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@LandonBarkerOfficial come help me support the South Bay Animal Shelter this
Saturday at 1 PM. #AdoptAPet #Trojans
“I have twenty-four million followers.” He winks. I read the Tweet for a third time, processing what this could mean for the shelter.
“Landon, that’s amazing. Wait, don’t you have practice on Saturday?”
“We do, but just in the morning. We’re reviewing game film. I’ll be out of there by noon. I’ll get Case and a few of the guys to come too. They can Tweet it out to their followers as well.”
“The Cocky Bastard can too. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that,” Aubrey says. “Thank you, Landon.”
“I usually have PR send over pictures and things to sign, but I’m not going to do that this time. I want to get the public here, and I can sign anything they bring with them, but I want to make this day about the shelter.”
“Thank you.” I rise on my tiptoes and kiss him.
“If that’s what I get for doing something nice, I need to step up my game.” He grins, and I can’t help but playfully roll my eyes.
“You two are so cute together. I love this.” Aubrey waves her hands at us.
“Yeah, I love it too,” Landon says softly, his eyes holding mine. “You need any help around here today?” He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
“No, we have a roster of volunteers this afternoon. Thank you for what you did.”
“Anything for you.” He leans down for another kiss and I have to force myself to not take it too far, knowing that Aubrey is in the room with us. “I’ll see you tonight?” he asks when we finally pull apart.
“Yes.”
“Pack a bag. I’ll pick you up and we’ll go back to my place.”
“Okay.” A slow grin crosses his face. I don’t know if he thought I was going to fight him on it or what, but I’m not. I’m putting myself out there, my heart too, and letting the chips fall where they may. “Thank you for breakfast.”
“You’re welcome,” he says, giving me another chaste kiss. “Aubrey, it was good to see you.” He releases his hold on me and steps back. “Later, freckles.”
“Damn.” Aubrey pretends to fan herself with her hands. “That was hot.”
“Yeah he is,” I agree, making her laugh.
“So, you took my advice I see.”
“I did and we talked last night. We’re dating exclusively. I stayed at his place last night.”
“Give me all the juicy details.”
“Nothing much to tell really. We made out like teenagers, and then fell asleep.”
“Huh.”
“What? Huh? What’s that for?”
“Seems I was right. He’s not the playboy you think he is.”
“Maybe. He says you can’t believe everything you read, and I trust him. He’s given me no reason not to. He’s picking me up at my place after work and he just told me to pack a bag, so I guess I’m staying over again. Not that I mind. His bed is like sleeping on fluffy clouds. It’s insane.”
“The man in it isn’t so bad either, right?” She wags her eyebrows.
“Not bad at all.” I laugh as her phone rings.
“Cocky,” she greets her husband.
I tune her out, not wanting to listen to their conversation, and dig into the bag from the café. Sure enough, he got me my cinnamon coffee cake muffin, and Aubrey the banana nut. “He’s observant, I’ll give him that,” I murmur to myself.
“That was Chance. I told him about Landon and he’s going to send out a Tweet as well. Hopefully there are a lot of locals who follow him.”
“That’s great. Sounds like this event is going to turn around after all.” As soon as the words are out of my mouth, the phone rings. Aubrey answers and I take the chance to bite into my muffin.
“That was someone who saw Landon’s tweet. They wanted to know what time the event started. Holy shit, Emma. Maybe we’re not ready for this type of exposure.”
“Meh,” I say, waving her off. “That’s good press for the shelter. Hell, maybe we’ll even get some new volunteers because of it too.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice? Just think of all the things that we could finally do. That ever-growing to-do list we could mark off if we had more help.”
The phone rings again, and I answer this time. More of the same… what time does the event start and what time will Landon Barker be here. Aubrey and I scarf down bites of muffin between fielding calls. By the time the volunteers arrive for the day, we’ve managed to do nothing but answer the phone. Maybe Aubrey’s right—we might not be ready for a crowd of this magnitude.
“You know, maybe we should have a sheriff here. You know, crowd control and all that. I know it takes out of the budget, but with the way the phone’s been ringing, it’s probably a safe bet that having someone here would be beneficial.”
