Page 109 of Landon & Shay: Part One

“You can talk to me, Mom,” I offered.

“I know, honey.” She wiped her eyes and stood up. She moved over to me and kissed my forehead. “I just need rest, that’s all. We’ll talk in the morning. Good night.”

She headed to her bedroom and closed the door behind her.

I cleaned up the mess we made, and as I was heading toward my bedroom, I walked past Mom’s where I heard her crying inside. She sounded as if every single part of her was breaking that very night.

Instead of sitting outside of her bedroom like I used to, I turned the knob. I walked into her room, climbed into bed with her, and wrapped my arms around her.

“Landon, I’m okay. I’m okay,” she whimpered, but I shushed her. She didn’t have to pretend to be okay with me. She didn’t have to lie and say everything was fine when it was clear she was in the middle of one of the hardest storms of her life.

Her breaking down didn’t mean she wasn’t strong. Sometimes the strongest thing a person could ever do was fall apart. It took real strength to become that vulnerable.

“It’s okay, Mom. Fall apart. Don’t worry. I got you.”

She cried into me for the remainder of the night, and I refused to let her go.

26

Landon

After the weekend,Mom headed out for another job opportunity. She kept going on and on about feeling bad for leaving me again, but I told her she was leaving for us, for our future. Plus, I promised to call her every night to talk. That seemed to bring her some comfort.

I still hadn’t told Shay what I’d learned about KJ, seeing how I spent the whole weekend making sure Mom was okay, but I knew I’d have to tell her after school that afternoon. I couldn’t keep something that big from her. Even though it was going to crush her, I knew she had every right to know.

“Landon, hey.” KJ away from the wall as he stood on my front porch Monday morning as I was getting ready to head out to school. I knew at some point he’d rear his ugly head at my place. How could he not? He couldn’t ignore seeing me after that evening.

I didn’t say a word. I didn’t owe a man like him a greeting.

He brushed his hands over his face before stuffing them into his pockets. He looked nothing like his daughter. Well, nothing like Shay at least. Who knew what his other kid looked like? She could’ve been his spitting image. That would’ve sucked for her, though. Her father looked like an asshole.

“Listen—” he started, but I cut him off.

“You have two daughters,” I said. “Does Shay know that?”

He stood tall. Almost emotionless. It was eerily creepy how calm he appeared. “There are things in this life that you’re too young to understand.”

“That sounds like a bullshit response from a bullshit human.”

“You think I wanted this to happen? I never thought in a million years you’d be in the same show as my daughter. I never thought—”

“That you’d get caught.”

“You can’t say anything,” he warned.

“Excuse me?”

“You can’t. Landon, if my family finds out about this, it will ruin us. Why would you want to hurt Shay like that?”

“You need to leave,” I sneered, my voice low and controlled. “We don’t have anything else to say to each other.”

He brushed his hand against the back of his neck and shook his head. “Just give me a week to tell them. Give me that time to break the news.”

I didn’t say a word, because he didn’t deserve my words. Plus, I knew he was lying, because that was what he did best.

As he turned to walk away, he paused and looked back to me. “Are you in love with my daughter?”

The words rolled from his tongue as if he was pained by even having to ask them. I didn’t answer, though. Again, my words weren’t made for him.

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