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- Herausgeber: Heyne Verlag
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Serie: Die Wright-Brother-Serie
- Sprache: Deutsch
Wer sich mit seinem Boss einlässt, spielt mit dem Feuer
Auch wenn er unfassbar attraktiv ist, Landon Wright ist für Heidi Martin absolut tabu. Und dafür gibt es gute Gründe. Erstens: Landon ist verheiratet. Zweitens: Landon ist der Ex von Heidis bester Freundin. Und drittens: Landon ist ihr Boss. Wenn Heidi etwas im Leben wichtig ist, dann ist es ihre Karriere. Sie musste hart arbeiten, um dahin zu kommen, wo sie heute ist. Das darf sie auf keinen Fall aufs Spiel setzen. Doch als es zwischen ihnen immer stärker knistert, ist Heidi kurz davor, ihre Vorsätze über Bord zu werfen und Dinge zu tun, die sie besser nicht tun sollte …
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Seitenzahl: 465
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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The Wright Boss
Wright Book Two
K.A. Linde
Contents
1. Landon
2. Heidi
3. Heidi
4. Heidi
5. Landon
6. Heidi
7. Landon
8. Heidi
9. Heidi
10. Landon
11. Heidi
12. Landon
13. Heidi
14. Heidi
15. Heidi
16. Landon
17. Landon
18. Heidi
19. Heidi
20. Landon
21. Heidi
22. Landon
23. Landon
24. Landon
25. Heidi
26. Heidi
27. Heidi
28. Landon
29. Landon
30. Heidi
31. Landon
32. Heidi
33. Heidi
34. Landon
35. Heidi
36. Landon
37. Heidi
38. Landon
39. Heidi
40. Heidi
Epilogue
The Wright Mistake
Acknowledgments
Also By K.A. Linde
About the Author
The Wright Boss
Copyright © 2017 by K.A. Linde
All rights reserved.
Visit my website at
www.kalinde.com
Join my newsletter for free books and exclusive content!
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Photographer: Wander Aguiar Photography
www.wanderaguiar.com
Cover Designer: Okay Creations.
www.okaycreations.com
Editor: Unforeseen Editing, www.unforeseenediting.com
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN-13: 978-1948427029
To Katie Miller,
for pink champagne, epic desserts,
and many more adventures to come.
Landon
Fuck, my wife was ruining my life.
In fact, Miranda had been ruining my life since the day we met. I hadn’t known it at the time. I wouldn’t find out until much later. But, now, the fact was undeniable. Miranda was a cancerous cell eating away at my body. If I didn’t get away, she would destroy me.
My phone buzzed and I glanced down to find Miranda’s name on the screen.
For the hundredth fucking time.
“Fuck,” I groaned, ending the call.
She had been calling me nonstop since I walked out the door without her. But I had just landed in Lubbock on the last plane of the day, and frankly, I didn’t want to talk to her. Not after what she’d done. Not after what she had been doing to me for years.
Of course, I didn’t blame her for freaking out when I was on my way to my ten-year high school reunion without her.
I cringed at the thought. I’d wanted to come back for the reunion at the top of my game. I’d spent six years working as a professional golfer out of Tampa with a few PGA Tour victories under my belt, but I’d wanted to come home having won the Masters with my sexy wife on my arm, living the dream. I’d wanted to make my name as someone other than a Wright.
As proud as I was of my family and Wright Construction, the largest construction company in the nation, I wanted my own life. Now, I was returning at twenty-eight years old without my wife and with my golf dreams in ashes.
I shrugged off those depressing thoughts and exited the plane. The Lubbock Airport was compact, to say the least. I’d only brought a carry-on, so I bypassed baggage claim and exited the sliding glass doors out to my hot and dusty home. After Florida summers, where you drink the air, Lubbock felt more like breathing sandpaper.
A shiny red Alfa Romeo zoomed up to the spot in front of me, and my brother Austin rolled down the window. He honked the horn and flipped me the bird. He was two years older than me but frequently acted as if he were the younger brother.
“Hey, get in!” Austin yelled. He popped the button for the trunk.
“Nice to see you, too,” I said sarcastically.
“Where’s your other half?” Austin asked.
“Couldn’t make it.”
Sure, Miranda couldn’t make it. That was the lie I was going with for a woman who didn’t work, spent my money like it actually grew on trees, and was practically attached to my hip.
“Cool,” Austin said with a shrug.
I knew he was the only one of my four siblings who would buy that explanation.
I slid my suitcase into the trunk and slammed it shut.
“This car is so fucking tiny,” I said after I sank into the passenger seat. “The trunk barely has enough room for my suitcase.”
Austin zoomed away from the airport. “Keep complaining, and I’ll make you stay with Jensen.”
I sat back and stared out the window. “Yeah, I’d rather not have to hear him banging my ex-girlfriend.”
“I’m sure he could put your ass on the other side of the house. Then, you’d only have to imagine him with Emery.”
“Thanks. You’re really helping.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” Austin said with a grin.
Even though my oldest brother, Jensen, had started dating my ex-girlfriend Emery eight months ago, it was a little weird for me. Not because I had feelings for her. But I couldn’t erase the two years we’d dated in high school. The whole thing had added to my irritation with Miranda. How could Jensen be so happy when I was stuck in a miserable, loveless marriage?
God, everything came back to Miranda. My phone even buzzed, as if she had known I was thinking about her.
I checked the message.
Babe, answer your phone. We need to talk about this. I cannot believe you left without me. What am I supposed to do?
Fuck that noise. I turned my phone off.
