Flips.
I cursed and pulled a U-turn, on my way to the bar she adored. Considering her history with her father, you’d think she wouldn’t love bars as much as she did. But I knew they still held happy memories for her. Maybe that was what she always clung to when she came to Flips to hustle pool from unsuspecting victims. It probably helped her forget her dad as much as it brought positive memories. For someone who’d had a pretty rough life, she was unbelievably buoyant. I admired her for that. For pushing through all the bullshit and coming out ahead. And, one day…I’d get her to talk about it all.
I parked out front of the bar and killed the engine. The place was surprisingly busy for a Monday night, but it always had its regulars.
My regular was standing in low-slung jean shorts and a black tank top that said Hank’s in distressed white letters. She had a pool stick behind her neck, and she was holding on to it with both hands. The guy standing next to her was looking at her as if she were his next meal, but she just urged him to take his shot. When he missed, her laugh rang through the bar, and she stumbled forward, dropping the pool stick to her side.
She was drunk.
My face fell as I approached her.
I could see it in her languid body movements and the tilt of her shoulders as she stepped up to the table. She bent over to aim for her shot, and half of her ass cheeks hung out the back of her shorts. It was hot as fuck. But it wasn’t on display for me. It was on display for every fucking dick in this place.
And, suddenly, I was furious.
Not with Heidi. With myself.
I had been out at some shit dinner with my horrible soon-to-be ex-wife. I had made Heidi come here where she needed to play pool and get sloppy drunk to forget. I had done this.
And, now, everyone in the room was getting a full view of her ass because of my goddamn mistake.
No fucking way.
My appearance was noticed before I made it all the way up to her.
“Hey, man,” the guy she was playing said to me. “What’s up?”
I ignored him as Heidi’s eyes locked on to mine.
“Landon!”
“Time to go.”
“No way! I have, like…a whole beer here, and I’m totally slaying Tommy over here.”
I arched an eyebrow at her.
She rolled her eyes back at me. “You were busy.”
“I’m not busy anymore,” I said, my voice low and uncompromising.
“I’ll just finish this game.”
“No.”
“Hey, pal, why don’t you let the lady do what she wants?” Tommy said.
“Why don’t you find another half-naked drunk girl to hit on?” I spat back at him. “I’m going to be here, taking care of this one.”
Heidi walked up to me and poked me in the chest. “I don’t need to be taken care of.”
I stepped up to meet her. “You’re right. You don’t need to be taken care of, but I am going to take care of you anyway. You can’t convince me otherwise. And, right now, I would like to put some clothes on you and get you away from every guy in this place who wants to whip his dick out right now.”
“Oh, you want to put clothes on me?” she said with another eye roll. “That’s new.”
I shrugged out of my suit coat and slung it around her shoulders.
She protested, “I’m fine!”
“We should get you home.”
“Ugh, why?”
“You have work in the morning. You’re drunk. You need to talk to me, and this isn’t helping as much as you want to believe.”
Her eyes glazed over, and she quickly glanced away from me. She was hurt. I knew that. I could see that.
“I’m staying here,” she said halfheartedly.
“Don’t make me throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of this bar.”
“You wouldn’t,” she spat. “Your back.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Watch me.”
She bit her lip, as if she had more concern for my injury than she had for trying to talk to me. I appreciated the sentiment because throwing her over my shoulder would probably be a really dumb move. But I’d do it anyway.
“Fine,” she said, throwing her pool stick onto the table and storming out before me.
I sighed heavily and followed after her. “Heidi,” I called when we made it outside. “Hey, are you okay?”
She whirled around on me. “You know, I made out with that guy Tommy on New Year’s.”
I clenched my jaw. “No, I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah. He’s, like, a totally normal guy. We hit it off real fine. And when you left me there all alone, I went and found someone else. I made out with him because you weren’t there. You were married. You couldn’t be with me. And I wanted to forget you.”
“You can’t forget me, Heidi. No matter how far you try to push me away or come up with reasons that we can’t be together, we will always end up right here.” I pointed at the pavement between us. “Because I am yours, and you are mine. And we are not just a finite point on a line; we are limitless.”
Twenty-Five
Heidi
“Jesus, Landon,” I whispered, crumbling at his words.
I had been so busy being drunk and frustrated and freaking jealous that I wasn’t able to see past my own ego. I didn’t know what had happened at that dinner with Miranda. I only had worst-case scenarios running through my head even though I’d told him to go. Or maybe because I’d told him to go.
When I wanted to tell him to stay.
Stay.
Just stay with me.
Don’t give in to her.
Don’t listen to her.
Please, God, don’t fuck this up.
Landon bridged the short distance between us and placed a soft kiss on my lips. The fire extinguished out of me in a rush. I melted into him, throwing my arms around his neck.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” I whispered.
“Me, too, firecracker. Me, too.”
I laughed. That goddamn nickname.
“Can we get you home now?” he asked, pointing toward the Mercedes.
“What about my car?”
“We’ll get it in the morning.”
I nodded with a sigh. “Yeah. Okay.”
We piled into the car, and he drove me back to my apartment in silence. I had a million questions buzzing around my head, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to ask them. My brain was fuzzy, and I knew that I’d had too much to drink. Like, if I could tell that I was pretty drunk, that was a bad sign. I was one of those people who would constantly claim, I’m not drunk, when I clearly was.
But Peter knew what week it was. So, I wasn’t surprised that he never cut me off tonight.
Landon helped me stumble up to my apartment, and I was happy to see that Emery wasn’t there. She slept over at Jensen’s all the time anyway. And I did not want to have that awkward moment with her and Landon. It would have to happen one day. Preferably not while I was wasted.
“Which way?” Landon asked as he shut the door behind us.
I was suddenly self-conscious of the fact that Landon was here, in my apartment. I’d been to his, but he’d never been here.