My computer was a slut.
Okay, so maybe it’d been my fault; but basically it crashed. I knew I shouldn’t have let the twins use it! They were notoriously awful with technology, and yet the second they’d batted their cute little lashes at me, I’d caved. If only I’d known what kind of chaos they were about to unleash on my poor baby.
Really, though, it was my fault. I kept having to remind myself of that small detail. The thing was nearly brand new. I’d bought it the month before school started with my graduation money. It wasn’t anything spectacular—a Toshiba—but it was mine and I’d paid for it myself….with money people had given me for surviving high school. But I never had gotten around to installing some protection on the thing, and so when the boys took the entire day surfing YouTube and going on virus-infested sites like Adventure Quest or free TV shows, my laptop completely fizzed out. Even when I tried to use solitaire it started screaming at me.
So add a crashed computer to my tale of woes! If school wasn’t starting up again in January, I probably wouldn’t have even been half as panicked as I was now. I mean, I was never really on the thing except for school-related searches.
The running joke was that I was responsible for giving my computer an STD. Yup. Wasn’t entirely sure who’d started that one, but it soon became a fad in the Mallory household. Apparently I hadn’t used any internet condoms and chlamydia being thrust upon my laptop was my great punishment. It was all fun and games except I was the one who was going to have to pay to get it fixed.
I’d spent the entire day talking to the Office Depot people—mostly because they took that time to place an idiot on the phones who had no business even working there—and then the Toshiba company themselves. What they basically told me was I was screwed. As if I hadn’t already known that. Toshiba gave me this laundry list of things to do to my computer to check to see if it was a hardware problem or a software problem—and in performing these things, it could actually cause a hardware problem. The good thing was my warranty would cover a hardware problem and I’d only have to pay twenty-five bucks to have the thing shipped to them.
The bad news was, if it was a hardware problem—and with my low funds, I was really hoping it was so it’d be covered—I was going to have to have the whole thing wiped. Like it was brand new. It wasn’t so much that I had so much on there, but rather the thought of having to start from scratch. The few school projects I’d done and pictures I’d downloaded onto my computer could simply be put onto a flashdrive until my lovely Toshiba was well again. But it felt like a complete invasion to me. Did those Toshiba people take extra time out of their lives to poke through my stuff and laugh at the silly pictures of me with Bugsy?
“You’re being ridiculous,” Liss told me after my rampant discussion about the said laptop. She sat curled up in the office chair reading a book, looking impossibly comfortable. I mean, she was so small she actually was able to fold into the thing, but how in the world could she look so complacent about it? “They’re not gonna go through your things.”
“How do you know?” I countered.
Liss looked up from her book—which appeared to be a Jane Austen novel. “Marley, you’re being paranoid. They have better things to do than to go through your personal junk. All they wanna do is fix the thing and get paid. They’re computer geeks.”
“Exactly! They don’t know what the real world is like, and so they hafta absorb everything they learn from the computers they’re wiping!”
My cousin sighed heavily, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling before returning to her book.
Feeling as though my point had been successfully made, I plopped down on the loveseat across from her. “What’re you reading, anyway?”
“Twilight,” Liss answered sarcastically.
“Oh, ha-ha.” Although, it was actually pretty funny imagining Liss reading something as fictitious as a vampire romance novel. She preferred reality and hard facts.
“It’s Jane Eyre,” she answered honestly, pointing her finger to the words across the front of the book. “Hence the title.”
Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, what was the difference? “You’re reading that on your own free will?”
Liss sighed in annoyance. Apparently I was ruining the great love affair of Jane and Mr. Rochester for her. Plopping the book down in her lap, my cousin studied me with her pale and beautiful eyes. “As I recall, you used to love these kinds of books.”
As I recall….It was too late. She’d already been reading too long. The old English had already muddled her modern brain. I snorted. “Yes, but that’s before I became a cynic, remember? It’s depressing that all her books end with a newfound—and quickly found—love resulting in an unlikely-to-last-long marriage.”
“Charlotte Bronte?” Liss questioned.