“God, can we get fucked up before this thing tonight?” I asked in desperation. Alcohol would numb the pain for a night.
“Now, that I can help with,” Austin said with a grin.
I probably shouldn’t be contributing to my brother’s alcoholism, but fuck, I needed a drink. Austin had been drinking heavily ever since our dad died ten years ago from an overdose. Golf had always helped me manage my vices and the characteristic Wright addictive personality. Without it, I didn’t know if I’d have ended up just like my old man.
Twenty minutes later, we showed up at Austin’s house in Tech Terrace. He’d had it gutted and redesigned after he closed on it. So, even though the construction was built in the sixties, the house was brand-new. It had the advantage of being located within walking distance of the best bars, which I thought was the reason he’d bought it. But this also meant I could walk my drunk ass to and from the reunion down the street.
Austin parked in the garage, and we entered the house. After depositing my suitcase in his guest bedroom on the first floor, I came back out to find Austin already at the wet bar. It was fully stocked with as much alcohol as the nearest liquor store. It even had some top-shelf whiskey that wasn’t available in stores but had to be purchased straight from the distributor. He took drinking very seriously. It was maybe the only thing he took that seriously.
Austin poured me a glass of whiskey, and I sank into the sofa. He crashed back into a chair and turned on the big screen to SportsCenter. It was at that exact moment when golf stats were on for the British Open, a tournament I should have been at.
I downed my entire glass in one gulp. “I’ll take another.”
Austin gave me a strange look, as if he knew something was wrong, but he didn’t say anything. He just changed the channel. “Help yourself.”
That was the best thing about Austin. He didn’t pry.
We sat around for a couple of hours, watching some baseball game neither of us cared about while drinking ourselves stupid. When it was almost time for me to go to Flips for the reunion, Austin finally turned to look directly at me.
“Bro, you should probably come up with a story to tell Jensen,” Austin said.
“About what?” I played dumb.
“Whatever the fuck you’re dealing with. You know he’s going to ask, and you’re a shit liar.”
“I’m not dealing with anything.”
“Like I said,” Austin said, refilling my glass one last time, “shit liar.”
I laughed and raised my glass to him. “Maybe I’ll tell him the truth.”
“Nah, you won’t. That’s not the Wright way.”
Now, that was a true statement. We were a family of five, ranging from thirty-three to twenty-one, and we hid the truth from each other like we had been made for it. We’d learned that from our long-ago dead parents. Our mother had never told us about her cancer, and our father had lied about the alcohol, even on his dying breath. Maybe it was the Wright way.
Either way, I didn’t argue with Austin on that point. I’d deal with Jensen when I had to.
With my head sufficiently foggy, I changed into a pair of khakis and a light-blue button-up. Then, I waved good-bye to Austin and walked the few scant blocks to Flips. The last time I’d been there, I’d found out that Jensen and Emery were dating. It had been a weird fucking night, and I was really hoping not to have another one like that any time soon. I wanted to get tanked, talk to some of my old friends, and forget about the shit I’d left behind.
I signed in at the front and then angled straight for the bar on the left side of the room. I almost made it when Jensen stepped right in front of me.
Great. Just the person I didn’t want to talk to about my problems.
“Hey,” Jensen said.
“Hey, bro.”
“Where’s Miranda?”
“Don’t know. Where’s Emery?”
Jensen pointed behind him, and I saw Emery leaning over the bar in an all-black ensemble, gesturing to the bartender.
“What do you mean, you don’t know where your wife is? I’d rather not have her run into Emery. She still acts like a…” Jensen looked at me, and his eyes said that the word he was looking for was psychopath, but he didn’t want to say it in front of me. “Well, she doesn’t like Emery.”
“Nothing to worry about then because I didn’t bring her,” I said. Then, I tried to push past him to get my drink.
Jensen grabbed my arm. “How the hell did you get away with that?”
“Give it a rest, Jensen.”
He sighed and dropped my arm. “What happened?”
“Look, we had a fight, and I left without her. The end.”
“Must have been a pretty big argument for her not to come with you,” Jensen prodded.
Jensen, like the rest of my family, hated Miranda with a fiery vengeance. He might think he was able to keep his distaste for her under wraps—unlike my sister Morgan—but he didn’t fool me. Only my youngest sister, Sutton, was any good at pretending that she liked Miranda. Not that I blamed them at this point.
“I’m leaving her, man. Is that what you wanted to know?” I spat at Jensen.
He stared back at me, stunned. Maybe he never thought I’d actually do it. Miranda had pushed and pushed and pushed, and I’d never broken. There were reasons for all of that. Reasons I’d handled the Wright way with no one else knowing about them. But she’d crossed the line, and I’d had enough.
“Landon, you know that I just want you to be happy.”
“Yeah, well, I need a drink, not a lecture. Leave it be.”
I stumbled over to the bar and ordered that drink, making sure to angle away from Emery. We were on all-right terms now, but since this was all about high school, I didn’t want to dredge up those awkward memories. Maybe I’d find some of my old football buddies.
Or the blonde at the pool table in the back of the bar.
My eyes found Heidi Martin, Emery’s best friend, as she stood up to her considerable height. She was surely making a fool out of her opponent since I’d personally seen her hustle more than her fair share of unsuspecting victims.
We’d known each other for years. She’d been a cheerleader when I was the starting quarterback in high school. We’d hung out more times than I could count while I was dating Emery. But, when I’d come back over for Sutton’s wedding, it was like seeing a whole new Heidi. She oozed confidence and power, she made everyone smile, and she did it all effortlessly. Heidi Martin had completely come into her own.
