by K. A. Linde
He waved his hand. “I’m kidding. I injured my back over the summer.”
“Again?” I asked.
I knew that he had gone through some issues at the start of his career and that it had bothered him last summer. I didn’t know it was still an issue.
“Yes,” he said simply.
He looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t. I wasn’t sure if that was my fault because I’d pushed him away or if he legitimately didn’t want to talk about it.
“Well, I’m glad you’re taking care of it this time,” I told him.
“Me, too. It’s long overdue.”
“So,” I muttered, “are you coming to Emery’s party today?”
“Already on the schedule to head out early for it.”
“Great. This should be fun.”
“You do know, she hates birthdays, right?”
“Duh. It’ll be more fun this way,” I said, cracking a smile.
“She’s probably going to kill you.”
I shrugged. I was reveling in the ease of our conversation. This was how we had always been before. It was nice to get back to that.
“Yeah, I’m used to her telling me that.”
Landon laughed, and my chest eased at how natural that sounded coming from him.
“Well, good luck with that.”
“Thanks,” I said.
Our eyes met. My smile softened. Man, I had missed him.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” I told him, backing away before I got myself in trouble.
“Thanks for stopping in.”
The tension I’d seen when I entered his office had evaporated. Perhaps he had been anticipating this conversation as much as I had. And it had gone better than I’d thought. Neither of us had snapped at the other nor had we torn each other’s clothes off. Yet.
I walked out of Landon’s office with a bounce in my step that hadn’t been there before. Things were looking up. Landon and I were back on speaking terms. I had a surprise birthday party tonight for my best friend. I felt on top of the world.
I almost made it to my desk when Julia scampered out of her office, heading toward me. She was in a sexy black wrap dress that I could never in a million years pull off. She had the most amazing curves. Like to-die-for curves.
“Hey, sexy,” I said, whistling at her as she approached.
“Don’t use those moves on me, Martin,” Julia said. “My office. Now.”
I laughed as she shooed me along. “I hope I’m not in trouble.”
“You’re in a world of trouble.”
I shook my head and then plopped down in the seat in front of her desk. She slammed the door shut, as if I were really in trouble, and then smacked me on the arm.
“What the hell happened with Nick? You don’t call. You don’t write. You can’t fill a girl in?”
“Didn’t work out.”
“What part of it didn’t work out? Trevor was the one who told me. I think Nick is really beat up about it.”
“He is?” I asked in confusion. “He seemed totally fine when I let him down gently after our date on Friday night.”
Julia dropped her head into her hands. “You dumped him on your date?”
“Well, we weren’t really dating. So, I didn’t really dump him.”
“It was date three. I thought things were going somewhere.”
“I guess they weren’t.”
“Come on. Give me details. I thought this was a good thing.”
I shrugged. I’d known before that Nick wasn’t right for me, but after Friday night, I was beyond sure that I couldn’t keep seeing him.
“I don’t think it was a good thing. I think it was a convenient thing.”
Julia sighed. “All right. Back to the drawing board. Maybe Trevor has another friend.”
“I don’t think so,” I said, holding up my hand. “Could you imagine me dating another one of his friends?”
“No,” she grumbled. “But I want you to be happy. It’s a project of love to find you a man.”
I cracked a grin. “What if I just want your body?”
Julia laughed and shook her head. “Don’t tell Emery. She’d be way jealous of our love.”
“That’s a fact,” I agreed. “She’s a jealous bitch.”
“With every right to be. You’re an awesome friend and person, which is why I want to find you a guy.”
I waved her off. “Don’t worry about it.”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.
Her eyes narrowed, and she assessed me from top to bottom. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“You’ve already found someone else!” Julia said, jumping up and down. “Look at how happy you are. Man, I am so excited. Who is he? When do I get to meet him?”
“Julia,” I groaned.
“Don’t hold out on me. Give me the goods. If there’s someone new, I want to hear about it.”
“Okay,” I said, glancing back out of her door. “But it’s not a good idea.”
“Your favorite.”
I laughed softly. She had no idea. “I kind of have this thing for Landon.”
“Landon,” Julia repeated. Her face went pale, and she sat down. “Like…Landon Wright?”
“Yeah. We kind of made out at our ten-year high school reunion, and now, he’s here, and he’s into me. He happened to be at the same bar as Nick and me while we were on our date, and it was night and day. The connection is there with Landon.”
Julia’s eyes were big and round. “Heidi, he is your boss.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“He dated your best friend for two years!”
“I know, I know.”
“What part of this is a good idea? You cannot have a connection with Landon!”
“I know,” I said again.
God, I knew all of this already. I knew this a thousandfold. Having feelings for Landon was like waiting for a ticking time bomb to explode. Any moment, it was going to blow up in my face.
“I don’t think you know. This is a bad, bad idea!”
“Julia,” I groaned. “Seriously, I do know how bad of an idea this is.”
