“What do you mean you can’t do anything?” Landon demanded, his loud voice floating up the stairs. Hope crept along to the top, leaning down to peek at her husband through the railings.

“We can’t arrest anyone over some texts and a bouquet of flowers,” the officer explained calmly.

“You could at least find out who the guy is!” Landon argued, leaning forward and throwing his arms out. 

“Look, just have your wife block the number.”

“I already did! More texts came from a second number.”

Hope sank down on the top step, holding onto the railing. She knew what she had to do. She didn’t want to do it, but she knew.

“Have you considered it’s just a prank?”

She held her phone in her hand, taken back out of Landon’s coat pocket, and turned it back on. The screen lit up too bright in the darkness.

“It’s not a prank,” Landon argued away. Hope tuned him out, pulling herself back up and into their guest bathroom. The phone rang and rang against her ear as she locked the door.

“Hey, sweetheart, it’s late.”

“I’m not your sweetheart,” Hope said acidicly. 

“So this isn’t a late-night love call?”

Hope could practically hear the smirk on his face. “I’m not fucking around, Ryan. Did you send me flowers?”

“Pay for someone else to give my lovely girlfriend flowers? That’s not really my style.”

“I’m not your girlfriend.”

“Sorry. ‘My brother’s wife who I have sex with a couple times a month but is definitely not my girlfriend’ was kind of a mouthful,” Ryan quipped. “Why are you asking me about flowers?”

“Because someone sent me flowers at dinner tonight and a creepy poem threatening to make me a widow if I didn’t love them back.” Hope bit at her thumbnail as she listened to Landon and the cop downstairs say their goodbyes. She could hear the front door swing open.

“I wouldn’t send you flowers in front of Landon.” Ryan was quiet for a moment and then laughed. “Not until after the divorce anyways.”

“You’re a dick,” Hope spit. “I’m changing my number first thing tomorrow, and I’m not giving you the new one. Have a nice life, Ryan.”

Hope jabbed her thumb at the red button on her screen, ending the call before he could say anything else. It wasn’t that she suspected Ryan was the one who sent the flowers or the texts, but it was a good excuse to put an end to whatever fucked-up thing they were doing behind Landon’s back. She was happy with Landon. She really, really was. She didn’t need to sleep with his brother whenever he went out of town to shoot in a different location. She didn’t need to break his heart like that.

“Hope?” There was a knock at the door. 

Hope rushed to wipe away the tears that had started to fall down her cheeks. Why was she crying? When had she started? “C-Coming,” she said, tripping over her feet as she tried to clear her call history at the same time she unlocked the door. 

“Hey …” Landon’s voice was quiet as he looked at her red-rimmed eyes. 

“I heard -” Hope stopped, choking on the half-truth. “I heard your conversation downstairs. How - how they can’t do anything.”

“Come here.” Landon wrapped his arms around Hope’s shoulders, hand cradling the back of her head. “Just because they can’t do anything, doesn’t mean I won’t.” He stroked her hair gently. “Did you turn your phone back on?”

Hope nodded, smearing her tears across the front of her husband’s t-shirt. “There weren’t any new messages.”

“That’s good. Do you want to go to bed?”

Hope nodded again. That’s what she’d wanted all night - to be in bed. “I’ll meet you there in a minute.”

Landon kissed the top of her head before he left. As soon as he was gone, Hope unlocked her phone again, scrolling through her contacts until she got to Ryan’s. She hesitated, thumb hovering over the delete button, before she fully committed with a sigh of relief. She was just about to shut her phone off again when a new message popped up.

Your husband doesn’t love you the way you deserve to be loved, and we both know it.

Hope didn’t hesitate to block the number this time, scowling down at the glowing screen. 

Landon’s voice drifted down the hallway. “Are you coming?”