Play Softly (The Devil's Share Book 4) (8 page)

Jacks looked down at Landry, then back to the TV. “I don’t remember there being that much cussing in it. It’s such a good movie, too.” He tapped Landry on the end of the nose. “It’s about friendship and standing up for what’s right, you’ll love it.”

Landry shrugged. “It’s okay, I’ve—”

“You’ve heard of this movie before?” He sent her an odd look, which only I seemed to catch. Wonder what that’s about?

She nodded. “Yep. I’ve heard of it before, we can watch it. I’ll just ignore all the cussing. I mean, if there is any.”

I was with Luke. I remembered there being a lot of kid-inappropriate things going on in
Stand by Me
, but if Jacks was cool with it, far be it from me to tell him how to raise his kid.

Smith clapped his hands. “Yes. I am so pumped, it’s been like fifteen years since I’ve seen this movie.” He pressed play, giddy as can be. This new, happy Smith was a far cry from the old down-and-out, somewhat drug-addicted Smith. We’d all changed a little bit over the last year, but to me Smith’s transition would always be the most important.

I did love this movie, and I couldn’t help but mirror some of Smith’s excitement. Just the opening credits with an older version of Gordie sitting in his awesome Scout made me smile.

“
I was twelve going on thirteen the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959, a long time ago but only if you measure it in terms of years
.” Pure nostalgia. And then? “Shit, fuck, hell, damn.” And the Lord’s name in vain. All in the first ten minutes. I looked over at Jacks, his face in a wince. “Should we turn it off?”

Smith pressed pause and all eyes went to Landry. She shrugged. “The cussing doesn’t bother me. I’ve heard it all before. I love, uh, movies about friendship.” We shifted our gaze to Jacks.

“It really is such a good movie.” He looked at Landry. “Just ignore the cussing?”

She nodded and Smith hit play.

Apparently my parents didn’t pay attention to the movies I watched as a kid. I knew I’d seen this movie a least a dozen times while I was growing up. But holy hell, there was a lot of cussing. Plus, I swear they said “pussy” like six times. And every time they did, Jacks would hang his head. We should not have let Landry watch that movie.

After the final credits rolled and the screen went black, all eyes drifted awkwardly toward the tiny little girl sitting silently next to Jacks.

Landry got up and headed into the kitchen. “Can I have some ice cream?”

Collectively, we let out a sigh of relief.

The girls brought pizza home with them for dinner. We were at the table, taking turns holding Halen so we could all eat. “
Rolling Stone
will be here around nine, we’ll take some group pictures, and then when individual photos start, we’ll alternate and do interviews. We could have set up the interviews on a different day than the shoot, but I figured we should just knock it out all at one time. That work for everyone?” I looked around the table, getting nods of approval.

Bryan leaned back in her chair and held her hands out, taking Halen from Luke. “Are we all getting interviewed? Or just you and Lex?”

“Well, Lexi and I for sure, so we can talk about Halen. But I think they’ll probably want to talk to you and Jacks too.” I pointed at my lead guitarist. “You guys need to let them know if you want them to talk to Landry or not.”

Jacks reached across the table and tugged on Landry’s long hair. “What do you think, Buttercup? You want to talk to
Rolling Stone
? You don’t have to if it makes you nervous.”

Landry shrugged. “I’ll talk to them, I’m no pussy.”

Smith spit his water out, Luke put his head in his hands, Jacks went still as a statue, and I flinched to the side. We were caught, and we were in trouble. Bryan took a deep breath and then turned to Landry. “Where did you hear that word? That is not a nice word. We are not going to use it.”

Landry looked confused. “I didn’t know it was bad. Dad told me today it meant wimp. It was in a movie.”

All female eyes went to Jacks. No joke. I think even Halen gave him a death glare. Lexi wiped her mouth and then smiled at Landry. “What movie did you guys watch today?” Of course she’d get involved.

“
Stand by Me
.”

Lexi nodded her head in complete understanding. “Ah.” Obviously she’d seen it. “That’s a really great movie, did you like it?”

Landry began swinging her legs under the table, a sure sign she was excited. “Yes. I love it. I think it’s my new favorite movie.”

Bryan adjusted Halen on her shoulder. “It is a good movie, but the boys in that movie don’t talk nicely. So we shouldn’t repeat anything they say, okay?” Landry nodded and went about her business eating her pizza. Bryan pointed a finger at Jacks and whispered, “Bad choice. Very bad choice.” She shook her head. “What’s next? You wanna take her down to the race track? Let her do a little gambling?”

Jacks held his hand up in the air. “Okay. Hindsight, we should have waited a couple of years before we let her watch that particular film. But you’re one to talk. You girls have taught her extortion. She up-charges us.”

Dylan made a face. “What?”

Smith used the slice of pizza in his hand to gesture around the table. “Yeah, we know all about how you guys pay her to watch us when you aren’t around.”

Lexi snorted. “No we don’t.”

I looked over at her. “You don’t?”

She shook her head. “She does that for free.”

Wait. So that meant that she did narc on us, she just didn’t get paid for it? I leaned back in my chair, quickly racking my brain trying to figure out if I’ve done anything else to get in trouble for other than almost burning my baby.

“Landry Cole.” Jacks set his drink down. “You lied to us?” It always made me smile when Jacks went full-blown dad mode.

Luke chuckled. “Cussing, lying, and making money. Maybe we should take her down to the horse track, she’d fit right in.”