“Eh, sorry. I’m thinking about Jane Austen still. Charlotte Bronte is actually pretty realistic. I appreciate the fact that Mr. Rochester ends up marred and wifeless.”
Liss raised a curious brow. “You actually read Jane Eyre, then.”
I shook my head, grinning guiltily. “I watched the movie.”
“Which one?”
“The new one with Michael Fassbender.” I sighed dreamily. “Initially, I only watched it because he was in it, but I actually really liked it. Jane was a feisty gal who refused him at first and stood up to him. I respect that in characters. Also, their ending isn’t perfect. Therefore it’s acceptable.”
“Well, that’s a double-standard, don’t you think?” Liss questioned. “Being all dreamy about an actor. I thought you were swearing off guys?”
“Oh, Liss.” I smiled in a demeaning way. “Just because I’m not looking for a relationship any time soon doesn’t mean I still can’t appreciate the good looks of the opposite sex.”
Liss rolled her eyes at me. “You’re the worst cynic I’ve ever heard of.”
And just because I could, I quoted, “But you have heard of me.”
My cousin snorted but she couldn’t hide her grin. “You watch way too many movies.”
I shrugged. “I have too many little children begging me to watch movies with them.” Or, at least, that was the excuse I was going with….this time.
“Okay, though,” said Liss seriously, “back to Jane Austen. You really don’t like her anymore? I seem to remember a rather obscene obsession with watching every Pride and Prejudice adaptation ever….”
“That Mr. Darcy…Gets me every time.” And, truthfully, I hadn’t been able to stop myself from watching the Lizzie Bennett Diaries on YouTube. Maybe I had helped in the crashing of my computer after all…. “Okay, well….Fine. Busted! I still like my Austen. But only because she knows how to make a good, hard romance. Like, it’s not easy. I appreciate that. Plus, I accept the fact that it was a different time.”
“So, basically, you wave your argument on Bronte and Austen,” my cousin concluded.
I nodded once after a second. “Basically, yeah. Let’s just forget I tried to question Austen in the first place.”
Liss nodded her agreement. “We’ll never speak of this again.”
“Thank you for letting me out of that awkward position, then.”
“THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!”
I groaned as Joey ran across the living room door and rushed upstairs, laughing at his own cleverness. It was a new phase the twins were going through. Apparently letting them watch all seven seasons of the Office—because I didn’t consider anything after Steve Carrel left to be my beloved show—hadn’t been the best of ideas. But it’d been so much fun having all-nighters with them. We literally took one night of the week to watch one full season from dusk to dawn. Surprisingly, they never crashed. I guess when you let them get wild with Dr. Pepper, they could stay up for hours. Who knew?
Liss gave me a long look. She knew I was to blame. I’d never been the best influence around kids. Honestly, I liked the reprieve of being around kids too much to scold them about their behavior twenty-four-seven. I mean, sure, sometimes you had to reprimand them. But it was too much fun to act like a kid again to completely isolate them.
I grinned innocently, lifting my shoulders high in the air. “Really, though. It is what she said.”
“Oh my God,” Liss muttered under her breath. Her eyes returned to her novel.
I left her to it for a good ten minutes before I bugged, “So…what does Brady know about computers?”
Without ever glancing up, she answered, “Brady’s a history major. I don’t think he’s gonna be much help there. In fact, he almost crashed my laptop several times.”
Great. What good was my cousin’s nerdy boyfriend if he wasn’t tech savvy?
“Maybe you should ask Alice.”
Liss was worse than a mother. Ever since our shopping spree—which had actually been pretty fun, especially since my ‘tude had shaped up—Liss had been bugging me endlessly about Alice. More than once she’d pestered me if I’d called her, made other plans with her; was I hanging out with Landon and Evan, too; maybe I should invite them to the house for dinner. It was craziness! I’d never seen the girl so pushy in my entire life!
I groaned, slamming my head of the back of the couch. “You are relentless.”
