He might be separated, but they weren’t over.
I stared down at him sleeping peacefully on the bed and wanted nothing more than to curl up beside him. But I wouldn’t.
Landon Wright didn’t belong to me.
He belonged to Miranda.
I wouldn’t be stupid enough to forget it again.
Five
Landon
“Fuuuck,” I groaned.
My stomach heaved, and I rolled over to find a conveniently placed trash can for me to empty my stomach into. Thank fuck!
After I was finally able to sit up, I squinted into the brightly lit room and tried to remember where the fuck I was. It looked like Austin’s place, but how had I gotten here? After kissing Heidi and seeing her talk to Brandon McCain, the rest of the night got kind of fuzzy.
I fumbled for the bottle of water on the nightstand and downed three-quarters of it before realizing there was Tylenol next to it. Someone must have read my mind. There was no way I’d gotten this all together last night. Not if I couldn’t even remember it.
Fuck, I mean, my shoes were off, my wallet was out of my pocket, and my phone was even charging on the nightstand. I couldn’t have come home alone; that much was for sure. Austin wouldn’t have gone to the trouble. I wasn’t sure he even got hangovers anymore.
Slowly, I eased into a standing position and took the Tylenol for my splitting headache. I stripped out of the clothes I’d worn last night and found a pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt. Then, I palmed my cell phone and headed out into the living room.
“Morning, sunshine,” Austin called from the living room. He had SportsCenter on in the background and was drinking a Bloody Mary.
“How can you even look at alcohol?”
“We have a special relationship.”
I laughed and then held my head in pain. A special relationship to say the least.
“What time is it anyway?”
“One in the afternoon,” Austin announced.
“Fuck,” I groaned.
I slouched into a chair and pulled up the messages on my phone. I’d ignored Miranda all day yesterday, but fuck, she had filled up my text messages, and I had seventeen voice mails. Christ!
No way was I in the mood to listen to any of those. From a brief scroll through the texts, I could already see that it was her same shit. I’d deal with that conversation when I got home. I didn’t want to talk to her about the shit she’d tried to pull or the argument we’d gotten into.
I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t an idiot. She had tried to hide shit from me and then acted like a cornered animal when I’d confronted her. Despite our long and damaged history, she hadn’t thought I’d call it quits. No matter that I’d wanted to divorce her a year ago. I’d drawn up papers and everything, but she had gotten pregnant and I’d said I’d give us one more chance. Then chance after chance after chance after marriage counseling chance I’d given her until her latest bout of bullshit. I’d given her so many chances she never thought I’d walk. Now that I’d finally had enough, I knew what she was really freaking out about—losing her paycheck.
“So, you banging Heidi now?” Austin asked.
I jerked up so hard that I winced and cradled my head. “I’m what?” I shouted.
Austin’s eyes narrowed. “She was here last night. Saw her come out of your room when I got back around two thirty.”
“She was here?”
“Bro, were you that fucked up that you don’t remember fucking her? Because that would explain why she looked so upset,” Austin said.
“You think I slept with her?” I asked, getting paler by the second.
“I mean, I don’t know for sure, but why else would a hot chick be leaving your room at two thirty in the morning? Plus, with the shit going down with Miranda, I thought you’d wanted some fun at this reunion.”
“What stuff with Miranda?”
“Dunno, man. Can’t be good if you’re here without her.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, my brain finally catching up. “Heidi was upset?”
Austin shrugged. “You really don’t remember shit, do you?”
“Fuck. I’m screwed, aren’t I?”
“As far as I see it.” Austin pushed his Bloody Mary toward me. “I think you need this more than I do.”
“Thanks, but I have to figure out what the fuck happened last night.” I tried to shake out the cobwebs in my mind, but everything was just missing. I hadn’t blacked out like this since college. Jesus, I had been an idiot.
I hauled ass back into the room I was staying in and dialed Heidi’s number. It rang and rang and rang before her voice mail finally picked up.
“Hi, this is Heidi. You know I hate voice mails. If it’s important, text me.”
Beep.
I hung up before leaving a message she’d never listen to.
“Fuck, Heidi,” I grumbled as I dialed her number again.
It didn’t even go through all the rings before pushing to voice mail.
A minute later, Heidi sent me a text.
Let’s just end this the way we did last night.
I stared at that text message with a growing sense of panic in my chest. What the hell happened last night? Where did we leave things?
I didn’t want to call and be like, Hey, did we fuck last night? I was sure I would have remembered that if we had. I couldn’t imagine having sex with Heidi being anything less than unforgettable.
I responded to her message.
Not good enough for me. Answer your phone.
I dialed her number again, and this time, at almost the last moment, Heidi answered. It was as if she hadn’t been sure she was actually going to do it.
“Hey,” she said softly.
“Hey. Thanks for answering.”
“I’m not sure why I did.”
“Because leaving me at two thirty in the morning, drunk off my ass, is not how you wanted to end things.”
“Yeah. How are you feeling this morning?”
“Hungover and with a severe lack of memory of several hours of last night,” I admitted.
“I see,” she said.
“Care to fill me in on the details?”
“Nothing happened, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said with bite in her voice. “I told you I wouldn’t do anything with you while you were still with Miranda. Anyway, do you think I’d take advantage of someone as drunk as you were last night?”
“No, I didn’t think you would. I just didn’t know if I’d made a total fool of myself in front of you.”
“If insinuating that I was going to fuck Brandon McCain because he’d flattered me with his obnoxious attention, getting so wasted that you were drinking beer straight from a pitcher, and blacking out as soon as I got you into bed make you a total fool, then yes.”
I winced. Great.
That was all pretty shitty, but at least I hadn’t had sex with her and somehow forgotten. That would have been way worse.
“Yeah. Sorry about all of that.”
“It’s fine, Landon. It’s fine. I should just go. I don’t think we should be talking anymore.”
“Heidi, please. You said that we were going to talk.”
“Yeah, and then you got wasted!”
“I know. Have brunch with me.”
“You cannot ask me out!” she cried.
“It’s just brunch, Heidi. You said we’d talk after the reunion. Can I call in that favor?”
“No.”