Once Upon A Rodeo

7: Landon's Plan

My eyes then landed on Landon. He was still playing his guitar and singing Sweet Annie, but he was staring straight at us. His eyes cold, intense, and unyielding. He looked immensely pissed off about something. It was completely out of his character. I can't help but wonder if this has something to do with his plan.

I brush it off and continue dancing with Hunter. "You know you look real pretty tonight."

I blushed, "you always were a charmer Hunter Reid Bradshaw."

"It's true! My brothers and Travis can't keep their eyes off you. They are probably jealous that I am here dancin' with you and they don't get to."

I laughed, "you're funny, you know that? Plus there is only one man here that I care about whether or not he thinks I'm pretty." Hunter gives me a smile thinking I'm talking about him. "Sloan." He pouts and I laugh, kissing his cheek.

The song ends and I walk back over to the rest of the group. I pick Sloan up off of Emily's lap and place him on my hip. "Will you dance with me baby?" I ask him.

Sloan nods and asks Landon to play Hukuna Matata. According to Emily, Sloan is going through a big Lion King phase right now.

So I awkwardly try to dance with Sloan to Hukuna Matata. I pick him up and whirl him around out in front of me. We later get joined by Faith, Emily, Hunter, Jenna, and the cowboy. Maddox stays put, pretending that he is too cool to dance to an acoustic version of Hakuna Matata with his family. And our parents take out their phones to capture the whole scene on video.

When we were all excused from dancing, everyone headed back into the house. I stayed behind; I wanted to go see Dance Partner. Landon offered to come with me. I only accepted his offer because I knew that he was finally going to tell me his master plan.

We waked to the stables together in compete silence. The only sound was the crunching of the dead leaves beneath our feet. Landon held himself in a confident yet nervous manner. I believe he feels sure of this plan of his, but is nervous of my reaction and willingness to participate in it. And I don't blame him, from the little I know, I want nothing to do with any of it.

We walked into the stables, and he made sure that the doors were tightly shut. I sat on one of the benches that Dan made for us back when we were too short to actually reach the stalls. Landon stayed by the doors looking at me, trying to figure out the right words to say.

I started the talking for him when I realized that his words weren't coming out of his mouth any time soon. "What was that all about back there? The glaring at Hunter while we danced?"

"Well the plan is for you to be my fake girlfriend, but we can't just pop the relationship out of nowhere. People have to see it comin' for it to be believable. Why do you think Hunter asked you to dance? He caught me "staring" at you and said that you looked beautiful. I of course agreed, so he wanted to make me jealous."

I nodded. He may be crazy, but he is still somewhat of a sane crazy. The plan seems well thought out with some logic behind it. But the entirety of whatever the plan is, is absolutely nuts. What could he possibly gain out of having a fake girlfriend and why me? It seems to me that Brandi's suspicious are right. She's been saying for years that her son's ain't got the sense God gave a goose. For the first time I believe that it's true. "Why do you need me to be your fake girlfriend? What is this plan?"

"I need you to be my fake girlfriend so I can get Brittany to be my real one," Landon blurted.

"Now I know you've gone insane," I said aloud.

"Just listen," he reasoned. "You know that I've fancied Brittany for a long time, but she only sees me as a friend. Now rumors have been goin' around that Ramsey is gonna ask her out! I need you to be my girlfriend to make her jealous."

"Wow," I said soaking it all in. "Number one, good for Ramsey! He hasn't so much as looked at another girl since Kylie Sue cheated on him." Landon glowered at me. I raised my hands in surrender, "sorry! It's true!"

"What are your other points?"

"Number two, Brittany isn't the jealous type. I really don't think that you can make her jealous by datin' another girl if she is interested in Ramsey. Number three, you really don't know a girls mind. If Ramsey, a perfectly good and sweet guy, asks her out and the only thing that's holdin' her back from saying yes is you, but you already have a girlfriend, she's going to say yes. This is just goin' ta blow up in your face! It won't help you at all! Just be honest and straight up with her. Ask her before Ramsey does!"

"I may be a little too late for that," He said. "Jay texted me sayin' that he saw Ramsey's car in Britt's driveway when he was goin' over to Bethany's house."

Landon looked deflated. He pulled out his phone and read the text again, torturing himself with it. I slowly walked over to where he stood, took the phone out of his hand and deleted the message. I gave him back his phone and gave him a hug. "I'm sorry," I whispered.

"I just don't know what else I can do, Annie." I whispered back. "I think that this is my only chance."

I sighed pulling away from him, "alright I'll do it. But we will not start dating right away. Give it at least two weeks, and then you can "ask me". Also this pretendin' will not go on past Halloween."

"Christmas," he countered.

"Thanksgiving," I compromised. "That'll give you about three months."

"Alright," he agreed.

"Also we are not kissin'. Ever! If people ask when then we'll say that I'm just not a fan of PDA."

"I completely agree. Kissin' you would be like kissin' one of my sisters. Any more rules?"

"Yes, if any rumors start to fly around that we had sex... I will kill you."

"Well you don't have to worry 'bout that. I'm trying ' to win Brittany over not send her runnin' for the hills." I placed my hands over my hips. His eyes widened realizing what he said sounded like, "no, no, not like that. I just meant that... Well... Oh you know what I meant! Please don't kill me."

I laughed, reaching up to pat his cheek, "you're lucky you're cute." I walked around him and out the door.

Looks like I'm going be Landon Bradshaw's girlfriend. Gosh, I really am going to have to be able to say that without wanting to throw up.

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A/N:
Happy thanksgivin' y'all! I hope y'all have a great one and stuff your faces with some great food! I just want to say how thankful I am to all of my readers. I really love writing and gettin' to share share my story with y'all makes me so happy, you have no idea. I love getting all the positive feedback and the votes and the new followers. So thank y'all for letting me share my work with y'all and thank you for reading and sticking with me even when I don't update so frequently all the time! Love you all!

-Madison