Ben reached around Landon, as if to touch me, as if to see if I was okay.
“Touch her again and I’ll break your hand,” Landon growled.
“Landon!” I smack his arm. “Jesus, tone it down. I don’t know how you found me, or why you’re here, but I was fine, and I don’t need you to go all meathead on me now, okay?”
Ben stepped away from Landon, maintaining his distance as he caught my eye. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“It’s fine,” I said, glaring at Landon. “He’s not going to hurt you. Or me. He wouldn’t lay a hand on me. He’s just an asshole.”
Landon didn’t react, as if he was fine with the label. As if he embraced it.
“Do you need me to take you home?” Ben said, his face as earnest and na?ve as could be.
Landon laughed. “She’s not getting in the car with you, buddy. Not on your best day. And you’ve been drinking, so if you think I’m letting that happen, you must really be an idiot.”
“Like she’s going to go home with you?”
“Will both of you just stop?!” I shouted
They were staring one another down, like they wanted to have a duel. But I could see that Ben was scared, that he could sense Landon was not to be trifled with.
“Ben, I’ll catch up with you tomorrow at the lab, okay? Landon and I need to discuss some things.”
And then I stomped away, making a bee-line for our table so I could snag my purse and throw down twenty dollars to cover the two drinks. Landon followed, like a dark shadow behind me, as I exited the restaurant and spotted the luxury car parked in the corner. I didn’t have to ask if it was Landon’s, and when he hit the door lock, I said nothing, just climbed into the car and slammed the door.
He slid in, and then we were leaving the restaurant behind and gliding across the surface roads.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, finally. Unable to take sitting beside him and not knowing what he was thinking. I wanted to scream at him, to make him feel the hurt and betrayal I did… but I also wanted to just beg him to stop the car and kiss me. “There’s nothing left between us.”
“There will always be something between us,” Landon said.
“When did you get here?” I asked, ignoring his response.
“I flew in this morning.”
“How did you know I was at that bar?”
He grabbed his phone and unlocked the screen, holding it up.
It was me and Ben, and those coconut drinks. The one I was holding had the logo for Tiki Bobs Cantina face-out. I hadn’t noticed in the picture, but even if I had, it shouldn’t’ have mattered. When I sent him that picture, I’d thought he was hundreds of miles away.
“Pull over,” I said, and I didn’t have to ask twice. He yanked hard on the wheel, skidding to a stop on a gravel turnout, under an old acacia tree.
“As you wish,” he said, quoting from The Princess Bride.
I rolled my eyes, not falling for his charming act. “Talk,” I said. “You came here to talk to me, so talk. And then afterward you’re going to drop me off at my apartment and go back to your wife.”
He leaned back in his seat, rubbing a hand over his face. “I miss you,” he said. And his tone told me it was the hardest sentence he’d ever spoken. Like he didn’t want to admit it to me, let alone himself.
“I went three years without you,” I told him. “It’s been a day and you’re already whining.”
“I deserve that.”
“You deserve a lot more,” I said, anger lacing my tone.
“I don’t know how to make it up to you,” he said. “How to prove to you that you’re the only one who matters.”
“You can’t,” I said, sorrow filling my words. “I’m terrified that loving you means signing up for a broken heart.”
His eyes softened, and when he reached over for my hand, I didn’t have the strength to yank it away.
“You can trust me,” he insisted.
“I tried that,” I said, shaking my head through the tears that threaten. “And then Alexa showed up.”
“I need you,” he said, his voice ragged and raw. “Alexa was a terrible mistake I made—and believe me, I’m paying for it now.”
A car drove by, making me jump. I felt like I was standing at cross roads, except there were a thousand different choices, and none of them seemed right.
“Where are you staying?” I asked, shoving away all the doubts and fears. Maybe it was the two drinks. Maybe it was the presence of Landon.
“The Four Seasons, downtown.”
“Do you think we could go there?” I asked, my heart hammering harder.
I knew it was all wrong, that Landon was bad news, would always be bad news, and that he had never truly been able to be honest with me. He was always going to keep a part of himself and his life secret, so I would never be allowed all the way in.
But the truth was, I could never resist him.
He didn’t answer, just put the car in gear.