Page 113 of Landon & Shay: Part Two

“I’m not afraid of love,’ I said through gritted teeth. A knot sat in the pit of my stomach as those words floated in my head.

“Sweetheart, she’s right,” Mom agreed, reaching out to take my hand into hers. “I see so much of me in you and I blame myself for that. You don’t trust men. You have this idea that no matter what, they will always let you down, and I know I instilled that into your system. I helped build that fear, and I am so sorry for that, because it’s not true. Not all men are evil.”

“But they all let us down,” I whispered, allowing that deep embedded truth to slip from between my lips.

“That’s not true,” Mima said. “Do men mess up from time to time? Of course, but so do women. We are humans—perfectly imperfect. We make mistakes. We go right when we should’ve gone left. We fall into bad habits. We sometimes hurt the ones we love the most. We try and we fail, but we also learn from our mistakes and try to do the right thing moving forward. I know Landon and I know you. I know how you both love one another with a love that is bigger than this world. Don’t run from that love out of fear, mi amor. Don’t let fear drive you forever. If you do, you’ll end up living in a story that you weren’t meant to be a part of. Don’t throw away your story before you reach your happily ever after.”

“Maybe I don’t get the happy ending,” I said, lowering my head. “Maybe Mom was the one meant to break the family curse, not me.”

“No. It’s both of us,” Mom said, still holding my hand. “We get the happy ending. Just because you’re sitting in the middle of your story with Landon, doesn’t mean the rest of your pages are doomed. The ending is going to be worth it, Shay. No happily ever after was ever made from a perfectly knit story. See this one through. Don’t give up on him just yet.”

I heard their words, I listened to their encouragement, too, but the fear of it all was too loud in my head to drown out.

They were right. I was afraid of love. I was terrified of being hurt time and time again, and I didn’t know how to get past my greatest fear.

37

Landon

“Frankly, I’m worried about you,”Karla said as she sat across from me during our dinner date. She had a very stern look of worry in her stare as she cut into her steak.

Months passed since Shay pushed me away. She turned her heart cold once more, and I wasn’t certain that she was ever going to let me try to defrost it again.

“I’m doing good, kiddo,” I said, trying my best to hide my sadness with a grin. Truthfully, my heart was shattered into a million pieces. Each day was hard, but I kept moving forward the best I could. I was living on autopilot, taking it day by day. Trying my hardest to not fall apart and spiral into a place that I couldn’t come back from.

“You’re not doing good,” Karla disagreed. “You are miserable, and I can’t keep seeing you like this. Which is why I brought in reinforcements.”

I arched an eyebrow. “What? What are you talking about?”

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. “Hey, yes. We’re ready. Come on in.” When she hung up the phone, she gave me a sloppy grin. “Don’t worry, Uncle Landon. This is for the best.”

Before she could explain herself anymore, the door to the restaurant opened, and a group of people walked inside.

Greyson, Eleanor, Camila, Maria, Raine, and Hank all gathered around the table. They each pulled up a chair and sat down.

“What’s going on right now?” I asked, confused as ever.

“We’re having a love intervention,” Camila said, clasping her hands together. “Because we think it’s about time you get off your butt and do something about winning my daughter’s heart back.”

“What? No. There’s no way I can get back into her good graces. Not after what I’ve done.”

“You mean trying to get her script into the right hands because you cared that much about her succeeding at her dreams? You mean that mistake?” Maria asked.

“Well, yeah. That’s the one. That piled with all the other stuff of our past is just too much.”

“Bullshit,” Greyson said.

“Yeah, bullshit!” Karla repeated.

“Language, Karla,” Greyson scolded.

“Sorry, Dad,” she replied.

“Regardless, they are right. Your excuses are weak, just like hers are. You two are just too afraid of getting the happily ever after you both worked your butts off to receive,” Maria explained. “And frankly, we are all sick and tired of waiting around for you both to get off your bums and to do something about it. So, now we’re getting involved.”

“How? I don’t know how I can fix this. I can’t come up with the right words to make this all okay.”

“You’re right. You can’t come up with new words to give Shay. They might seem too empty, but what you can do is give her your old words,” Raine offered. “You never stopped writing her in those notebooks, Landon. You have years of your feelings written down for her to receive. Now’s the time to pull those out and give them to her. She needs to see those words more than ever.”

---