Fool for You Page 14

  Emmit’s brother, Chris, was obsessed with breeding race horses and had a ranch out toward Hamilton, Texas. Chris knew how much I loved horses, so when he had new studs or mares come in he always asked if we wanted to see them.

  “I can’t Saturday, I’ve got a wedding. Oh, and by the way, there’s this new bakery in Waco that opened, and I’m dying to check it out. I figured I might get a better idea of how they work with engaged couples if we go and pretend to be interested in their cakes.”

  Landon frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, couples always go to cake tasting appointments. I usually refer them to certain bakeries, and I’ve heard good things about the cakes at this one. But they’re so new that they haven’t worked with any of my couples, and I thought it might be nice to go visit them as a bride instead of a wedding planner. I made an appointment on Friday at six to go for a cake tasting. Plus, I can document it for Instagram. I’ll be killing two birds with one stone. Checking out a bakery under the pretense of our fake engagement and getting some social media posts out of it.”

  “And I get to eat cake?” Landon asked with a hopeful smile.

  “You do!”

  “Hell, that sounds like a win-win in my book.”

  I reached across the table and took his hand in mine. “Are you sure about this? It won’t be weird for you, pretending?” I asked in a hushed voice.

  “Nah, I’m not worried about.”

  He kissed my wrist and then winked at me. “I’ve got to get back to the shop. What time should I be at your place tonight?”

  We both stood, and Landon walked around the table and took my hand in his. “Is six okay?” I asked.

  “That works for me,” he said. We started to walk out of the coffee shop, and when we got outside, Landon paused and looked down at me, his eyes dancing with happiness. My stomach flipped with the anticipation of finally being alone with him tonight.

  “You want me to walk you to your car?” Landon asked.

  I shook my head. His shop was only two blocks away from the coffee shop, a place we often met up at. He’d usually walk over and I would drive and meet him here. “No, thank you, though. I’ll see you later?”

  He leaned down, pressed his mouth to mine, and gave me a sweet kiss laced with just enough sexual tension that it left me a little wobbly. Lord, this man knew how to pour his emotions into a kiss. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead to mine. “See you later.”

  I watched as he started to walk down the street, not taking my eyes off of him until he turned the corner.

  “That was some kiss,” a voice said from behind me. I spun around to find a man about my age wearing a Baylor baseball cap and dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt standing there.

  All I could do was smile as I said, “Well, a couple in love and all that.” Just in case it was a reporter snooping around.

  When I got to my car, I turned and looked back to see the man was making his way into the coffee shop. I shook my head and laughed to myself.

  “Since when did you become so paranoid, Emmerson?” I slipped into my car and headed to Reed’s Flowers to check on the orders for Saturday’s wedding.

  A knock on my front door gave me a much-needed break from work. I had three weddings on my schedule this month, and all three had very demanding brides—and one had an over-the-top mother of the bride. If she sent me one more idea from Pinterest I was going to scream.

  When I looked through the peephole, I did scream and then scrambled to unlock my door.

  “Aunt Autumn, what are you doing here?”

  Screaming back at me, Autumn threw her arms around my waist, nearly knocking me to the ground as she squeezed until I was almost out of air. Then she pushed me back at arm’s length and gave me a once-over. Her smile got even wider.

  “I call bullshit!”

  I felt my face screw up in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  She laughed and shook her head. “Nothing, never mind me. What is this I hear about an engagement? As soon as I saw the news, I called your daddy and demanded to know why no one had told me, only to find out it’s a…fake…engagement?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Lord, it’s a long story, Aunt Autumn.”

  “Well, luckily for you, I’ve got all the time in the world.”

  “Wait, I thought you and Uncle Jack were in Vermont with Sophie?”

  “We were, but then we decided to take a little trip to Europe, just the two of us.”