We’d started talking after the wedding. Nothing serious. Or at least that was what I had told myself. Our conversations became intimate...and then New Year’s had happened. We’d almost kissed, and fuck, I’d wanted to. But it hadn’t been fair to Miranda. And so, after that, I’d cut off all contact with her.
Time to fix that mistake.
I strode down the bar and straight to the pool tables. Heidi curved a ball and knocked it into the pocket. Her blue eyes lifted from the table and landed right on me. Her smile grew but warily. She hadn’t forgotten how abruptly I had ended things.
“Heidi,” I said, taking her in like a breath of fresh air.
“Hey, Landon.” Her eyes looked over my shoulder, as if she were trying to figure out if I was alone. “Where’s your wife?”
“She’s not here.”
“Oh,” she said. Though she didn’t seem upset by that notion. “Sorry she couldn’t make it.”
“Are you?” I asked curiously.
She laughed and shook her head. “Are you drunk?”
“I might be a bit inebriated, yes.”
“Ah. Inebriated, are we?” she asked with an eye roll. “Guess you can’t be too drunk then.”
“Never know. I’m still an intelligent drunk.”
“Sure you are.” She pushed her blonde hair out of her face and smiled, as she seemed to be warming up to my presence. The next person missed his shot, and she proceeded to run the table. “Another round?”
The guy shook his head. “No way in hell. Find someone else to embarrass, Martin.”
She shrugged and leaned on the pool stick as she turned her attention to me. “So, what’s new with you?”
“A lot actually,” I told her. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”
“Somewhere, not being here?”
“Somewhere…more private.” Then, I dropped my voice. “I just…don’t like the way we left things.”
“Oh, Landon,” she said with her characteristic laugh, as if nothing bothered her. Even though I knew it did. “Don’t even worry about it.”
“Heidi,” I said softly, stepping closer to her. Her body tensed as I drew near, and she took a shallow breath. “Please.”
“All right,” she said, stumbling backward a step. Her eyes were wide and desirous, but she quickly hid her emotions. She put on a big smile. “Sure, I’d love to catch up.”
She placed the pool stick back in its slot and then nodded her head to the side. I followed her to a booth in the back of the room. A handful of people from our senior class plus their dates were already at the reunion. I knew right away that talking in a booth in the back of the room was tantamount to announcing that something nefarious was going on. I didn’t want anyone to overhear us. I didn’t want anyone to see us.
I might not care that ten years had passed. I was a different man. I was a professional golfer. I had my own life. I didn’t live in town. But no one could escape high school gossip.
“Let’s go outside,” I suggested.
“Landon, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Fuck good ideas.” I took her hand in mine and gently tugged her to the emergency exit. It had been disabled for as long as I could remember, and we breezed through it and out into the hot summer night.
“All right, we’re outside. What’s up?” Heidi asked. She leaned back on the brick wall and popped a foot up against it. “The last time we spoke, you said that we shouldn’t talk anymore. You said what was going on between us wasn’t fair to your wife.”
“That was true,” I agreed.
But my body and addled brain couldn’t care less about what I’d said all those months ago. January felt like a lifetime ago. The reasons I’d had for reacting that way no longer applied.
“This probably isn’t fair to her either, Landon.”
I stepped into her personal space, and her breathing hitched. My hands went on either side of her face, boxing her in. She swallowed but fiercely met my gaze. I’d thought she’d push me away. I’d thought she’d stop me.
“Do you still feel the way you felt back then?”
“Landon,” she whispered. Her words came out breathy and soft. “Don’t do this.”
“Do you?”
“I haven’t spoken to you in months. At the time, Emery suspected what was going on, and I’m her best friend. There’s girl code to consider. I can’t do this. I can’t answer you.”
“She’s dating my brother. I don’t think that applies anymore, Heidi. Just answer me this; do you or do you not still care for me?”
She paused, frozen in place, with her ice-blue eyes boring into mine. She was trying to find where this was a trick or a joke. But she wouldn’t find it with me.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Without another thought, I pushed my hands up into her wild blonde hair and brought my lips down onto hers. I tasted her like a luxurious delicacy and then devoured her as if I could never have enough.
Fuck everything else in my life.
This was the moment when I made Heidi Martin mine.
Heidi
Landon Wright was kissing me.
It was amazing. The best thing that had ever happened to me. He was fulfilling every fantasy I’d had in the back of my head over the last eight months. How many times had I imagined him doing this exact thing?
Last winter, when he’d driven me home from this exact bar, all I’d wanted to do was lean over and kiss him senseless. I’d wanted him to take me up to my apartment and fuck me. I’d wanted so much. And New Year’s, we had been so close to giving in and ending up in this moment together.
Yet, even as drunk as I had been on both occasion, I’d known he was married. I’d known how wrong it was to even want that from him. And I’d walked away.
Now, he was finally kissing me and answering all my silent pleas, and I had to stop him.
Fuck.
I shoved Landon backward with as much force as I could. Then, I moved away from the wall and wiped my mouth.
Fuck!
“Whoa!” I yelled at him. I took another step back from him. Putting distance between us was the only way I wasn’t going to give in again. “Whoa! Married!”
Landon leaned into the space I had vacated and sighed heavily. “Yeah.”
“Are you completely insane?”
He turned to face me, pressing his back against the bricks. His eyes were bright and full of lust. I could understand that look. I was sure it mirrored mine. But he also looked…remorseful. Like the last thing he had wanted to do was hurt me. Again.
“Uh, yeah,” Landon said, “a bit insane at the moment.”
“Well, Jesus Christ, what were you thinking?”
