Landon & Shay: Part Two (L&S Duet #2)(74)

“It’s no secret that Sarah is pretty well off.”

The sun beamed against her as she faced me, and she shielded it with her hand, narrowing her eyes. “I think this is the first time it’s actually setting in for me that you’re a true-blue actor.”

I chuckled. “You mean running from the paparazzi wasn’t enough to prove it?”

“Don’t get me wrong that was insane, but actually seeing you on a set with your name on a trailer… I don’t know. This makes it more real to me.”

I nodded. “Who would’ve thought that a fucked-up kid like me would’ve ever made it here?”

“Me,” she softly said, a slight curve to her lips. “I would’ve thought it.”

The energy between us intensified from her words, and all I wanted to do was step forward and wrap my arms around her and never fucking let go.

I held off on doing such a thing. She still had her walls up with me. I didn’t want to keep trying to knock them down without her permission.

“You deserve to be here more than I do,” I said, meaning it, too.

“Yeah, but as it turns out I am here because of you. And for the record, I would’ve taken the job if you’d given me the opportunity. I would’ve been super stubborn about it—but I would’ve given in after a while.”

“Good to know.”

She shook her head a little in disbelief. “You truly used my grandmother to do your dirty work, unbelievable.”

“She was oddly easy to convince.”

“Not shocking,” Shay mentioned. “She always had a soft place in her heart for you.”

“I can’t say that about a lot of people,” I joked.

“I can say it at least about two,” she replied.

Was that…?

Was that a glimmer of light in her eyes? Did she reveal that there was still a soft place in her heart for me? Why did I feel like crying and leaping for joy like a damn fool?

Keep it cool, Landon. Act natural.

“Okay, well, I better get back to Sarah. She’s going to walk me through a meditation of sorts. But, before I go, I have to ask you something really important.”

I took in a breath. “Shoot.”

Shay gave me a slight grin. “How many crystals do you have?”

I brushed my thumb against the tip of my nose. “Oh, you know, only about three or four dozen. Nothing too crazy.”

She laughed.

God, she laughed, and I wanted to bottle up the sound and release it on my saddest of days because I was certain that her laugh would always make me smile, even at my lowest.

“I owe you, Landon,” she said, walking backward.

“For what?”

She looked around, wide-eyed and completely in awe of her surroundings. Her hands fell against her chest as she locked her stare with mine and stole my breath away. “Making this dream come true.”

Anytime, brown eyes.

Anytime.

“But just to be clear, this doesn’t mean I don’t still hate you, because I do,” she said, with a sparkle in her eyes.

“Of course. I hate you, too.”

She smiled, because she knew it was a lie.

I could never hate her, even if I tried.





“I wished I had a guy who was so into me that he’d get me a job on a set of a major motion feature,” Willow remarked as we sat in my trailer later that afternoon.

She was typing nonstop, probably updating my social media, as I bit into the sandwich she’d brought for me. “It’s not that big of a deal,” I said, shrugging it off. “She deserved it.”

“And you deserve her.” Willow smiled, looking up from her phone. “I’ve worked for you for a very long time, Landon, and never in my life have I seen you look at anyone the way you look at Shay. Why don’t you give it another go with her?”

I laughed. As if it were that easy. “You know the story, Willow. Shay and my story didn’t end on the best of terms.”

“Maybe that wasn’t the ending,” she disagreed. “Maybe that was just the middle. Why would the universe bring you back together if you weren’t meant to finish your story?”

A torch of fire raced through me. “You’ve been hanging around Sarah and her hippie-dippie persona too much with your talk about the universe bringing people together.”

“All I’m saying is, if I had something that made me as happy as she appears to make you, I wouldn’t let it go.” She walked over and snatched my pickle from the sandwich container. “People don’t get second chances at love, Landon. Don’t blow yours.”





The following Sunday, I headed over to Maria’s for dinner, fully prepared to have my mind blown by her lasagna. I missed her homecooked meals so much, but not as much as I missed our Sundays together. For a long part of my life, those Sunday dinners saved me from falling too deep into my depression. Maria hadn’t known how much of a lifeline she’d been for me during my darkest days.

“Is it just me, or does it smell like heaven in here?” I remarked as Maria opened her apartment door for me. I held a bottle of red wine in my grip and held it out to her. “I’m sure you already had a drink picked out, but I figured it would be rude to not show up with a bottle.”