Lies in Love (14 page)

Landon
sat at the bar surveying every person who walked through the door.
Half an hour after he arrived, he saw Camey enter the club followed
by the two girls he met at the diner. His heart beat in double time
briefly until he realized Talia wasn’t with them. He waited a
moment longer, seeing if she was straggling behind, but she never
appeared. She wasn’t there.
Where
is she? She always comes out with the girls.
He
struggled with his next move, deciding he would talk to Camey, see if
he could find out what was going on. He needed to see Talia. He
needed to figure out what this was between them. He walked toward
Camey, pushing through several groups of people along the way and
catching her just before she hit the dance floor. “Camey.”

Camey
turned around and the smile that was on her face quickly disappeared.
“What are you doing here?”

“I
was looking for Talia. Where is she?”

Camey
gripped Landon’s bicep and pulled him away from the dance floor
to a corner somewhat removed from the chaos of the club. “I
don’t know what your plan is, but you need to drop it.”

“What?
Why?” Landon didn’t understand how Camey could go from
pushing her friend on him to wanting him to keep away from her.

“Look,
Talia is in a bad place. I’m not sure why, but I don’t
think meeting you helped anything. So please just leave her alone.”

“What
if I can’t do that?”

“This
isn’t some game, Landon. Talia is my best friend and she’s
hurting. Hiring you was a mistake. You have to understand that and
leave her alone.”

“I
can’t.”

“What
do you mean, you can’t? It’s easy. Stop coming to the
club, don’t try to contact her. Just leave it alone. She
doesn’t need you messing with her head. She’s already in
a bad place and I won’t watch you hurt her.”

“Trust
me, I have no plans of hurting her. She isn’t the one you
should be worried about now.”

“What
is that supposed to mean?” Camey’s eyes were intense, a
burning fire penetrating his.

“It
means I want to know her; I care about her. I want to make her world
better.” The words were like a bullet to the chest, because he
knew they were true. The realization was that this wasn’t just
some sexual attraction. He really did care about what happened to
Talia.

“How
can you say you care about her? You’ve met her twice. You
haven’t even been on a date with her.”

Landon
shook his head. She hadn’t told them about their date. “There’s
just something about her. I
want
to know her more.”

“You
can’t. Just leave her alone, okay?”

Landon
was going to argue, but Talia’s sister appeared behind Camey.

“Camey,
I’m…” she stalled when she spotted Landon. “Oh,
hi.” Her brow furrowed as she turned her attention back to
Camey. “I’m going to go check on Talia.”

Landon
could tell she was trying to be discreet, probably trying to keep him
from hearing, but with all of the noise of the club she had to raise
her voice just enough for him to hear.

Camey
ogled Landon as she spoke. “I have a feeling she needs you
right now.”

Sara
hugged Camey and walked away.

“What’s
going on?” Landon was suddenly concerned. Why were they worried
about Talia?

“Don’t
worry about it. We’ll take care of it.” Camey started to
walk away but Landon gently hooked onto her arm.

“Please.
I just want to help.”

“If
you want to help then forget you ever met her. That’s the best
thing for her right now.”

That
was it. Camey didn’t say anything else and Landon didn’t
stop her again. He watched her disappear into the bodies on the dance
floor and then he walked away. She was asking him to just give up,
but it wasn’t in him. He’d already given up his job and
the place he’d called home. Giving up the reason he’d
changed everything just to make Camey happy wasn’t an option.
He had to find some way to hang on to the inspiration for changing
his life.

Talia
curled up in her dad’s old recliner wearing her most
comfortable sweatpants and her old ratty tennis t-shirt from high
school. It was one of the few t-shirts she had from before Mason that
she hadn’t worn while they were together. She had donated every
item of clothing she ever wore while she was with him, which
explained her closet full of frumpy outfits that she now called her
wardrobe. She didn’t want any reminders of her time with him.
Every piece of furniture, every bit of clothing, even all of her
curling irons and makeup from that time were left behind or given
away. She rarely did more than brush her hair, which was why she had
a room full of hats for those bad hair days. She was running her
fingers through her freshly washed hair when a knock sounded at the
outer door to her apartment. “Who’s there?”

“It’s
me, Talia. Open the damn door. It’s freezing,” Sara’s
muffled voice demanded.

Talia
whipped the door open, simply staring at her sister. “What are
you doing here?”

“What
are
you
doing
here
?
I thought you had a meeting in Fort Worth.”

Talia
rolled her eyes and walked back to her recliner, allowing Sara to let
herself in.

“What’s
going on, Talia?”

“I
just didn’t want to go out tonight and you wouldn’t let
it go. I’m getting sick of arguing with you all the time.”
Talia dropped back into her chair, avoiding eye contact with her
sister.

“You’re
getting sick of arguing with me? It sure seemed like you were
enjoying it to me.”

