by Angela Blake
“After you,” he gestured towards the door.
Fuming at being caught so smoothly into the trap, she fumed as she walked past him, and Landon was once again reminded of a kitten who thought it was a tiger.
“Are you two done?” Mrs. Brown called out.
The couple was sitting in the living room.
“What did you think of our Faith’s lovely ideas?” Mrs. Brown asked her son.
Landon blinked at the term ‘our Faith’, and caught the gleam in his mother’s eye.
“I think they’re fascinating,” Landon murmured, holding Faith’s gaze.
He had to hide his grin as she blushed and then tried not to show it. She was absolutely adorable.
He knew he should have been angry at what she had done, but it had taken him a whole of two minutes to get out. When he had walked into the bar, it had been to the sight of Faith laughing, sprawled over her friend.
There was something so honest about that joy, something so open, that he had wanted that light. After all the darkness he had seen, he craved the light that she offered. And for once, he could see himself, with her tucked by his side, smiling. It had eased a painful hole in his chest, one that he had not known, existed.
He didn’t want this woman to be a one night stand.
No.
She was it.
Chapter 5
“How is the steak, dear?”
“It’s amazing, Mrs. Brown.”
Mrs. Brown smiled, pleased by Faith’s response, and then eyed her son, “What about you, Landon?”
“I would rather prefer a burg- “Catching his mother’s eye, he hastily amended, “I meant this steak puts all burgers to shame, Mom. By the way, where’s John?”
“He had a lunch planned with some friends. He told me to pass on his regrets.”
“I bet he did,” Landon muttered with what Faith detected was sarcasm.
“So, what do you intend to do tomorrow?” Mr. Brown asked his son.
Faith squirmed in her seat, next to the man she had locked in the restroom yesterday. She had been invited by an insistent Mrs. Brown to stay for lunch and now she was regretting it.
They were lovely people, but she was uncomfortable with the new Brown that she was forced to spend the next day with.
“Faith is going to take me to view the properties tomorrow. It’ll take the whole day so don’t expect me home for dinner.”
“I do hope you intend to feed the poor girl, Landon.” His mother frowned, disapprovingly.
Landon grinned at Faith, who looked rather sour, “I’ll take her out to dinner. We’ll make a date out of it.”
He laughed at Faith’s red face and Mrs. Brown sighed happily. “That’s a wonderful idea.”
Landon shook his head at his mother’s obvious attempts at matchmaking.
Deciding to put Faith out of her misery, he excused himself and was about to leave the table, when the slamming of the door had him tense up and grab the gun that was in holster.
The action didn’t go unnoticed by Faith and she looked startled. Their eyes met and she saw the regret in his eyes before he shuttered out the emotion and looked away.
She wondered at his reaction but her attention was distracted by a tall man with a mop of brown hair and even darker brown eyes.
“Mrs. Brown!” He called out, and hugged the older woman from behind, “How have you been? You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”
He kissed her noisily on the cheek and had her laughing, “Roger!”
“Get your hands off my wife, boy.” Mr. Brown commented, not even bothering to pause his meal.
“Is that food?” Roger’s whole face smiled as John handed him a plate, not escaping a beat.
Sitting down, next to Mrs. Brown, Roger’s eyes fell on Faith, who was staring at him as if he had just declared himself an alien. “And who is this lovely lady?”
With his mouth full, he lacked the charm when he said those words.
Two hands clapped on the table on either side of Faith, as Landon smiled, crowding his little architect, “This lovely lady is leaving, isn’t she? With me.”
Mournfully, staring at her remaining steak, Faith sighed, “Yes, she is. But-“ She stood up, her face directly into Landon’s a mere inch separating them, “-She is leaving, alone.”
Realizing, he might have pushed all of Faith’s buttons, Landon backed off and let her grab her coat. His head tilted as he watched her ass sashay its way out. And what a lovely ass it was.
When he saw Roger’s eyes following it as well, he smacked his friend on the back of his head, “Don’t even think about it.”
“I wasn’t!” His friend protested. “I was eating!”
***
“Naomi!”
Faith dropped her bag in the center of the room and collapsed in a chair.
With all the work going on, she, Naomi and Jack, had laid claim to one of the bigger rooms in the building to share as an office. Jack sat in a corner, stuffing chips into his mouth, while Naomi had her face on a desk.
Faith looked around, “Why is nobody working?”
Naomi immediately sat up, wiping the drool from the side of her face, her words not a little slurred, “Huh, I wasn’t sleeping!”
As Jack snickered into his bag of potato chips, Faith raised a brow, and he sobered up, shrugging, “We were waiting for the verdict from the Browns? So, what did Brown Junior have to say?”
“Brown Junior already knows us.”
“Huh?” Naomi looked confused, “Have we worked with him before?”
“No. He knows us from a more informal setting.” Faith grit her teeth. “It seems we locked Brown Junior in the restroom last night.”
Naomi stared at her, “No.”
“Yeah.”
Jack snorted, “This is precious. You guys locked the client’s son in a bar’s restroom. Wierdos.”
