Landon & Shay: Part Two (L&S Duet #2)(94)

“If you stare any harder, you might lose your eyesight,” a voice said from over my shoulder, making me almost drop the plate in my hands.

“What? I wasn’t staring,” I lied as I turned toward Eleanor. “I was seeing who was here, that’s all.”

She gave me a knowing smile but didn’t dig deeper into the subject.

I placed the plate down and went back to the rest of the dishes in front of me, trying to shake the butterflies provoked by seeing Landon working as the candy man.

After I finished up the last of the dishes, I walked through the house to get to the bathroom. On my way, I passed Karla’s room.

I noticed Landon standing in her bedroom, holding her in a tight embrace. He was whispering things into her ear, and whatever he was saying seemed to be exactly what Karla needed to hear. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, but a smile sat against her lips as she kept nodding to his words.

“Okay,” she whispered, “I know, Uncle Landon.”

When he finished speaking to her, he pulled back and gave her the most genuine, heartwarming smile in the universe. I wished I hadn’t seen it—the way he gave such a broken girl so much comfort. It made me want to find comfort in his embrace, too, for my broken pieces.

Landon took his thumbs to her face and wiped away her falling tears. “I love you, Karla, and I’m so glad you’re here.”

I didn’t know if they meant here at Christmas, or here as in alive, but either way, that heart of mine? Pitter-patter, patter pit.

“I love you too, Uncle Landon, and I’m so glad you’re here.”

Every time the girls called him Uncle Landon, I thought my heart was going to explode from warmth. The way he loved those girls and the way they smiled when he came into a room?

It was enough to heat the iciest parts of my heart.

Landon’s eyes looked up toward the door, catching me eavesdropping on his sweet moment with Karla.

At first, he looked surprised, then his lips curved up into the sexiest smile and he nodded once, parted his lips, and mouthed, “Hi, Chick.”

I shot away toward the bathroom, feeling embarrassed for intruding on their intimate moment.

The second I reached the bathroom, I shut the door, hurried over to the sink, and splashed water against my face. My whole body felt off, and I wasn’t sure how to handle the flurry of emotions rushing through me. Landon looked so good, healthy, and happy. I couldn’t stop thinking about walking over to him and taking him into my arms for a small embrace. What was wrong with me?

Maybe the holiday blues.

More likely the heartbreak blues.

I gently slapped my hands against my cheeks and proceeded to give myself a pep talk. “Okay, pull yourself together, Shay. It is only Landon after all. There’s nothing to overthink here. You’re a strong, independent woman who can be in the same room as your ex. You’re both adults and you have been living a life of your own for a few months now. You can be cordial and kind without allowing any romantic thoughts to pop in your head. You. Got. This,” I said.

“Yes,” a voice commented on the other side of the door. “You. Got. This.”

I flung the door open to see Landon standing there with such a smug smirk on his face. “What are you doing?!” I asked. “Don’t you know it’s rude to eavesdrop on someone?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you really giving me a scolding about eavesdropping as if you weren’t doing the same to Karla and me mere seconds ago? Or as if you weren’t eye-fucking me when I first walked in and was saying hi to Lorelai?”

He noticed me noticing him?

How humiliating.

Also, wait, what? Did he just say I was eye-fucking him?

“I wasn’t eye-fucking you,” I whisper-shouted, feeling my cheeks heating up from embarrassment.

“Trust me, Chick, I know when I’m being eye-fucked. But don’t worry.” He took a step closer to me, sending a wave of electricity through my body. “I was eye-fucking you, too.”

He was acting cocky as ever, as if we hadn’t just broken up a few months back. As if we hadn’t loved each other. He was acting like a complete…cocky asshole.

“Can we stop saying eye-fuck? Also, you should really try to stop calling me Chick. We’re in our thirties now, Landon. It’s a bit childish.”

“Would you rather me call you honey or darling?”

“You tried both of those in high school. Neither of them worked.”

“Then what should I call you?”

“How about we go with Shay?”

“Okay, Chick. I’ll see what I can do.”

What the hell?

He smiled a wicked grin, as if he knew something I’d yet to discover.

“You can call me Shannon, if you want to keep it professional,” I offered, trying to ignore the hiccup that was sitting in my throat.

He took a step closer to me. I watched his eyes dance across my body, moving up and down every inch, following to my lips, which he fixated on for what felt like hours, even if it was only mere seconds.

“What in the world makes you think I want to be anywhere near professional with you, Shay Gable?”

Oh, sweet Caroline, he was eye-fucking me. I felt the pool of heat in my stomach starting to build and the trembling of my thighs as Landon proceeded to eye-fuck me right there in Greyson’s hallway, underneath the mistletoe.