Because I needed an explanation. What the hell had changed that he would go from cutting me off entirely to making out with my face? If we hadn’t gone through with it on New Year’s when we had both been in the thick of it all, I couldn’t fathom how he could do it now.
“That I really wanted to kiss you, and I’d wanted to do it for too damn long.”
I held my hand up and tried to breathe shallowly. “You can’t say things like that to me.”
God, he’s drunk. Of course, I’d known that before I came out here with him, but I hadn’t expected our conversation to veer so far left. And, now, I would never be able to get the feel of his lips or the brush of his tongue or the taste of whiskey mixed with something purely Landon out of my head.
I couldn’t think about that or I wouldn’t be able to think about anything else. Ever.
“I can,” he said, meeting my gaze. “But you act like I shouldn’t.”
His dark brown eyes nearly made me lose it. He was too much. Tall, dark, and handsome was too cliché for Landon with his deep tan from endless days on the golf course and soulful expression. He was a man who had known loss and understood depression but had risen above. There was more to him than the gorgeous Wright looks. But it didn’t excuse his actions.
I didn’t want to be some mistake he’d made when his wife wasn’t in town.
“No, you shouldn’t,” I said. “I won’t do that again. I will not be that kind of girl. It’s disrespectful to me, and it’s disrespectful to Miranda. And…it’s just bad,” I rambled on because, if I stopped, I knew I’d be done for. My fingers were itching to grab him and crush his mouth to mine again. I’d wanted this for months. Even though there were a million and a half reasons that it was a supremely idiotic idea, I still wanted him.
And that had made dating nearly impossible. Somehow, Landon had become the standard that I held all other guys to. Not that I’d had much luck outside of Tinder hook-ups, and I refused to date my coworkers. That was the number one rule. One I had always completely adhered to. No matter how cute the new guy ended up being.
“Yeah, bad idea,” he agreed slowly. “I’m not trying to make you that kind of girl, Heidi.”
“Good, because that would never happen.”
“I’m just lost, and I want you to find me.”
I knew he was drunk, but damn it, that was cheesy. And, fuck me, I hated that I still thought it was sweet of him to say it to me. Even if he wasn’t allowed to.
“Stop that! No sweet talk.”
“I wasn’t—”
“How about no, Landon?”
Then, with all the strength I could muster, I strode back toward the emergency exit. I could do this. I was a strong, fierce, independent woman who worked in a male-dominated field and shattered glass ceilings. I could walk away from one boy. Even if he was a Wright.
Then, he touched me. His hand gently landed on my elbow. He wasn’t demanding my attention, just drawing me away from the door.
“Heidi.”
“What?” I asked in frustration. How was I supposed to leave him behind when he was being so irresistible?
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Stop,” I said. “Please.”
“I’m leaving her.”
My heart stopped beating. My lungs stopped working. My brain stopped functioning. What he was saying was impossible. I honestly couldn’t even believe that those words had come out of his mouth. There was no way in hell that he was leaving Miranda.
“Come again?” I whispered.
“I left Miranda at home to come here because I’m leaving her.”
My mouth fell open. He had said those words. He’d repeated them. He was actually leaving Miranda.
This isn’t a drill, team. This is the real deal!
My brain tried to catch up with the rest of my body, but instead, I stood there, like an idiot. There had to be a catch. There had to be some big joke that was being played on me. Because Landon leaving his wife was way too good to be true.
“Wow,” I said. Then, I blinked rapidly a few times and tried to recover. “I mean…how awful. That has to be so hard, Landon.”
He laughed humorlessly at me. “Heidi, you’re cute.”
I arched an eyebrow at him in question. “I tell you I’m sorry about your wife, and you tell me I’m cute?”
“You can’t hide how much you hate Miranda any more than my family can.”
“Hey,” I said, holding up my hands. “I don’t hate Miranda. I don’t even know her.”
“Well, if you knew her, you’d hate her, too.”
“Maybe so,” I conceded. “But that doesn’t make things any easier for you. Clearly, you must have loved her.”
“It’s just…yeah,” he said. “I don’t know. It all happened today.”
“No wonder you’re drunk and acting like a fool. Maybe we should have addressed you leaving Miranda first and made out second.”
He grinned devilishly. “So, we’re going to make out again?”
“No,” I said, smacking his arm. God, I could hardly keep my mind out of the gutter. I was never going to succeed in keeping his out of there, too. “We shouldn’t have kissed in the first place.”
He might have left Miranda today, but who knew what tomorrow would bring? I doubted he had even filed paperwork for a divorce. I had so many unanswered questions that, even though I wanted to kiss Landon…to give in to this thing between us, I couldn’t do it. I knew it was wrong.
Not just because of Miranda, but also because of all the women I’d seen my dad with.
My mom had died in a carjacking when I was in middle school. She’d been brutally murdered, and I’d been a zombie through much of middle school. Without Emery, I never would have made it.
But my dad had coped with women. He’d go from girlfriend to girlfriend—regulars who came to Hanks, the bar he owned. I knew the signs for when he settled for married women—when a woman flipped the diamond over or took it off, leaving a pale stripe on her ring finger, or when I’d find a wedding ring on the sink at night. I’d decided at a young age that I’d do anything to be a different person than my dad. I wasn’t about to let Landon Wright fuck that up.
“Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have kissed you,” Landon said. He scratched the back of his neck and winced. “But I’d been thinking about it since New Year’s.”
“Landon, you can’t come here and talk to me like this. If you want to talk about Miranda, I’m here.” I held my hands up in supplication. I wouldn’t deny him a friend or a shoulder to cry on, but that was it. “We can talk after the reunion, but now, maybe try to forget about it.”
