If I Never Knew You Trilogy Bundle

by Aubrey Bailey

  CHAPTER FOURTY-ONE

  I WASN'T SURE what to think anymore over the next few days. Everything seemed to make me a bit jumpy for no apparent reason and, to top things off, Preston seemed to be behaving strangely. He was by my side an awful lot and hardly left me and Landon alone for longer than a minute. Either because of Preston' weird behavior or by some unknown force, I wasn't hanging around with Landon so much anymore. I was confused because I had slept with the guy, but something else had come over me-something I couldn't explain.

  Yesterday was not a good day for me and Landon. During rehearsal, we argued over differences in how we were going to do our final number and ended up shouting at each other.

  "What is happening here?" Mrs. Wilson asked. She noticed rather quickly that her stars didn't seem to be co-operating.

  "Ask Riley," Landon said, rather coolly, too. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.

  "Now I don't know what caused this sudden rift between you two, but I want it solved before opening night. Do I make myself clear?"

  "Yes," the two of us chorused.

  "Good, I'm going to leave for a few minutes, but I expect to see you two working together properly when I come back."

  "What the hell has gotten into you?" Landon asked.

  "Me?" I asked. "You're the one who is trying to change the staging after our final number, not me. And what is your problem with Preston being here?"

  "Maybe I just don't like him," Landon said.

  "You never liked him!"

  "Well, now I don't like him even more."

  "Why?" I asked. "Does this have something to do with me?"

  "Not really," Landon said.

  "What is it, then?"

  "I..." Landon said. He looked around at the empty auditorium. I crossed my arms. "I can't tell you."

  "Can't...or won't."

  "Won't," Landon said. "I don't want to be the one to tell you this."

  "Tell me what?" I asked. "Landon, just tell me!"

  "Preston is cheating on you with Mia," Landon said. "I was looking for Miss Bondi and I walked in on them making out in her Physics classroom."

  In truth, I knew that Preston' relationship with Mia was probably heating up and part of me didn't care. All I responded with was "Mia is his best friend's kid sister."

  "Exactly," Landon said. "Riley, you know you can't trust him anymore. Why not just make a clean break?"

  "No!" I said. Landon was a possessive type of guy and I did not want to jeopardize the friendship I had left with Preston when it was not necessary. If I broke it clean, he might never talk to me again.

  "I don't have to listen to this," I said, grabbing my bag and walking out of the auditorium.

  "Mrs. Wilson said to stay here," Landon said.

  "I don't care," I shouted while running out.

  Thankfully the weekend came fast. After the show on Saturday that the girls and I had to do at the community center, I was free to just sit around the house for the rest of the day. On Sunday, Mom asked me to go grocery shopping with her.

  "Why did I have to go?" I asked, pushing the cart.

  "Because Noah's working, and your father is with your uncle doing some men stuff," Mom explained. When my father and uncle got together to do 'men stuff', that usually meant they were playing some kind of video game after working on a project.

  "Whatever," I said. Mom just smiled at me. We walked by the fresh produce, choosing ingredients to make a Caesar salad and coleslaw.

  "Oh, hi, Annette, Landon," Mom said.

  I groaned and looked up to see Landon and his mother Annette up ahead of us. He looked just as bored as I was, pushing the cart for his mother.

  "Hi, Madison and Riley," Annette greeted us with a happy expression. I refused to look at Landon as I glanced down at the list I had and looked at the food on the shelves. I ignored the mothers talking as I walked from the cart and picked up some items to snack on. When I came back, Annette didn't look so happy.

  "Riley, why don't you and Landon go along ahead of us? You two have the lists, so you should be good," Mom assured me.

  "But..." I said.

  "We'll catch up," Mom asserted, in a bottom-line sort of way.

  I sighed and pushed the cart. Then I asked Landon if he knew what our mothers had been discussing.

  "My parents are getting a divorce because Dad can't keep his goddamn cock out of his secretary's ass," Landon revealed bitterly.

