It was a man I'd never seen before. He was short and stocky, with wavy brown hair, greying at the temples. He wore an expensive-looking business suit and a very bright smile.
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 of those since 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, not on the walkway.
I looked down at her shoes and almost smiled. The shoes were still mostly cream-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 I say anything?"
"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 was really confused. 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.
I looked to Brody, and we shared a long, sullen look. In high school, we'd been chemistry partners – and not by choice.
Brody told Landon, "You thought wrong. No chemistry here."
"Yeah," I chimed in. "That goes double for me."
Undaunted, Landon gave me another long look. Something in his gaze made me feel just a little bit naked – not physically, but definitely mentally.
He reached up to stroke his chin before asking, "So what's your connection to the house?"
The blonde – Waverly – answered on my behalf. "There is no connection. And she was just leaving."
"Actually," I said, "my grandparents owned the place." I turned and gave Waverly a pointed look as I continued. "If you want the truth, it's been in my family for generations."
At this, Waverly gave me a smile that looked more like a grimace. "How nice."
When I looked back to Landon, he was nodding again. "Interesting." Slowly, he turned and surveyed the lawn before turning back to ask, "So that's why you were mowing? To fix up the ol' homestead?"
It was a simple question. But the answer was obscenely complicated. Yes, family nostalgia had played a role in it. But I'd also been mowing out of misguided gratitude – to Brody of all people.
I mumbled, "Something like that."
"Right," he said. "So, how'd you like to join the team? Maybe do some consulting?"
I froze. Wait, what?
Chapter 14
Arden
The question caught me off guard. After a long, perplexed pause, I asked, "What kind of consulting?"
Landon pointed toward my grandparent's place. "You know they're fixing that up as part of the show, right?"
Boy, did I ever – now, anyway.
When I gave a silent nod, he continued, "And I know you've seen the show."
Yeah, me and the rest of the world. Against all logic, Blast was the network's number-one show of all time. Aside from the monster ratings, it had spawned countless memes, a cult-like following, and plenty of unique offers for the brothers – movie roles, cameos, endorsement opportunities, and even marriage proposals from multiple fans.
The whole thing was beyond crazy.
And yet, the brothers declined everything, unless it directly involved either the TV show or their tool company.
As far as the show itself, I was pretty sure that I'd seen all of the episodes. Multiple times. It wasn’t that I was a fan or anything. It was just that, well, I'd been curious, that's all.
Plus, I loved the whole remodeling thing. Seeing houses restored to their original beauty was oddly addicting, especially when I happened to know one of the stars.
I said, "I might've caught an episode or two."
"So tell me," Landon said. "Where are you working?"
"Sorry, what?"
"A job," he said. "You do have one, right?"
Oh, God. Talk about embarrassing. "No. Not really. I mean, I just graduated from college, so–."
"Perfect."
"What? Why is that perfect?"
"Because I'm thinking we can use a consultant, someone with a vested interest in seeing the place restored to its former glory and all that."
From my left,
