Chapter 42
Landon
Not too long ago, Hank rang me, knowing I was in town for a few more weeks, and asked me to go check in on Raine to make sure she was all right until he arrived back in town. Obviously, I came without question because when your family was in need of you, you showed up as soon as you could.
“Hey there, stranger,” a voice said, making me look up from the roses in my hands.
Shay stood in front of me with a small smile against her lips.
“Hey, you.” I grinned as I lay the flowers in the chair on my left, and Shay sat in the chair on my right.
She crossed her legs beside me and played with the collar of her shirt, as if she was debating putting it between her lips. An old nervous habit of hers that I missed. I’d missed a lot of her old habits.
“Is she doing all right?” I asked about Raine. “I know she’s probably freaking out because Hank isn’t here, but outside of that, is she OK?”
She dropped her hands to her lap and turned to face me.
“Yeah, I think she’s coming around to being better than she was earlier.
The baby is coming earlier than expected, but the doctors are taking really great care of Raine, which makes it less scary.
Plus, so much time has passed that Raine’s anxiety has slightly faded.
So all in all, she’s OK. Her and Hank are just going to be parents a lot sooner than they thought. ”
“It’s so wild to me that they are going to have a kid.”
“They are the dream couple,” she said. “I used to wish for their kind of love story.”
“Used to?”
“I’m not sure my life is cut out for that kind of true love, but I’m happy to know two people who did receive it.”
“What do you mean your life isn’t cut out for true love?”
She shrugged as she sat back comfortably in her chair before crossing her arms. “I don’t really believe in love. At least not like I used to. I feel as if Raine and Hank are a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love story. That stuff doesn’t happen for most people.”
“But it could happen,” I argued.
“It’s highly unlikely, but it’s fine. At least I’m able to see that strong kind of love from a distance.”
“You don’t believe in true love for yourself?”
“Oh no.” She shook her head. “I believe in love. It just doesn’t seem to believe in me.”
“Who was the last person you loved?”
She grew somber and tilted her head toward me. “Well,” she whispered, her voice low and controlled, “I kind of stopped loving boys after a silly high school bet I once had.”
Me.
I was the last person she loved.
Before I could reply, a person came shooting through the hospital doors. He flew to the receptionist counter in a flurry. “Hello, I’m here to see my wife, Raine Jacobs, and—”
“Hank!” I called out.
He turned to face me and sighed with relief.
Then he saw Shay and hurried over. “What’s going on?
Is she OK? Will people not let you guys into her room?
Is she alone? Oh my gosh, she’s alone. Did something go wrong?
What went wrong? What’s going on?” He raked his hands through his hair nonstop in full freak-out mode.
Shay stood to her feet and placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “It’s OK, Hank. She’s OK. Everything’s moving along well. She’s in her room now, and a doctor was just finishing up checking in on her. She just asked me to come out and make sure Landon was all right.”
“What does that mean? Why wouldn’t you be all right?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know. But for now, go see your wife. She’s going to be happy to see you,” I said.
“Or, she might kill you. It’s honestly up in the air right now,” Shay joked.
Hank hurried away in a fluster, probably beyond nervous about becoming a father. I knew he’d be great, though. Some people were born to be parents, and Hank Jacobs was one of those individuals.
As time moved on, Hank informed Shay and me that the baby would probably take a little bit longer to make an appearance in the world, so we could head home to get some rest.
It was pitch-black when Shay and I left the hospital. As we walked to our cars, Shay reached hers first, and I went to say good night, but she cut in first.
“So I’ve been thinking,” she started. She rubbed her hands together and bit her bottom lip. “About us.”
Us.
Yes.
I liked the sound of that.
“Yeah?”
“Yes. I mean, the other day you asked me if I felt anything after we hooked up, and the truth was yes. It felt . . .” She released a weighted breath from between her lips and shook her head back and forth. “Really, really good.”
“Like the best sex of my life.”
“Exactly.” She nodded and her cheeks flushed, but she kept going. “Which is why I was thinking, maybe we can do that again.”
“Do what again?”
“You know . . .” She combed her hands through her hair. “The whole banging thing. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt something like that. I don’t want anything serious between us, obviously, but I wouldn’t be against feeling that again.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Are you asking me to be your fuck buddy?”
“What? No. That sounds inappropriate and wrong. It’s more like a fuck acquaintance,” she said, making me laugh.
“That sounds so much better.”
“If you’re not interested—”
“Wait, what? Are you kidding? Of course I’m interested. I’m just thrown off, that’s all. I honestly expected that to be the last thing you’d say to me, seeing as how you appeared uninterested in reconnecting with me.”
“I know. I’m a complicated girl, but this thing between us doesn’t have to be complicated. There just have to be a few rules in place before we start.”
“Rules? Like what?”
“For starters . . . it’s strictly physical. Nothing more, nothing less.”
I gave her a small smile. “Perhaps we can amend that rule down the line.”
“There will be no amendments.”
I fought back the frown that wanted to leave my lips. “OK, fine. What are the other rules?”
“It’s casual. If you’re in town, we can make it happen. If you’re not, we leave it alone.”
“OK. What else?”
“We don’t tell people about us. It’s a very private thing. Simply between the two of us. Also, we don’t talk about our past. We simply focus on the present. We don’t go deep.”
I smirked. “Trust me, I’m going to go deep.”
She laughed, and I loved the sound so much more than I should’ve. “Lastly, I’m the only person you’re sleeping with when you’re sleeping with me, and vice versa. If you sleep with someone else during the downtime, you have to tell me.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t want to sleep with anyone else.”
Her lips flashed with a small smile before she held her hand out toward me. “Then we have a deal? We can be fuck acquaintances?”
I laughed at the term but held my hand out in her direction. “I think I can adhere to your guidelines.”
We shook on it.
“This is good, because that means I can stop with the dreams I’ve been having,” she said, making me cock another eyebrow.
“You’ve been having dreams about me?”
She bit her bottom lip. I wanted to bite it, too. “We don’t have to talk about that.”
“Oh, but I really want to talk about that.”
She opened her car door and slid inside. “Too bad. Not going to happen.”
I gripped the side of her car door, preventing her from closing it. “So when do we get started on this little arrangement?”
“There’s no time like the present. I would give you my address, but it appears you already know where I live.
So if you happen to show up there in about thirty minutes, I wouldn’t fight letting you in.
Eleanor won’t be home tonight. She’s staying by Greyson’s.
Oh!” She held a hand up. “That’s another rule. No sleepovers ever.”
“I’ll race you there,” I joked, shoving my hands into my coat pockets.
“Good, and Landon?”
“Yes?”
“This is strictly business. Nothing personal.” With that, she slammed her door and drove off.
Dr. Smith probably would’ve advised me against having a strictly sexual relationship with Shay.
She would’ve brought up all the reasons it would be a mistake down the line, but luckily Dr. Smith didn’t have to know.
There was no way I was going to pass up a way of connecting with Shay—even if it was strictly physical.
Maybe down the line, that could change.
Maybe down the line, she’d think about letting me back into her heart and allowing me to stay for a while.