Swear (Landry Family 4)

“I like your place,” I comment as she shuts the door behind me.

“I looked around the city forever to find a place that I felt like I could call home. I thought my realtor was going to quit. Luckily this came on the market and I fell in love.”

“It took me forever to find mine too. I had this list of things I wanted and my realtor said I was too picky,” I chuckle.

“What did you want in a home?”

We sit on a sofa covered in pillows beneath a window. She tucks her legs up beneath her like she did when we were kids. It makes me smile.

“I wanted to be out of city limits. That was the first thing,” I tell her.

“That doesn’t surprise me. You’ve always been a country boy.”

“I couldn’t stand living with neighbors this close. I need my privacy. I also wanted a big space for a yard, not just trees and shrubs. I want a place to run and let Trigger out to play.”

“Who is Trigger?”

“My baby,” I tease. “She’s my yellow lab and she’s insanely jealous of you.”

Her eyes grow wide. “Of me?”

“She knows her place as the love of my life is being threatened.”

She laughs, shaking her head. “Well-played. For the record, I don’t particularly love being in town either. But this place is close to Dad and close to Halcyon and close to Violet. So it makes sense.”

“It’s not close to me.”

“I don’t know where you live,” she says sweetly.

“We’ll have to fix that soon.”

We share a quiet pause, something moving between us that neither of us wants to break. I reach for her hand and she lets me take it. Our fingers laced together, her delicate palm nestled in mine, I set them on my thigh.

“Was coming back to Savannah an easy choice for you?” she asks.

“At the end of the day, yes,” I say. “My family is here and I like living close to them and working with them on a daily basis. I can appreciate that now. There’s something really organic and fulfilling about that.”

“It’s amazing how well you all get along. I mean, out of six of you, no one hates anyone. That’s impressive.”

Nodding, I

think through all my siblings and realize she’s right. “None of us feels any bad way about anyone else, I don’t think. Whatever one of us does, we know the others have their back. Actually,” I say, giving her hand a squeeze, “Barrett called me today. His party has been talking about him running for the Presidency in a few years.”

“That’s amazing,” she grins.

“It is. It feels like the last election just ended, but I guess things work fast in politics.”

“That’s what they say,” she shrugs.

“But to your point earlier, he was asking if he were to run, would I join his security team.”

Something about that catches her off guard. “Really? What would that entail?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “I guess that’s something we’ll have to wait and see if it comes to fruition.”

There’s a slightly awkward silence that’s capped off by her slipping her hand away from mine.

“What about you?” I ask. “What’s the future hold for you?”