  I smiled. Autumn was my father’s sister, and she and Jack had been separated for a few years when their daughter, Sophie, was younger. Then they found each other again, and they made sure to get away at least once a year. No work, no phones, no social media. Just the two of them. I had always loved their story. It was a typical second-chance romance, but nothing about their love was a cliché.

  Sophie was nearly eight years older than me and lived in Vermont with her husband and three kids. They owned a bed and breakfast up there, and my family and I used to go and stay at least once a year, before life just got too busy. It had been at least three years since we had gone up to visit them.

  “Europe, huh? How romantic!” I said as I laced my arm through hers and walked her farther into my house. Lady came barreling toward Autumn and damn near swept her feet out from under her.

  “Goodness, who do we have here?” Autumn asked, dropping down to let Lady give her all the licks she possibly could.

  “This young lady is Lady.”

  Autumn laughed, trying to keep her mouth away from my dog’s crazy-long tongue.

  “From Lady and the Tramp?” Autumn asked with a knowing smile. It wasn’t a secret that it was one of my favorite Disney movies, second only to Brother Bear.

  “Yep. I just need to find a Tramp.”

  With another laugh, Autumn stood and brushed little bits of Lady’s white hair off of her jeans. “Now, back to you. When Jack and I landed in Atlanta and I saw your picture on a rag magazine with the word ‘Engaged’ across the front, I pulled my phone out and called Malcolm. He gave me the lowdown on what happened and said you were both going along with this crazy thing. Why?”

  “Trust me, I’ve been asking myself that very question. But both Landon and I would have looked like fools if we had said we weren’t engaged at that point, and I only said it to my ex in the first place because I was having some weird meltdown at the time.”

  She lifted her chin and said, “Ahhh. So you’re saving face by lying.”

  I groaned and buried my face in my hands before I laughed. “I know. I know. It’s all so crazy. I just…I don’t need negative press right now. Neither does Landon.”

  I told her our reasons for the fake engagement and she stared at me with an assessing look.

  “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s going to give me a chance to see what my job is like from the other side.”

  She nodded. “Right. Or do you think maybe you secretly want to be engaged, and that being engaged to your best friend isn’t such a bad thing?”

  I tried to swallow. “I mean, who doesn’t want to be engaged and getting married?”

  Her brows lifted.

  “It’s nothing, Aunt Autumn. It’s fine. It’s all going to be fine.”

  “Famous last words,” she mumbled under her breath before she reached for my hand. “So, are you really going to do all of this wedding stuff and pretend that it’s real?”

  “Why not? There’s zero pressure, and I think it’ll be fun.”

  “What about dating?”

  I flinched. “Oh, we’ve got that covered. I mean, we’re dating each other, just not in the way people think.”

  Ugh. I wanted to punch myself. There was something about my aunt—she could always tell when I was hiding something. Or maybe it was because lying to her seemed to be so hard. Hell, I had no problem at all doing it with my parents. But I knew Autumn was different. She wouldn’t judge me and wouldn’t stick her nose into my business like my mother and father wou
ld.

  “I was asking if you and Landon would have a problem if you wanted to date other people,” she said, giving me a knowing look.

  “Oh!” I said with a laugh that sounded so fake I’d probably be booed off stage. “Well, neither one of us is interested in dating other people right now.”

  Okay, that wasn’t a lie.

  “Because you’re seeing each other secretly.”

  “Exactly!” I said then frantically shook my head. “No! I mean, of course not. No. Nope. No.”

  Why do I keep saying no?

  Instead of calling me out on my bullshit, Autumn gave me a warm smile. “Well, I think you should let me throw you a fake engagement party along with Hailey’s real engagement party. A co-engagement party if you will. It’s a good excuse to get the family all together.”

  Was she really going to drop it? I had just admitted that Landon and I were dating. For real.

  “You don’t have to do that, Autumn. And I don’t want to take anything away from Hailey. I already am stealing her thunder with this fake wedding. I feel awful about it, and I hope Hail doesn’t hate me for it.”

