Close to You

  I glance down into deep green eyes, currently narrowed as he purrs and rhythmically digs his little claws into my chest.

  “Why am I talking to you about this?”

  “Meow.”

  “Exactly. You don’t even speak English.” I sigh and check my phone, remembering that my ex-husband, Brian, is supposed to be out on a date tonight. I wonder how it’s going. So I shoot him a text. How’s your date going? Don’t forget to compliment her shoes!

  I bite my lip and watch the screen, but there’s no response, so I call Riley.

  “What are you doing?” I ask when she answers.

  “I just got home from the restaurant.”

  “Do they need me?” I ask, and sit up, knocking Scoot off of me, and making him growl at me again before turning his back on me and resuming his bath.

  “No, that’s why I’m home. It’s handled. What are you doing?”

  “I’m in bed.”

  “It’s early for bed,” she says, and I check my phone, realizing it’s not even nine in the evening.

  Landon knocked me off my axis so hard that I just went straight to bed.

  Not that I’m going to tell Riley that.

  “I was tired.”

  “I heard you went house shopping with Landon. How was that?”

  “Fine,” I reply, trying to keep my voice neutral. “He found a house.”

  “And how are you?”

  I cringe. It’s actually mortifying that the other girls know all about my crush on Landon. I mean, it’s my fault. I’m the one who couldn’t keep her damn mouth shut. But it’s still humiliating.

  “I’m fine, Ri. We’re adults now.”

  “Just checking.” I hear her sigh. “Need anything?”

  “Nah. I was just calling to see how you are. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good. Night.”

  I hang up and sigh. We’re adults now. Get a grip, Cami.

  “HOW IN THE hell did you get all of this crap in that tiny apartment in Italy?” Mia asks her brother two weeks later, her arms folded over her full breasts, scowling.

  “You do have a lot of crap for a bachelor,” Addie says in agreement as she unloads a box of books onto a bookshelf.

  After being held up with the mover, Landon’s things were finally delivered a couple of days ago. He’d bought furniture, which was also delivered and set up, and now Addie, Mia, and I are here to help him unload boxes and get settled.

  I’m practicing the whole get-a-grip thing. So far, so good.

  “Where do you want this?” I ask, my nose wrinkling as I pull the ugliest owl clock I’ve ever seen out of a box. “In the garbage?”

  “No, it was a gift,” Landon says, and rescues the clock from my hands. “I’ll hang it in the kitchen.”

  “I’m going to have to disagree with that,” I reply, shaking my head. “That thing will kill anyone’s appetite.”

  “She runs a restaurant,” Addie says with a smirk. “Trust her on that.”

  “Hide it in the spare bedroom you’ll never use,” Mia suggests, earning a high five from me.

  “There’s no need to insult my shit,” Landon says.

  “There is when it’s ugly,” I reply with a shrug, and open another box. This one is full of clothes. “Do these go in your bedroom?”

  He peeks over. “Yep.”

  “Okay.” I lift the box and stomp back to Landon’s bedroom, kind of relieved to be out of the sea of boxes. Most of the clothes are still on hangers, so they’re easy to put away. What I didn’t factor in was that they all smell just like Landon.

  Lord help me.

  “You okay?” the man himself asks as he walks into his bedroom.

  “Fine. Why?”

  “I thought I heard you whimper.”

  And here I thought I was just doing that in my own head.

  “I was clearing my throat.” I’ve only seen him a couple of times in the past few weeks, and every time has been at the restaurant. We’ve been professional and nice, but kept a safe distance.

  Until today.

  “You’ve always been a bad liar, Camille,” he says, and sets another boxful of clothes next to the mostly empty one at my feet. “I appreciate you coming to help.”

  “No biggie.”

  “It’s a biggie to me.”

  I move to hang a shirt and stumble on the empty box, but before I can reach out to catch myself, I’m suddenly surrounded by two very muscular, very warm arms.

  “Easy,” he says softly in my ear, sending goose bumps up and down my body.

