Page 11 of Run the Play
“I won’t let go,” he assures me. “How about we dip down, and then I’ll bring us back up. Just to your chin?”
“I don’t know.”
“I won’t let go of you. We’re close to shore. Look.” He nods to the white sandy beach. “Just a quick dip.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Do you want me to take you back to shore?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.”
He chuckles lightly. “On three, we’re going down and coming right back up.” I nod, and he counts us off, and then we’re moving. He bends his knees, submerging us in water, and I cling to him like a baby monkey clinging to their momma. “I’ve got you.” He stands back up, and the smile that lights up his face is nothing short of a masterpiece.
“Don’t be so smug,” I say, pinching his shoulder, which doesn’t seem to faze him.
“I’m proud of you, Roe. You did it. You faced your fear of the ocean.”
“You mean I held on to you like I was a permanent extension of your body and dealt with the plan,” I reply.
“You did more than that. Do you want to go again?”
I think it over. It’s not as bad as I imagined that it would be, so I nod.
“Good girl,” he says huskily. Then he dips us under. There is no countdown this time, but the warm ocean water washes over us, and it feels nice. Freeing even.
We pop back up, and this time, I’m laughing. That’s how we spend the next twenty minutes or so. Landry spins me around in the water. I even hold on to his hands and float a little, but there is always a part of me that is tethered to him.
When we all decide it’s time to call it a day and head inside for food and to get packed and ready to go home tomorrow, Landry carries me out of the water and gently places my feet on the sand.
“Safe and sound.”
“Thank you, Landry.” He doesn’t know what a big deal today was for me. Not just because I went into the ocean where fish and so many other wild creatures live but because I trusted him to get me through it. I don’t trust easily, and somehow, Landry Reynolds managed to ease me out of my comfort zone and believe his words when he said he wouldn’t let go.
He never let go.
I know there are good men out there. Just none of them have ever been a part of my life. Maybe I've found a few with this new job and my new group of friends. In fact, I know that I have, and Landry Reynolds is at the top of the list.
Chapter Three
Landry
“What’s Corie doing tonight?” I ask Knox. We’re sitting around the dining room table in Baker’s high-rise condo in downtown Nashville for poker night.
“Rowan and Sloane are coming over for girls’ night.”
“We should have played at your house,” Reid says, wagging his eyebrows.
Knox glares at him, making us all laugh. “It’s good to get time apart,” he says.
“Right.” Baker chuckles. “That’s the wife talking.”
“We all know you’re counting down the hours to run home to your wife,” Foster adds.
Knox shrugs. “I’m not denying that. And I agree it’s important that we still do things without each other. That doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about her or counting down until I get to go home and lie in bed next to her, but I miss you assholes, so here I am.”
“We were just with you in the Bahamas last week,” I remind him.
Knox grins. “Trust me, I remember.”
