Swing (Landry Family 2)

“Exactly,” he sighs. “It’s hard to watch. Anyway, she quit. No two-week’s notice, no courtesy call. Just picked up her check and said she won’t be back after the holiday.”

“Shit. That sucks. What are you going to do?”

“Fuck if I know,” he sighs again. “I hate temps. I’d rather do it all myself than have to explain every little thing. I’m hoping Barrett has someone that I could hire.”

“Hire Paulina,” I say

and brace for the shove that’s undoubtedly coming. It does. He knocks me back a few paces.

“You’re an asshole,” he laughs.

I look over my shoulder and see the window of the room Dani and I share. A bubble of excitement creeps through my veins. “Hey, I’m going to go get showered. I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Don’t lie,” he jokes.

“Okay,” I say, jogging to the steps. “I’m going to find my girl, get dirty, get a shower, and then I’ll see you.”

I hear his chuckle behind me as I enter the house, wave to Barrett as I skip up the steps, and land at the end of the hall. Shoving the door open, she’s standing in front of a full-length mirror in the corner.

“Hey, gorgeous,” I say, coming up behind her. Our reflections look back at us. She’s a head or more shorter than me, her dark hair pulled back from her face. She’s dressed in a long floral dress and a denim jacket.

“I’m nervous,” she whispers, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Why?”

She shrugs. “I can hear them all down there. What if . . . What if I don’t fit in? What if I feel weird today?”

“Then we will come up here and I’ll bury myself inside you until it’s time to leave,” I shrug. “Sounds easy to me.”

She swats at me as she turns around, giggling. “You have a one-track mind.”

“What’s your point?” I grin.

“I like it.”

I kiss her and then grab the robe she was wearing earlier. “I need to grab a shower.”

“What should I do?” she gulps.

“Wanna watch?”

“Yes,” she sighs happily.

I laugh, picking out a pair of jeans and a red collared shirt to wear to dinner. “Go talk to my family. Just jump in the mix.”

“I don’t know . . .”

“I do,” I say, kissing the top of her head. “They’ll love you, but don’t believe everything they say. Now go make yourself at home.”

If I stand here and talk to her about it, she’ll end up coming into the bathroom with me. And if that happens, I’ll end up getting her naked. And if that happens, we’ll fuck and that means we’ll be late to dinner. And that means I’ll have one very upset mother and we all avoid that at all cost.

So I leave her standing in the middle of our room and head down the hall.

Danielle

I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

My anxiety builds the closer I get to the commotion in the kitchen. So many voices, music, laughs, even the sound of a game on television mix to create an atmosphere that’s a little overwhelming to someone used to silence.