  I blinked and stopped. I knew Landon never really liked his father, but he had not spoken about him in this vulgar way before. I also wondered how he knew about his father's sexual habits.

  "Mom's in a wreck over it. She's been spending the last month trying to work out their problems with a therapist, but Dad's made up his mind. We're pretty screwed financially if he leaves."

  Landon's mom didn't have a job that I knew of and Landon's part-time job wouldn't be able to help much when it came to bills. What were they going to do?

  "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear this, Landon," I commiserated.

  "Thanks," Landon said. He told me that there had been marital problems for a while and he had not felt comfortable discussing them until now, when it became necessary.

  I turned my attention back to the list and grabbed things off shelves as we walked through the aisles.

  "Looks like we got everything," Landon said. I nodded. We headed up to the registers after meeting up with our moms. After paying for the groceries, we all left for our respective houses.

  After we unloaded the food items, I went up to my room straight away and logged onto my computer. I forced myself into thinking about my final song. I had a lot of different options; surely one of them would work.

  CHAPTER FOURTY-TWO

  FOR VALENTINE'S DAY, I got flowers from Preston, a teddy bear from my dad, and cards and chocolates from the girls-we did that every year. Landon gave me a lovely, rose-scented soap, which I really appreciated.

  The next day, we did some more rehearsing for Freedom. Mrs. Wilson was away again, so Lorne was back and with him came Nathan. I thought it was funny when my brother's friend walked into the auditorium during rehearsal. He was mainly there to be with Lorne, though, and thankfully did not try to interject his own ideas.

  After almost an hour of practice, I was starting to get a headache and I was feeling pretty rundown too.

  "Hey guys, I'm feeling tired and I wouldn't mind a break, if that's alright with you," I said, standing up. "I need to go outside and get some fresh air."

  "Alright, we'll work on scenes that you aren't in," Lorne said, "or Preston for that matter. Where in the world did he go?"

  I looked around the auditorium. Landon raised an eyebrow at me when I caught his eye. I quickly looked away and said I'd go find Preston before I left.

  I honestly don't want to say what I walked in on, but when you hear voices in a classroom that should be empty, you feel compelled to look. It wasn't too bad as far as things went because when you walk blindly into a room from which giggling and some other noises come, you tend to think the worst. All I could say was, Landon definitely was right about Preston and Mia.

  "Riley!" Preston shouted when he saw me, but I was already quickly walking away. "Riley, listen to me alright?"

  I slapped Preston's hand away as he tried to put it on my shoulder. "How long has this been going on and why didn't you tell me you had feelings for Mia?" I was hurt that he was keeping his personal life such a secret from me because as boyfriend and girlfriend we had been very close at one time, even if we were now basically just friends.

  "It's just..." Preston said.

  "Just answer the question," I snapped.

  "Soon after Halloween," Preston said. "Riley, I'm sorry. I should have come clean with you, but you seemed to have a thing for Landon, so I wasn't really sure what to do. Please don't be mad. Can we at least stay friends?"

  "We'll see," I replied frostily. I wondered how we could really be good friends if we couldn't share our innermost feelings. To be fair
, I had kept things about me and Landon hidden from him, too. I hoped that once we got past the situation, we could begin rebuilding our trust in each other again.

  I returned to the auditorium to finish the practice then hopped on the bus, rode it past my stop, got off the next one and then walked straight to Landon's house. Annette was off probably doing some job search or visiting her attorney and I knew Richard wouldn't be home until much later, if he came home at all. I dropped my bag and kicked off my shoes, before going to Landon's room, where I sat on his bed for the next half hour.

  It seemed like old times, now that I had the time to think about it. Whenever I was upset or troubled, I would do this. I was always welcome to walk straight into this house whenever I wanted. My family even had a key for the lock, which I had with me that day. Sure enough, as I sat thinking about everything, I heard the door open and close and the sound of footsteps. I had left the door to his room open. When I looked up and Landon came into view, he didn't even seem surprised to see me there.