“About Miranda or you?”
“Both.”
“Not going to happen.” He stepped toward me and cupped my cheek. “There’s no way I could forget about you, Heidi.”
“You’ve done fine so far. Do what you’ve been doing, Landon, and you’ll have no trouble,” I said with a bit more heat than I’d intended. Then, I turned and walked back into Flips.
Heidi
Leaving Landon standing outside felt horrible. I knew he was in a rough place, and he needed someone to talk to. I was happy to be that person. Even if the last thing I wanted to hear about was Miranda. I couldn’t do that while we stood out back where we had just kissed. I trusted myself with most things, but Landon Wright was not one of them.
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that Landon hadn’t followed me. The last thing I wanted was for people to see us coming in from outside together. When we’d walked out there, only a handful of people had been in attendance, but already, the bar was filling up. I recognized nearly everyone and was stopped constantly as people wanted to say hi to me.
In high school, I’d been a cheerleader, class vice president, and student council vice president. I’d been very involved. So, planning this evening with Meredith and Dave—the class president and treasurer—had been a blast, but it’d also put a lot of pressure on me. I was the only one who still lived here. That meant I was the one who’d had to do most of the groundwork. The benefit of that was, we got to have the event at Flips.
“Tequila?” the bartender, Peter, asked when he saw me approaching.
I nodded my head and held up two fingers. Yeah, make it a double, buddy.
Peter knew what kind of alcohol I was into based on my mood. That was how often I was in here. It was a little scary honestly.
“Care to toast with your bestie and roomie?” Emery asked, sidling up beside me.
“The shots are not celebratory unless I am licking them off your stomach,” I informed her.
“Let’s do it, baby!” Emery said. She leaned back on her chair and hoisted her black tank up to reveal her flat stomach. “Peter, I need the salt!”
“Oh God, are you two doing this again?” he asked. He tilted his head and judged us, as per usual.
“Hand it over!” Emery crooned.
“It’s really not a reunion if we aren’t drunk and ridiculous,” I said.
“Let’s be real,” Emery said. “It’s not a reunion if we’re not drunk on wine coolers and running from the cops because Landon has pot and is afraid he’ll get arrested.”
Emery hoisted herself up onto the bar and lay down. She balanced the shot on her stomach and started shaking salt next to her belly button.
“Honey,” Jensen said, appearing at her side, “what in the hell are you doing?”
“Body shots. Don’t tell me you’ve never done one.”
Jensen’s face pinched. “Who is doing a body shot off of you?”
“Heidi, of course,” Emery said with a grin.
“Yeah, Wright, get out of the way.” I nudged Jensen, and he gave me a pained expression. I knew how much it hurt him not to get to take that shot, but I wasn’t giving it up. “This is my girlfriend, and we might or might not have done this once or twice in high school.”
“There were a lot of things you two did in high school that don’t need to be repeated,” he said.
“Party pooper,” Emery called at him.
“Don’t listen to him, Em. He’s jealous because I get to take the shot. We all know he’s done worse.”
Jensen shrugged and didn’t deny it.
Emery winked at her boyfriend and then placed the lime in her mouth. She made a come-and-get-it gesture. I laughed at my best friend and felt unbelievably grateful for having her. Even if she didn’t know something was wrong, she allowed me to completely forget about what had happened.
I bent down, licked the salt from Emery’s stomach, and then downed the shot. After I swallowed the tequila back, I took the lime straight from Emery’s mouth. She hollered with excitement as I sucked on the lime. My grin was magnetic as I raised my arms like I’d won a gold medal.
“What did I miss?” Landon asked as I turned around to face the rest of the crowd.
I dropped my arms and shrugged. “Body shots.”
“Ah, like old times then.”
“You don’t have any weed on you, do you? Emery reminded us that you used to be a pothead.”
Landon raised his eyebrows at me and then shifted his attention to Emery. “I was not a pothead.”
Emery hopped off the bar. “Nah, you were too scared of getting caught to be a full-blown pothead.”
“Actually, I think he was too afraid of our dad,” Jensen chimed in.
Landon shrugged. “Well, he could be a scary motherfucker.”
“Landon! Brah, I didn’t know if you’d come,” a guy said from behind him.
My eyes moved from Landon’s gorgeous face to the guy behind him. Brandon McCain. My lucky number twelve in high school. I’d been obsessed with him all four years, and I had even adopted his football number as my favorite. Emery liked to make fun of me about it. I couldn’t even remember all the times I’d mooned over him, but nothing had ever come of it. He’d had a serious girlfriend all four years of high school and never looked my way. But, as far as I knew, he was single now and lived in Los Angeles as a wannabe actor and model.
“Brandon,” Landon said. They firmly shook hands. “Good to see you, man. I didn’t know you were going to be here either.”
“Fuck, man. I wouldn’t have missed it. High school was the shit,” Brandon said. “Though who am I kidding? You killed it in high school, and look at you now! Fucking PGA Tour!”
Landon winced slightly. I narrowed my eyes at that movement.
Why would he flinch about being on the PGA Tour? That was his dream. That was his life. He loved golf with everything in him. It seemed odd that he would be uncomfortable with discussing it. I’d never seen him upset about golf.
“Thanks, man,” Landon said.
Brandon’s eyes shifted from Landon to me, and his smile grew. “Heidi Martin. Fuck me,” he said, pulling me in for a hug. “You look even hotter than you did in high school, and you were fucking gorgeous ten years ago.”
When Brandon said that, I searched Landon’s face, and he went from wincing to pissed in a second. If I wasn’t mistaken, he was remembering that crush I’d always had.
