Page 73 of Landon & Shay: Part Two

“It broke my heart, you know,” I said.

He looked up to me with a bewildered look in his eyes. “What did?”

“When you stopped writing me the letters and never came back.”

He lowered his arm to the table and placed his pen down.

I knew I shouldn’t have been speaking about the past, because it had a way of opening old scars I’d worked hard to close, but I couldn’t help it as I watched him craft letters, the same type he used to make for me. “It hurt me so much when I saw you happy and healthy on television. I know it’s stupid, but it did.”

“It’s not stupid,” he disagreed.

I tried to smile but couldn’t force my mouth to turn up. “Who are you writing to?”

Where do your love letters go today?

His lips parted to tell me, but I held my hand up to halt him.

What am I doing?

I didn’t want to know that, partly because it was none of my business, mainly because it would hurt too much to know who they were all for. I glanced down at my phone to check the time. “I think I can head out now.”

“I’ll drive you back to the coffee shop.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll take an Uber. It’s probably safer than having you go back over there.” I stood and gave Rookie one last snuggle before heading to the front door. “Thanks for the coffee.”

Landon got to his feet and headed toward me. He held the door open, and as I stepped past him, his hand landed on my forearm, stopping me. “Shay, wait.”

“What is it?”

He moved a step closer to me, hovering over my body as chills raced through me from his small touch. “A few days back when we made love—”

“Had sex,” I corrected, trying to tame the wildness that was shooting through me.

“Yes. A few days ago when we had sex…did you feel it, too?”

My eyes locked with his. “Feel what?”

He lowered his voice and his hot breaths brushed against my skin. “Everything. Shay…not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about you. You are the first woman—the only woman—who ever awakened every sleeping part of me. You were a defining moment of my life.”

“Then why did you disappear?” I whispered, feeling the ache in my chest growing more and more. I felt my emotions building up, which was exactly why I knew I had to leave. I couldn’t fall apart over him anymore. I was supposed to be past it. I was supposed to be free of his chains. I was supposed to be fine. “Forget it, really. This isn’t an easy conversation. This is heavy, and I can’t do heavy with you anymore. Sorry, Landon. I can’t.”

I didn’t look back at him as I pushed myself out of his penthouse. I hurried down the hallway and tried my best to keep the tears burning in my eyes at bay, but deep down inside I knew the answer to his question when he asked me if I felt anything at the whiskey party. I knew the truth I was trying my hardest to ignore.

I had felt it all.

I’d felt everything the night we fell together, and for a moment in time, it had felt so good.

23

Shay

“I must admit,it’s a little clever,” Raine said as we sat in front of her computer monitor, strolling through article after article. “They’re calling you Coffee Girl, and the headlines are true gems. ‘Coffee Girl—A Whole Latte Crazy’,” she said, giggling as it rolled off her tongue.

“That’s not funny, Raine.” I groaned, slouching over in my chair. How was this even happening? Just yesterday, I’d lost my job, and lucky for me, Mr. Hollywood was there, which brought about a ton of people with camera phones snapping videos and pictures of him inside of the bakery. They made it right on time to capture me throwing a latte—correction:icedlatte—into Tina’s face, and now I was the girl all over social media, throwing a drink into the face of a seemingly sweet customer.

Isn’t life grand?

“Oh look! You have a collection of memes on Twitter! Oh gosh, Shay. You’re a meme!” Raine exclaimed, taking it all in stride a lot better than I was. Then again, it wasn’t her face looking like a complete madwoman all across the internet.

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