“Actually, I’m an eavesdropper,” Liss corrected. “I heard her on the phone with someone the other day asking them about fixing her iPad. Didn’t sound like she was talking from someone from Best Buy, either.”
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” I muttered. The only reason I was even considering it was because I needed my laptop back ASAP….as possible.
Later that day, I finally caved and texted Alice, asking if she knew a geek. To my surprise, she answered within five minutes. But instead of simply texting back, she called me. Alice had told me the other day that she wasn’t so great with a touch screen and hated texting when she could avoid it. She was more a talking kind of person; which was funny because I so wasn’t. Even with Joanna, I’d never been the kind of girl who could talk on the phone for hours. It seemed so pointless.
But since Alice was helping me out here, I didn’t say anything contrary.
“Hey!” she said, bright and bubbly as usual. “What’s your emergency?”
“Computer crashed.” I quickly told her what had happened with the twins and the STD.
“Wowzers,” she whistled. “That blows. And right before school starts back up, too! Anyways, yeah, I totally know someone who can help you out for free. I mean, it costs a freaking boatload to get computers fixed nowadays. Why waste your money when I can get it fixed for free? Right?”
Great, now I felt cheap. She didn’t mean it like that, I knew, but I still felt like I ought to pay this guy a little something for his trouble anyway. It couldn’t be easy work, after all. “That’s great, Alice. You’re a lifesaver, you have no idea!”
“Oh, yeah, totally! No prob. Landon loves this shit, anyway. He’s a total closet tech nerd. He’s probably just been sitting around waiting for a new project to come along.”
Of course it would be Landon. He owned a Frisian, worked as a farrier, and now he was a tech nerd? Was there anything this guy was bad at? For a second I debated how I was going to get out of this. If I’d been worried about people seeing my private—and boring—shit, I was doubly worried now. Landon didn’t strike me as the guy to snoop—he’d already said he wasn’t—but everyone got curious. Surely, he’d find something embarrassing to dig up in my computer.
“Oh, um,” I stammered. “I mean, I don’t wanna bug him or anything…”
“Nah, really; I ain’t exaggerating,” Alice assured, oblivious. “He loves this shit. Here, I’ll give you his number so you can call him yourself. Tell him I let the cat outta the bag so he doesn’t yell at Evan about it….again.”
“Really, Alice, I’m sure he’s gotta lotta stuff to do…”
“Just call him!” Alice scoffed. “Alright, so I’m’a let you go do that. Lemme know how it goes! I’d love to see something Landon can’t fix.”
“But—” I started, but was awarded with the dial tone.
Great. How did I get myself into these messes? My eyes slid to where my laptop lay on my bed. School started back up in less than a month. If there was one thing I’d learned my first semester at Columbia State it was that laptop’s were your best friends; specifically ones with internet access. All my money was focused on tuition and books at the moment, and although I had the money to pay for a repair, I didn’t really see the point in wasting it if Landon could really fix it.
Freaking screw it, I thought and began dialing his number before I could think twice.
He answered on the fourth ring, his voice confused. “Hello?”
“Hi,” I said quickly—and breathlessly. “Alice told me to call you. Said you were, um, a genius with computers….or something. Anyway, I was wondering if you could help me out….”
A pause. “Uh…Who is this?”
Oh, crud. Of course he wouldn’t know my number! Stupid, Marley; stupid. Wanting nothing more to hang up and slam my head against the wall a few times, I explained, “Marley. Sorry, I guess I should’a lead with that, huh…?”
“Oh.” Landon chuckled. “You sound different on the phone; I didn’t recognize your voice.”
“That’s okay.” Man, was I glad he couldn’t see how red my face was! “Uh, sorry to bother you. I mean, Alice said I should call you before I do all this other crap…Did I mention my computer’s crashed?” Oh my God, Marley! I berated myself. Why are you acting like such a spaz?
Another laugh. Fabulous. “No, you didn’t. What happened?”
“Oh, you know boys…” Shit. That came out sounding weird. Did he think I meant something weird by that? “I mean, my cousins…they’re twelve. It was some computer game, I think.” Nothing weird.