Lexi snorted but caught Luke’s eye and gave a slight shake of her head. Letting him know that although this was funny as shit, we had to be adults and not let Landry know. Thank God I got to watch Jacks and Bryan go through all this with Landry before Lexi and I had to do it with Halen.

Bryan hid her smile behind her hand until she could get her game face on. “Landry. Did you tell Jacks that we pay you for information?”

She nodded, reluctantly. “Daddy and Uncle Dash asked me not to say certain things to you guys the other day, and the lie just kind of came out. It wasn’t reallllly a big lie. You do ask me what happens while you were gone. I just figured if I could make some money on the side, I might as well do it.”

“You are giving all the money back, young lady.” Jacks was getting pretty good at his dad voice. I think Bryan kicked him under the table because he added, “And Daddy and Uncle Dash should have never asked you to keep our secrets. That was wrong, and we won’t do it again.”

Landry managed to look contrite when she said, “I’m sorry I lied and I’ll give it all back.” She got up and went to the living room. We all did our best not to laugh when she came back with a hand full of cash and tossed it in the middle of the table. “That’s all of it.”

“Thank you.” Jacks looked at Bryan, making a
what now?
face. I couldn’t blame him, Landry was never in trouble; she didn’t talk back or break rules or disrespect adults. She even did chores every day when we had a maid.

Bryan took a deep breath. “And now you need to go to your room?”

She posed it like a question and looked over at Dylan. Dylan gave a slight nod of approval.

Landry hung her head. “I understand.” She turned toward the stairs but then stopped and came back. “Uncle Dash almost let Halen drink a super-hot bottle. Dad faked a stomach bug and then ate a bag of Oreos, and Uncle Smith threw away all of Aunt Dilly’s kale chips and blamed it on Dagger.”

Luke couldn’t keep his laughter in any longer. It was like a dam broke and he was doubled over with tears streaming down his face. He sat up and wiped at his eyes. “Oh man, I am going to miss this the most.” He started laughing all over again. I felt Lexi stiffen beside me at his choice of words.

Smith reached out and snaked an arm around Landry’s waist and pulled her to his side, tickling her mercilessly. “What about Uncle Luke? No secrets about Uncle Luke?”

Landry broke away from Smith, giggling her little Tinker Bell laugh. She looked at Luke, a smile on her face. “Nope. I have no secrets about Uncle Luke. Right?”

Luke grinned. “Right.” When she walked by him on her way back to the stairs, he held his hand out palm up. “Skins.”

She slid her hand over his, a look of mischief on her face. “Skins.”

Landry was halfway up the stairs before realization dawned on the rest of us. Luke and Landry’s handshake was from
Stand by Me
; the group of boys used it throughout the movie. Jacks jumped up from the table and pointed at Luke. “You. No wonder she didn’t bat an eye at the language in that movie. How many times have you let her watch it?”

Luke held his hands up in surrender. “Twice. Okay, maybe three times tops.” He chuckled. “I was watching it the other night when you and Bryan went to dinner. Landry woke up because she had a bad dream.”

Lexi turned to him. “Okay. And the other two times?”

He shrugged. “She loves that movie.”

Halen was sleeping in her little bassinet next to our bed, and Lexi was lying with her head on my chest. There was no noise, no TV, no light. It was just the two of us, lying quietly listening to the sounds of our heartbeats and our daughter breathing. It was moments like this that made my chest ache; made me close my eyes and thank God that this woman had chosen me. And that I’d accidentally knocked her up.

“Babe?”

“Kitten.” I felt her smile against my chest at my use of her nickname. I called her Kitten all the time, and it never failed to bring a grin to her beautiful face.

She let out a shaky breath. “What do you think Luke meant tonight at dinner when he said he was going to
miss this
?”

I could either lie to my fiancée to spare her currently over-the-top emotions, or I could tell her the truth. Hurting Lexi was never on my list of things to do, ever. But lying to her didn’t feel right either. “What do you think he meant?”

She pushed off my chest and stared at me in the dark, her eyes shining, filled with tears. “I don’t want to say what I think. I don’t even want to think about it.” I reached a hand out and put a strand of her light hair behind her ear. She closed her eyes and kissed my palm when I rested it on her cheek. “When Halen wakes up in the middle of the night and I go into the living room to feed her, Luke is always there waiting for me. We hang out.”

“I know, Kitten.”

She laid her head back on my chest, where she belonged, and rubbed her hand lightly along my stomach. “Are you mad?”

“No.” I stilled her hand, clasping my fingers with hers. “I spent a lot of time irritated about your closeness with Luke. Then I spent even more time just pretending it didn’t exist.” I kissed the tips of her fingers, one at a time.

“And now?” Her voice was quiet, nervous.

“And now I get it. Now I can see the love he has for you, how pure it is.” I rolled over on my side so I could look in her eyes. “He helped me plan and pull off our engagement. He sat next to you for two hours in that hospital room and didn’t once take his eyes off the screen that was monitoring our baby’s heartbeat.”

“You’re the only one for me, it’s only ever been you, Dash. I love him, but I’m not in love with him.”

“I know you aren’t, Lex.” I put my hand on her lower back and pulled her hips against my own. “I know I’m the only one you want, the only one who makes your blood hum, the only one you can’t truly live without.”

Her eyes filled with tears again. “I’m going to be living without Luke soon, aren’t I?”

I nodded.

Chapter Fourteen

Lexi

“
Well, we’re big rock singers, we got golden fingers and we’re loved everywhere we go
…”

I walked down the hall toward the kitchen, putting on my earrings. “Jacks, please don’t start singing that—”