Landon & Shay: Part Two (L&S Duet #2)(73)

“Yes. He said you were an old friend, and honestly, I’ll do anything to get in his good graces.” She took a seat at the table and patted the chair beside her. “Plus, since you have history with him, I figured you could give me some insider information?”

“What do you mean?” My mind was still spinning from the idea that Landon was the one who lined up the job for me. Why would he do that?

“Well, you know,” she licked her lips then bit her bottom one. “It’s no secret that Landon is a dreamboat. I’ve been trying for years to hook up with him, but it never really worked out.”

“What? I thought you two dated years ago. Back when your film came out?” I asked, trying to keep my question as calm as ever, even though my heart was pounding against my chest, trying to leap out of my body.

Sarah waved a hand at me. “Oh, I wish. That was just some promo mumbo jumbo because Landon got himself into a bit of a dramatic pickle back then. But you probably know all about that, being such an important part of his life.”

I sat up in my chair, confused as ever. “Yes, of course. Right.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I tried with him back then, but he wasn’t having it. He was too hung up on some high school sweetheart or something. I swore, he’d sit on set every single day, writing her love letters in a notebook like a love-sick fool. I’d never seen anything like it.”

He wrote me letters?

The emotions sitting at the back of my eyes was intense, and I did my best trying to blink it all away.

“He wrote letters on set?” I asked, my voice cracking, but Sarah was too much in her own la-la land to even notice.

“I swore, he filled notebook after notebook for that girl. I’m surprised they didn’t end up together. If someone was that obsessed with me, I’d marry them in a heartbeat.”

“Did he ever say what happened between them?”

“No. Just that she was better off without him and his baggage.”

There were so many missing pieces to the puzzle of Landon and my past, I wasn’t even sure what to think of it all.

“Thankfully, it didn’t work out for the two of them. Leaves more of a chance for me to reconnect with him. The production company wants to push that narrative again this time around—the ‘old lovers rekindle their flame’ which is fine by me. Only this time, I don’t want it to be a fake love story. I want Landon to really fall for me, and it’s going to be so much easier with your help.”

“My help?”

“Yes! Of course. It seems you two must be close, so perhaps you can give me pointers on Landon. Help me get to know some of what he’s into. His likes, his dislikes.”

“I don’t know…” I started. “Maybe that should be something you do—grow the connection yourself.”

“I would, but I don’t have much time with my schedule.”

“We haven’t really connected in a while,” I confessed. “I can’t really say much about what he’s into and whatnot.”

“That’s fine. You have time to learn.” She took my hands into hers and squeezed them. “I think this is going to be magical. Don’t you?”

“You can say that much,” I huffed, pushing out a smile.

“Okay, now come on. Let’s hold the balls again.”





29





Landon





“You used Mima to get to me?!” a voice barked as I stood outside of my trailer flipping through my script. I looked up to see Shay storming my way. The closer she grew, the more I noticed her nose flaring and the crinkles that sat deep in her forehead. “Are you kidding me, Landon?”

“I figured you wouldn’t take the position if I handed it to you, but I wanted to help after everything I did. I felt really shitty for the way you lost your job because of me showing up to your place of employment. Everything spiraled so fast, that I didn’t want to be the cause of you being stuck without a job.”

She sighed. “I would’ve lost the job with or without you there.”

“Yes, but you wouldn’t have been mocked across the internet because of it. It would’ve been swept under the rug, but because of me and who I am, people were there to capture a really shitty situation. I needed to do something to right that, Shay. I needed to fix that.”

Her brows lowered. “By making me work with your ex-girlfriend?”

I shook my head. “Sarah was never my girlfriend. I know how it was showcased way back then, but that was all business. We never had a connection on that level.”

“Why would you make it appear as you did?”

That felt like a loaded question, and I wasn’t sure how to even tackle it without my mind wanting to spiral out of control. I tried my best not to think back to that period of my life when things went to complete shit.

Shay frowned, seeing the reservation I had on answering the question. She shifted around in her shoes. “Sarah’s a lot…odder than I thought.”

I laughed, a breath of relief running through me. “Did she ask you to hold her balls?”

“Her big, smooth balls,” she bellowed. “And she also told me each one was over four thousand dollars. You know your life is okay if you can spend four thousand dollars on a crystal.”