  “I’m fine.”

  But he doesn’t let go, just like he didn’t let me go a few weeks ago when I almost fell and he caught me at the restaurant. Instead, he takes a deep breath and kisses my temple.

  “Whoa. Sorry to interrupt,” Mia says, making me jump and try to pull out of his grasp, but he holds on tight. “The pizza guy is here.”

  “On my way,” Landon says, dismissing Mia, then turns to me. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine.” His blue eyes hold mine as he brushes a piece of my hair behind my ear, then finally nods and follows Mia out of the room.

  I take a long, deep breath before hanging the rest of the clothes, holding my breath so I don’t inhale Landon’s sexy, manly scent, damn him, and then return to the main living area, which now smells like pizza, which is much better than cardboard.

  Also, there’s safety in numbers in here.

  “I’m hungry,” I announce, and help myself to a slice of Hawaiian. “Hot!” I hide my mouth behind my hand as I breathe around the scalding-hot pizza in my mouth, and then Landon takes my wrist in his hand and pulls my pizza to his mouth, taking almost half the slice in one bite. He’s touching me again. And I can smell him, and see his square jaw flex as he chews.

  Where’s that grip when I need it?

  “Just right.” He winks and walks into the kitchen, humming as he puts glasses in a cupboard.

  It’s a good thing my mouth is full right now because otherwise I’d be stammering. But the weird thing about all of this is, although he still makes my pulse speed up, my reaction to his nearness is . . . different.

  I enjoy him, that’s for sure, and he’s as much a hottie at thirty-something as he was at twenty. But I realize that he no longer makes me nervous.

  I guess we’re all adults after all.

  And the best part is, he’s relaxed too. The sadness hasn’t left his blue eyes altogether, but he seems much happier than when he first arrived in town.

  “Your hair is pretty like that,” Landon says quietly from across the kitchen island. I glance up to see him watching me.

  “It’s just in a braid,” I reply. “But thank you.”

  “You usually wear your hair down.”

  “Unless I’m cleaning or working out,” I say, and take another bite of pizza. “So far, this qualifies as both.”

  “Do you go to the gym?”

  “Not if I can help it,” I reply with a grin. “Addie makes me go sometimes, and I’m pretty sure it’s because she hates me.”

  “I don’t hate you!” Addie calls from the living room before returning to her conversation with Mia about a new walk-in freezer for the restaurant.

  “So you don’t go to the gym but you work out?” Landon asks with a smile.

  “I go for walks. I shovel my sidewalk in the winter. I carry Christmas decorations down from my attic.”

  “That’s all considered working out?” Landon asks.

  “I have a lot of decorations,” I mutter with a frown. “I jump over the cat.”

  “Wait. You have a cat?” Mia asks. “Since when?”

  “About a month ago,” I reply. “And I didn’t get a cat, the cat got me.”

  “I’m so confused,” Addie whispers.

  “He came in my house and he won’t leave.”

  “I’ve dated a few of those,” Mia says with a laugh, then sticks her tongue out at her brother when he scowls.

  “I’ll make the
m fucking leave,” Landon growls.

  “Can you make Scoot leave?”

  “Who’s Scoot?” Addie asks.

  “The cat,” Landon replies as he crosses his arms over his chest and keeps his gaze level with mine. “And no. He loves you.”

  “He won’t let me touch him,” I counter. “That doesn’t scream love to me.”

  “Just come to grips with the fact that you have a cat. He’s cute.” Landon brushes his knuckles down my cheek, but I barely notice. I’m still deep in thought about the damn cat. “Like you.”

  “He lets you touch him,” I remind him, and roll my eyes and pull myself out of my own head. “What needs to be put away next?”

  “These boxes are empty,” Mia says.

  “That’s it, then,” Landon says. “I’ll finish up the kitchen.”

  “You are not to hang that horrible owl in the kitchen,” Mia says, wagging her finger under his nose. “It’s ugly as hell.”

