It Takes Three to Fly (25 page)

Landon grunted. “That was all Deke, not me. He said that he knew we’d never go through with it because I would never betray Shane and neither would you. He and Adam had hoped Shane would end up with a ring on his finger, which he sort of did.”

“I guess he knows us all well.”

“Yeah.”

A stifling silence lingered in the air, the only noise she heard was the tick-tock of the clock. Focusing her eyes, she noticed that it was only nine in the morning. It felt like it should be nearing nightfall. Since she’d been up since five, she probably wasn’t the best person to guess at the time.

Katie-Anne sighed. Today was going to be the day that never ended. And Katie-Anne didn’t know if that was good thing or a bad one.

Looking away from the clock, Katie-Anne’s gaze settled on the painting beside it. How ironic. It was a TL Jacobsen original. She’d noticed quite a few items throughout their apartment. The thought that they enjoyed her paintings on merit alone made her absolutely giddy, and she wanted to jump up and down while clapping like an enthusiastic child. But that wasn’t in the cards for the time being. She had something to do, if she could just do it.

Suck it up, my dear. Just get on with it.

“Landon,” she breathed, her voice hitching noticeably.

“Yes kitten,” he replied as his hands stalled, no longer toying with her hair.

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Start at the beginning,” he suggested as he lowered his hand to the curve of her hip, sweeping his hand up and down in a calming motion.

“My mother was”—she paused to swallow past the giant lump in her throat—“a monster.”

When Landon didn’t say anything, she carried on. “From the time I was born, she hated me. She despised the way I looked, what I thought, and how I acted. I was always too this or too that. And she relished punishing me for it.”

Seeking his strength, she peered over her shoulder and searched for his face. When she found him, she met his blue eyes head-on. “When I was too fat at age ten, she put me on a very special diet. It was called ‘the lock your child up in a closet while you eat filet mignon on the other side of the door and describe it in detail’ diet.”

Landon gasped but didn’t utter a word.

“Once, when I ate two slices of pizza at Jaycee’s eleventh birthday party, she sliced a derogatory word into my skin then locked me in that same closet. She left me there for two days, one day for each slice. She let me out, eventually, but I was on a liquid diet until I lost three pounds which took me almost a week.”

“Holy fuck,” he cursed, his hand stalling on her hip. “What about your dad? What about Gray?”

“She told them that I was staying with my Aunt Caroline,” she explained. “Well, she was my biological mother, but no one really knew that until right before my mother killed her.”

“Holy fuck.”

“Oh, yeah. My mother was a real winner,” she remarked. She reached for his strong hand then clasped it and brought it to her lips for a kiss. It was a fleeting caress, but she found herself comforted by it nonetheless. “My mother’s twin sister, Caroline, was a submissive, and she was in love with my father. See, the two sisters switched places a lot. That way Caroline could see my father. Well, at some point, my mother decided that she wanted a baby but couldn’t bear the thought of gaining weight again like she had with Gray. So she concocted a scheme to switch Caroline’s birth control pills with placebos. As luck would have it, she got pregnant immediately.”

“So Caroline didn’t want a baby?” Landon asked, sounding quiet—even for him.

“No,” Katie-Anne replied. “Caroline wanted me, but my mother blackmailed her with threats to my safety from the day I was born to the day she died. During the week before she died, she used those same threats against my father and brother.”

Remembering what she’d figured her brother and father would do, she laughed maniacally, the sound bordering insane. “I think they were going to kill her. Gray and Cade came home from college, and I truly believe they would have killed her, if she’d been here. But she wasn’t. By then, she was dead.”

Landon blinked several times before responding to her. “What a bitch.”

“My sentiments exactly,” she muttered when her sinister laughs waned.

“So why did she do all of that? You were her child.”

Katie-Anne nodded. “No, I was a plaything to her. She dressed me up and paraded me around. She told me what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. She said jump, I asked how high.”

She paused, hating to bring up a sore subject but knowing she needed to. Quickly, she gave herself a pep talk in two sentences like Shannon had taught her. With a steady voice, Katie-Anne delved into dangerous territory. “When I came into the garage all those years ago, Shane told me that I was bred to be like that. He told me that I was pure fluff. To a degree, he was right. So, after that night, I did everything I could to prove him wrong. I just didn’t tell anybody.”

“He was angry,” Landon defended the absent Shane. “He didn’t mean it.”

Katie-Anne shook her head and disagreed, “He did mean it, and I understand now. In some ways, I am grateful that he was honest. It would have been nice, though, if he had been more pleasant about it. You might want to tell him that for future reference.”

“I’ll get right on that,” he told her with a chuckle of his own. “Wait, you said you were proving him wrong. How did you do that?”

Katie-Anne sighed. “It’s a long story,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter anyway. Does it?”

In all honesty, it didn’t matter what she’d done. Yes, a lot of the things made her who she was. Yet it wasn’t important enough to dwell on. Over time, she knew she would tell him but what was the point in going into all of it right now. She just hoped he agreed with that.

“I don’t know,” he responded. “It depends on what it is.”

“I promise that it has no bearing on how I feel about you,” she told him with her whole heart in her words. “We
will
discuss it later. I swear, but it isn’t important enough to talk about right now.”

“Okay,” Landon acquiesced. “I still don’t get it. Why treat you so horribly when you were just a child?”

“She couldn’t get me to work right.”

“Excuse me?” he inquired in a steady but deadly voice. His eyes bored into hers, and she felt the urge to squirm under his scrutiny. So she did.

“I was too much like Caroline.”

“Well, damn,” he cursed.

Katie-Anne guided his hand to her waist and placed it there then linked their fingers together. “Caroline was an artist. She painted these beautiful pictures, and she was a free spirit. She didn’t give a damn about money or power. She was just herself. And, God, I loved her for that.”

