Swear (Landry Family 4)

“You’ve seemed really happy the last few days. That’s all.”

“Really?” I smile at her in a tell-tale sign that she’s right. It’s amusing to me that she’s noticed.

“I like seeing you like this. I don’t know what’s causing it, but I hope it continues.”

“I didn’t know you were so invested in my happiness, Hoda.”

She laughs and heads towards the door. “If you’re happy, you make my life easier.”

“Is that some kind of veiled way of saying you don’t want me stressed and acting like Graham?” I joke.

“You said it. Not me.” She heads back to her office, closing the door softly behind her.

Glancing at my phone, I look for a missed call. A missed text. Anything from Ellie, but find nothing.

I turn back to my computer in hopes of getting something done when Hoda pokes her head back in again. “Mr. Landry? I’m sorry to bother you again so quickly, but Camilla is here to see you.”

“Oh,” I say surprised. “Send her in.”

The lid of my laptop closes with a quick snap. Swink doesn’t just drop by to see me in the middle of the day. As a matter of fact, she’s pretty scarce to all of us these days. Her arrival has me curious. And worried.

“Hey, Ford,” she says, her tone terse. She breezes in, her posture perfect from years of instruction from our mother. Her blonde hair, the most like mine out of all of our siblings, is tied at the nape of her neck.

“This is a surprise.” I watch as she sits across from me, smoothing out her emerald green dress. It’s a throwback to the old Camilla—the one before she decided to be a renegade.

She lets loose a heavy breath. “I came to talk to you because you’re logical.”

Leaning back in my chair, I take her in. Her forehead is marred with a line of wrinkles, her blue eyes shining with a seriousness she doesn’t wear often.

“Because I’m logical? This should be a fun conversation if you’re coming to me appealing to my logic.” I lean towards her and grin. “You know what that tells me?”

“What’s that, Ford?”

“It tells me you think you can persuade me to go along with whatever bullshit you’re selling more easily than to Barrett or Graham or Linc.”

Her jaw sets. “Apparently I was wrong. You’re just as irrational as the rest of them.”

“We aren’t irrational, Swink.”

“Oh, so going to The Gold Room was rational?”

She nearly glares at me, which makes it hard not to laugh. She’s this little thing in a glitzy-label dress trying to battle with me. It’s hard to take her seriously.

“Do you have any idea what The Gold Room is known for?” I ask, smirking. “Tell me, Oh Brilliant One, how smart it was for you to be hanging out at a place that’s best known for its happy endings.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

I laugh. “You’re right. Because I’ve only been there precisely once in my life. Would you like to tell me more about it, Cam?”

“Where I go shouldn’t matter to you. I’m a grown woman.”

“You’re my little sister,” I warn. “You’ll be my little sister when you’re fifty. Got it?”

“You’re just as bad as the rest of them!”

“What do you want me to say? Just go get mixed up with the wrong people? Just go hang out on Davis and good luck to you?”

“How about a little faith that I know what I’m doing?” she volleys back.