Page 55 of Fear of Love
“Use the toe pick,” Landon called as I approached.
“Uhh…” My first mistake was looking down, as if that would do anything. By the time I glanced back up, I was directly in front of Landon.
Like a complete idiot, I closed my eyes and braced for impact, fully expecting to hit him and fall back on the ice. Neither happened. Two big hands grabbed my waist and lifted me off theground. I opened my eyes as Landon twirled us in a circle, easily using my momentum to turn us instead of letting me fall.
Slowly, he eased us to a stop and gently placed my feet back on the ice. He didn’t let go as we stood there pressed against each other.
“You don’t listen to directions, do you?” His voice was low and gravely.
“I skated.”
“And tried to take me out with you.”
“But I skated.” A grin slowly grew on my face. It didn’t matter that I almost mowed Landon over. I managed to stay upright and not tumble to the ground.
“Told you that you could do it,” Landon said, a soft smirk on his lips.
Something warm bloomed in my chest, and before I could stop myself, I reached out and cupped his face, thumbs brushing softly across his cheekbones. I leaned in and kissed him as the chill in the air slowly disappeared.
“You really need a better filing system,”I said for the tenth time as I shuffled through Landon’s paperwork.
“It works just fine,” he mumbled across from me.
“Why don’t you hire someone to do this for you? Then you’d have more time to focus on other stuff.” I asked. I had three piles of paperwork in front of me, having spent the last ten minutes going through and separating them. No clue why he had invoices mixed in with Junior League’s applications.
“Just seems unnecessary.” Landon shrugged. I hummed in response because I understood that. I had a financial advisor but all my other paperwork I did myself.
Standing, I made my way to the filing cabinets he had against the left wall of his office. On the opposite wall behind me, he had a couch and a chair, with his desk straight ahead when you walked through the door. It was a fairly big office and decorated like one would expect in a hockey rink.
The walls had a few posters of famous hockey players. The only one I knew was Wayne Gretzky. The hockey legend was from Canada, not Toronto, but that didn’t matter to Canadian hockey fans. My eyebrow raised in surprise at the signature on the bottom of the poster. I had a feeling Wyatt got it personally signed for Landon.
Another poster was of the Toronto Knights. It was a picture of the team winning the Cup Championship for the very first time a few years ago. It was taken from above as the whole team stood on the ice, surrounding one another. My eyes were drawn to Bryton and Trevor standing in the middle, both of them on Wyatt’s sides as he held the trophy above his head with the biggest smile on his face.
Picture frames caught my attention as I made my way back to his desk. The first one I noticed was one of his entire family. Evelyn was standing in the middle with Landon, Wyatt, and Mateo surrounding her with smiles. It looked only a few years old.
The one beside it was of Mateo, who looked to only be fifteen, holding up a trophy in his football uniform. I smiled at the picture, noting how grown up Mateo has gotten. But one caught my eye the most.
Before I could stop myself, I reached over and grabbed the framed photo. In it was a younger Landon clad in a hockey uniform. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and his hair was stuck tohis forehead with sweat. He was standing beside another guy on the ice, both of their arms thrown over each other as they smiled.
“We had just won the National Ice Title,” Landon said suddenly. I glanced up to see him leaning back in his office chair watching me.
“Was this your senior year?” I asked, looking back at the picture.
“Yeah. My last hockey game.”
“Why didn’t you play professionally?” I put the photo back on his desk and sat down on the chair across from him. I watched his face to see if I had crossed a line in asking.
“I probably could have,” he answered truthfully. “I wasn’t as good as Wyatt, that’s for sure, but I wasn’t horrible.” Landon’s gaze cut to the poster on the wall of The Knights winning. “It just wasn’t a guarantee, and as much as I wanted to play, I needed something stable. Something that helped pay Mom’s bills and get Wyatt and Mateo what they needed.”
Landon said it casually, like it wasn’t a big deal. I couldn’t help but wonder how much he sacrificed to make sure his mom and brothers were taken care of.
“What made you buy this place?”
“So many questions tonight, Blondie.”
“Yep.” I shrugged and leaned back, waiting for an answer. Landon chuckled before he continued.
“I wanted a change. The owners knew Wyatt and me from coming here as kids. They were a nice old couple that rarely made us pay. Always kept the doors open late for us to come and practice. Three years ago when I came in, they mentioned they were going to sell the place. I didn’t want it to go to some developer who would tear it down, so I bought it and quit my financial job.”