“No,
Sara. I hate arguing. I hate being a frigid bitch, but it’s all
I can be right now.” Talia pulled her legs up in front of her
on the chair, trying to hide inside herself.

“Why?
What’s going on?”

Talia
shook her head. She really didn’t want to talk about it. She
didn’t even want to think about it. It wasn’t just about
Mason anymore, either. Now that Landon was in the picture, Mason was
hardly an afterthought, but she didn’t know what to do about
Landon. He made her go out with him, made her like him, and then he
disappeared. As if her pride wasn’t hurt enough, it was just
one more blow that knocked her down another peg.

“Talia,
talk to me.” Sara’s voice was sympathetic.

“I
met someone. We went out, and then I didn’t see him again.”

“Who?”

“Remember
the guy at
Satin
that was following me around a couple of weeks ago?” Talia
wouldn’t look at her sister as she spoke.

“The
hot blonde guy?”

“Yeah,
I guess.” Talia didn’t like hearing her sister call him
hot, even though he was obviously gorgeous. “We went out a
couple of weeks ago and it was great. I thought we both had a great
time. We agreed that we knew where to find each other and left it at
that. He never asked for my number or anything. I guess that should
have been a good sign that he wasn’t interested. Anyway, when I
went to the club last Friday he never showed. I thought for sure he
would be there so I spent most of the night looking for him. The only
thing that got him remotely off of my mind was dancing with you guys
but it didn’t help much.”

“So
you like this guy?”

Talia
rolled her eyes.
What
a stupid question.
“That’s
what I just said, isn’t it?”

“Not
in so many words, but yeah.”

“Yeah,
I like him. He’s the first guy since…” Talia
didn’t want to even say Mason’s name. He didn’t
deserve for Talia to even acknowledge his existence.

“I
know.”

Talia
was glad that Sara wouldn’t force her to say his name. “Look,
don’t tell the girls. I don’t want them feeling sorry for
me over some stupid guy. It didn’t really even mean anything. I
just thought maybe we could’ve had some fun.”

Sara
nodded. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I’m
going to go home and get some sleep. Lord knows I don’t sleep
enough most of the time.”

“Sounds
like a good idea. Maybe I’ll turn in now too.” Talia got
up and stared awkwardly at her sister. “Thanks for checking on
me. I know I haven’t been easy to live with, but I do love you
and I’m thankful I have you on my side.”

“Always.”
Sara hugged Talia and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll see
you in the morning.” She gripped her sister’s hand before
she left.

It
was the first time Talia and Sara had acted like sisters in months.
It felt good to have that sisterly connection with her again. Trying
to concentrate on that and not think of Landon, Talia went to bed.

Camey
and Sara carefully arranged the flowers in the van for their
afternoon wedding. Talia was busy putting together a last-minute
anniversary bouquet for a man waiting inside so it gave the pair a
couple minutes to talk.

“So
Talia told me what was bothering her, but this is between you and me.
She asked me not to tell you and Reina, but since I saw you talking
to Landon last night, I couldn’t keep it to myself.”

“What
the hell? Spit it out, Sara.”

“Talia
went on a date with Landon a couple of weeks ago and she has the hots
for him. She expected him to show at
Satin
last week but when he didn’t she got upset. That’s why
she refused to go last night. She was afraid he wouldn’t show
again and she felt pathetic looking for him so she made some excuse
about a meeting and stayed home.”

“Seriously?
She likes Landon? Shit.” Camey knew this was bad. Landon liked
Talia and Talia liked Landon, but the two of them together had
catastrophe written all over it.

“Yeah.
She said he’s the first guy she’s liked since Mason.”
Sara climbed inside of the van to adjust a few of the arrangements at
the front and then crawled back out. “This is big, Camey. What
are we going to do?”

“I
know what we aren’t going to do. We aren’t going to let
them end up together. Could you imagine what would happen if Talia
found out that Landon is an escort.” Camey whispered the last
word just in case Talia was in ear shot.

“Well,
duh. But she’s miserable. I hate seeing her like this.”

“Just
let me handle it. I’ll figure something out.” Camey
clammed up when Talia came through the back door.

“I
swear, men can be so stupid.” Talia placed a huge table
arrangement in the van and continued talking. “That guy said
his wife was bawling when he left the house, because he forgot about
their anniversary yesterday. What an idiot. Why do men assume flowers
will make everything better?”

“I
don’t know.” Camey opened the side door of the van and
began adjusting the flowers so that they were safely supported
against each other without crushing any of the blooms.

“There
are just a couple more arrangements inside and then I’ll grab
the box of bouquets and we can go. We should have plenty of time to
get all of the arrangements set up at the church and in the hall
before the wedding even begins.”

Sara
and Camey both nodded and returned to loading the van. It was just
another typical wedding Saturday. When the last of the flowers were
loaded, Camey and Talia hopped in the van to make the delivery while
Sara stayed behind to help Izzy until closing time. She’d join
the girls at the reception hall when the shop was locked up tight.