I notice the troublesome kid from the police station isn’t following her.
The back door opens, and Parker slides in.
I wait for her to close her door, then I look back. “No luck?”
She shakes her head. “No, not this time.”
“Well, we’ll have fun just the three of us,” Hayden says, checking the rearview and then backing out of his driveway.
Turning back around, I ask, “Was he at least nice?”
“He was Landon,” she says, which translates to no. “But give it time. I’m sure he’ll come around.”
“Yeah.” Hayden says it like he agrees, but just yesterday, he was telling me he wasn’t trying to convince me he was my destiny, and today, he proposed marriage.
Sometimes you have to consider the source when a lawyer’s talking.
Hayden glances over at me as he puts the car in drive and starts to pull away from his house. “What are you smirking about?”
“Nothing. Just dogging your profession in my mind.”
His eyebrows rise at the cheerful way I say it, then he laughs and grabs my hand, bringing it to his lips so he can kiss it.
His eyes shift back to the road, but it’s somehow sweeter when he says casually, “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
I want to be as sure as he is that we will.
I’m not, but Ihopewe will.
Maybe I’m only less sure because Landonishis son, and Hayden might not like the reality as much as his promise. If Landon won’t stop being a jerk and nothing we do seems to help, will he really kick his own son out?
It’s hard to believe.
I know that even if Parker were a jerk to someone who moved in, there’s no way I’d ever tell her to leave.
Hopefully, it doesn’t come to that.
It doesn’t seem like we’re off to a good start, but I suppose if Hayden and Parker can be optimistic, then I can, too.
See more of Hayden and Gemma in Parker and Landon’s book,Contempt, releasing early 2023!
Turn the page for an exclusive look at Parker’s last interaction with Landon, where she tried to convince him to come to the family dinner…
Bonus scene
Parker
“I’ll just be a minute.”
I can tell Mom is worried as she watches me through the car window like a scared kid whose mother just dropped them off for the first day of kindergarten.
Hayden looks less concerned, but he doesn’t seem to have a great deal of confidence that I’ll change Landon’s mind when he couldn’t.
I take a deep breath as I make my way up the stairs and approach the front door. It feels odd to let myself in, but it would feel stranger to ring the doorbell and wait for Landon to answer.
Since I’ll be living here now, I guess I can let myself in.
The door opens to a massive foyer with a staircase off to the right. A huge spherical waterfall chandelier hangs from the vaulted ceiling clear down to the railing.