  He greeted me, and I casually nodded in return and looked down again. His feet crossed my line of sight for a moment before I felt the bed shift. He sat down and then his arms were around me. I started to cry. I told him what had happened, how I had felt through it all, apologizing over and over again. Landon said nothing. He just hugged me and let me go on for as long as it took to feel better. Even after I had stopped talking, he didn't say anything. We just sat together on his bed, quietly enjoying each other's company.

  "Ok, I'm good," I said, sitting up slightly, since I had been leaning against him the whole time. Landon dropped his arms and looked at me. "I'm really sorry," I whispered.

  "It's okay, babe," Landon said.

  "How can you say that?" I asked. "I ignored you and was cool to you when we were together. That wasn't fair to you."

  "Because it makes sense," Landon said. I stared at him. "Despite the four year separation, I still know you a lot better than you think. I understand you pretty well, Riley." I nodded, because I really couldn't argue with that, and then decided to change the subject.

  "How are things going here?" I asked.

  "Probably as well as you'd expect. My parents are separated right now and Dad is just waiting to get his divorce papers. Mom's been job hunting and she's got a few prospects, but nothing that really appeals to her."

  "She should try for modeling." I said. Landon raised an eyebrow. "What? She's beautiful and there is lots of work for mature models, both on TV and in print ads. A woman my dad works with has a husband who is part-owner of a modeling agency."

  "Well, aren't you just the girl with the million connections!" Landon remarked.

  "That's me," I admitted, shrugging.

  "Well if you think it'll work, then you get to talk her into it," Landon said.

  "Oh sure, give me the hard job!" I retorted, grinning.

  Landon smirked and pushed me lightly. I pushed him back and then the next second I was getting tickled. I laughed and tried pushing him away. I had never managed to do so, but then again, he had never tickled me while we were on the edge of a bed. As hard as I could, I pushed and Landon fell off onto the floor. I sighed then yelped as he reached up, grabbed my arm and pulled me down on top of him.

  "Isn't there something you have to do?" Landon asked.

  "Hmm, you mean this?" I wondered, leaning down and kissing him. It was a nice little kiss that only lasted a few seconds.

  "Well, there is that. But I thought you had your driver's test today."

  "Nope, it's tomorrow," I said. "Oh shit, it is tomorrow!"

  "Want to do some practicing?" Landon asked.

  "Uh, sure, that would be a good idea. You'll probably be better than my parents at teaching me, anyway." We got up and went downstairs. I grabbed my bag and threw it in the backseat, since I didn't expect to go back to his house afterwards.

  We actually managed to find an empty parking lot, where Landon let me drive around. His car wasn't too different from any of the ones I had driven. It was pretty late when Mom called. Landon answered because I wasn't about to talk on my phone while learning to drive. After Landon had explained about the driving, he decided it was time to head back home. He even felt confident enough to let me drive back. I was also a little bit paranoid, though, because if we got pulled over by the cops, we'd be in shit. The parking lot was one thing, but being on the actual road was different.

  But we didn't get into trouble and I got home perfectly fine. Okay, well I got into trouble once I walked into the house. Mom told me she had nearly freaked when I wasn't home around the usual time.

  "Mom's a bit paranoid lately," I admitted, sitting on the couch with Noah as Mom went to work on dinner.

  "A bit?" Noah asked. "Riley, ten minutes after you usually get home, she was a bit upset. Now that it's been at least two hours, I'm surprised she hasn't pulled her hair out."

  "What does she have to be paranoid about?" I asked. "It's not like I was out with Preston."

  "I heard," Noah said.

  "Heard what?" I asked.

  "Landon told Bridgette then Bridgette told me about the whole Preston thing. That means I get to beat him up."

  "Yeah...wait, what?" I asked.

  "Remember when you first started dating him, you said that I could beat him up if he did anything?" Noah reminded me.

