Heading back inside, I find Aubrey in our shared office. “Hey, what are you looking at so hard?” I ask, watching her stare at her laptop.
“Just going over the details for the adoption fair this weekend.”
“What can I do? We’re all set, right?”
“Yes. We have plenty of volunteers, but I’m just worried about the attendance. Our fairs here at the shelter don’t do nearly as well as the ones when we hold them at the mall or other shopping centers. We’re at capacity and I’m hoping we can find some of our animals forever homes.”
“Okay. So what do we do? We’ve got social media ads going. We’ve passed out over five hundred flyers. We have posters hanging all around town. What are we missing?” Before she can answer, the chime sounds, letting us know we have a visitor. There are no volunteers on the schedule until this afternoon. Standing from my desk, I start for the door, but before I can make it to the threshold, Landon is there.
“Hey.” He leans in for a quick kiss. “I assumed you didn’t take the time to eat. I know how much you hate to run late, so I stopped at the Seaside Café and bought you your favorite.” He holds up the bag from the café as his proof.
“Best bo— guy ever,” I stumble over my words.
He leans in close, placing his lips next to my ear. “Boyfriend, Em. You had it right the first time.” His lips press against mine, and that’s all it takes for me to get lost in him.
“This is new.” Aubrey chuckles, pulling us out of our trance.
Landon smiles down at me, hands me the bag from the café, and turns his attention to Aubrey. “Landon Barker, boyfriend to Emma Deaton.” He smirks, holding his hand out for Aubrey to shake.
“Stop.” I pull on his arm, bringing it back to his side. He takes that as an opportunity to lace his fingers with mine.
“Looks like I missed a lot last night from Harvey’s until now.”
“You could say that,” I confess.
“What I want to know is why am I just now hearing about it?” Her smile is wide as her eyes give me a knowing look.
“I was running late, and came in and got straight to work. I was going to tell you, but you looked like someone just kicked your puppy and we started talking about the adoption event on Saturday and well, this guy decided to show up and started throwing around titles.” I bump my shoulder into Landon’s.
“Hey, I earned that title. I’m all about throwing it around.”
Aubrey sighs. “Sorry, I’m just worried about this event.”
“What event?” Landon asks.
“We schedule several adoption events each year. Keeps the public informed and reminds them we’re here. We’re at capacity for the animals, and Aubrey’s concerned we’re not going to have a good turnout. Usually we go to a shopping mall or a pet store, something like that, and transport a few of the dogs and cats, but since we have Buckwheat and we’re so full, we thought we would schedule the event here. We won’t have the same traffic as the shopping centers.”
“When is the event?”
“Saturday.”
He nods. “What time?”
“One o’clock.”
“I was hoping you might say that.” We stand by and watch as he pulls his phone out of his back pocket and his fingers fly across the screen. “There.” He looks proud of himself as he turns his phone to show me the screen.
@LandonBarkerOfficial come help me support the South Bay Animal Shelter this
Saturday at 1 PM. #AdoptAPet #Trojans
“I have twenty-four million followers.” He winks. I read the Tweet for a third time, processing what this could mean for the shelter.
“Landon, that’s amazing. Wait, don’t you have practice on Saturday?”
“We do, but just in the morning. We’re reviewing game film. I’ll be out of there by noon. I’ll get Case and a few of the guys to come too. They can Tweet it out to their followers as well.”
“The Cocky Bastard can too. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that,” Aubrey says. “Thank you, Landon.”
“I usually have PR send over pictures and things to sign, but I’m not going to do that this time. I want to get the public here, and I can sign anything they bring with them, but I want to make this day about the shelter.”
“Thank you.” I rise on my tiptoes and kiss him.
“If that’s what I get for doing something nice, I need to step up my game.” He grins, and I can’t help but playfully roll my eyes.
“You two are so cute together. I love this.” Aubrey waves her hands at us.
“Yeah, I love it too,” Landon says softly, his eyes holding mine. “You need any help around here today?” He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
“No, we have a roster of volunteers this afternoon. Thank you for what you did.”
“Anything for you.” He leans down for another kiss and I have to force myself to not take it too far, knowing that Aubrey is in the room with us. “I’ll see you tonight?” he asks when we finally pull apart.
“Yes.”
“Pack a bag. I’ll pick you up and we’ll go back to my place.”
“Okay.” A slow grin crosses his face. I don’t know if he thought I was going to fight him on it or what, but I’m not. I’m putting myself out there, my heart too, and letting the chips fall where they may. “Thank you for breakfast.”
“You’re welcome,” he says, giving me another chaste kiss. “Aubrey, it was good to see you.” He releases his hold on me and steps back. “Later, freckles.”
“Damn.” Aubrey pretends to fan herself with her hands. “That was hot.”
“Yeah he is,” I agree, making her laugh.
“So, you took my advice I see.”
“I did and we talked last night. We’re dating exclusively.
