Lies in Love (35 page)

“Delivery for you.”
Talia slipped an order form in Landon’s hand and kissed him on
the cheek as she passed by in full work mode. She’d been knee
deep in spur-of-the-moment flower arrangements all morning and barely
had time for a passing smile.

When she walked away, he
looked down at the form and his heart sank. “Shit. Lady Vanna.”
Her name was emblazoned across the top. He had a feeling this was
going to happen after he turned her down the day before. She hadn’t
come off as someone who’d give up easy, but he didn’t
expect this to happen so soon. He’d barely gotten away from her
and now he would have to fend her off yet again. Conflicted with how
to handle her, he snapped into action when Camey came sauntering in.
“Camey.” He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into
the alleyway.

“What the fuck,
Landon?” She brushed his hand off and shoved at his chest.
“What’s your problem?”

He held up the order form,
waving it in her face. “It’s the woman from yesterday.
She’s got another order for flowers.”

Camey took the order form
from his hands, staring at the page. “Anonymous sender?”

“I have a feeling
she
is
Anonymous.
”
Landon fell against the brick wall. “What am I going to do? I
doubt she’ll let me out of there so easy this time.”

“Let me handle it.”

She stepped toward the door,
but Landon reached for her and asked, “What can I do to repay
you?”

“Just don’t
break Talia’s heart.”

“Done.” She
slipped back inside, leaving Landon in the alley alone to thank his
lucky stars. When he finally calmed his nerves over the whole fiasco,
he pushed away from the wall to return inside and Camey came busting
through the door, flowers in hand. “Everything okay?”

“It will be.”
When Landon opened the van doors for her, she set the bouquet inside.
“Talia’s not too thrilled that I’m
abandoning
her, but I told her I needed some fresh air.” When she slammed
the van doors she added, “I’ll take care of this mess,
you just take care of Talia and make sure this doesn’t happen
again.”

“I will.” Full
of gratitude, he hugged her quickly and returned inside.

“Where have you been?”
Talia laid into him. It was slightly out of character for her, but
Landon knew she’d been swamped.

He stammered, searching for
a good excuse, “I was outside … helping Camey load the
van.”

Talia’s lips puckered
before she turned to bark orders at her sister. “Sara, Camey’s
on a delivery. I need you to finish up that lavender bouquet.”

When she walked away, he
breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that he’d narrowly avoided
another disaster.

“You’re back.”
Landon advanced on Camey the moment she walked through the back door.

“Keep your voice
down.” Camey sounded slightly winded as she slipped inside of
the cooler.

Landon nodded and followed
her in. “So what happened?”

Nervously, Camey peered over
Landon’s shoulder. “That woman is certifiable.” She
glanced over his shoulder again.

“Don’t worry.
Talia stepped out to pick up lunch. She won’t be back for a
bit.”

The tension in Camey’s
shoulders immediately melted. “I took the flowers to
Lady
Vanna
.” Camey put air quotes around the name. “She
looked pretty disappointed when she opened the door and found me on
the other side.”

“Did she say
anything?” He paced in a small square.

“She wanted to know
where you were.”

Landon’s fingers
clasped behind his neck. “God, she’s never going to give
up.”

Camey stepped in front of
him, halting his movement. “Actually, I don’t think we’ll
be hearing from her again.” She smiled slyly.

“What did you do?”
A logical answer didn’t come to mind when he tried to imagine
Camey actually harming someone.

“I told her you were
fired for taking advantage of company time with your extracurricular
activities.” She chuckled, raising her eyebrows.

Landon shook his head. “She
must have been real pleased with herself over that one, realizing she
convinced someone we’d slept together.”

“Actually, she looked
pretty upset. I don’t think she was happy you lost your job.”

Landon rolled his eyes. He’d
picked up the habit from Talia and caught himself doing it from time
to time. “I guess I owe you big time.”

“Eh.” Camey
shrugged her shoulders, still smiling up at him. “I never
imagined the types of lunatics you meet in your line of work.”

“That’s not my
line of work anymore. I’m done with that life.”

Camey’s jaw dropped.
“Seriously?”

“Don’t look at
me like that.” He leaned against the metal table in the center
of the cooler. “I couldn’t go back to that life once I
met Talia. She means too much to me.” He couldn’t believe
he was spilling his guts to Camey. With his voice lowered, he
muttered, “I’ll never be that man again.”

Camey stood before him,
motionless. This was the first time he’d told any of the girls
how he really felt about Talia. “Do you love her?”

Landon dropped his head; his
feet suddenly his main focus. “I do.”

She moved alongside him and
placed her hand on his bicep. “Then we’ll do whatever it
takes to keep her happy.”

“That’s all I
want.” His hand brushed through his hair as Camey joined him,
leaning against the table. They were standing there smiling when
Talia opened the door.

“Lunch.” Her
genuine smile made his heart soar. Life would be so much easier now
that he knew he had Camey on his side.

