Chapter 33 #2
The office door creaks open, and somehow, I didn’t hear him coming. Landry stands in the doorway, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. He adjusts his hat, his eyes not leaving mine. He doesn’t look at the phone, but he knows.
“Quinn,” he starts, and my name now all of a sudden sounds painful, the easing tone, the head tilt—I want to be sick.
I get to my feet and pretend my legs aren’t Jell-O, and that my heart isn’t about to jump up my throat and out my mouth. “When I got here, I told you that my boss cheated on me, right? I mean, you do remember me telling you that?”
Landry steps inside, partially closing the door, most likely to keep Sadie’s prying ears away from this conversation. I love Sadie, and that won’t ever change, so I keep my voice low to protect her.
“I told you that Devin cheated on me with a coworker, and I told you it happened toward the end of the film, and it caused me to lose focus and ruin my work.”
Still, he says nothing.
“Landry, I told you all of that, didn’t I?”
He nods. “Yes, you did.”
I nod, unable to calm the rage stirring in my belly. “And you asked me to marry you, as a favor to you, right?”
Another nod. “Yes.”
“And the first second I leave this house, you call another woman? A woman that I clearly expressed makes me uncomfortable. And you didn’t just call her the one time, did you?” I nudge the locked phone to him. “You called her all last week and God only knows how much more. Right?”
Landry makes a move toward me, a cautious and slow step, but I shake my head and step back, finding the edge of the desk with my hands.
“Quinn, it’s not— I just—” He can’t find the words, and my stomach plummets to the depths of my soul, landing right next to the pieces broken off of my heart.
He comes to me, and I stay there and let him take my hands in his.
“I promise, I just need you to trust me. Okay?” His eyes search mine, and I want more than anything to nod, to reach up to him and press my mouth to his and find solace and relief in his words.
But my gut brought me into this office. And I’d be a fool to stay. And I’ve been the fool before.
I take my hands out of his and the expression that washes over his face nearly makes me change my mind.
Nearly.
I love Landry Vaughn so much.
But I love me, too.
“I’m sorry, Landry.” I shake my head. “If you can’t tell me what’s going on, I can’t stay here.”
He shakes his head, he reaches for me, he stumbles after me, but he doesn’t explain himself, merely begs for me to understand. “Please, Quinn. Just… It’s not what you think it is.”
In the hall, I press my finger to my lips for Sadie’s sake, because she’s still in the house, now with Petunia and Alice.
“Hi, girls,” I greet sweetly, my heart hammering like crazy in private. They say hello, huddled on the ground with Big Bertha and a Ken doll. Landry follows me upstairs where he pleads with me as I pack my bag.
“Please, Quinn, this isn’t— You can’t go.”
I throw my camera bag in my suitcase and snatch the batteries off the dresser. My toiletries are in Landry’s shower, and I don’t care to go into our room right now. I’ll use whatever Mabel has.
“Where are you going?” The panic in his voice has tears pricking the backs of my eyes.
“I’m going back to Mabel’s.” I throw in the last few items from the dresser, zero care if I forget anything. I just need out. I can hardly breathe. Landry has a secret, and after all we’ve been through and shared, he’s choosing his privacy over me.
I zip the case and face him. “I’ll be at the rodeo next week. I have enough footage of everything, so I won’t need to film more until then, anyhow.” I tip my chin up, refusing to let the tears fall. If Jenna meant nothing, he wouldn’t be calling her in private and refusing to tell me why.
“Please, Quinn,” he offers softly, the rasp in his voice making me remember the way he gently washed me in the shower the other night. “I love you.”
I’m hurt, but I don’t subscribe to being cruel when I’m in pain, so I smile and offer what I can. “Goodbye, Landry.”
On the way out, I tell Sadie I’m going to the inn for a while to get some editing done, but promise I’ll be back for lunch to take her out every day on my editing breaks. She doesn’t question it, mostly because she’s sidetracked with her friends, and I say a silent prayer of thanks for that.
Landry follows after me on the porch. “Don’t go.” He follows me down the steps. “Quinn, please.” He stands at my trunk, preventing me from opening it.
“Don’t cause a scene or the girls will come out.”
He steps aside and I pop my trunk, tossing the suitcase inside. I have another bag but right now, I just don’t care. I need to get away from this feeling, and I seem to only really feel it right now, around Landry.
“What do I tell Sadie?” He sounds so lost, and I hate it. But I didn’t get us here.
I shake my head, because I hadn’t expected to run off. I never expected this. Quickly, I think of something, something for Sadie. “I will be by this week to have lunch with her. After the rodeo, we can talk about what to tell her.”
He doesn’t nod, because he doesn’t like that plan. As if I do. I thought I’d found my happily ever after, but I just found Devin in cowboy boots, I guess.
I get in my car and don’t respond when he asks me to stay once more, and instead, shift the car out of park and drive straight to Sable Sky Inn.
It’s where I started out when I came here, and apparently, it’s the last place I’ll stay here, too.