Page 37 of Sweet Southern Heat

I sent my reply and placed my phone on the table, releasing a sigh as I hung my head in frustration. This was getting old, and I didn’t know how much longer I could hide the truth from my best friend.

“What’s wrong?” Landon asked, and I looked up to find him watching me, his brow knitted with concern.

“Nothing,” I said, not wanting to bring up our predicament again. He was trying. He’d reached out to Lyle several times with no luck. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like he was ashamed of us. I was his little brother’s ex-girlfriend, after all. To make matters worse, everyone still believed me to be responsible for the wreck that had nearly killed Lyle and crushed his dreams of becoming a football star. What would people think if they found out Landon and I were together?

“Talk to me, Liv. I can tell something is bothering you.” I blew out a long breath and settled on the truth.

“That was Honey. She wanted to hang out, and I had to blow her off again, but I couldn’t tell her why.”

“I’m sorry,” he said regretfully. He disliked the deception and secrecy as much as I did.

“I’m just tired of feeling like your dirty little secret,” I admitted. He recoiled, and I immediately regretted my word choice. He blinked away his surprise and leaned forward, gripping both my hands in his.

“You are not my dirty little secret,” he asserted, and I read the sincerity in his eyes. “You’re justmine. I don’t care if it’s wrong. I don’t care what people will think. But I do care how this will impact my brother. He needs to hear it from me and no one else.”

I swallowed past the emotion clogging my throat. It was like he had read my mind with that declaration. Warmth spread through my chest at the sincerity in his words and his gaze. It was clear he cared about me.

But he would always care about Lyle more.

After lunch,we grabbed our towels and umbrella and headed down to the beach where we spent the rest of the day. Dinner was a combination of fried oysters and shrimp nachos we devoured at the bar while listening to live music. Despite our earlier conversation, we managed to have an amazing day. We didn’t have to hide what we were to each other. We could touch and kiss openly without worrying about someone reporting back to Lyle. It was so freeing, I wanted to do it again next weekend.

It was late, the sun long set, when we returned to Magnolia Grove. The streets were quiet and mostly empty. Flashing lights came into view as we turned onto my street. I leaned forward in my seat, trying to see where the lights were coming from. My pulse picked up speed as we neared my house, and a knot formed in my gut. Somehow, I just knew those reds and blues were coming from my driveway.

“What the hell?” Tension filled Landon’s voice as my house came into full view, and we caught sight of two cop cars parked in my driveway. Two uniformed officers stood next to my car, notepads in hand while they spoke to Mr. Green, the neighbor from across the street. Landon parked at the curb in front of my house, and we both hopped out. Landon stalked across my yard, and I had to jog to catch up to him.

“What’s going on?” Landon asked, but before they could answer, I saw the damage. I gasped at the sight of my vandalized car. The tires were slashed and the word “whore” was carved down the driver’s side.

“Ms. Duprey,” one of the officers greeted, “we got a call from your neighbor about twenty minutes ago alerting us to someone on your property. They saw the perpetrator with what looked like a crowbar about to smash in the windshield. Mr. Green yelled at them and scared them off.” He nodded to my neighbor, a man in his late sixties who wore a bathrobe and house shoes.

“I’m just glad you weren’t home, Olivia,” Mr. Green said, worry filling his soft gray eyes. “Whoever it was, they were on a mission, and you could’ve been hurt.”

My entire body trembled with fear, and Landon wrapped a comforting arm around my middle. He pulled me into his side protectively, and I curled into him.

“Do you have any idea who it was?” Landon asked, and the officers shared a look.

“Mr. Green didn’t get a good look at the guy since he was wearing a dark hoodie, but he was at least six foot tall, lean, and fast on his feet, but there was a slight limp to his gait.” Landon stiffened next to me. We were both thinking the same thing.

Lyle.

I hated that was where my mind immediately went, but it made sense. He never came out and said it, but I knew he suspected Lyle was the one who had vandalized my bakery weeks ago. The same word that was now carved into the side of my car had also been written on the note found wrapped around the brick that was thrown through my window.

“Livy!” a voice called, and I looked up to find Honey running across the yard from her grandparents’ house. Landon released me and stepped away. Honey threw her arms around me, her panting breath stirring the hairs at my nape. “What happened? Minnie woke me up to tell me the cops were over here.”

“Someone trashed my car,” I said and turned in her embrace. She loosened her hold and followed my line of sight, gasping as she took in the extent of the damage.

“Who would do such a thing?” She turned back to face me, and her gaze drifted past my shoulder before settling on me again. Realization sparked in her features, and a quiet “oh” fell from her lips. This was the confirmation she needed that Landon and I were, in fact, together.

And she was thinking the same thing we all were.

Lyle knew too, and he wasn’t happy about it.

Chapter 33

Landon

“Can you pass the peas?”my father asked from across the table. I slid the bowl toward him so he could scoop another helping of vegetables onto his plate. He could haveallof them if he wanted. They weren’t my favorite, but he loved them, so I made sure to keep a few cans stocked in his pantry.

Since finishing the bakery remodel, we were back to our normal routine of having dinner together a couple times a week. Now that I was no longer working nearly twelve hours a day, I had more time to spend with him. Lyle hadn’t been around much either, though I wished he had.

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