A
week after Landon’s run-in with Lady Vanna, he found himself
outside the shop when a delivery boy arrived carrying a ridiculously
large bouquet of calla lilies. Landon’s heart plummeted into
his stomach as the boy neared, his only thought being Lady Vanna
hadn’t believed Camey’s story and she wasn’t giving
up. When the delivery boy tripped over the curb, Landon found himself
reaching out to steady him before he fell to the ground.

“Thanks,
man.” The fair-haired boy mumbled while opening the front door.
Landon thought he couldn’t be more than seventeen, which
explained why it appeared his nerves were getting the best of him.

Following
the boy in, Landon watched him set the bouquet on the counter. “Can
I help you?”

Digging
deep in his pocket, the boy retrieved a wadded up form. “Flowers
for Tal-e-uh uh…” he struggled to pronounce her name.

“It’s
Talia.” Landon signed for the flowers, breathing a sigh of
relief that they weren’t from Lacy after all, but now he was
filled with questions of who the flowers were from and why they had
been sent. Anyone who knew Talia had to know that calla lilies were
one of her least favorite flowers.

“Thanks.”
He snatched the delivery form from the counter and ran out of the
shop, clearly nervous to be in a rival’s store.

Tucked
haphazardly inside the bouquet, Landon saw a small envelope with
Talia’s name scribbled across it. He was tempted to find out
who was sending her flowers, but he couldn’t force himself to
invade her privacy. He decided to let her tell him who sent the
arrangement on her own, leaving the lilies on the counter and walking
to the backroom to look over the delivery chart for the day. He only
had one delivery and the arrangement hadn’t been put together
yet, so he found small tasks around the workroom to keep himself busy
and out of the girls’ hair.

When
Talia emerged from the cooler, Landon watched her saunter into the
front room, pausing at the pass through when, he assumed, she spotted
the flowers. He heard the vase scrape across the counter and then he
saw her lugging the flowers into the backroom, setting them on the
workstation. She was examining them, unaware that he was in the
corner watching her every move. Pulling the envelope from the
bouquet, she extracted the card from inside. When she’d read
the contents she stared at the lilies momentarily before she hefted
them off of the table and very impressively launched them at the back
door. The flowers scattered through the air as it flew and on
contact, the vase shattered into a million pieces.

“Damn
it.” Talia grabbed a broom and dustpan from the closet beneath
the stairs and made her way to the debris, still seemingly unaware of
Landon’s presence. When she neared the back door she stopped
and yelled, “Shit.” Hopping away from the mess, Landon
raced to her side.

“What
happened?”

“I
guess I didn’t think that through.” Talia hung onto the
counter, keeping her weight on her left foot.

When
Landon approached, he immediately saw what the problem was. Talia was
wearing sandals and a sliver of glass was hanging in the side of her
arch. He reached for her, but she staggered away from him. “Let
me help you.”

“I
got it.”

“Talia,”
he reprimanded. “Stop being so stubborn.”

She
looked crossly at him, but he persisted, lifting her away from the
wreckage and placing her on the worktable. Kneeling down, he got a
better angle of the glass, gently pulling at the sliver until it was
free of her foot. He grabbed the first aid kit from the wall behind
him and prepared to open it, but Talia stole it from his hands.

“Thank
you.” She gingerly hopped off the counter and hobbled up the
stairs with the first aid kit tucked beneath her arm.

When
she was inside her apartment, Landon began cleaning up the mess,
disposing of the shards of glass and discarded flowers. After he had
swept away all of the debris, something on the counter caught his
eye. It was a card, presumably that which had been attached to the
flowers. He lifted it from the counter and read:

I’m
so sorry. I’ll never do anything to hurt you again. Please
don’t make me live another day without you.

-Mason

He
was still clutching the card when Talia returned downstairs, trying
to hide her faint limp, with tennis shoes on her feet.

“Want
to talk about it?” He held the card up for her to see.

Talia
rolled her eyes and snatched the card from his hand before dropping
it in the trash.

Landon
followed her to the front of the shop, where she was digging through
files underneath the sales counter. “Talk to me.”

“There’s
nothing to talk about.” She didn’t look up as she
continued digging.

“If
you won’t tell me what this is about, please talk to one of the
girls. You shouldn’t be holding this all in.”

She
looked up from her rummaging to bellow, “There’s nothing
to talk about, Landon! I’m fine.” She looked back at the
files, pulling a manila folder from the lot, and began to type on the
computer.

Understanding
his dismissal, Landon took his cue and returned to the workroom. He
was mulling over her withdrawal from him, not understanding how she
could be so different from the women he was used to, women who threw
themselves at him, never hesitating to share their sorrows, fears,
and dreams with him. Talia never wanted to talk about anything that
was bothering her. He hated that she would go to such lengths to shut
him out. He knew she was hurting, he just wished she would tell him
what this was all about. While he was lost in thought, Sara came out
of the cooler with his delivery in hand so he took it and left the
shop, thankful for some time away to give Talia time to think things
through.