Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
LANDMARK MOUNTAIN
SADIE
“What do you think we forgot?” Weston asks.
I laugh. “I’m sure several things, but hopefully nothing urgent.”
It’s Easter weekend and we’re driving into Landmark Mountain. Felicity has been to see us a few times, but this will be the first time I’ve gone to see her. I’m excited to meet everyone.
It’s been a little tense for the past few weeks, while Weston and I navigate living in the same house, but we’ve both worked hard to get to a comfortable place with each other. After our kiss—I don’t even know what to call what happened because he’s right, it was so much more than that to me too—and the conversation the next day, I haven’t brought up leaving again. Nothing was officially said, but after he looked so panicked when I suggested leaving, I decided then and there that I would stay, even if it was hard on me.
It’s definitely been hard.
But I just want to do what’s right for Caleb.
I think Weston was hurt, thinking we weren’t on the same page, but the truth is, that kiss meant too much, and if anything, my feelings for him are growing stronger by the day.
I wonder, several times a day, if he’s changed his mind about me. If he feels the same or if he’s written it off to a weak moment. I don’t think I’ll ever know because we’re both doing such a good job of not going there.
“Oh my goodness, this town is so cute,” I say. “It’s so festive. Look at the bunnies! Oh my God, Caleb is going to love the bunnies.”
Weston looks over at me and grins. “They go all out for every holiday, even more than Silver Hills. You should see it around here at Christmastime.”
We pull into the Landmark Mountain Lodge Cursing emoji
Bowie
This is payback in the purest form. I didn’t know you as a nine-year-old, but this just feels so fitting.
Penn
You guys are supposed to have my back.
Henley
I haven’t been able to text back because I’ve been laughing so hard.
I’ve got your back, man. And correction, Rhodes. He was fifteen with the armpit hair, nineteen when he first kissed with tongue.
Penn
I was a late bloomer!!!
Weston is laughing so hard, he’s crying. I crack up too, and Caleb thinks we’re laughing at him, so he joins in.
“What is so funny?” Felicity comes up behind us and puts her arms around me and Weston. We hug and she takes Caleb out of my arms, squeezing him.
“Penn,” he says.
“Ah. That explains it,” she says, laughing.
“He’s tutoring a kid through that foundation Mom’s a part of and the kid is already making him work hard for it,” Weston says.
“He needs to work hard for something,” Felicity says, grinning. “I’m so excited you’re here! The kids are hunting for Easter eggs right now, but I thought Caleb might like to see the bunnies.”
“Yes!” I squeal. “He’ll love them.”
“And he can get his picture taken with the Easter bunny,” Felicity adds.
“Cannot wait.”
Weston gets a funny look on his face.
“What?” I ask.
“I’m fucking terrified of the Easter bunny,” he whispers.
Felicity hears him and cracks up. “He’s not lying. The one time our family went to Disney World, I tried to get West to go stand in line with me to get pictures with the characters, and he always ran away crying.” She manages to kick the back of Weston’s leg when we’re walking and his leg buckles.
I cackle. I’ve seen her do this multiple times now and it never gets old.
“I did not run away crying,” Weston argues. “I just wanted to stand in line for something else.”
“Mm-hmm, as you sniffled behind Mom and watched me get my picture taken with Minnie Mouse.”
“Whatever,” he huffs.
He looks at me and grins, rolling his eyes.
I meet a ton of people when we get to the side of the lodge where all the activity is taking place. Sutton’s brothers and sister are there and their spouses, and everyone is so lovely, both in how nice they are and in how attractive they are. I’m surrounded by beautiful people and if I weren’t distracted with seeing how cute Caleb is with the bunnies, I’d be a little starstruck by everyone. Sutton’s sister Scarlett and his sister-in-law Marlow probably talk to me the most, but they’re all wonderful. Marlow has a little girl named Dakota who falls in love with Caleb and she stays with us while we play with the bunnies.
When Weston and I stand in line to get pictures with the Easter bunny, Weston gets fidgety.
“Are you seriously nervous?” I ask.
“You never know what’s behind the suit,” he whispers under his breath.
Owen pipes up. “I think Pappy was Santa Claus last year. He always keeps peppermints in his pocket and Santa was handing out candy canes.” He looks at me with big eyes and I smile. He’s adorable.
“That’s a really good guess then. If I knew it was Pappy playing the Easter bunny, I wouldn’t mind so much,” Weston says.
