Hot Summer Nights

27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Leah

Landon holds my hand as we walk down the sidewalk, heading for stop number two on our date. The entire day so far has been incredible- even with the forced interactions with Clarissa.

As we walk, Landon tells me more about the kids' program at the arena and how he got started with coaching. He tells me more about his job with the team and how he recently got offered a promotion.

When he mentions part of the stipulation of his getting the gig requires him to go back to school, I'm shocked. I knew he had a bachelor's degree, but never really thought much about it. Hearing him say he's going for his master's is surprising in a good way.

Just another addition to the how Landon blows me away list. It seems the more that gets added to the list, the more I realize how quickly I judged him before.

I never expected much from him when we first started seeing each other. It was always meant to be cheap thrills and frequent orgasms. But there's so much more to him than I ever could have imagined.

Something inside of me cracks.

How could I not see it before? How great he is...

Was he hiding it that well? Wearing the mask of the dumb jock playboy. Or was he trying to keep this part of him to himself?

So many questions race through my mind as we continue walking.

I take a second to look at him. Really look at him. The more he explains about his classes and work, the more animated he becomes. The pride he feels about what he's accomplishing is written all over his face.

It makes him even more handsome than normal. As if that were possible.

I can't help but match his grin when he looks at me, making sure I'm paying attention to his story. He's a hidden wonder of the world. And he's all mine.

"You're so freaking amazing."

The words slip out in a whisper, making his eyes widen to match mine. It's true, but I didn't mean to say it out loud. He was still in the middle of telling me how much he's enjoying his classes this semester when the words came tumbling from my mouth.

"Sorry," I tell him, "I didn't mean to interrupt. But it's true. You just keep surprising me, Landon."

His blue eyes seem to shine brighter as I look at him. "Thank you, Leah. That means a lot coming from you."

He drapes an arm over my shoulder, tugging me close as he disarms me with one of his trademark smiles. Fuck, he's beautiful.

Landon's smile grows as if he can hear my thoughts, but he doesn't utter a word. He leans in as we keep walking, planting a soft kiss on my temple.

My hand flexes around his waist as I let myself get caught up in the moment. This man is giving me butterflies. Freaking butterflies! And I'm loving every minute that we're together.

He asks about my parents and how things are going in the world of social media influencing. As I speak, he hangs on every word, studying my face as I share with him details about my life that we never really talked about before.

Sure, he knew my parents and knew I made money sharing my passions with my followers. But we never had conversations about either.

This time around, things were so different.

We were connecting on a much deeper level, prioritizing conversation over sex. A far cry from what we had done before.

I was in the middle of telling him about my most recent Insta post and the interest it seemed to be bringing in from all around the country when something caught my eye.