Hey! I’m heading over to Jensen’s tonight, but I miss you. Can we plan a girls’ night this weekend?
I sighed and parked the car. Man, I missed my best friend, too. I should probably head straight home and go hang out with her. That was the sensible thing to do. But there was the door to Landon’s apartment, and that was where all my curiosity led.
Feeling like a crappy best friend, I decided not to tell her.
Yes! I miss you, too. How about tomorrow night?
Oh my God, this needs to happen! This damn man always takes all my time.
Yes, because you hate it.
Not in the slightest, but it takes time away from my bestie roomie! So, tomorrow for sure, bitch! You’d better be there.
Definitely tomorrow. I’ll be all yours, lover.
Oh, don’t tease me!
I laughed at her silly behavior that I adored.
It was officially official though. I had to tell Emery that I was into Landon. I was dreading it. Seriously dreading it. But Emery was my family. One hundred fifty percent. I wasn’t going to lie to her. My poor heart couldn’t handle dealing with that. I was already tied up in knots over the fact that she didn’t know.
It wasn’t as if I were cheating. I was just…hanging out with my boss. Who happened to be her ex-boyfriend.
Fuck, I’m screwed.
I tossed my phone in my purse and hurried up to Landon’s front door. I knocked twice and tapped my foot on the ground in anticipation. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Sure, I might be able to lie to myself and say that Landon and I had been friends forever, so it wasn’t weird to come over here. But it was still a lie.
Landon cracked the door open, and his face brightened. “Hey! You showed.”
“I said I would.”
“Yeah, you did, but I wasn’t sure. With, well…you know.”
Yeah, I do know.
He stepped back and gestured for me to enter. With my heart in my throat, I passed him and went into the living room.
The apartment wasn’t anything special. I could see everything about the place in one sweep. The small living space had an enormous curved TV that was currently showing some golf tournament, a tiny kitchen with a two-person breakfast nook, and a one bedroom with a too-big bed. This was not the sort of place I would have guessed from someone in the Wright family. Let alone a professional golfer. From what I knew—not that I cared one way or another—the Wrights were all millionaires-plus, and professional golf, even in the midrange, raked in over a million a year. Yet here he was, in a tiny one-bedroom in Lubbock, Texas.
“Nice place,” I told him.
He coughed twice as he choked on his own laugh. “Yeah. Sure. Awesome digs.”
“It’s not what I expected,” I said truthfully.
He closed the door behind me and followed me into the living room. “I’m not bitter, I swear, but I went from living in a five-thousand-square-foot house in Clearwater with a pool and Jacuzzi, across from a PGA-regulation golf course, to this. This is…an adjustment.”
My jaw hung open at his words. “Well, shit.”
“Pretty much my take on it.”
“Why did you pick this place? It’s not like you can’t live somewhere…better.”
“That’s true. I could move again if I wanted. But, considering all the other changes in my life, I just wanted to go minimalist. I don’t need the space. It’s just me after all.”
“That makes sense actually.”
“I think it sounds better in my head than when I said it out loud to Jensen,” Landon said. He angled for the kitchen. “You want a drink? Water? Coke? A beer?”
“Coke is fine with me.”
He popped open two cans and handed one to me. I made myself comfortable on his couch, which was really low to the ground and clearly very new. The bubbles fizzed at the top of the can and tickled my nose when I went to take a sip. I giggled quietly to myself, and my eyes darted to Landon’s mouth. I licked my lips where the bubbles were and tried not to think about what he would taste like without whiskey.
“What did Jensen say when you told him you wanted a one-bedroom hole in the wall?”
Landon put his hand over his chest. “You wound me. It’s not actually a hole in the wall.”
I laughed. “It’s almost comically small.”
“Cut me a break. I didn’t see it before I signed the lease.”
“That wasn’t a smart move.”
“Nope,” he agreed. “Anyway, Jensen thought I was overreacting to the whole divorce and moving away. That I didn’t need to live in a tree house to get that far away from my normal lifestyle.”
“He’s not wrong,” I said softly.
“He’s not. But I’m not living in a tree house either.”
I shook my head and set my Coke down on the coffee table. “So, why weren’t you at work today?”
“Ugh! You want to talk about work?” he asked. He scooted closer to me, and my heart raced for a whole other reason. “When I finally have you here?”
“Finally?” I muttered, arching an eyebrow. “I’ve never been invited to your tree house before.”
“I didn’t know that all I needed to do was send you an invite to get you over here.”
His hand slipped across the space between us and took my hand in his. Our fingers twined together. My stomach knotted at the touch, and I shivered as he ran his thumb up and down my hand. My eyes snagged on his and the intensity in them. I knew I should stop, but I didn’t pull away. I hovered on the brink of surrender.
“I’m not sure just any invite would have worked,” I murmured.
He drew even closer until his hip was pressed into my side and his shoulder was tight against mine. His lips were only inches from me. The reminder of our one shared kiss hit me over the head with want.
“How about this one?” He eased his other hand up into my hair and brought my face toward him.
Our lips melded together with a heat that suffused the entire room. There was this moment alone. And I could feel this ache that had settled in the pit of my stomach, unrelenting for weeks. This might be wrong, but it felt so right.
I wasn’t breathing as I met his kiss, heated and needy. I had wanted this for so long, and now that it was right in front of me, all in front of me, I couldn’t get enough. There was no way this could ever be enough.
And, as I dragged him closer to me and opened my mouth to his kisses, I tried to push away that nagging feeling. I tried to ignore that voice in the back of my head, saying that he was my boss and I was going to get fired for this.
I shoved him backward with force I hadn’t known I was capable of and stumbled to my feet. “Oh, fuck,” I muttered unintelligibly. “Fuck, shit, fuck.”
“Heidi, what’s wrong?” he asked, jumping to his feet, too.
I stepped back from him and shook my head. I held my hand out. “Stay. Stay right there.”
His eyes ignited in frustration. “Why?”
“Because this only ends one way, Landon.”
“Hopefully, with you in my fucking bed, Heidi.”
“That is not going to happen!”
“And why the fuck not?” he asked.
“If the only reason I’m here right now is because you want to fuck me, then I’m going to leave,” I snapped back at him.