“Oh, okay. I wanted to explain why I’m late. Someone broke my windshield, and I had to take it to the mechanic.”
“How did that happen?”
I shrugged. “Vandals, I suppose.”
“Did you already file a police report?”
“No, that takes too much time and usually leads nowhere.”
“Will is a detective. I’ll call him up and ask him to look into it for you.”
A warm feeling sprouted in my chest and I smiled up at him, remembering how he’d offered his help to Val on Friday. Landon Connor had a white-knight complex, and it was totally doing it for me. Not that I was a damsel in distress. I didn’t need saving, and even if I did, I could be my own knight. But it was sure good to know that chivalry wasn’t dead.
“Thanks, Landon, but I don’t want to waste your brother’s time. These things usually don’t lead anywhere.”
Landon stepped closer. So close, in fact, that I could see the contours of his six-pack. I snapped my gaze up to his face, praying that by some miracle he hadn’t realized I was perving at him. Landon was gazing down at me with an intensity that made my entire body strum.
He studied me, and being on the receiving end of his attention was making me squirm. “Does this happen often?”
The concern in his voice endeared him to me.
“This is LA. My neighborhood is okay, but these things happen from time to time. No biggie.”
His shirt was becoming more transparent by the second as he continued to sweat. And even though I usually found sweaty men unappealing, everything about Landon was beckoning to me, even his smell—a clean, manly deodorant scent.
Maybe the testosterone oozing off him was simply messing with my senses. I really had to quit staring. When I met his eyes again, I realized this time he’d caught me staring.
“I’ll give Will a call,” he insisted.
“You’re not used to being told no, are you?”
He grinned. “Is it that obvious?”
“Yeah. And I am saying no. I appreciate the concern, Landon, but I don’t have time to file complaints and whatnot. I should get started on work,” I said, finally remembering I was here to work on Val’s yard. Landon kept those beautiful green eyes trained on me until he took my breath away. Eventually, he relented.
“I’ll leave you to it. I’m going to hop in the shower.”
I tried very hard to push away any thoughts of a naked Landon only feet away while I started my workday. It was no small feat. I barely knew the man and he already had a spell on me, but I was determined to fight it. He was here on vacation, and I was here to work, nothing more.
I still had some scars from my failed engagement, even though it had been eight months since Owen and I broke up. I’d followed him to LA and didn’t regret moving because I loved the city. But when the relationship imploded, it shook me to my bones. I’d come to LA with dreams of building a life together, and after the breakup, I’d felt as if my life plan had been erased and I was standing in front of a whiteboard. I was still working on drawing up a new life plan. I had the professional part figured out, but my personal life needed work.
I focused on scooping the earth out of the first terrace level for the better part of the morning, only stopping when I saw Lori enter the yard with her son, Milo.
They both greeted me, and Lori said, “He’ll hang out with Landon for a few hours. Soccer practice.” Turning to her son, she added, “Come on, Milo. I think Landon’s waiting for us in the backyard.”
The fact that Landon liked spending his vacation training his nephew endeared him to me even more. Lori and Milo disappeared inside the house, and a short while later, Lori left.
I started laying the foundation for the makeshift wooden trail that would serve as the main path for the next couple of weeks. Transforming the slope into terraced levels involved dislodging bits of earth, and the old path up to the house would be caught up in the process. At the end of the project, I’d bring in a specialist in masonry to build stone steps, but for the moment, the makeshift trail would do.
By noon, I was halfway done with it when I heard an ear-splitting cry echo through the yard. Milo. Heart leaping in my throat, I sprinted up to the house.
My glutes and thighs were burning in protest by the time I nearly bumped into Landon.
“Do you know where Val keeps the first-aid kit?” he asked.
“I’ve got one in the car. What happened?”
***