Page 59 of Landon & Shay: Part One

“That comment about your butt?” Her grin spread wide as her dimple deepened. “It wasn’t an insult.”

I almost smirked at her, but instead, I nodded once and walked toward my house, shaking my goods from left to right. That’s right, I was shaking my ass for Shay Gable after completely blacking out due to a snake in my hands.

And a part of me wasn’t even mad about it.

* * *

“Oh, no, no, no,”Raine exclaimed, shaking her head as I stood on her front porch that night. “I’m not getting involved again,” she told me, crossing her arms. She knew I was there for more information on Shay, and by her stance, it appeared she had no desire to give it to me.

“I blacked out from a snake in my hands, Raine!” I argued, rubbing the huge knot on my head.

“Yeah, I heard.” She smirked a little then began giggling. “Timberrrrr.”

Of course Shay had already told Raine about what had happened. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Even though I was close friends with Raine, I knew she and Shay were just as close—if not closer. Girl code and all.

“Come on, Raine. You have to give me something.”

“Sorry, I can’t. Hank said he was going to ban me from watching rom-coms with him if I got involved with you guys anymore, and my favorite pastime is watching him cringe while we watch rom-coms.”

I sighed. “I can’t win this bet if I don’t have anything to use against Little Miss Perfect,” I said.

“Perfect?” Raine arched an eyebrow. “You think Shay’s perfect?”

“Of course. Her life is too perfect. She doesn’t have anything wrong with her, no flaws. Me, on the other hand? I have too many, and she can see them. She can somehow see me, and it’s not fair.”

“That’s Shay for you—the master of reading people. So, maybe you need to do that…maybe you have to read her back.”

“Trust me, I’ve tried. Her pages are clean.”

“Oh, Landon…” Raine shook her head. “Nobody’s pages are clean. Everyone has ink that stains. I know for a fact Shay has her own struggles, too.”

I gave her a wolfish grin. “Oh yeah? Like what?”

She parted her lips to speak but then caught herself and pointed a stern finger my way. “Nope. Nope. I’m Switzerland. I’m fondue. I’m Swiss cheese. You’re going to have to figure it out on your own without my help.”

“How do I do that?”

“Just look at her, Landon, and I mean really look. Try to figure out her love language.”

“Her what language?”

“For the love of…ugh. One second.” She marched into her house and then came back to the porch with a book in her hand. She shoved it toward me.

I looked down and read the title:The Five Love Languagesby Gary Chapman.

“What the hell is this?” I asked.

“This is the key to making Shay fall in love with you. It’s a book that makes you understand the different ways people love. It saved mine and Hank’s relationship a few years ago. You see, I thought he was being all sexist and old school and stuff when he was always trying to pay for our dates, and I’m all, ‘Psh, please. I am an independent woman, and I can pay for myself.’ And we got into a heated fight over it, and it was actually kind of cute. The night of the fight, he was wearing that button-down flannel I hate, the one with the—”

“Can we fast-forward to the point of all this?” I cut in, knowing Raine could turn a short story into a full novel with her roundabout way of talking.

“Oh. Right. What was I getting at? Oh yeah! The languages. There are five love languages: receiving gifts, acts of service, quality time, words of affirmation, and physical touch. Each person has a love language. Mine is quality time—rom-coms with Hank for example—and Hank’s is acts of service, which is why he always changes my oil and carries my books at school and stuff, or buying me dinner. That’s how he shows his love. Now, all you have to do is read this book and then read Shay. Shay’s story is there, you just have to do some digging to unlock it. And who knows? Maybe at the end of the day, you’ll realize you two have more in common than you think. Maybe you have the same love language.”

Hard to believe, but whatever. I knew Raine wasn’t going to give me any more details outside of a cheesy book—not with her rom-coms on the line—so I had no reason to stay any longer.

I thanked her for the little details she had offered me.

She frowned. “Landon, maybe a good starting point is you showing her the parts of you that you keep hidden from the world. Maybe that will help her show you her own shadows, too.”

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