Lies in Love (20 page)

She
assured herself he hadn’t just used her. There had to be more
to it than that. She was certain he would call her before the day was
over and explain why he left without notice the night before. And if
he didn’t, she would put on her big girl panties and take last
night for what it was: a good time. If a one-night stand was all she
was good for to men, then she would accept it and move on. Maybe
Camey had the right idea spending time with various men and never
getting attached. Maybe the road less traveled was the road less
heartbreaking.

It
was all too much to dwell on this early in the morning so she put on
a pot of coffee and prepared for her day ahead. She wouldn’t
let Landon, or any man, weigh down her thoughts any longer.

“Hello?” Landon
was still lying in bed when he answered the phone and threw his arm
over his eyes to block out the light.

“Hello, Mr. Havens.
This is Sarah Landry, your father’s landlord.”

“Yes, Mrs. Landry. How
are you this morning?”

“Well, Mr. Havens, I’m
not doing real well. I’m afraid your father has been making a
mess of the property with his drinking and this morning I found him
sleeping out on the lawn. I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I
have to ask you to find him a new residence. I can’t have this
in our apartment complex any longer.”

Landon’s fingers
massaged the bridge of his nose as he listened. “I understand.
I’ll be down this afternoon to take care of it.”

“Thank you, Mr.
Havens. You’ve been more than pleasant to deal with, but I just
can’t tolerate your father’s belligerence anymore. If
things change for him, please don’t hesitate to contact me
again.”

“Yeah.” Landon
hung up the phone and dropped it on the bed next to him. This was
just one more place his father was being run out of, just one more
place that he wasn’t welcome. Why couldn’t his father see
what he was doing to the people around him, to his family? As it was,
Dawson wanted him as far away as possible so he wouldn’t
influence the grandkids. And their sister wrote him off years ago.
None of them had heard from her since Landon began his job as an
escort. Landon was sure that their father preferred it that way,
however, since she was the spitting image of their mother and
dear
old Dad
couldn’t take the sight of her. The last time his dad saw her
he went into a heavy drinking binge that lasted a week, just so he
could check out until he forgot about her again.

Landon got up and dressed
then began gathering enough clothes to last for the next couple of
days. He knew it wouldn’t be easy getting his father into a new
apartment complex, not if they checked his references. This was his
fourth home in a year. If he thought for a second that his father
wouldn’t check himself out of rehab, it would be the next
arrangement he made, but he knew his father would never go for a
recovery program. As far as Abel Havens was concerned, he had no
problem and no reason to quit drinking.

Landon packed all of his
essentials in a backpack and headed out to his bike, stuffing it into
one of the saddlebags before firing the motorcycle to life. He would
make the trip to Waco and find the next location to hide his father
away. Hopefully he could talk enough sense into him to keep him in a
home for more than four months this time.

Abel Havens sat on the steps
outside of his apartment in a pair of jeans and nothing else. His
once muscular physique had softened to a beer gut and from twenty
feet away Landon could see his eyes were heavily bloodshot. Landon
wondered even now when Abel had no place to live if he would ever
stop drinking.

“There’s my
golden boy.” Abel began laughing and fell over against the
railing.

Landon spotted a half-empty
bottle of Jim Beam next to his father. “Damn it, Abel. Don’t
you ever stop drinking?”

“Don’t you call
me Abel, boy. I’m your father. You respect me.” Abel
raised the bottle in Landon’s direction while trying to stand
and nearly fell down the stairs, gripping the metal railing.

“You haven’t
been my father since the divorce.”

Abel stumbled in place and
Landon hurried forward to stabilize his father before he tumbled to
the ground below.

“Come on.”
Landon tugged his father inside of the apartment, stepping over beer
cans and pizza boxes just inside the door. “At least you’re
eating.”

“No thanks to you,”
Abel snickered as Landon dumped him into a recliner near the front
door.