“How long ago?”
“Couple hours ago,” I answered.
“What’s it doing, exactly?”
“Well, like, it just won’t let me go on the internet. And whenever I try, this thing keeps poppin’ up and starts screamin’ at me. I just, you know, I have no idea. I’m not really….tech savvy.”
Landon chuckled in a way that suggested he didn’t think I ever was. Nice. “I’ll be over in a few.”
He said it so naturally; like he hung out at my house all the time. I went rigid of the thought of him in my house. He was just fixing my computer. Why did I have to make a big deal out of that? Man, I’d had too much coffee today!
“Oh, um…” I stalled, willing my brain to come up with a logically explanation of why he couldn’t come over. “That’s okay. You don’t hafta come all the way out here. I can meet you somewhere?”
“It’s no problem,” he assured. Ever the gentleman. “I’m already out.”
Great. “Awesome,” I said, lacking some serious enthusiasm for a guy who was gonna fix my computer for free. “I’ll, uh…see you. Oh! Um…thanks. Really, you’re savin’ my ass.”
“I’m a nerd, Marley,” Landon explained without any hint of embarrassment. “Computers are my bread-and-butter. It’s not a problem.”
Regardless, I thanked him again before promptly hanging up. God, what had I just done? This was so not the opposite of staying away from him! And what the hell was wrong with me? Was I some kinda psycho? Damn, phones made me nervous!
A snort down the hall caught my attention. Liss had abandoned her book to come out in the hall where I’d retreated and was staring at me. One brow was raised higher than the other as if to say ‘so-you-don’t-like-him-huh?’
I shot her a deadpan look. “Shut up.”
She held up her hands defensively, a smirk eating at the side of her mouth. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Well, good.”
And then, because she was an insufferable no-it-all, Liss did say something. “Who was that?”
“No one.” I paused. “Landon. Alice said he’s amazing.”
Liss’s smirk deepened.
“With computers,” I finished. “He’s amazing with computers.”
“Uh-huh.” She turned to walk away.
I followed after her in determination. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t ‘nothing’ me. What?”
She sighed in an arrogant way, turning on her heel to face me. “What was that?”
“What was what?”
“On the phone?”
“What? He’s coming to look at my computer. He was already out.” I fiddled with the pendent on my necklace.
Liss watched me a curious second. “You freaked out.”
“I did not!” I defended.
She gave me a ‘come-one-Marley’ look.
“I didn’t,” I said again.
Instead of answering me, Liss just smiled.
“What?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Nothing.”
“Will you stop it with the ‘nothings’!” I cried in agitation. She knew I hated it when she undermined me like this.
Liss let out a snicker. “All I’m saying is, I think he likes you.”
“So what if he does? I don’t like him.” I stared back her triumphantly. “And he doesn’t like me. He’s just too nice to say no.”
My cousin nodded thoughtfully. “Okay. Sure.”
I let her walk away. He doesn’t like me, I chanted.
It took him less than fifteen minutes to get to the house. I wasn’t sure how far away Landon lived, but either it wasn’t far or he really had been out. It wasn’t like the Mallory farmhouse was so out of the way rather than just hard to find. We lived off Nashville Highway, almost touching the boundaries of Shelbyville. You had to drive on a dirt road for at least five minutes before finally turning into our long driveway; which then took at least two minutes to drive fully to the house. But I guess since Landon had been here twice already, he didn’t have trouble finding our driveway. That, and there was a huge Mallory Stables sign perched before the driveway.
In that fifteen minutes, I’d changed the location of my laptop at least four times. At first I had it in the office room, but that seemed too uncomfortable; then I had it in the living room, but that seemed too comfortable; for some reason I thought the porch would be perfect, but then I thought it might seem as if I’d been waiting on him. Finally, I decided on the kitchen island. That was pretty much my best option. The laundry room wasn’t even in consideration.
During this time, Liss took it upon herself to laugh endlessly at my expense. I noticed she didn’t offer to help properly locate my laptop, though. She seemed to be enjoying herself quite thoroughly. I wasn’t sure how many times I’d told her that this was not a big deal. But the more I yelled at her, the less she said; and the angrier I got.