“I am head of HR! You can’t tell me these kinds of things!”
“Nothing is going on, Julia. Plus, I told you about this as a friend, not as the head of HR.”
“Fuck, Heidi,” she hissed. She looked flustered and unsure of how to proceed. “You have to stay away from him.”
I nodded. “I told him the same thing on Friday night. He’s my boss. He’s going through a divorce. We can’t do this right now.”
“Good. Good. That’s very mature of you.”
“Of course, I told him this after he hiked my leg up around his waist and started kissing up my neck.”
Julia put her hands over her ears and started saying, “La-la-la-la,” loud enough to get me to stop talking.
I was laughing at her outrageous behavior. Maybe I should have waited until later to fill her in.
“Okay, okay,” I told her, raising my hands. “I’ll stop talking about it.”
“Talking about it? You’re going to stop doing more than talking about it. You have to completely stop, or you know I’ll have to figure out a way to separate you two. And who do you think they’ll move—you or a Wright brother?”
I paused at those words. I’d thought about it, of course. It was why I had been so freaked out that he was my boss.
What if I couldn’t stay away from him?
I’d have to leave. That was what Julia was saying. Either I’d have to go to another office out of Lubbock or I’d have to take a step down, so he wasn’t my boss. They weren’t going to move Landon’s position. They had just made that spot for him. What was one less engineer?
“Tell me you understand how important this is, Heidi,” Julia said. Her face contorted with fear. “I’m really worried about you.”
“No, I get it. I do.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
But I was completely unsure. Despite all the consequences and everything I had told Landon, I didn’t know if I could stay away from him forever. It seemed impossible.
“Oh, fuck,” Julia sighed when she saw my face. “Just…just don’t get caught.”
Sixteen
Landon
I glanced down at my phone and swore.
Fucking Miranda.
Why did she have to come and ruin my perfectly good mood?
I’d been thinking about Heidi all weekend. I hadn’t been sure if I had made the right move. I’d thought pushing for her and fighting for her would make her see that we should give this a try. But the harder I pushed, the more she gave in, and the more she fought me. It was a paradox.
And, when I had seen how upset she was about the entire situation, I’d backed off.
Then, she had come in this morning with some fresh space between us. She’d looked happy. She’d talked to me like we were friends. Like before that kiss a month ago. I knew those feelings were still there, but the fact that she’d asked questions finally seemed to alleviate a little of my pain from walking away on Friday. I’d put the ball in her court. She’d then immediately come back to me. It seemed like a win.
And I had been riding high on it until Miranda sent me a nasty text about the divorce paperwork. I couldn’t even turn off my phone to silence her tirade. I had too much work to do, and that was the number people had access to.
So, I spent much of the day ignoring the beep, beep, beep from my phone. When it was finally time to leave, I darted out of the office as quickly as I could. I hadn’t been home since five this morning, but I wasn’t about to head home anytime soon either.
Instead, I went straight to Jensen’s house where Emery’s surprise party was being held. Heidi was organizing the event, which meant she would already be there. And I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could.
I parked Jensen’s Mercedes in the garage and entered through the garage door and into the kitchen.
“Whoa,” I said.
Heidi was standing on the island in the middle of the kitchen in nothing but short shorts and a tank top that was riding up her stomach.
Her eyes darted to me. “Oh, Landon! You’re early.”
She tried to attach a streamer to the spot on the light fixture but missed. The kitchen was already decked out in decorations, but I could see that there were bags with more decor just waiting to go up.
“Need a hand with that?” I asked.
“If you don’t mind.”
“I’m a bit taller than you.”
“Just a bit.”
I scrambled onto the island next to her and took the streamer out of her hand. Our bodies were close together, standing there in the middle of Jensen’s kitchen. Her blue eyes lit up at my nearness, and then she averted her gaze and took a shaky step back.
“Thanks. I have a ton to do. So, it’d be great if you could help.” She hopped off the island.
“That’s what I’m here for.”
“Great. Great,” she muttered.
She seemed nervous around me now. It was as if the easygoing girl who had talked to me in my office this morning disappeared, and I didn’t know why.
I brushed off her unease and decided that I wasn’t even going to acknowledge it. I really had shown up early to help her if needed and to hang out. I wasn’t trying to get crafty and make a move on her.
Once I attached the streamer to the light fixture, I jumped off the island and followed her into the living room. Black balloons were everywhere with a few glitter and hot-pink ones scattered throughout for a bit of color. That was definitely Emery through and through.
“Want me to do that?” I asked Heidi as she sat down to blow up more balloons. “I’m guessing you won’t be happy until we cover the room in them.”
She grinned up at me and then caught herself and looked away. “Yeah, I want Emery to try to stab me after seeing how over the top it all is.”
“This will definitely do,” I confirmed, looking around.
Heidi handed me the bag of balloons. “Thanks for your help. I still have a million things to do.”
“No problem.”
