist of her question.
“I’m meeting Craig and his wife before dinner.” Craig was one of our oldest childhood friends.
“So you’re free after dinner? Maybe I should take you out,” Lori teased.
“Ah, you didn’t get enough big-brother teasing from me?” I volleyed back smoothly, fighting a smile.
She narrowed her eyes, looking at me with mock menace. “So that’s how you’re gonna play it?”
I held up a hand. “This is fair game. I only use underhanded tactics for people who don’t share our blood.”
“So you keep saying,” she muttered.
“I can help with that,” Will offered. “What were you teasing her about? I fall into the older brother category.”
“Buddy, you’re the third oldest in the family,” Lori said. “That in no way qualifies you to be in the older category. Or the youngest. You’re in the wishy-washy middle with me.”
That was true. Jace was the youngest, followed by Hailey. Then came Lori and Will. But I knew why Will felt part of the older gang. When Val and I were at the pub, he’d often cooked dinner for Lori, Hailey, and Jace, and helped them with homework.
I’d missed bantering with my siblings after moving away.
“Val and Landon are twins. Technically, I’m the second oldest,” Will said.
Lori wrinkled her nose, directing us all toward Milo, who had skipped two booths ahead. “Technicalities don’t work for me, just like your badge doesn’t.”
“You seem to find it useful when you ask me to come up with bogus rules for Milo. Remember the time you made me tell him I could arrest him for eating too many sweets?”
“It’s so easy to pawn that off on you, though. He is a big believer in badges. And I’m a big believer in chocolate fudge.” She smiled, pointing to a booth. “I’ll treat all of us.”
“You don’t have to—” Will and I began, but she cut us off.
“My treat. No negotiating. As a thank-you to both of you for coming here today.”
Half an hour later, the downpour began. We’d managed to take cover under a tarp just in time. We waited and then waited some more, but it showed no sign of stopping. I’d texted Maddie once, but she hadn’t replied. I was growing restless with worry. Was she out in the rain?
When it became clear the downpour would continue, I bid Lori, Will, and Milo goodbye and hailed a cab. I texted Maddie again, but she didn’t answer. The rain was so thick you could barely see anything out the window. The traffic was a nightmare. It took me hours to reach the house.
When I stepped out of the cab, it seemed to me that only Maddie’s car was parked here.
I stepped through the front gate and scanned the grounds.
The rain soaked me in seconds. I had to use my palm as protection over my eyes to keep the rain from stabbing my eyeballs.
The entire yard seemed covered in some sort of plastic tarp.
Only the wooden trail was uncovered. I didn’t see Maddie, and my shoulders felt lighter.
But as I finished scanning the front yard, movement on the far left caught my attention.
I groaned. There she was, her hands maneuvering the end of the tarp. And she was… arguing with herself? I couldn’t tell, but she was talking and shaking her head, and there was no one around. I headed straight toward her.
“What are you doing out here?” I tapped her shoulder, but she still startled, whirling around.
“I need to secure the cover with spikes,” she explained.
“Where are the guys?”
“They quit.”
“Maddie, let’s go inside. You can finish this when the rain eases a bit.”
She shook her head. “If I don’t secure this, there’s a risk the rain will dislodge the earth.”
As far as I could see, there were spikes at regular intervals. The cover looked pretty fucking secure to me.
“Maddie, you’re soaked. I’m soaked.”
“Then go inside. I need to finish this.”
She kept fumbling with a spike, and I gripped both her wrists, looking straight at her.
“Maddie, stop being so stubborn or I swear I’ll throw you over my shoulder and take you inside.”
She wiggled a hand out of my grip, then held the finger up warningly. “You just don’t get this.”
Except I did. I knew that feverish need to keep fixing what you could when a problem escalated until it was out of your control.
I found myself in such situations at least twice a month at the office, and working through it always got me to the other end.
But I wasn’t about to let Maddie give herself pneumonia.
She tried to wiggle her other hand out of my grip, but I tightened my fingers on her skin. I was scanning her body, weighing what the easiest way would be to toss her over my shoulders when she exclaimed, “Oh my God, you’re seriously going to throw me over your shoulder.”
“Yes.”
She dropped the spike she was still gripping in the hand I held captive and started marching toward the house.
I walked next to her, releasing her hand but keeping my eyes trained on her in case she changed her mind.
When we stepped out of the rain and onto the porch, I took a good look at her.
Her gray shirt was soaked and transparent, and I could see her black bra, the swell of her breasts where the fabric gave way to skin.
Longing thrummed through me, to touch her, taste her.
I wondered if she was wearing matching panties, but I didn’t have to wonder for too long.
Her pants—not jeans, but some thinner fabric—were as transparent as her shirt.
She was wearing a black thong, the thin scrap of fabric at the back running right over her crack, leaving her round ass cheeks in plain view.
My fingers itched with the impulse to remove that thong, touch and lick all the places it had covered.
“You are unbelievable.” She took the elastic band out of her hair and squeezed the water out of her blonde tresses before whirling to face me. Stepping closer, she poked my chest. “Unbelievable. Who does that?”
“Who stays out in a torrential rain?” I countered, trying to ignore the bolt of heat her touch had sent through me.