Swear (Landry Family 4)

Camilla’s hand hits my bicep. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“These two came to me with this idea—” Graham begins before Camilla interjects.

“Easy on the blame game there, G.”

“I told them to stop getting in your business,” he continues. “But then I thought about it and realized they’re right.”

“Thank you!” Cam says. “I went to the late class rather than the morning one like I usually do when Mallory called me asking about Ellie and I realized it might really be her. Sure enough, it was. I had Joy do all the dirty work of finding out if she was dating anyone or seemed like she’d gone off the deep end since I saw her last. I did my homework, Ford.”

“They kind of made me proud when they came to me with a plan in place,” Graham almost beams.

“Watch it or I’ll be taking your job,” Camilla laughs.

They banter back and forth, and I struggle to hear Mallory’s end of the conversation. Her voice trickles into the kitchen, but not loud enough to make out words. I’m relieved when she appears in the doorway. Her phone is at her side. My eyes are glued to it, hoping that maybe Ellie is still on there and wants to talk to me. But when I look back at Mal’s face, I know it’s not true.

“What did she say?” I ask, a hint of nerves in my tone.

“Not much . . .” She continues her pace across the room until she’s standing at Graham’s side. “She’s a little angry, I think. Maybe it’s more just shock. I’m not really sure.”

“Did she say anything about me specifically?”

She considers this. “Yes. Of course. But . . .”

“But you aren’t going to tell me, are you?”

“I can’t,” she sighs.

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“You did this,” I point out, flashing Graham a quick look too. “I should be a hell of a lot more pissed off than I am because I’m still reeling from it. Ellie’s just not another girl, and you two,” I say, motioning to my siblings, “know that.”

My chest rises and falls beneath my white dress shirt. Suddenly, I feel like I can’t breathe deeply enough. I work to undo the top two buttons, but my fingers fumble. Camilla takes pity on me and reaches up and helps me out.

“Answer me this: are you sure she isn’t in a relationship?” I ask.

“She’s not,” Cam replies. “She told Joy she hasn’t been in a serious one in a long time.”

My brain roars to life, processing a thousand memories, a million ideas, in a few short minutes. “Is she going to have a serious problem when I show up there again?”

“You’re really going to go?” Mallory asks with a wide smile. “She said you mentioned it, but she thought you were just kind of blowing off at the mouth.”

“Do I ever do that?”

“Yes,” Camilla says at the same time Mallory says, “No.”

“You three should’ve handled this differently.” I look pointedly at Graham. “For how smart you are, you can be really fucking stupid.”

“But . . .” Mallory goads.

“But I can’t worry about that right now because I have to figure out how to make her not throw me out of Halcyon when I show back up there.”

Camilla squeals, clapping her hands. “It worked!”

“It didn’t work yet,” Mallory warns, her grin slipping. “Ford may have his work cut out for him.”

“I guess it’s a good thing I’m a working man then, huh?” I wink. Walking by the island, I snag another piece of cauliflower. “We will revisit this subject later.”