“Marley!” she called now from the office. “Your cute non-friend is here!”
I rolled my eyes, suppressing a groan. It’d been like this for fifteen minutes straight. Fifteen minutes may not seem like a long time, but when a person was genuinely grating on your nerves…
Despite myself, I stomped out of the kitchen and to the front door where poor Landon waited on the front porch. When I opened the door, he had his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans and a big, friendly smile on his face. Unfortunately for him, I was sufficiently annoyed.
“Hey,” he greeted.
“Hi,” I said gruffly. “Natas is in the kitchen.” Without waiting for any sort of response, I began to lead the way. I could hear his boots clomping on the floor behind me.
“Hey, Landon,” my cousin said in a chipper tone. “How’re you doing?”
“Hey,” he said in turn. “Can’t complain. You?”
“Oh, me? I’m fine.” I didn’t miss the implication in Liss’s tone.
I might have scraped the stool away from the island a little too loudly and plopped down a little too angrily. It wasn’t Landon’s fault my cousin was meddling. I heard him excuse himself before he followed me into the kitchen. Apparently he didn’t miss my annoyance because a brow questioningly at me.
“You’re a little OCD, aren’t you?” he questioned me, taking a seat in the stool beside me.
“Why would you say that?” I bristled at the implication.
Trying to hide a smile, he just shrugged. “I dunno. I just kinda get that impression.”
I gave him a flat look before rolling my eyes. “OCD or not, Natas is being a pain, and I need him back before school. Can you help me or not?”
Now Landon just seemed genuinely confused. Maybe he was thinking that I was bi polar on top of OCD. I couldn’t blame him. I knew I was being bitchy for not good reason, but I couldn’t shut myself up. It was like something had taken ahold of my brain or something and wasn’t letting me make rational decisions. Or something. Maybe I was just a bitch; plain and simple.
But either Landon missed the snotiness in my tone or he was just ignoring it, because, still smiling, he asked, “Natas?”
“It’s Satan backwards.”
He nodded approvingly, grinning ear to ear. “Well, let’s see what Natas is up to.” Landon turned his attention to my laptop. He fiddled around with it for a few minutes, basically just seeing what it was doing. A stupid little box would pop up every time he tried accessing the internet, documents, or even games, informing him that Natas was in peril. It kept trying to initiate a scan to see how many viruses were on it. Landon ran the scan—“Just to see if what it’ll do”—and watched as it declared I had thirty separate viruses and had to pay seventy bucks to have it cleaned.
At my horrified expression, Landon shook his head. His smile was gone. He was all business now. “No,” he said simply. “That’s bullshit. If I can help it, this won’t cost anythin’ but time. Just watch.” He clicked a few buttons I never knew had existed and pulled up pages about the inner workings of Natas that I didn’t understand. But he did, and that was all that mattered.
His furrowed brows and concentrated expression wasn’t making me feel any better. Every now and then he’d mutter something under his breath like, “Really?” or “No, it shouldn’t” and every mutter always trailed off. He never completed his spoken thoughts.
Alice wasn’t kidding. He was really into this computer stuff. And he was good, too. I didn’t have to know everything he was doing to know he was good at it. The way his fingers flew over my keyboard and the speed at which he brought up those windows showed off knowledge only computer geeks could have. Funny, I never would have thought that about Landon. It was stereo-typical of me, but I always pictured computer nerds to be guys with humongous glasses and parted hair or something.
Landon neither had glasses nor parted hair. But he’d probably still look good even in the most hideous glasses imaginable. Looks definitely ran in his family. I had to give to him, though, because aside from those amazing sea green eyes of his, that hair was his best asset. It was just so….fluffy. I wasn’t sure if he tried to make the I-don’t-care-but-I-really-do hairstyle or if he genuinely did not care. I kind of figured it was a bit of both.