She headed out the door as Jensen appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Landon!” Jensen said with a big smile. “You’re early.”
“Yeah, I thought I could help out. I knew Heidi had something big planned.”
“It’s good to see you.”
Jensen pulled me in for a hug. He looked happier than I’d ever seen him. It still weirded me out that my ex-girlfriend was the one who brought him that much joy, but I couldn’t begrudge him it. I wanted to be that happy, and all I’d been was depressed over the last year.
“Good to see you, too, man.”
“How is everything? You’ve been back for a while, and I feel like you’re a stranger.”
“I was in church yesterday,” I corrected him. I’d made sure to do that, considering how I’d left early so many times before.
Jensen grinned. “Yeah, that’s true. Just checking in on you. I’m the oldest. What do you expect from me?”
“Nothing more than this. PT has been great though. I don’t know how much progress I’ve made, but the therapist is a goddess.”
“I got the best.”
“I can tell. She knows her shit.”
“And Miranda?” Jensen asked coolly.
I glanced away. At this point, I hated talking about Miranda. Not that I had ever enjoyed discussing her with my family before, but now, I had to deal with the divorce. It was just messy.
“Still getting texts from her every day, and she says she’s refusing to sign the paperwork.”
Jensen sighed. “I was afraid of that. She’ll come around though.”
“We can only hope.”
“And the new job?”
I inwardly cringed. I didn’t want to bring up the fact that I wanted out of the job. I didn’t want to be Heidi’s boss, but I also didn’t want to be left without a job for a year while I was recovering. My mind couldn’t take it. I’d never slowed down a day in my life. I wasn’t about to start now. But, after everything Jensen had done for me, I couldn’t break it to him.
“An adjustment,” I finally said.
Jensen nodded. “I knew it would be, but you’ll make it work. You always do. I have to go get Emery now. Everyone should be arriving in the next couple of minutes. I’ll see you when I get back with her.”
“See you then.”
With a sigh, I watched him disappear. I loved my brother, but sometimes, his concern felt like an interrogation. He didn’t do it on purpose. He had always been there for us. He had been the one to raise us. He couldn’t even help it now.
I went back to blowing up balloons in his absence. A minute later, Heidi peeked her head back into the living room. Pink rose in her cheeks, and she looked slightly sheepish.
“Hey,” she said with a nervous little wave.
“What’s up?” I arched an eyebrow at her.
“I hate to admit it, but I was kind of eavesdropping.”
My mind flittered over everything that I’d said to Jensen, and I came back blank. I didn’t think I’d said anything incriminating. Jensen had been checking in on me.
“And?”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.”
“What did you hear that has you blushing so furiously?” I set the balloons aside and stepped over to her.
We were alone in the house. We only had a few minutes before people would start showing up.
“I think I’m more embarrassed than anything.”
“About what?”
“Well…I didn’t know if I should believe what you’d said about Miranda on Friday.”
“What part?”
“That you were divorcing her.”
I cocked my head to the side and stared down at her beautiful face, those bright blue eyes, the unbelievably luscious lips. �
��You thought I would lie about something like that?”
“No. Not exactly. I was…cautious.”
“Cautiously pessimistic,” I accused.
She bit her lip and shrugged. Man, I wanted to kiss those lips. To bite down for her. The way she was looking at me. The blush on her cheeks. The way she gravitated toward me.
“Optimistic,” she muttered. “But nervous.”
“And now?”
“I believe you. I don’t think Jensen would have asked if you’d been lying about it all.”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Heidi.”
I ran my hand down her arm, and she shivered under my touch. I might have said that I would give her space when she asked for it on Friday. And I’d meant every word when I said it. But, fuck, being alone with her like this, having her look at me like that…it was enough to break any man.
“I’m coming to realize that,” she whispered, her voice so soft that it was almost just an exhale.
My hand ran up her shoulder and into her long blonde hair. This hair. Fuck, this hair. It was gorgeous and soft, and all I wanted to do was pull it and watch her eyes roll back into her head with delight. A gasp escaped her mouth at my touch, and I took that as answer enough. I tilted her head up to look at me, but her eyes fluttered closed.
I could feel her heart racing away. She wanted this, no matter what she’d said or how she stalled what felt inevitable.
Because Heidi and I were inevitable.
There was no denying how I felt or where this was going. I might slow down when she told me to slow down. Pump the brakes when the cracks in her facade began to crumble. But I could never turn around and walk away. There was no amount of distance between us that could make me step back.
“Heidi,” I murmured.
“Hmm?”
“Look at me.”
Her eyes opened hesitantly, as if she couldn’t face her own reality. As if she would give in the minute she saw the depth of affection in my eyes.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Falling for you.”
There was no accusation in her eyes. It was deep emotional turmoil. One step forward and two steps back. A struggle to reel in how much she wanted this and how terrified she was to let go. Because, if she let go…she could get hurt. She could succumb to something she had sworn she would not do.