He gives me a quick once-over and leans back in his chair, crossing his hands behind his head. I don’t miss the way his biceps flex with the movement, straining against his shirtsleeves. “You look like shit.”
I brush my sweaty hair out of my eyes and focus on getting my panting under control. “Yes, I’m aware, thanks.”
“Well, what’s so urgent you couldn’t be bothered to knock?”
I blow out a short breath. “If I’m going to keep living here, I need to start paying you rent.”
His eyebrows shoot up in surprise. That was not at all what he was expecting me to say. “Rent,” he repeats in that way he does, which only makes me more annoyed.
“Yes. I need to start paying you rent. I can’t live here for free. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
He huffs out a breath, clearly amused by this whole conversation, and turns back to his computer screen. “Violet, I don’t need your money.”
“It’s not about whatyouneed,” I tell him. “It’s about whatIneed.”
He glances back at me, eyebrow quirked. “I’m not following.”
“I shouldn’t be living here without paying rent.”
Landon sighs, like this conversation is draining him of energy. “Let me rephrase then. I don’twantyour money.”
“What if I insist?”
He studies me for a moment before he purses his lips and shrugs. “Fine. Thirteen hundred a month.”
I blink. Thirteen hundred a month is way more than I was expecting, but I asked for this. I nod slowly. “Um, yeah. That could work, I think.”
He gives me a look that says,sure, real convincing. “Don’t be stupid. I’m not taking your money.”
“Why not?” I ask, crossing my arms. “Don’t you need it for theredesign?” The second I cast the question out into the universe, I wish I could reel it back in becausewhere did that come from?
Landon straightens in his chair, focusing on me in a way that makes it seem like he can see right through me. “What redesign?” he asks slowly, his eyes searching mine.
Shut up shut up shut up, Violet.
“Nothing,” I mutter, looking down at my feet to hide my suddenly warm cheeks. “Never mind.”
Quirking an eyebrow at me, he leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest in a smug sort of way. “Does this have something to do with the other night?”
“What night?” I ask innocently.
“The night my mother stopped by unexpectedly.”
“No,” I assure, perhaps a bit too emphatically. “Though it would be nice to know the dates of the redesign so I can make myself scarce again.”Stop talking stop talking stop talking. “Stay out of Penny’s way,” I mutter and wince.
You had to bring her into it?
“You sound a bit bitter,” Landon says, and I can’t help but glare.
“I’m not bitter,” I snap. “Why would I be bitter?”
Landon full-on smirks, then. “I have no idea. My mother showed up out of the blue, and I did everything in my power to save you from having to interact with her, and then I was forced to suffer through an unimaginablypainfulthree-hour dinner opposite a woman who couldn’t stop batting her fake eyelashes at me, answering one asinine question after the next. I have no clue whyyou’rethe one who’s upset.”
I did everything in my power to save you from having to interact with her.
He…was trying tohelpme?
That one phrase changes everything. My shoulders droop, and all the anger drains out of me as I realize there’s nocatch.He’s not playing somegame.He saved my job because it was the right thing to do. He left the other night to spare me his mother’s wrath. He gave me a place to stay because I had no other options.
