Page 147 of Running
The one thing I have going for me is that apparently it still hasn’t leaked to the team that Grace and I are together, and Landon hasn’t told anyone either, or so Carter says. So maybe he wants to avoid a dramatic clash too and will actually listen.
“I feel like I should wear a bulletproof vest.”
“You got me, I’m all the protection you need,” Carter jokes. He probably isn’t wrong.
“Knock, knock,” he says as he opens the door to the room without waiting for a response.
I’m behind him, so I can’t see exactly who is in there, but from the noise, I can tell there are multiple guys.
As Carter steps inside, I follow suit. When we’re three steps into the room, the door closes on its own, and I hear a voice behind me.
“What do you think you’re doing here?”Landon.His voice is low, deep…and pissed.
I turn around to face him where he’s standing against the wall on the far side of the room, next to a table covered with bottled water. Out of my peripheral vision, I can see four of his fellow linebackers sitting at another table.
Maybe Carter wasn’t enough protection after all.
They don’t know what happened with Grace,I remind myself.
“Landon, I don’t want to fight. I just want to see if we can talk. If I can tell my side of the story.”
“Oh we can talk,” Landon growls. “My sister, J? My sister.”
“Oh hell no, Johnson messed with Landon’s sister?” I hear from one of the other guys in the room.
Carter takes a step closer to my side.
“It’s not—” I try to find the words that may make him understand. “We really liked each other, Landon, and things just…evolved.”
Landon takes a step forward, pointing his finger toward me. “You told me you’d keep an eye out for her. Keep her away from guys with bad intentions.”
“Landon—”
“YOU DIDN’T TELL ME THAT YOU WERE THE ONE WITH BAD INTENTIONS!”
Within the second it takes for them to digest Landon’s outburst, all the linebackers at the other table stand up andcross their arms.
“Landon, stop this,” Carter says. ”Hear him out.”
I hold my arms up, trying to ignore all the prying eyes. “Grace and I have been together for months, man. I’m not playing games here.”
“If you had come to me at the beginning, and been honest…” Landon huffs. “We wouldn’t have a problem. You lied. My best fucking friend.”
“We didn’t want to hurt you,” I spit out. “We just wanted to see where this could go, in peace, in private.”
“AKA you wanted to sneak around with my little sister.”
“No—“
“Have a good time, no obligations?—"
“Landon, fucking listen to what I’m saying. I’m not with Grace just for a good time. I think she might be myforever.”
A collective gasp comes from the guys, followed by at least two “oh shits.”
I turn to Carter, and his eyebrows are raised so high they might be touching the ceiling.Oh shit, indeed.
Pivoting back to Landon, he appears stunned. Like Coach said, maybe after I said it enough times, loudly, he finally got the picture?