“Thanks, Brandon,” I said, stepping out of his embrace. “You look great, too.”
“We should definitely catch up later.” Brandon pointed his finger at me and winked. “Definitely. But, first, I’m going to steal Landon here,” he said, throwing an arm around Landon’s shoulder, “and get the rest of the football team together.”
Landon shot me a grieved look but disappeared with Brandon. I could already see that a huge group of football players was convened in the back. Landon was their star. Of course they had come to collect him.
I’d really wanted that interaction with Brandon to make me feel better about the whole Landon situation, but it didn’t. Brandon McCain was still really good-looking. Los Angeles ate people alive if they didn’t stay in shape. It was clear that he had been putting in a lot of time at the gym, but I didn’t feel the same spark as I once had.
Goddamn it, Landon. Even guys I could hook up with were tainted by him.
All I’d wanted for four years was this one sexy guy. Now that we were here and I definitely had not misinterpreted his catch-up-later line, I was meh about the whole thing.
“Whoa!” Emery said. “Brandon McCain is so fucking into you. Hello, dream come true!”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Dream come true.”
Emery wrapped her arm through mine. “Okay, roomie, we’re supposed to be having a good time. You know I hate reunions and basically all things high school. But I’m here for you because I love your face. Tell me what’s wrong, so I can fix it.”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“News flash, Martin! Brandon fucking McCain just hit on you, and you’re sad. You would have blown that guy behind the bleachers after a game if he’d let you. What part of him thinking you’re super hot is a bad thing?”
I cleared my mind of everything I’d been dealing with since Landon had stepped back into my life. Landon Wright was not right for me. There was no future for us. I didn’t know if he would go back to his wife tomorrow. I didn’t know if he’d ever file divorce papers. I didn’t know if that kiss was a bullshit rebound move. Stressing over it would only ruin my high school reunion. And I had put too much effort into this reunion for that to fucking happen.
I was the life of the party. I was smart, beautiful, and confident. I could rock this reunion with or without Landon Wright.
“You’re so right,” I said, bolstered by my own pep talk. “There is not a damn thing wrong with that.”
“You sure? You seemed a little out of it. Maybe you and Landon…”
“Please, do not finish that thought. Landon and I do not belong in the same sentence. You’ve bugged me about it in the past, Em, but he’s married. You know what my dad was like. You know I could never do that. And I could never do that to you.”
“But it doesn’t bother me.”
I held my hands up. “Irrelevant. It bothers me! Now, let’s talk about Brandon McCain and how he just hit on me.”
Emery gave me a look that said she didn’t believe my bullshit, but she wasn’t a pusher. She wouldn’t bother me until I gave up the info.
“Okay, are you going to hook up with him? Because he went from being like gruff hottie in high school to being an LA pretty boy,” Emery observed. “I don’t know if you could fuck a pretty boy.”
“Oh, I could. I assure you.”
“Plus, he used brah in a sentence without irony.”
I snort-laughed and signaled for another drink from Peter. “So, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. As long as he has a big, long tool I can use, then we’re good to go.”
“Oh my God!” Emery said, busting out in laughter. “I pray that he does, for your sake, Heidi.”
We hung out at the bar as more and more people showed up. It was even more than I’d anticipated. A lot of the local crowd hadn’t RSVP’d, so I’d thought it was mostly going to be out-of-towners. A lot of people had complained about the location and lack of food and it not being kid-friendly…and on and on. So many complaints. But it looked like a ton of people had shown up anyway. Probably because of the open bar I’d finagled.
By the time it seemed like most people had finally arrived, the bar was packed. Meredith had planned to make some kind of speech, but with the crowd, that would be impossible. I wasn’t worried about it, but she was.
Eventually, she gave up and turned on the slide show she had prepared with all the pictures that everyone had turned in for the reunion. The whole thing was a walk down memory lane.
I had only turned in a couple of pictures of me and Emery together, but it was almost obnoxious, how many images there were of me. It was never clearer to me that I had been totally obsessed with popularity. I cared nothing about it now, but I had deeply stressed over it at the time.
I was sure I had my dad to blame for a lot of that. We never had much, but he’d indulged me with everything I’d wanted at the time. I’d taken every cent. Man, how that had all backfired.
The football team was hooting and hollering over all the images of them. Landon was in nearly as many as I was. Then, one stopped on him in a high school golf polo, holding his club. My eyes shifted over to where he had been sitting all night with an IV of whiskey practically hooked into his arm. When he saw the picture, he openly cringed at it.
Then, his gaze found me. I quickly looked away.
I shouldn’t be looking at him. I shouldn’t be worried about him. I shouldn’t be wondering why golf was a trigger for him.
But I couldn’t seem to focus on anything else.
I’d tried to forget him.
I’d tried to stay away from him.
I’d tried not to look at him.
All I did was fail.
Our eyes met across the distance, and my heart tugged in his direction. He nodded his head back toward the exit. It was a question and a promise. I knew that, if I went out there, he’d kiss me again. And I would give in to him. Because I wanted to.
“Ugh, who sent in these pictures?” Emery asked from next to me.
I guiltily looked away from Landon and stared at the picture. It was Emery and Landon together after a football game. She was in his letter jacket, and they were laughing. The next one was of them seated side by side for their Best Couple shot for the yearbook. The one after that had Emery sitting in his lap by a bonfire. I was sitting next to them, grinning like a fool.
There were three or four others, all in a row. A barrage of Emery and Landon. One big fat reminder that the guy I was dreaming about had dated my best friend.
