He opened the basket and started pulling out more food than I would have ever been able to eat.
“Did you make all this?” I asked, surprise evident in my tone.
Landen’s brows lifted as he looked at me. “You think I can’t cook?”
I sensed that he was toying with me so I replied, “Yes, I don’t think you can cook.”
He chuckled. “I can cook, but no, I didn’t make all this. Have you ever been to The Rustic?”
I shook my head and took the wrapped sandwich he held out to me.
“It’s a bar and restaurant near my house. They put together picnic baskets Thursday through Sunday. I ordered one.”
I peeled the paper off the sandwich and grinned. “Afraid you’d give me food poisoning?”
“Nope, just saving time,” he retorted.
I took a bite and nearly groaned at the delicious flavor of ciabatta and smoked turkey. “Wow, this is good,” I said after I swallowed the bite. “I’m just glad it has mustard on it instead of mayo.”
“I ordered all the sandwiches with mustard.”
“That’s good. I hate mayo,” I stated before I took another bite.
“I know.”
I chewed and watched as he opened a container of what appeared to be dip and chips and another of fruit. Once I was done with that bite, I asked, “How?”
He frowned at me. “I’ve eaten lunch with you before, Chelsea.”
“You’ve eaten lunch with Chris. I usually eat at my desk or downstairs in the atrium,” I replied.
“Yes, but the last time we ordered from the deli, Chris traded sandwiches with you because they put mayo on yours instead of mustard.”
I let the topic drop as he pulled out two sealed cups and peeled the tape off the lids and stuck straws inside them. He handed me one and I sipped. It was tea, just barely sweet, which was exactly the way I liked it. I usually had to order my tea half sweet and half unsweet when I went to restaurants. In Texas, it wasn’t sweet tea unless it was practically syrup and that was too sweet for me.
Oh yeah, Landen Weber paid more attention to me than I’d realized.
As we ate, I asked him about his different companies. I knew some things about them due to the work I did with Chris, but not much. I wanted to know what made Landen tick. Unfortunately, most of his companies were based in tech, which meant the explanations flew over my head.
Once our meal was finished and all the trash collected, Landen stood and grabbed the kite. I noticed then that the light breeze from earlier had strengthened into a steady wind. It was warm and sunny also. The perfect kite flying weather.
“Ready to fly a kite?” he asked as he helped me to my feet.
I laughed. “Yeah. I don’t think I’ve done this since I was little.”
It took us a few hilarious tries to get the kite in the air, but we managed it. And then it was a blast. At one point a particularly strong gust of wind nearly pulled the kite out of my hands. Landen stepped in behind me, wrapping his arms around my body, and grasped the handle and string before they could fly out of my grip.
Instinctually, I leaned back into him. In my sneakers, I was so much shorter that my head fit perfectly beneath his chin. He was warm and solid behind me and he remained there, his body pressed to mine, for a long while.
Unfortunately, the wind died down and the kite took a nosedive. Otherwise, I could have stood there, surrounded by Landen, all day long. He managed to save the kite from crashing into the ground, but playtime was over.
Once we wrapped the string back around the bright orange handle, he turned to me. “Want to go for a hike?”
I shook my head. “I’m still too full from lunch.” I glanced at the blanket. “Let’s be lazy.”
As the midday sun grew stronger, Landen had placed a pair of sunglasses over his eyes but I had noticed the dark circles beneath them earlier. He looked tired. He needed rest, not a vigorous hike.
He shrugged and moved to the blanket. After he sat, I joined him and gently pushed his shoulder until he was lying down. His glasses hid his eyes from me but there was a ghost of a smile on his lips. Once he was in the right position, I turned perpendicular to him and reclined until my head rested on his flat belly.
