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“I think she might be interested in more than consulting,” Audrie said.
She regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. What if she’d just planted the seed that led Landon to fall for Jessica? She should have kept her mouth shut.
“No way,” Landon said. “She’s been dating her co-star for the past five years. I think they even live together. I don’t know why they don’t get married.”
Audrie bit her lip and looked back over her shoulder. She should tell him. Yes, she had to tell him. It was the right thing to do. She should just clue him in that Jessica and Peter had broken up, and Peter was now flirting with Tracie—or at least he had been that one morning.
Opening her mouth, Audrie took a deep breath to say the words, but before she could form a sentence, Landon turned toward her, smile on his face. That smile rendered her speechless.
“It looks like everybody’s cleared out,” he said. “You’ll just be having dinner with me and my brother.”
Audrie turned and looked. Sure enough, the group that had been gathered around Jessica was gone, as was Jessica. Had she left, and they trailed after her like an entourage? Was that how it worked on a movie set? She really had no idea.
“I’m sure someone else will show up before it’s over,” she said. “But I actually could do with a peaceful meal.”
“Thank you for continuing to hang out with us,” he said. He was looking at her now, a serious expression on his face. “I know you could be home in front of the TV, having a quiet meal.”
His eyes seemed to take her in. When he looked at her like that, it made her sad she’d never know what it was like to kiss him or to have his arms around her.
“Are you two getting over here or what?” Rourke called out, his voice cutting through the silence in the tent.
Audrie was so jumpy, she actually started at the sound. Both she and Landon finished filling their plates and headed over to the table where Rourke sat, his food untouched in front of him. He hadn’t even started eating yet. It was clear that in true cowboy gentleman style, he was waiting for his dining companions to sit down.
“Thank you for joining us tonight,” Rourke said as Audrie and Landon took their seats and settled their plates on the table in front of them. “I know you kind of were thrown into the lion’s den. We invited your buddy, Christian, but he’s taking the missus out tonight.”
“The missus?” Those two words came out of Audrie’s mouth before she even realized she was going to say them.
“That wife of his.” Rourke looked around, then settled his gaze on his food. “The woman who’s always with him.”
“They’re not married.” Audrie glanced over at Landon, who sat two chairs away from her—a respectable distance as before. No matter what was going on between them, if anything, they had to keep it professional in front of his brother.
“They’ve been dating a couple of weeks or so,” Audrie said. “She came to town to scout this location, and they fell in love.”
“Really?” Rourke looked over at his brother. “I had no idea. They seem like they’ve been together a long time.”
“They do, don’t they?” Audrie said. “Christian was married. His wife died suddenly three years ago. Everybody thought he’d never even look at another woman again.”
“That explains it.” Rourke nodded.
Landon looked from Rourke to Audrie. “Explains what?”
“He shifted right back into relationship mode,” Rourke said. “It’s natural for him. He’s one of those guys.”
His words had Audrie intrigued and a little nervous at the same time. Was he about to say that he and Landon weren’t relationship kinds of guys?
“You know,” Rourke said to Landon. “The type who feels most comfortable having a woman to come home to after a long day of work. Or having a woman come home to him after she’s worked a long day.”
Landon had a big heap of potatoes on his fork, but now he paused, looking over at Audrie. It made sense that he’d look at her, even though she was more interested in hearing the type of guy Landon was. But they were talking about Christian, and as his longtime friend, Audrie would know him better than anyone here.
She wished she could say they were wrong about him, if only to illustrate that any guy could become a relationship person. Any woman, too. It was all about finding the right partner. She’d always believed there was a guy out there for her, and if she stopped pursuing dead-end relationships, she might find him.
“He’s right,” she told Landon. “Christian had his first serious girlfriend in seventh grade. I don’t think they even went on a date. He asked her if she’d be his girlfriend, and she said yes, and that continued for several months until she dumped him. In high school, he had a two-year relationship with a cheerleader at a rival school twenty minutes away. He had it bad for her, but the distance eventually got to him. When he met Melissa…”
She hesitated there. Even after all this time, it still hurt to talk about Christian’s late wife. Melissa wasn’t just Christian’s wife. Audrie and Melissa had become really close, too. When she died, Audrie had to be strong for Christian, but she’d been devastated, as well.
“Melissa was the little sister of one of his buddies growing up,” Audrie said. “I didn’t know her, but he did. He came back home from traveling around and saw she was all grown up. That convinced him to move back home. After Melissa died, he swore that was it for him. He’s been alone since.”
“That can’t be easy.” Landon shook his head. “He probably didn’t want to risk getting his heart broken again.”