“I know you are artistic, but are you a painter like Caroline?”

Well, it’s now or never. Or something like that.

Hesitantly, Katie-Anne averted her eyes then nodded. “I’m TL Jacobsen.”

“Holy fuck.”

“Do you have to keep saying that?”

“No.”

“Good,” she clipped out, letting her annoyance shine through. Then everything around them seemed to slow down, and neither of them moved. Everything went silent, except her heart which sped up in her chest, the beat so loud she heard it pounding in her ears.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone you were TL?”

She’d expected him to ask that question, but she still didn’t know exactly how to explain it to anyone. Taking a deep breath, she followed her instincts and let her mouth move without her mind dominating what she said. “I didn’t tell anyone because it was mine. I didn’t have to deal with people knowing me or recognizing me.”

“That makes sense.”

“You are taking this awfully well.”

Landon smiled sweetly. “Kitten, I have weighed a million scenarios in my mind as I waited for you to come to me. Trust me, I can handle this.”

“Damn it. I’m sorry.”

Pecking a kiss to the tip of her nose, Landon told her, “I’m not trying to make you feel bad.”

“I know but that makes it worse.” And, for her, it did. She hated that she’d kept this from him, that she’d kept it from Shane, too.

“Do you want me to pretend to be pissed?”

“Could you?” she asked hopefully.

Landon shook his head slowly from side to side. “No, kitten, I can’t. But I’m sure we could come up with a way to punish you.” As soon as he finished speaking, he rolled over onto his back and pulled her on top of him. Thrusting his hips upwards, he rubbed his dick against her crotch. The sweats she wore didn’t give her much protection from the rough material of his jeans or the hard ridge of his erection. Her cunt warmed up, flooding with her juices, and she moaned. “I’m sure we could invent lots of ways to punish you.”

“I have no doubt you could,” she retorted with a husky chuckle. “In fact, I have complete faith in you two.”

Landon smiled with a cocky smile that told her he could do just that. Then he went quiet. And so did she. Finally, she asked, “So, where do we go from here?”

Landon cleared his throat. “According to Shane, we have a hot date tonight.”

“What,” she screeched as she scrambled off of him and off of the bed, nearly falling into the floor. “Tonight? I have stuff to do to get ready.”

“Um, okay?” he asked as he sat up swiftly.

“Well, I promised to be the real me, so I have to go. I have to get ready.”

Eyeing her curiously with a hint of caution, he told her, “Then go.”

“I am,” she replied. Scuttling around the room, she picked up her shoes and other belongings before returning to him. She dropped a quick kiss to his lips but he, apparently, wanted more.

Capturing a fistful of hair, he gently held her in place as he deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding sweetly with hers. When she managed to pull away, she was panting. “See you tonight.” Not wanting to give him another chance to distract her, she turned and jogged out of the room.
I’ll put on my shoes outside.

Bolting out of the apartment, she heard him call out, “I love you,” but she had shut the door before she could respond.
Sorry, Landon. I have places to go, people to see, and things to do.

Lounging back against the red vinyl seat cushion in her favorite corner booth, Katie-Anne scanned the small crowd in Lou’s Café. With the early hour, only a select few dedicated diners had arrived to eat lunch which was exactly what Katie-Anne had wanted. Since the place was nearly empty, she and the girls would have a lot of privacy if they ended up really needing it.

When they get here. Damn it.
Restless, Katie-Anne glanced at her watch for the fourth time in five minutes. Her impatience for the arrival of her closest girlfriends seemed to be getting the best of her, and she groaned in frustration.
Come on, come one, come on. Where are you girls?

No sooner had the question had crossed her mind than the front door to the retro diner flew open and revealed Jaycee, Shannon, Sarah, and Ella. A
thump
followed behind the four women’s grand entrance when the steel glass door noisily struck the back of the booth beside it.

Her friends seemed oblivious to their ruckus as they made their way toward her, winding around one table after another on their path to her spot on the far end of the café. Their chatters and giggles overpowered every sound in the room around them. The soft, steady murmurs coming from a couple of the half-filled tables, the sizzle of food cooking on the grill in the back, and the soft, rhythmic beat of the jukebox was no contest against their loud, lively discussion.

When they were close enough for her to put together their entire conversation, rather than bits and pieces, Katie-Anne chuckled.
Baby names.

“You want me to name the babies
what
?” Jaycee asked, her question sounding more like an exclamation than an inquiry, as she plopped down into the booth and scooted down for the rest of the girls to join them.

“I dig the celebrity names,” Ella announced as she sat down next to Jaycee. “Zuma Nesta Rock and Sparrow James Midnight are my favorite boy names, and Harlow Winter Kate and Apple Blythe Alison are my favorite girl’s’. Wow, I must have a thing for threes.”—she paused to wink wickedly at Katie-Anne— “Then again, we already knew that.”—halting again, she giggled— “Man I hope I’m like my mama and have a gaggle of girls. I would have such fun naming the whole lot of them.”

“What about your brother, Tate?” Sarah asked with her trademark sweetness.

“He doesn’t count,” Ella replied, laughingly. “He got lucky in the name department. Besides, one gay man among four sisters? He’s lucky he still has a dick to fuck his boyfriends with.”

Sarah shook her head. “Sorry I asked,” she grumbled then dropped down beside Ella.

“I like the pretty, whimsical names that celebrities choose,” Shannon said. Joining them, she rattled off a list of names. “Flynn, Beckett, Luca, Aviana, Piper, Suri, Gia, Poppy, and Willow. Just to name a few.”

“Damn, you sound like you’ve been studying baby names,” Ella said, awestruck, as she passed around menus. “That is an extensive list. Do you have something share with us?”