  Autumn brushed off my worry with a flick of her wrist. “I already spoke to Hailey about her engagement party. I asked to throw her one, and it was her idea to toss your party in with hers. So, I doubt she’s upset with you.”

  I pulled my head back in shock. “Hailey suggested a joint party?”

  Nodding, Autumn replied, “She sure did. She said something about how it would look great for your Insta.”

  She put more stress on the word Insta, most likely because she really had no clue what Instagram was.

  “Well, if Hailey doesn’t mind, then sure. I would love to help you plan the engagement party, though. I mean it is really for Hailey.”

  Autumn stood. “I’ll take you up on that offer. Now, I need to get back to the ranch. I’m sure Malcolm has Jack doing something that involves horse shit or something dangerous.”

  Laughing, I shook my head and walked with her back toward my door. “Do you think he’ll ever forgive Uncle Jack for leaving you that one time?”

  “I don’t think so.” She paused. “I take that back. I think he’s forgiven him, he just can’t forget.”

  “That sounds like my father.”

  We both laughed. I went to open the door, but then jumped when I saw Landon standing there. He held a bouquet of flowers and smiled even wider when he saw Autumn.

  “Aunt Autumn! What are you doing here?” he asked as he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

  “I came rushing back to Texas when I heard both of my nieces were getting married.”

  Landon’s smile faltered for a moment before he recovered. “Yeah, about that…”

  She waved off his worry. “No worries; all has been explained. And hopefully I’ll see you before the engagement party! Bye, kids.”

  She started to walk off but then turned. “By the way, Landon, those are beautiful flowers.”

  He looked at the bouquet and then back at Autumn. “I thought so.”

  With a smile and a wink, she started walking again.

  I motioned for Landon to come in and took the flowers from him. “Thank you, they’re beautiful.”

  The second I shut the door, we both said at the same time, “She knows.”

  Laughing, Landon leaned down and kissed me.

  “I never could hide anything from Autumn. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her anything. And I know she won’t say anything to my folks.”

  “How’s Sophie doing?” Landon asked as he followed me into the kitchen.

  Grabbing a vase, I filled it with lukewarm water and then started to trim the bottoms of the flowers Landon had brought me. “She’s good. Autumn and I didn’t talk for very long. I think she wanted to come over and see for herself what was going on. It didn’t take her long to trick me into saying something. I tried to cover it, and bless her heart, she didn’t call me out on it.”

  Landon leaned against the counter and watched as I adjusted the flowers in the vase.

  Once I got the last flower where I wanted it, I said, “You’re early.”

  “I missed you.”

  My stomach became a fluttery mess as I took a step closer to him. “Is that so?”

  He nodded. “Are you busy with work?”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t matter.”

  He smiled, and Lord how it made my chest instantly warm. “It matters to me, Emme. I don’t want to bug you if you’re busy.”

  I moved closer to him and placed my hand on my chest. “Do you know what I really want, Landon?”

  Slowly, he shook his head and said, “Tell me.”

  I ran my tongue over my suddenly dry lips and looked down at his mouth and then back up at those eyes that reminded me of crystal-clear blue ocean water. “You. I want you, Landon.”

  He pressed his mouth to mine, and before I knew it, I was sitting on the counter and we were making out like teenagers. I worked at getting every article of clothing off of him that I could reach, and he did the same. Soon we were both naked from the waist up, and when Landon bent and put my nipple into his mouth, I let out a cry of pleasure.

  “More,” I panted. “Please.”

  He lifted me off the counter, allowing me to wrap my legs around him as he practically sprinted to my bedroom. When he gently laid me on the bed, I prayed nothing or no one would interrupt us this time. I was going to combust if I didn’t have him inside of me soon.

  As I lay on the bed, Landon undid the button and zipper on my jeans. I lifted my hips as he pulled them down so slowly that I soon was ready to sit up and just start kicking the damn things off. He smiled and then pressed his mouth to where my clit was hidden, causing me to gasp when he blew air through the lace of my panties. My entire body shivered. His tongue came out and played with my clit through the cotton, the friction giving me the most incredible teasing effect.