When I realized I was staring, I stopped. Immediately. Okay, so Landon was hot. I wasn’t blind! I'd just be lying if I said he wasn’t attractive. He totally was. But while he was undeniably hot, there was also something kinda cute about him. Like the fact that he was a computer nerd and that his best friend was a girl. And the way he carried himself. He walked like a guy who thought that he was passably attractive rather than the insanely hotness that he really was. I just found that cute and attractive.
Now I remembered why I’d stayed away from him….
It was weird being attracted to someone who wasn’t Isaac. He was all I’d ever known. I’d never even looked twice at another guy when we were together—or since, for that matter. And even after all he’d done, I felt unfaithful ogling at Landon; as silly as that sounded. I just wasn’t accustomed to this. It was weird.
Maybe…maybe I was going about this whole thing the wrong way. Maybe instead of swearing off guys and waiting around until I trusted them again, I should just focus on having fun. That so who wasn’t who I was. But, looking at Landon right then, I could possibly make an exception.
I didn’t think he’d go for that, though. Landon didn’t seem like the ‘fling’ type of guy. Yeah, he might like me. But his like was different than my attraction to him. That was really the only reason I didn’t seriously consider a fling. I knew myself too well. I’d get attached. I couldn’t do flings. No matter who I ended up with, I would always remember that one fling-that-didn’t-mean-a-thing.
Whoa. I really needed to stop thinking about this.
Luckily, Landon was too absorbed in my computer to even glance my way. Good thing, too, because I was about as red as a beet that moment.
At least I thought he was absorbed until he unexpectedly said, “So, uh…’bout the other day…I’m really sorry ‘bout Leland. He can be…”
“Relentless?” I finished.
Landon nodded, making a face.
And it was only because he’d brought it up that I asked curiously, “Can I ask you a question?” When he told me I could, I plowed on, “What was that? I mean, you looked like you wanted to rip his face off.”
“It just gets old after a while,” he muttered, glaring at the computer screen. He’s twenty-five years old. You’d think he’d quit the obnoxious flirting all the time. Everywhere we go, he’s always like that. Even if he’s not really interested. He’s just gotta prove that he’s a big ‘lady’s man’ or whatever.” Landon over at me with an annoyed face. “It’s irratin’ after a while.”
I couldn’t help but smile. It was just so…new. I guess I figured Landon to be the kind of guy who loved his family and never said a bad word about them. I was sure he loved his family, but it was nice to see him complain about his brother. It made him less perfect somehow. And I was really, really glad he wasn’t perfect. Perfect guys are the ones you had to watch out for.
“What?” he asked me.
I shook my head. “Nothin’. It’s just…it’s kinda funny.”
“No it ain’t!” Landon disagreed but he was laughing. “It’s stupid. And, God, embarrassing!”
I leaned forward excitedly. “Okay, so nine chances outta ten, how many times does he actually get a girl to leave with him?”
He raised a brow. “Are asking cause you’re curious or cause you’re interested?”
“Oh, ew!” I slapped his arm without even thinking. “So far from interested. I just wanna know if anyone else buys his little playboy act.”
“They eat it up,” he groaned.
I gasped. “No way!”
He nodded, looking sick. “It’s pathetic. Half the time I’m just sittin’ there wonderin’ what in the hell he gets away with half the shit he says.”
“God, he always tries to get girls in front of you?”
Landon leaned forward, too, very much into gossiping about his brother. “It’s worse, though! He literally forgets I’m even standin’ there and leaves without even acknowledging my existence.”
I couldn’t help it—I started laughing. “No!”
He nodded vigorously. “Yes! I don’t get it. Half the time he’s just actin’ like a jerk. And they all go for it.”
“Well, not me,” I said proudly.
Landon’s smile faltered for a second and he suddenly asked me, “Why?”
I was so taken aback, that for a second I couldn’t answer him. “Why?” I repeated like a moron. “I dunno, I guess I’m just not fooled by that. I’m not the kinda girl that lets herself go with a complete stranger. And lines have never worked on me. I’m much smarter than the other girls your brother tries to seduce.”
