“Where’s your girlfriend?” I eventually ask, tired of the small talk. If the question makes him uncomfortable, so be it. Maybe he’ll leave, and Landon and I can get back to…whatever Landon and I were doing. “I look forward to meeting her.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Thomas says. At least he has the decency to look embarrassed. “Haven’t for a long time.”
A long time? About ten months? Maybe when she surprised him during his summer vacation and found out he’d been cheating on her?
But what about the girl Paige said Gia saw him with?
The question burns in my stomach like an ulcer, but I don’t dare ask.
Gia tucks herself against Thomas’s side, staking a claim on a boy I don’t want. “HiscousinLeia is with them this year,” she says.
Yep, that explains it.
The message Gia sends is unspoken but loud and clear—Thomas is single, and she wants him. Well, that’s peachy. She’s welcome to him.
“Sounds fun,” I say, unwrapping myself from Landon’s patient arms and taking his hand. “Well, have a good time.”
Landon follows, no questions asked.
“Lacey…” Thomas calls and then trails off, probably unsure what to say. Maybe it should go a little something like this:“I’msorry I used you to cheat on my girlfriend and then started cheating on the both of you with Gia.”
It’s the kind of thing you have to say in person because they just don’t make greeting cards for that sort of apology.
Without waiting for Thomas to get his thoughts in order, I give the pair a curt, indifferent wave and pull Landon into the barn.
“Where are we going?” he asks, lowering his voice as if the darkened atmosphere means we should whisper.
“Away from them.”
I cried countless tears over Thomas. I imagined our first meeting all this time—looked forward to it with equal amounts of dread and eagerness—and pictured all the things I would say and do. But actually seeing him again was somehow anticlimactic, unmemorable even.
With Landon obediently trailing behind me, I climb the ladder to the hayloft. It’s not completely dark. Firelight from the tiki torches shines in through the large front window, which is open to the night. I glance around to see if anyone is up here, but it looks like we have the loft to ourselves.
As soon as Landon’s up the ladder, I sit on a bale, waiting for him to join me. Even though it’s been haunting my thoughts all week, I didn’t bring Landon here for the same reason other couples find the space so appealing. I came to escape.
Outside, the music gets even louder, which convinces me that I made the right decision. I don’t feel like being fun and social—that’s Paige’s thing, not mine.
“There’s actually hay up here,” Landon says, sounding bemused by the quaintness of it.
“Technically, this is straw.”
Landon sits beside me. “Are there mice?”
“Scared?” I tease him, though he doesn’t sound nervous. I scoot closer to bump his shoulder—or maybe I scoot closer justto be closer. “Misty has lots of cats prowling the property. I think we’re safe.”
He turns his head, meeting my eyes in the dark. Though I can’t see him well, I can tell he’s smiling that crooked smile of his, the one that makes my knees weak. “I, too, will protect you from tiny rodents should the need arise.”
“That’s very brave of you,” I say with a laugh, and then I look down at my hands, which I’ve clasped on my lap. “Thank you. It was much easier facing him for the first time with you there.”
Landon only nods—maybe he doesn’t know what to say. This is a weird situation we’ve gotten ourselves into. We say we’re fake dating, but I’m genuinely attracted to him, and I think there’s a chance he likes me too. My mind wanders to our almost-kiss, and my pulse quickens. We’re alone, entirely by ourselves. There’s no reason to kiss him now, not when it won’t help convince people of our ruse. But I want to.
Oh, I want to.
“Do you think we were believable?” Landon asks.
“Hmmm?” My eyes are focused on the lack of space between us, on Landon’s arm pressed next to mine as we share the bale of straw.
From the corner of my eye, I see Landon look my way. “Do you think we were believable? As a couple?”