This wasn’t like Jensen, who hadn’t known Emery when she dated Landon. I’d been there with them through everything. I knew the good, the bad, and the ugly. Emery and I had spent hours lamenting over our love lives.
There was no way in hell that I should be interested in Landon. I wouldn’t allow it. I promised myself that I wouldn’t look in his direction again. No way, no how.
And, when Brandon McCain moseyed back over to talk to me, I let him hit on me and told myself I wasn’t going to feel guilty about it.
Heidi
“Well, I’d call this a success,” Emery said a few hours later with a yawn.
“A rousing success,” I agreed.
“Way better than the five-year reunion.”
“Yeah. This time, they let me have it at a bar. People are way better when they’re drunk.”
“True. Also, people have actually changed…sort of…since then. Everyone had just graduated college at the five-year.”
“Or they were on their second kid,” I reminded her.
Emery laughed. “Or that.”
“I’m glad you came. You’re going back with Jensen now, right?”
Emery gave me a sheepish look. “Don’t act like you know me.”
“Of course I know you. We’ve been best friends since kindergarten, and now, we live together!”
I pulled my bestie in for a hug, and we swayed back and forth in a tipsy sort of slow dance.
“You’re the best,” Emery said.
“You’re the bestest.”
“Sorry to break up the romantic moment,” Jensen said with an amused grin, “but I don’t think we can go home until we get Landon safely back to Austin’s.”
Emery groaned. “But I’m so tired! I want to go home.”
“As do I, but if you haven’t noticed, he’s totally fucked up.”
I nodded my head. I had definitely noticed even though I was trying not to. Though people had slowly been leaving the place, most of the football players were still being rowdy in the back. Landon, who had never been the type, had even started to join in with their antics. It made me cringe. He must really be going through something to allow himself to be this far gone.
Emery yawned long and dramatically, as if to say, Please, dear God, let us go now.
I laughed at her.
“I’ll make sure he gets into a cab. I have to be here until bar close to settle up with Peter anyway. I won’t let Landon do anything stupid,” I told Jensen.
“Are you sure?” he asked. He got that look in his eye, like he was the older brother and had to guarantee the safety of all of his siblings. It was adorable.
“Yep. No worries. We have cabs coming at closing to get people. I’ll make the football players carry him into one. No big,” I told him.
Emery arched an eyebrow, and we had a silent conversation.
You’re going to help Landon into a cab, huh?
Yeah. So?
And there’s nothing going on?
No!
Sure.
There’s not.
I don’t believe you.
Fuck off, Robinson.
Whatever, Martin.
I laughed and pushed her toward Jensen. “Don’t worry about a thing. Go have a lot of monkey sex.”
Emery groaned. “I hate you.”
“Love you, too, hooker.”
“Thanks for doing this, Heidi,” Jensen said as he motioned for Emery to precede him out of Flips. “I really appreciate it. If anything goes wrong or if you need me, don’t hesitate to call.”
God, Jensen is such a nice guy.
“I won’t, but don’t worry; it’ll be fine.”
“Famous last words,” he muttered before following Emery outside.
I wanted to laugh off Jensen’s comment, but with the Wrights, something always went wrong.
Without Emery, the reunion deflated for me. I hadn’t kept in contact with anyone else from our senior class, other than Landon. We were all friends on Facebook and Instagram, but I wasn’t involved in their lives. I could go hang out with the cheerleading crowd, but I didn’t fit in with them now that they had their own mommy circle. I knew everyone, but suddenly, I felt very alone.
I slunk back over to the bar where Peter was cleaning a pile of glasses, generally looking exhausted.
“Long night?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Pretty busy in case you missed it.”
“Noticed that.”
Peter dragged a hand back through his shoulder-length hair and sighed. “You’ve got company.”
I whirled around at that comment, expecting to find Landon. Then, I quickly hated myself for that expectation. Instead, I found Brandon had returned with his pointed grin and flirtatious dude-bro personality.
“Hey, Brandon,” I said with a smile.
“Heidi,” he said, leaning me into the bar. “You want to get out of here?”
Just like that. No preamble or anything.
“I actually have to close down the bar for the reunion.”
“I can wait,” he said with a magnetic grin that I was sure worked on girls in LA.
“No, it’s okay. It’ll be boring, and I should just go home after that.”
Brandon’s grin slipped, and I could tell that his drunken mind was irritated. He hadn’t expected me to turn him down.
He twirled a lock of my hair around his fingers. “Come on, baby. I know you were into me in high school.”
I gently extracted myself from him. “That was more than ten years ago, Brandon.”
“Couldn’t have changed that much.”
“Funny you say that,” I said with growing aggravation. “I would say that I’ve changed a lot, but you wouldn’t know that, as you’ve spent the entire time talking to me about your awesome life in LA and all the roles you could have gotten but missed. I’m not interested. You missed your chance to get someone as amazing as me.”
I turned and strode away from him, feeling unbelievably empowered. Even though I could hear the words bitch and led me on being muttered under his breath. It might have been nice to flirt with him, but that didn’t guarantee that I had to go home with him. And it most certainly didn’t mean that he could push me around because of something I’d felt as a teenager.
Meredith announced from the front of the room that it was time for the bar to close and that everyone should head out now. A few people mentioned an after-party to the reunion, and groups started arranging to go to someone’s house to keep hanging out. I had no intention of doing that at all. I’d promised I’d get Landon home, and that was it.
When I found Landon, he was drinking straight out of a pitcher of beer someone had purchased for a game of beer pong on the patio attached to the side of the building. My eyes were round with concern at his level of inebriation. His eyes were glassy, and he was sloshing beer everywhere.