  "Yeah, well, I wasn't being serious," I admitted. There's only so much big brother behavior I can take.

  The next day was blurry. I went through school, then my driver's test without even thinking about what I was doing. Surprisingly enough, I seemed to drive better when I was distracted. I guess it helped me from over-thinking decisions on the test because I passed.

  When the weekend finally rolled around, the record company decided to take The Valentinas and a few other guests on a little vacation to Cancun for the weekend. This, of course, was all thanks to my father, who pushed for recognition of our group whenever he could. Faith and I were already planning to use every available minute to do some sunbathing, while the other girls were going to just relax. Paul was coming with us because I had finished the song that involved him and he was going to practice it before we showed it off next week.

  "Hey, Landon!" I shouted, jumping off the auditorium stage after rehearsal. Landon turned and looked at me. "So did you hear about the band going away for the weekend?"

  "Yes, I did," Landon replied. "Sounds like fun."

  "Well, I was thinking, we're allowed to bring a guest, so if you weren't doing anything, would you want to come, too?"

  "Sure, I would love to! I can take the time off," Landon replied.

  "The only problem is that we're leaving really early, so maybe you should spend the night with us, to make it easier all round."

  "Sure, if it's okay with your parents."

  "Yeah, they would be fine with that."

  "So how about we head to my house now, get some stuff and then go over to your place?"

  "Sounds good," I replied.

  We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about what we were going to do (when there wasn't work to be done or my sunbathing time with Faith). It took me a while to convince him to go gift shopping with me, but I finally managed it.

  I guess there's something I should repeat: Landon hated flying. I don't know how in the hell I convinced him to try, but I did. His parents were pretty mad, too, when they found out he was willing to fly to Cancun but not with them on Christmas vacation. So to say he was a bit hesitant to get on the plane was an understatement. If I hadn't been boarding behind him and pushing him through the tunnel, he probably wouldn't have made it on.

  "Look at this-we get first class," I boasted. "How can you freak with this?"

  "Simple," Landon said, grimly. I smiled at him as we got into our seats. He originally had the window seat, but I switched with him because I loved the scenery.

  "Relax," I comforted him, putting my hand over his. I glanced at everyone else, noting they were all distracted with other thi
ngs, and then I leaned in closer to Landon and put my lips near his ear. "Chill out and I'll try to think of a way to make you feel better once we're in the air." I could feel him relax after that. I honestly didn't mean to say what I said in the way I said it, but I did.

  Well, now it seemed as if this flight had just turned into something very interesting.

  CHAPTER FOURTY-THREE

  IT WAS AMAZING how I could sleep anywhere but on a plane. I was tired-I knew that-but I just couldn't sleep. We had a red eye flight, so everyone else, except Landon of course, was already asleep. Landon and I had one big blanket over both of us. He was reading something when I looked at him. I yawned and stretched my arms above my head, drawing his attention to me as I flicked the blanket off.

  "Where are you going?" Landon asked. I stood up and shrugged.

  "Dunno, wanna come with me?" I asked, grinning. I watched as he looked around at the others before pushing the blanket off as well and standing up. We walked past the rest of our group and some others who were in first class as well.

  "Hmm, do you think we're above a mile in the air?" Landon asked.

  "Undoubtedly," I said, giggling.

  "That's what I wanted to hear," Landon said, grabbing my hand. With a look around to make sure there was no one to see, he dragged me into one of the first-class bathrooms.

  "Planning on joining the mile high club are you?" I asked.

  "Maybe, or I'm just planning on kissing you without your parents around," Landon said. I smirked and wrapped my arms around his neck. "No rebound thoughts, I hope."

  "You're so not rebound," I reassured him. "I think Preston was rebound." Now Landon looked confused. "Every guy I dated between losing you and now-well, I'm pretty sure they were some form of rebound to get over you."

  "Really now?" Landon asked, grinning. I rolled my eyes. "So, does this mean that you really did have that crush on me?"

  "Who told you that?" I asked.