Confused, I glanced around the front yard.Where on Earth had he come from?
When my gaze landed on the driveway, the answer became obvious. Sometime within the past few minutes, while I'd been arguing with Brody, yet another vehicle had arrived on the scene. It was a long black limo with dark tinted windows.
Funny, I hadn't seen one ofthosesince prom.
When I looked back to the stranger, he held out his hand. "Hi. I'm Landon. And you are…?"
Sweaty.
Without thinking, I'd already moved my hand halfway toward his. Now I pulled it back with an embarrassed laugh. "Actually," I said, wiping my hand on my jeans. "I'm not sure you want to shake this. I'm a little messy."
From somewhere to my left, I heard a delicate snort. I turned to see the blonde standing within slapping distance – this time on the lawn,noton the walkway.
I looked down at her shoes and almost smiled. The shoes were stillmostlycream-colored, but now, the front half of each shoe had a slight greenish tinge.
Suddenly, my day felt just a little bit brighter.
She muttered, "Oh, shut up."
With mock innocence, I asked, "Did Isayanything?"
"No. But you were thinking it."
The stranger's voice cut between us. "Waverly, is there a problem?"
The blonde straightened. "No sir. No problem here."
"Good," he said. "Let's keep it that way, shall we?"
When I turned back to the stranger, he gave me another friendly smile as he said, "You never told me your name."
Now, I wasreallyconfused. Obviously, this was Landon Tarrington, the blonde's boss – or her boss's boss, if I wanted to get all technical.But why wasn't he angry with me?
I mean, shouldn't he be yelling about the lawn or something?
I replied, "I'm Arden – Arden Weathers, actually."
During this whole exchange, Brody had been giving Landon a look that I couldn't quite decipher. Still, one thing was glaringly obvious.Brody wasn't delighted to see him.
Then again, Brody hadn't seemed delighted by much of anything today – well, except for the mower running out of gas.
Landon looked to Brody and said in a friendly sort of way, "So, you and Miss Weathers know each other?"
Brody frowned. "You might say that."
Landon gave a slow nod. "I figured as much." He turned back to me, and his gaze grew speculative. "So, you two have a history, huh?"
I wasn't quite sure what he was getting at. "Well…" I stammered. "…we knew each other in high school, if that's what you mean."
"So what were you?" he asked. "High school sweethearts?"
Me and Brody?I gave a bark of nervous laughter. "No. Definitely not."
From the sidelines, Brody said, "Is there a point to this?"
The guy smiled at both of us in turn. "I'm just seeing some chemistry here, and I'm wondering what's up."
Chemistry?At the very word, I almost groaned out loud.