“Landon, I told Jensen I’d get you into a cab at bar close. It’s two. Time to go back to Austin’s and sleep this off.”
“Heidi, Heidi, Heidi,” he crowed, his words slurred. He slung an arm around my waist, ignoring the looks from the remaining football players in his crowd. “Don’t listen to Jensen. He doesn’t know shit.”
I easily slipped out of his grip. “Time to go, Landon.”
He placed the pitcher down on the table and stood up to look at me. But his balance was total shit. He stumbled forward into me, and I had to lean him up against the booth for him to stand straight.
“God, you’re fucked up.”
“Heidi,” he said again.
“What?”
“You heading out with McCain?”
I gritted my teeth. “What if I am?”
“Have at it, Martin,” Landon said, swinging his arm. “He only fucks anything that walks. Go for it, if you’re into that.”
“Even if I were into that,” I said in irritation, “it would be none of your goddamn business.”
“None of my business?” he said with a sharp laugh. “Right.”
His buddies patted him on the back and nudged his shoulder as they passed.
“See you at the after-party, Landon!” one guy called.
Landon yelled and held his hands up, “Yeah, man!”
The other guys cheered him on and then disappeared out of the now-empty room.
There was no way I was going to let him go to some party; that was for damn sure. He was too drunk to go anywhere.
“Landon, you’re drunk. Can you let me get you home, so I can fulfill my promise to Jensen?”
“Fuck Jensen!” Landon announced.
“I think Em has that covered,” I growled in frustration.
“Awesome. Another thing we have in common. Shitty wives, a penchant for whiskey, and my ex.”
“Would you cut it out?”
“I’d normally say blondes, too,” Landon said. He ran his hand through my long blonde locks and grinned at me.
I slapped his hand away from me and tried to remain calm. “Time to go. Let’s go. Right now.”
“Fine,” he grumbled as I shoved him toward the door.
We made it halfway across the room, veering awkwardly in his drunken stupor, before Peter came over to help me walk him outside. Only one more cab was waiting, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I could get him home. Then, this crazy night would be over.
Peter and I finally maneuvered Landon into the back of the cab.
“Thanks, Peter. I appreciate it.”
“Be careful, Heidi,” he said with a knowing look. “Wrights aren’t always right.” Then, he winked at me.
I felt my face flame at his words. From anyone else, I probably would have blown it off, but Peter didn’t say much. He watched and observed. If he had noticed something, then it was because it was blatantly obvious with just a look.
“Thanks for the advice, but you don’t have to worry about me.”
“I know,” he said with a nod. “You’re a fighter, just like your old man.”
I winced slightly at the comment. Perhaps that was supposed to be a compliment, but about my father…I could hardly take it as one.
“Thanks,” I muttered, trying for a smile. “You’re the best.”
I hopped into the cab behind Landon and coaxed Austin’s address out of him for the driver. I nearly kicked him when I found out it was only three blocks away. Not that I could have walked him down those three blocks, but I felt ridiculous, having a cab take him a walkable distance.
Getting him out of the cab was about as difficult as getting him into it, and I got the cab driver’s number, so I could call him when I needed a ride home. I didn’t think getting him inside was going to be any easier.
Eventually, we made it into Austin’s home and to the first-floor bedroom. I thanked the Lord that he wasn’t on the second floor. I wasn’t sure what I would have done about getting him up the stairs. I probably would have had to leave him on the couch.
I pushed him down onto the bed, and he tumbled backward.
“God, I’m drunk,” he muttered.
“Welcome to my world.”
“I never expected that you’d be the one taking the initiative,” he slurred. “You like it on top?”
“Don’t mess with me right now, Landon.”
“Hey, you pushed me back onto the bed.”
“Because you’re wasted, and I wanted to get you somewhere safe. Now, I’m going to go home, so I can get some sleep.”
He sloppily reached out for my hand. “Stay with me.”
I slipped my hand out of his with a shake of my head. “Not happening.”
Then, I went about finding water, Tylenol, and a small trash can to put beside the bed. He might get sick, and I didn’t want him to throw up all over Austin’s room.
“Guess we’re skipping that talk,” I muttered when I walked back in with my supplies to find Landon passed out.
I placed the water and Tylenol on the nightstand and proceeded to take off Landon’s shoes. He could sleep in the rest of his clothes for all I cared. I patted down his pockets to remove his wallet and cell phone. I dropped the wallet next to the provisions and plugged in his phone to the charger curled around the lamp.
The screen lit up, and for one nosy second, my eyes dropped down onto the screen.
I cringed when I saw the entire screen was full of messages from Miranda.
I pulled my eyes away. Here I was, taking care of someone else’s husband when his wife had been messaging him nonstop. No matter what he had been going on between us—the feelings we’d been harboring for too damn long—I knew we were in the wrong.
We were so in the wrong.
My eyes landed on the lit screen one more time, and I guiltily read a few of the messages. I knew I shouldn’t, but if I saw what she was saying to him, then maybe it would give me the push to put this whole thing behind me for good.
Landon, I love you so much. Please, answer your phone.
I’ll always love you. I know we have a future together. We can’t be separated. Think about all we’ve been through.
We can make this work, Landon. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t in my right mind. I can’t imagine my life without you. Please, please, my love, please let’s work this out.
I jerked away from his phone, as if I’d put my hand into a bed of red-hot coals.
Holy fuck!
Miranda is a wreck!
She was a total wreck. And she had no idea that I had contributed to this in some way. She had no idea that her husband had come here and promptly kissed another woman. And that was all I was—the other woman.
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.
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.