Faith looked at him, “You realize that if our asses hang, so does yours?”
Jack blinked, and then scowled, “Oh, yeah. Damn it.”
“So, what did he say?” Naomi wanted to know.
“Nothing.” Faith buried her face in her hands “Not a freaking word. I thought he had forgotten, but he hasn’t. And now I have to spend the whole day with him tomorrow and go out for dinner with him.”
“He’s blackmailing you?” Her friend looked aghast.
“No!” Faith scowled. “It’s work stuff. But like, it’s going to be so awkward!”
Jack looked over and said, slowly, “If it bothers you that much, I could give him the tour.”
Faith gave him a wan smile, “I have a feeling, he’ll object to that.”
Jack’s jaw firmed and he scowled, “Then he’ll deal with it. If you’re uncomfortable with him, you don’t have to spend the whole day with him. The higher ups will understand.”
Faith considered it. It would certainly save her a lot of time as well, time that she could spend, adding some finishing touches over a few of the properties.
A hand touched her shoulder and she looked up, “Don’t worry about it, Faith. I got this.”
Her smile was troubled, but genuine, “Thank you, Jack. This means a lot.”
Naomi grinned, fanning her face with her hand, “Ooh, Jack. Look at you being all manly and shit. I’m swooning here.”
“Why don’t you swoon into my arms, Red?” Jack puckered his lips, delighting Naomi into a roar of laughter.
“Get a room, you two.” Faith ordered, but the effect was lost on them because she was grinning as well.
***
There was no hands-on work today, so all three of then had loads of paperwork to deal with. It was nearing ten at night as Naomi grabbed her bag and keys, “You going to be here longer? I could wait.”
“Nah.” Faith rubbed her tired eyes. “I’ll put in a late night today. I don’t want to have all this paperwork hanging over my head. You guys go.”
Jack
was yawning, “Naomi, drop me home, will you?”
“That monstrosity you call a truck is parked outside.” Naomi pointed out, scowling. “I don’t want you playing that rap music in my car.”
“It’s art!” Jack protested, immediately insulted. “If you had any taste at all, you would know that. And I live right next to you. I don’t know why you won’t carpool with me.”
“Because you make my ears bleed when you put that crap on!”
They walked out the door, bickering, and Faith chuckled, snorting when she heard Naomi’s horrified cry, “You take that back. N’Sync is not trash!”
Faith glanced out the glass walls that separated their team’s joint office from the rest of the employees, and noted that aside from a few stragglers, everybody had mostly gone home.
Feeling her stomach rumble, she took out the takeout menus they kept for such situations and skimmed through them. Realizing that she was starting to procrastinate, she chose to get chinese.
An hour passed after she had placed the order and hearing a knock, she saw a young delivery boy standing at the door.
“Oh, hey! Thank you!”
Faith grabbed the bags from him, and paid him. Watching as the doors of the elevator closed around him, it occurred to her how empty the place was, and how big.
Shrugging, she started taking out the containers, when her hand touched a hard material. Withdrawing it, she saw it was an envelope.
It was quite plain, but of some hard material, probably so as to protect the contents inside.
Wondering if the boy had forgotten it here, or if it were some new promotion coupons, she turned it over and stilled when she saw her name on it.
There was something wrong here.
Maybe this had fallen off her desk into the bag?
Grabbing a letter opener that lay on Naomi’s desk, she leaned against the desk and carefully cut open the sealed envelope. It was quite bulky and she was careful.
Her brow furrowed as the paper inside was photograph material. They were photographs. She took out one and froze.
It was a picture of her of a few days ago, talking to a café barista.
Hands trembling, she took out the other photograph and this time she was walking on the street.
A heavy hand on her shoulder had her screaming out, and the contents dropped.
Chapter 6
“Hey! Hey! Easy there, Faith.”
Recognizing the voice, Faith turned around, stammering, “Landon?”
He had been passing by the building and had recognized her car in the empty parking lot. It was more the fact that he didn’t think it was very safe to be alone in a building, rather than just simply wanting to see her.
Her delicate profile in the dimly lit room had him thinking of a fragile flower, standing alone in a field.
The fear in those beautiful brown eyes had him halting, “You couldn’t have been that scared of me. What’s wrong?”
“What? Nothing?” Her eyes skittered away from him, and she immediately knelt down to gather the evidence that had struck a chord in her.
“What is this?”
He was kneeling next to her, studying one of the photographs he had picked up.
“Nothing!” Faith made a grab at the picture, not able to hide the quiver in her eyes. “Just a harmless prank. Just a prank.”
The way she repeated those words had his eyes narrowing.
“Faith.” His firm fingers held her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze, “What is going on?”
The panic in his eyes told him that this was a delicate situation.
“I said it’s nothing.”
His jaw tense, he helped her up, and said, “At least let me walk you out.”
“Yeah.” Her whole body was trembling, he realized and a surge of anger swept through him. Something about these photographs had frightened her badly, so much so, that there was not a hint of that sassy woman he had met today.
She was willing to take his offered protection and didn’t give two damns about it. And that meant something about these photographs had made her feel unsafe and vulnerable.
