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He was in love with her.
Chapter Nine
Sunnie held Landon’s hand all the way to the restaurant, and even smiled at him fondly as he wrapped his arm around her waist when they crossed a street. They’d been followed by a handful of tabloid photographers.
She suspected most people suddenly cast into the limelight from viral videos weren’t placed under this kind of scrutiny, but once it came out that she was Sky Mitchell and Teagan Collins’s niece, it elevated her to some sort of reality TV status. Countless times in the past week, she’d been stopped by people wanting to know everything from what Sky and Teagan thought of her secret romance, to if she’d manufactured the video in some crazy attempt to become as famous as her relatives.
People were insane. And they fixated on weird-ass shit.
So between her famous aunt and uncle and the fact Hot Cop worked for her dad, they’d inadvertently found too many ways to keep the tabloids interested. She also figured it would only take one uncovered affair or spectacular divorce in Hollywood to move the spotlight away from them.
They stepped into Charleston, a very posh upscale restaurant in Baltimore, and she blew out a soft whistle. “Very elegant,” she whispered. “And expensive. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather hit The Cheesecake Factory?”
He rolled his eyes, and then turned to ask the host for a table. The host clearly recognized them and decided to buy some free publicity for the restaurant by placing them at a cozy little table near the front, right next to the windows. It gave them a great view of the waterfront—and everyone outside a perfect way to watch Sunnie and Landon.
Landon actually seemed pleased with the placement, which made sense, given his desire to speed along the news they were dating. She spotted dark circles under his eyes and realized this had probably been harder on him than he was letting on.
Once they were seated, he reached across the table and took her hand in his, a very romantic gesture that she didn’t doubt every photographer outside had managed to snap a shot of.
“Smooth move,” she murmured, prompting him to laugh.
Landon had a great laugh, and it did wonders at breaking the tension she’d been feeling up until that moment. She was being silly, letting the past couple of weeks blind her to something that should have been obvious. Landon was one of her best friends and this crazy-ass situation wasn’t going to change that.
He ordered a bottle of wine from the waiter. When the man walked away, she leaned forward. “Wine? Seriously? I’m pretty sure they serve Guinness here.”
“It’s a date, Sunnie. We’re going to do it right.”
They chatted about the weather and work briefly, then the waiter returned with the wine, pouring it. They asked for a few more minutes with the menu and the man went away.
Sunnie decided it was time to get the show on the road. “I believe we were going to lay out the parameters of this thing.”
“I was.”
He’d purposely changed her pronoun. So adorable, she thought. Poor boy probably thought she’d let him get away with that. He really should know better.
“So what’s our time limit?” she pressed.
“We pretend to date until this,” he jerked his head to the small crowd that had formed across the street, “goes away.”
“That’s too nebulous. I think we need an actual time frame. One week? Two?”
Landon shook his head. “No. No set time limit. When the crowd goes away, we go back to normal.”
She leaned back, debating whether or not to play her big card this early in the game. Then she decided what the hell. This could save a lot of time in the long run—because there was no way Landon was going to accept her conditions for this fake relationship.
“That could take some time,” she mused.
He shrugged as if that didn’t matter.
“I mean, if I’m pretending to date you, that means I can’t date anyone else.”
Landon frowned. “You and Derek broke up. Neither one of us is currently seeing anyone. I’m not sure why that’s a problem.”
“I’m just going to go ahead and lay it all on the line for you, babe.” She did a little gesture toward her lap. “I’m going to need orgasms.”
Landon had picked up his wineglass, intent on taking a sip, but he put it back down. “Play with your vibrators.”
She shook her head. “Those are okay for a night or two, but you know me, Landon. I suck at diets. All diets. Sure, I can exist on lettuce for a day or two, but after a few days, I’m going to cave and order the large fries at McDonalds.”