  “It’s my house,” he reminds her. “I’ll hang whatever I want in the kitchen. Maybe my underwear.”

  “Ew,” Addie and I say in unison. “Do you hang your underwear in the kitchen?” Addie asks me with a laugh.

  “I don’t wear underwear,” I remind her. “But if I did, they wouldn’t hang in the kitchen.”

  “I can’t even believe we’re related,” Mia says with disgust. “Mom raised you better than that.”

  But Landon isn’t listening to her. He’s watching me. His eyes are narrowed, just a bit, and his hands are clenched on the countertop. His jaw ticks.

  “Landon.” Mia waves her hand over his face, getting his attention.

  “What.”

  “We’re done. We’re going to leave now.”

  Addie and I gather up the pizza box and our napkins and toss them in Landon’s brand-new garbage can, and all the while I can feel his hot gaze on me. Landon’s looked at me in a lot of ways over the years. He’s laughed with me, been proud of me, irritated by me, and even mad at me.

  But he’s never looked at me like he’d like to strip me naked to see if I’m lying about the no-underwear thing.

  With a look like that, if I did wear them, they’d be soaked by now.

  “Landon!” Mia exclaims in exasperation.

  “Thanks for coming,” Landon says, shaking himself out of his daze. “It was sweet of all of you.”

  “You never know when one of us is going to move and need the favor returned,” Mia says with a shrug.

  “I’ll hire movers,” Addie assures him, and pats his arm.

  “I’m not moving,” I add, and push my feet into my heels. “I’m gonna be in that house until it’s time to go to the home.”

  “It’s a good house,” Mia says. “I like it.”

  “Me too,” Landon says, and brushes his hand down the back of my hair. “Thank you, Camille.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Mia and I were here too,” Addie reminds him with a sweet smile. “Just in case you forgot.”

  “Thank you too, smartass,” Landon says, ruffling Addie’s hair the way he knows she hates it.

  He follows us out of the house and stands on the porch as we all climb into Mia’s car and pull away.

  “So, what’s up?” Addie asks from the passenger seat. She turns around to smile at me.

  “Well, we just helped Landon unpack, and now I’m going home.”

  “No, jerk, with you and Landon,” she clarifies.

  “We’ve been friends for a long time. Do you have amnesia?”

  Addie rolls her eyes and looks over at Mia. “Help me out here.”

  Mia looks at me in the rearview mirror. “You’re being obtuse.”

  “There’s nothing to say.”

  “Didn’t look like nothing to me,” Mia says, and turns down my street. “Especially when I caught you two all cozied up in the closet.”

  “They were cozy in the closet?” Addie asks, her voice shrill.

  “We’re friends,” I insist. “I almost tripped on the box and he caught me. That’s all.”

  “He kept watching you all day,” Addie says. “And not in the friends way, if you know what I mean.”

  “Then ask him what’s up,” I reply. “Also, I need to talk to you about Steven.”

  “Trying to change the subject,” Mia mutters as she pulls into my driveway.

  “That’s just a side benefit,” I reply. “I want to hire Steven to bus tables. He could use part-time work.”

  My siblings are both significantly older than me, and have children that are closer in age to me than they are. I was an afterthought for my parents. Despite my not having a close relationship with my brother and sister, Steven and I are super close. He’s more like a brother to me than anything, and I feel an obligation to look after him, especially since his parents moved to Seattle last year.

  “No problem,” Addie says. “Can he start this week?”

  “He can start whenever you tell him to. I’ll text you his number. It’ll seem more official if you’re the one to call him. Use your scary-boss voice,” I reply as I climb out of the car and wave on my way through the front door.

  “Meow.”

  “You know, you could give me three minutes to take my shoes and jacket off before you start demanding food,” I inform Scoot, who simply watches me shrewdly. “Not gonna wind between my legs, huh? You only do that to humans who don’t feed you?”

  Scoot blinks, not finding me humorous at all, and follows me into the kitchen just as my phone rings.