“Yeah,” Landon said thoughtfully, and the way he was looking at me made me blush. I realized how close we were. In our excitement, we hadn’t realized how closely we’d moved to one another. Now I did.
I sat back cleared my throat. “So, uh…what’s the verdict, doc?”
He looked a little thrown by the drastic change of subject, but after a minute he leaned back, too, and said, “Yeah, uh….Well, you really did a number on this sucker.”
“Hey, I did nothing,” I pointed out.
“Regardless,” Landon said, nodding to my screen. “This thing is screwed.”
My first thought was, He just said regardless like it’s an everyday word, and my second was, Screwed?!
“Define ‘screwed’?” I asked.
Landon raked a hand through his already disheveled hair and winced. “Basically, in order for the thing to not completely die, it’s gotta be wiped clean.”
“Meaning….everything personal on it will be erased?”
Landon nodded regrettably.
I think maybe he thought I cared about Natas more than I really did or that I had all these secret files on there that were irreplaceable. There were irreplaceable documents, but mostly for school stuff. “I already backed everything up onto a flashdrive,” I explained to him. “Do you…? I mean, can you fix it?”
A grin slowly spread through Landon’s lips. For the first time since I’d known him, he looked arrogant. “Yeah,” he said simply. “I can fix it.”
When he suddenly stood up, I was startled. And awkward. So, if he could fix it, then why did he look like he was leaving?
“It’ll take me a whole day to do it, though,” he explained. “Like I said, easy work, just time consuming. If it’s all the same to you, I should prob’ly take it home and work on it.”
For a second, I didn’t understand. And then, “Oh! The computer. Yeah, sure, take it.” I crossed my arms over my chest, glaring at Natas. “We need some time apart anyway.”
Landon chuckled, closing Natas and winding the charger chords up. “I’ll prob’ly have it done late tonight, so I could bring it back tomorrow?”
A day. It’d take him one freaking day to wipe my computer. What had I been worried about, exactly? And where the hell had this computer god been all my life? I could have saved a shitload of money even buying a whole laptop in the first place! “You don’t have to drive all the way back out here,” I said. “I can meet you somewhere in town.”
Landon let out another, short chuckle. “You don’t live that far,” he assured me.
“Yeah, but…” But it’s still weird having you here. Even though you’re saving my life by fixing my computer for free….
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Marley,” Landon said around a laugh as he walked down the hall. He said goodbye to my gleeful cousin and gave me one last smile before closing the front door behind him.
“He’s gotta nice butt,” Liss commented after a minute.
I stared at her.
She shrugged. “Fact of life.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Don’t you have a boyfriend?”
“Ah,” said Liss with mock disappointment. “Knew I was forgetting something.”
I rolled my eyes and snorted. “You’re weird, Liss.”
“Where are you going?” she asked me when I opened the front door.
“Riding,” I answered. A nice, chilling breeze wafted through my hair, reminding me that I’d probably want my Carhart.
“Have fun with that!” my cousin called after me.
Yeah, fun. I wasn’t riding for fun. I was riding to think. And I was thinking about Landon. When we’d been making fun of his brother, it was like…like it wasn’t a new thing. Like we always sat around laughing at his brother’s attempts to get women into bed with him. It was son natural with Landon. I found myself talking to him with my guard down. And then another crucial thought hit me.
When I was talking to Landon, I never thought about Isaac. Not once.
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A/N Rah-oh. But, seriously, how adorable is Landon? I’m attaching a picture of Garrett just to remind y’all how incredibly sexy he is. Now that my computer’s all fixed (this chapter wasn’t inspired by my personal life at all, was it?) I can have more regular updates! Aren’t y’all happy about that? Good! Now comment and lemme know how I’m doing cause I feel like I’ve lost y’all a bit.
VOTES?
COMMENTS?
TTFN,
HaNnAh
P.S On my documents, this chapter marks page 112. That’s the best I’ve ever done in an early chapter of my stories. Just thought you ought to know….Also, I have so many freaking show/movie references and quotes in this chapter, it’s not even funny (but it is).