“Where do you think…?”
Landon stopped himself. He knew there was no use where his father was
concerned. “I’m not going to argue with you. Let’s
just get your shit together so we can get you out of here and find
someplace else for you to live.”

“Bah. I don’t
need your help, boy. You don’t give a rat’s ass about me.
That’s why you’ve got me cooped up down here by myself. I
don’t have anyone anymore thanks to you and your
good-for-nothing brother.”

“You did this to
yourself. If you don’t like where you are or your circumstances
then quit fucking drinking. It’s a simple solution.”
Landon stomped from the room in search of a trash bag to begin
cleaning up the empty boxes and cans lying around the apartment. When
he returned to the living room with a bag in hand, he found his
father passed out in the recliner. Landon rolled his eyes and began
cleaning up the place. Maybe it would be easier to get his father
moved if he was comatose for the whole thing.

Friday morning, Landon woke
satisfied that he had done all he could for his father. Abel was now
in a gated apartment complex on the other side of Waco thanks to an
extra thousand-dollar incentive to the management staff. His
furniture was set up and his refrigerator was stocked with his
favorite beer. Landon wasn’t thrilled about the latter, but he
knew he wouldn’t be able to leave his father any other way.
He’d spent his nights in a local motel to avoid any more
confrontations than necessary.

He didn’t condone his
father’s lifestyle, but knew there was no stopping him, not
unless he was willing to stop on his own. The only thing Landon could
do was sit and watch his father slowly kill himself.

After a quick shower and
change of clothes, Landon packed up his things to make a brief stop
by his father’s and head back to Dallas. He hoped he would be
back in time to visit
Satin
and hopefully run into Talia. Thoughts of her were the only thing
that made his time in Waco bearable at all. He wanted to call her,
but he didn’t want to expose her to the irritability his father
brought out in him. He couldn’t put that on her, or anyone else
for that matter. Anxious to get back to her and everything in Dallas
that he loved, he checked out of the motel and made the short trip to
his father’s before getting on his way.

It was raining. Cracks and
gutters were full of water. Puddles sloshed onto the sidewalk as cars
passed. It was another dreary March day. Talia was dressed in a baggy
sweatshirt and jeans staring out the shop’s front window
watching the traffic go by. She hadn’t heard from Landon since
their night together. That was three days ago. She knew the male
“rule” was to wait three days before calling, and that
she shouldn’t be so bothered by the silence, but she couldn’t
act like sex with Landon didn’t matter; deep down, it did. And
with no word from him she wasn’t sure what to do. She knew
there was no getting out of going to
Satin
tonight, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to, because she hoped
Landon would be there.

She was dying to confront
him, to find out why he slept with her and never called. She was
certain of one thing: she planned to have fun this evening if it
killed her. She would dance with whoever was interested and drink her
fill. She would do everything in her power to get him off her mind
and, if he did in fact show, she would make him rue the day he met
her. She wouldn’t allow him to turn her into some useless mess.
It was time she got out of this funk she was in and turn things
around.

Hopping off of her stool,
she began rapidly pulling orders together, trying to bide her time
until the shop closed and she could get ready for her evening out. It
would be her mission to make every man in the club want her and for
Landon to regret ever walking away.

Landon pulled into Dallas
amidst the rain. By the time he arrived at Dawson’s he was
soaked clear to the bone. The sun was waning in the sky as he ran up
to his apartment to shower and find some fresh clothes. He
desperately needed to restore some warmth back into his body before
he ventured back out into the rain. His shower lasted longer than
usual as he thought of his last night with Talia, regretting the way
he left her as the heat slowly seeped back into his bones. He’d
be in the shower all night if he didn’t stop his wayward
thoughts.

Once he felt his blood
pulsing through his veins, he climbed from the shower and dressed. A
quick call to his brother secured a vehicle for the evening that
wouldn’t leave him exposed to the elements. When his hair had
dried and he was content with his appearance he made the quick jog to
borrow the car keys from his brother, trying to avoid the raindrops
falling around him, and set out for
Satin
.