  “How was it?” I ask immediately.

  “Well,” Brian replies with a sigh, and I know immediately that it didn’t go well. “I left before dessert.”

  “Why?” I frown and shake cat food into Scoot’s bowl, then grab a bottle of water from the fridge and lean against the counter, listening.

  “Because when you texted me during the date, she wasn’t impressed that I’m still friends with my ex-wife.”

  “This is why you need me to find you someone new!” I insist, and slap the counter. “Anyone I set you up with won’t care that we’re still friends.”

  “Cami, you really need to stop trying to set me up,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t need the help.”

  “Whatever. The bimbo you dated two weeks ago tried to date-rape you and the chick from last night was a jealous bitch.”

  “Both of those points are exaggerations,” he says, his voice dry.

  “I just want you to be happy, B. Like, seriously happy.”

  “You let me worry about my happy, and you just worry about your own, Cam. You deserve it too.”

  Maybe.

  “I’m happy.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  I shrug, not caring that he can’t see me. “I can help you find the perfect girl.”

  “I don’t want your help, Cami. Seriously, I’m fine. I date more than anybody I know.”

  “I’ll just keep my eyes and ears open, just in case the perfect girl for you comes along and I need to tell you about her.”

  “Can we change the subject now?” he asks, resigned.

  “Sure.”

  “What’s up with you?”

  “I just got home, was gonna do some work before Riley comes over to watch our show.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” he says calmly. “I can hear it in your voice, Cami. What’s going on?”

  Absolutely nothing that I feel comfortable telling you about.

  “I’m great.”

  “You’re a bad liar.”

  “Why does everyone keep reminding me that I’m a bad liar?” I ask, pacing the kitchen. “I’m not lying. I am great. Business is good. Friends are healthy. Steven’s gonna work at the restaurant part-time. I have no complaints.”

  “When was the last time you got laid?” he asks, making my jaw drop.

  “I think there’s a law written somewhere that says that you should never, ever discuss your sex life with your ex-husband.”

  “I’m over being j
ealous. Spill it.”

  “No.”

  “Tell me. I’ll tell you.”

  “Absolutely not! I don’t want to know that.”

  “Are you jealous?”

  I was never jealous. That was the problem.

  “I’m ending this conversation, Brian. Have a good night.”

  He’s still laughing when I end the call and toss my phone on the countertop.

  “Well, that was uncomfortable,” I inform the cat, who’s still washing himself after his dinner. “Not that you care.”

  My phone rings. I answer it without checking the caller ID.

  “I am not going to tell you the last time I got laid!” I exclaim. “And I definitely don’t want to hear about your sexcapades.”

  “Bummer.”

  I freeze. Fucking hell, it’s Landon.

  “I thought you were someone else.” I laugh, not sure what else to say.

  “Clearly,” he replies, chuckling in my ear, and I’m immediately transported back to his bedroom and his face pressed to my ear as he saved me from falling. Everyone’s right. I am a bad liar. We were all cozied up in his closet, and damn it, I liked it too much.

  “What’s up?” Damn it, my voice is squeaky.

  “You forgot your iPad here,” he says. I’d taken it with me so I could show him some general design ideas I’d found on Pinterest for the renovation.

  “Damn. Sorry. You can just give it to Mia and she’ll give it to me.”

  “Cami, can I ask you something?”

  “Of course.”

  “Have I done something to piss you off or hurt your feelings?”

  I frown. “No, not that I recall.”

  “Then why are you so determined to avoid me?”

  Now Scoot chooses to wind himself between my legs, purring, making me almost trip. “Crap!”

  “Cami?”

  “Sorry, I just tripped over the cat.” I swallow hard. “I’m not avoiding you, Landon. I’m just living my life.”

  “And living your life includes not seeing me?”

  Yes, because it’s easier that way!

  And better on my libido.

  “I see you.”

  “I don’t think you do, Cami. I’ll just run this over to you.”