“My bag. Where is it?” Faith looked around. “Keys.”
She was muttering under her breath, her mind going in circles at what all these could mean.
“Here.” Landon handed her the black purse that she carried everywhere with her. He picked up the untouched food containers, and put them in the discarded bag they had come in.
Hand on her back, he guided her to the elevator.
She was silent throughout, her fingers clutching onto her purse so hard that they were white.
“Why- why did you drop by?” Faith asked, trying to distract herself.
“I was calling you to find out when we should meet tomorrow, but your line wasn’t connecting. So, I dropped by to see if I could catch you before you left.” Landon lied, easily.
As, he walked her to her car, he put a gentle hand on her arm, “Faith.”
“What?”
“Why don’t you let me drive you home? You don’t seem to be in a condition to be driving anywhere.”
Faith studied him and thought about driving back to her house, being all alone had her uneasy with the thought. “But my car is here.”
“I can have somebody tow it to your place.”
Faith swallowed, “I appreciate it.”
His car smelled like him, wild and masculine. The seats were leather and the engine purred like a well fed cat.
“You have a nice car.” She offered, trying to be polite.
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
“She?”
The sheepish look on his face had her smiling.
As they drove back in silence, Landon tried to put her at ease, “You know, when I was young, there was this burger joint that me and Roger used to sneak to, late at night. Pop’s knew us and he would always call our parents. But while they drove up there to yell at us, Pop would serve us these big beef burgers with a chocolate milkshake and he would say ‘Enjoy your last meal, boys.’”
Faith suppressed a smile at the innocence of that story, and couldn’t help but imagine him as a young boy, “Why would you sneak out at night for those burgers?”
Landon gave her a solemn look, “Because those burgers always tasted best at night.”
Faith couldn’t contain the chuckle, “You’re exaggerating.”
“I am not. Look, there it is.” He pointed towards an animated sign of something that closely resembled Santa Claus. The place itself was brightly lit. “Now, can’t you imagine sneaking in there in the dead of night and enjoy a hot burger with fries, and some sweet sweet milkshake to wash it all down.”
Faith turned to stare at him, “You’re just trying to tempt me like the devil.”
Landon shrugged, “I mean your chinese has gone cold. And here I’m offering you a substitute which is making my mouth water. It’s your choice.”
Now, Faith’s mouth was starting to water, “I mean.” She begrudgingly admitted, “I am hungry.”
“Oh, great!”
The car took a swift U turn, making Faith grab onto her seat in terror, and they were parked outside Pop’s Joint in under one minute.
Landon helped her out and despite being a modern woman of the twenty first century, the move had butterflies fluttering in Faith’s stomach.
“Let’s see if this place is as good as you say it is.”
“A word, Faith.”
The serious look on Landon’s face had Faith pausing, uncertainly, “What?”
He placed a hand on her shoulder, his blue eyes intent, “The restroom here really smells. So, please don’t lock me in there.”
At Faith’s scowl, he roared in laughter and flung his arm around her shoulders, teasingly, “I’d prefer the storage unit. It’s got all the ice cream.”
“You’re incorrigible.” She muttered, delighting him.
When he kept laughing,
she shoved at him, “Oh, stop it!”
“Don’t be mad.” Landon tried to say, but he was still snickering and she turned her head away, saying disdainfully, “Boys.”
“Brown? That you?” An elderly man peered out from the kitchen. “Don’t tell me I need to call your – Did you sneak a girl into my fine establishment?”
“How’ve you been, Pops?”
“This arthritis is killing my hip, but it’s been good. Who’s your girl?”
“I’m not his girl.” Faith spoke up, her brows knitting together.
She noted that Landon didn’t backup her claim. Instead, he led her to a table and as she sat, “This is Faith. She’s handling the project for the refurbished homes for the SEALS.”
Pops exited the kitchen. Wiping his hands on a towel that hung from the pocket of his apron, he peered at her, “That’s a mighty fine job you’re doing, Faith. One of my boys is working on the construction crew. You would be the lady who helped him carry some of the equipment out of the truck?”
Landon blinked.
Faith’s cheeks turned slightly red, “He had hurt his back the other day. I could see it was difficult for him. It was not that big a deal.”
Pops smiled knowingly.
That’s not what his son had said.
This little lady in front of him had been reverently described by his boy as looking like a warrior princess with a fierce look in her eyes. He said she had rolled up her sleeves and then spent an hour helping him empty the back of the truck.
Ronnie was half in love with her.
Too bad, he didn’t have a chance.
By the look in the Brown boy’s eyes, the boy was also fascinated by this wisp of a woman.
“We’ll have two of your specials, Pops. And two chocolate milkshakes.” Landon seated himself at the table, across from Faith.
“So, you like to get your hands dirty, huh?”
“It was just once,” Faith protested. She lowered her voice, “Ronnie had slipped the other day on the stairs. He was supposed to be on bed rest. What would you have done?”
She looked so defensive that Landon had to laugh. He liked her. She was kind and warm and when someone crossed her, she would act like a territorial kitten, fur all ruffled up.