Page 94 of Landon & Shay: Part Two

“Ohh.” Sarah swooned. “A bad boy. Me likey. Go on.”

“And just when you thought the bad boy couldn’t get better…” Shay locked eyes with me and the smallest smile fell against her lips. “He does. He opens up and truthfully is this kind, giving person who’d just had his walls up—for good reason. And once you knocked them down, he’d come rushing into your life with so much love and care that you hardly knew what to do with it. Landon as a teenager was complex. Broken, but somehow whole. Angry, yet so unbelievably gentle. And one of the best people I’d ever known in my life. Landon was the kind of boy any girl could’ve fallen head over heels with. I knew one girl who did exactly that. And rumor has it, that she never fully recovered.”

Her words pierced me and I wanted to both hug her so tight and kiss her so hard. There was so much emotion floating back and forth between us that I was certain the whole damn room could tell about the powerful connection we once shared.

All except Sarah, who seemed to have it go all over her head. “Wow. He sounded amazing. I would’ve loved to know you as a youth,” she said, leaning into me and touching my inner upper thigh. Like wayyy upper and wayyy inner.

What the actual fuck?

My eyes landed on her hand and I gave her a half-smile as I took my hand on top of hers and relocated her grip to the table. “I wasn’t that great.”

I looked across the room and noticed Shay noticing the grip that Sarah had against my leg before she shyly looked away.

Don’t think too much into that.

The room grew quiet, and the air thick with questions about what to say.

“So,” Maria took charge, cleared her throat and stood to her feet. “Who’s ready for dessert?”

Just then, the front door opened, and Camila came barging into the room. “Sorry we’re late!” she exclaimed, the biggest grin on her face known to mankind.

I waited to see her dog, Bella, trotting in behind her, but instead a full-grown man walked in with two bottles of wine and a huge grin on his face.

Everyone’s eyes were wide as we all stared at the stranger.

“Who are you?” Maria asked, looking at the man.

He gave her the friendliest smile, and hurried over to her side. He placed the bottles of wine on the table and pulled Maria into a hug. “Oh my gosh, you must be Camila’s mother. Though, that’s shocking, seeing as how you look old enough to be her sister.”

Maria seemed a bit confused by the whole interaction, but her cheeks flustered a bit with color from the compliment. “Well, thank you. But again, who are you?”

“Oh, right.” He stood tall and smoothed out his suit. “I’m David.”

“David,” Shay said, echoing his name.

“Yes, his name is David,” Camila said, grinning wider than I’d ever seen her grin. “He’s my fiancé.”

30

Shay

What in theactual hell was going on? A stranger currently stood tall in Mima’s dining room—David apparently—and was claiming to be my mother’s fiancé.

I cocked an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, what?”

“He’s my fiancé,” Mom said, confident as ever. As if she didn’t hear how ridiculously ludicrous the words leaving her mouth were. My mother didn’t have a fiancé. Heck, my mother didn’t even have a boyfriend. My mother was the freaking CEO of WWLTHMC—Women Who Love to Hate Men Club. She didn’t date men, she passionately hated them.

The odd pairing moved in toward everyone and cuddled against each other. My mother’s body was against a man.

Again—what in the actual hell was going on?

“Uh, I can tell that this seems like a private matter, so perhaps Sarah and I should get going,” Landon said, standing from his seat.

“Probably a good idea,” Mima agreed.

“Oh, Landon! Can you give me a drive back to my place? I rode with Shay, and obviously she’s too busy to take me,” Sarah commented as she rubbed his arm up and down. I almost rolled my eyes right in her face, but I held it in.

Besides, I was still stuck on the fact that a man named David was standing in my grandmother’s house.

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