  “Landon!” I whimpered, lifting my hips toward his mouth, silently begging for more.

  “Tell me what you want me to do, Emme.”

  I felt my cheeks heat. I’d told him that I liked it when he talked dirty to me, so I decided to play this game differently. “Tell me what you want to do to me, Landon.”

  My voice sounded so deep, I hardly recognized it.

  The corner of his mouth shot up, and he wore a sexy-as-hell smirk on his face. Lord, that dimple in his cheek did all kinds of things to my libido. “I want to kiss, lick, and suck your—”

  The sound of my doorbell made both of us freeze.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” we both said at once.

  “Don’t you dare answer that door, Emme. If I don’t make love to you soon, I’m going to die. Do you want me to die? How would that look for our fake engagement and wedding…where instead of reading vows, you read my obituary?”

  I smiled and reached down, pulling him up by his arms until he was on top of me. “Take off your pants, Mr. Lewis.”

  Landon had never moved so fast. He sprang off the bed, took off his boots, jeans, and boxers in record time, and then crawled back over me.

  My doorbell rang again, followed by a knock.

  “Who could that be?” Landon asked before he buried his face in my neck and proceeded to kiss me. When he moved down my chest, I gasped and tried to speak. “I—I don’t give a shit who it could be.” But it came out sounding all jumbled up. “Don’t…care…shit…don’t stop.”

  Then I heard my cell phone ring from where I had been working at my dining room table.

  Landon growled and rolled off of me. “You should at least check your phone.”

  “I don’t care who it is.”

  Another knock, this one louder.

  “Fuck!” I said as I jumped up and walked into my bathroom, grabbed a bath towel, and wrapped it around myself.

  I headed to my phone first. My doorbell was going off like crazy now.

  When I picked up my phone, I saw a text from Hailey.

/>   Hail: I need to speak to you ASAP.

  Just then, another one came through.

  Hail: Please! I’m sorry to interrupt you and Landon. I need you, Emme!!!

  The urgency in her text made me turn and quickly run to the front door. I unlocked it and Hailey fell back into my house. She had been sitting against the door and was now currently flat on her back, looking up at me.

  “I can totally see up that towel, and let me be the first to say that you need to visit my girl at the spa.”

  Jumping back, I glared at her. “This better be good, Hailey.”

  Each word came out like a warning, spoken slowly and with as much sternness as I could put into them.

  “Mike cheated on me.”

  I stumbled back, bringing my hand up to my mouth to hold back my quick intake of air. “Wh-what?” I whispered. “What do you mean, he cheated on you?”

  Still lying on the floor, she put her arm up to her forehead and tears instantly ran down her cheeks. “When he was out of town for that business trip to Dallas a few weeks back, he ran into an old flame who works at the same company he does. They hooked up, and she called his cell phone today. The only problem was, Mike was outside in the barn helping Malcolm and my father. He had the day off today, so she probably thought it was safe to call. I saw her name and knew it was her, the ex. I answered and didn’t say anything, and she said…she said…‘Hey, babe, is it safe to talk?’ I muffled the phone and lowered my voice and said, ‘Yeah.’”

  I dropped down to the floor next to Hailey, not even caring that she was half-in and half-out of my house, or that I was still wrapped in a towel. “Hailey, oh no.” I brushed back the hair that was stuck on her face from her tears. “What did she say?”

  “It was awful, Emme! She started talking about how she missed his dick and asked if he was able to FaceTime with her this afternoon. I didn’t say anything, and she said it was okay, he didn’t have to answer her if other people were around. But she asked him when he could manage to get away from me and come back for a visit. She said something about how she knew he’d said it had been a mistake and a lapse of judgment on his part, but that if he really loved me, he wouldn’t have slept with her in the first place. And right after he asked me to marry him!”