“I don’t think it’s Pappy,” Dakota says. “See? He’s over there with Grinny.”
I look over and see a striking elderly couple standing together near the Easter egg hunt. Weston has had to tell me several times who everyone is and I’m still having trouble keeping everyone straight. But I believe Grinny is the Landmarks’ grandma, and Pappy is the Ledgers’ grandpa…as in Zac Ledger, formerly my favorite quarterback until I met the one next to me.
We’re next in line and when the helper motions for us to come close, I do and Weston stands back. I look at him and he makes a face and then moves forward with us. It’s our turn for a picture and when I step closer to the bunny, Caleb starts wailing. He looks at the Easter bunny and cries his eyes out. I think pictures are still taken, but it can’t be a good one.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” Weston says, hustling us away from there as fast as he can.
Caleb’s lower lip sticks out as he looks back at the bunny and cries a little more.
“It’s okay, sweet boy. We won’t go back there,” I tell him.
“You never have to get your picture with a dressed-up character if you don’t want to,” Weston tells him solemnly.
I burst out laughing and he gives me a mock hurt look.
“No, you’re right. He doesn’t,” I say, trying to get serious and failing.
Later, we take a ride up the highest mountain in a big gondola. It’s full since it’s a clear spring day and everyone is out for the festivities. April has been amazing this year, and I can’t wait until the weather is even warmer so we can get in Weston’s pool. When we reach the top of the mountain, we take a few selfies of the three of us, and Felicity takes a few of us too. I get some of her and Sutton and Owen, and while I’m busy with that, Weston gets mobbed.
“Oh my God, Weston Shaw,” I hear the shriek and turn to see a bunch of hot girls in skintight jeans and boobs lifted up to heaven, surrounding him.
“Can we get a picture with you?” they ask, and he agrees.
I’ve never heard him say no to an autograph or a picture, and by now there have been a few occasions when it wasn’t the best timing. Like last month at Caleb’s doctor’s appointment.
“Sure,” he says.
They take no less than three dozen pictures, each of them wanting one-on-one shots and then multiple group shots, and then they want him to sign things. One girl lifts her shirt and flashes her boobs and points at her cleavage, asking him to sign there.
Felicity turns Owen away so he doesn’t see too much.
“I’m here with my family,” he says, shaking his head. “But you guys have a nice day, okay?” He starts to walk away and several of them stick pieces of paper in his pockets.
“Nerves of steel, these women,” Felicity mutters. She looks at me and rolls her eyes. “Don’t worry. He’s not into that. He’s grown up a lot.”
“I’m not…he can do whatever he wants.” I lift my shoulder.
Her eyes narrow and her lips poke out like she’s trying to read me. “But you know he’s into you, right?” she whispers.
I make a face. “No. It’s just a weird situation. I don’t think he really is at all?—”
She snorts. “Uh, I’ve seen the way he looks at you…and I thought I was seeing something in the way you look at him too, but—” She shrugs. “Maybe I have it wrong?”
“I think so,” I say.
“Hmm.”
“What do you think?” Weston asks, coming up to us.
“I think you got a lot of girls’ numbers just now,” I say.
He groans. “If there was a trash can up here, I’d toss them.”
“Mm-hmm,” I say.
His eyebrows lift. “You don’t believe me?”
I lean in and whisper in his ear. “I think it’s been a while for you and you’re probably ready to have sex just for the sake of having sex.”
I said it playfully, recalling the conversation we had a while ago now about sex. But when I step back to look at him, grinning, the look on his face wipes it away. He looks hurt and maybe a little mad.
“Weston,” I whisper.
He tugs on his hair, a gesture I know by now means that he’s annoyed or anxious. Before I can say anything else, he moves closer to Felicity and asks Owen something about what he sees below.
The girls who took pictures with him say, “Bye, Weston Shaw,” loudly as they walk toward the gondola station and I’m tempted to duck out and go with them.
If I think this is hard—it’s going to be really hard to hide my feelings when he actually starts sleeping with someone. It’s inevitable, and I can only hope I can get a handle on this before then. It’s funny that I would hear Sasha’s voice in my head about this now, but I do.
She’d be saying, “You know the best way to get over a man is to get under a new one, Sade,” and in the past, I’d laugh and tell her she may have a point.
But that’s the last thing I want to do, and I don’t think it would help anyway.