I frown as he switches to a different camera. The one monitoring his second-floor hall. A minute goes by, and then Audrey is sneaking up the stairs with Tyson Robertson. He’s a linebacker for BMA, and admittedly, I always thought he looked a little like Landon, only a less handsome version. Audrey is dragging him down the hall on the footage, and it’s obvious he’s pretty wasted as he stumbles around, but she doesn’t seem to care. She glances around quickly when she reaches Landon’s bedroom door and then wrenches it open to slip inside.
Something gooey melts in my chest. Is it regret? Or just my righteous indignation?
“She called him Killian,” I murmur. “I heard her say it…”
My shoulders cave inward. I feel so stupid. Landon sets his phone aside and pulls me onto his lap, insulating me with his arms.
“She’s fucking cuckoo,” he tells me. “That’s part of the reason I came here to talk to you. I think Audrey’s been screwing with me for a long time. She made me believe things too. Things that weren’t true.”
“Like what?” I peek up at him.
He hesitates like he’s nervous to tell me. But eventually, he caves in.
“The reason I’ve been so pissed off at you this whole time is because I thought you threatened to sell a story about me to the media. The morning after that party at my house, my publicist said you called him and my attorney and asked for a cash deal. They said you asked for five hundred thousand dollars in cash, and if you didn’t get it, you were going to destroy my career with a story about that night.”
I blink at him, stunned. “That’s crazy. I never spoke to either of them.”
“I know that now,” he answers gruffly. “But I didn’t before. As far as I knew, you took the money and ran off to Hawaii.”
“But I didn’t,” I insist. “I’ve never wanted your money. That wasn’t even remotely my concern. Why would they tell you I took the money if it wasn’t true?”
“Because someone did.” He shifts beneath me, circling his arm around my waist and pulling me closer. “Someone called them and pretended to be you. She met my attorney up at Devil’s Bluff to pick it up, and he really couldn’t see who it was. That wasn’t the way he wanted things to go down, but I was so angry I couldn’t think straight. It’s impossible to say for sure, but I suspect it might have been Audrey.”
“What the hell?” I clench my teeth so hard my jaw aches. “And you actually believed it was me?”
“I’m so sorry, Kail.” He squeezes me in his grasp. “It’s a weakness of mine. When it’s all you’ve ever known, it’s easy to believe anyone has the potential to screw you over. I was stupid, and I didn’t think it through. The same goes for the night I took off on you. I was too bullheaded to see clearly, but I meant what I told you. You’re the only girl I’ve been with. The only one I want.”
“You just left, though,” I whisper. “You didn’t give me a chance to say anything. You always assume the worst—”
“I know.” He cups the back of my head and eases it against his shoulder, stroking my hair through his fingers.
“You know?” I gripe. “Is that all you have to say?”
“No.” His lips tilt just a tiny bit, but then his eyes are as serious as I’ve ever seen them. “I’ve been a dick.”
“A real asshole,” I agree petulantly.
“A douchebag.” He nods.
“A wanker.”
His thumb grazes my lips. “A fuckwit.”
I peek up at him, and I can’t help it. Laughter bursts from my lips, and he laughs too. It feels so… disturbingly normal. So, naturally, I have to ruin it.
“We’ve both done things we can’t take back. And maybe Audrey was to blame for some of it. But does it really change anything?”
“Yes.” His fingers curl into my sweater, gripping me like he’s afraid I might bolt any second. “I came home because I wanted to apologize to you about that night. About all of it. I was too angry to see past my jealousy. The thought of you and Carson, it blinded me to everything else. I never stopped to think about how it must have looked to you—”
“None of that matters anymore,” I say.
He grunts in frustration. “Of course, it matters. This is what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“But it doesn’t,” I argue. “We could dissect what happened that night for the rest of eternity, but that won’t fix our real issues.”
“What are the real issues?” he asks hesitantly.
“Trust. We don’t trust each other, Landon.”
“Let me earn your trust then.” He slides his hand down my back, rubbing circles into the tension gathered there.
“It’s not me I’m worried about.” I dip my head. “It’s the fact you’ve never let anyone inside. You think everyone will hurt you, and I understand why. But when someone actually cares about you as much as I do, you can’t believe it’s real.”