CEREAL DATER (The Way To A Man's Heart Book 13) Read online

  "Look at me," he breathes, and I open my eyes and look into his. They look as though they are trying to consume some part of me. As though he is trying to forge this fiery bond into something else, something real, something that neither of us will ever be able to deny.

  And then, he begins to move. And everything else just falls away at once.

  Chapter Seven

  Landon

  "Oh, God, I’m so nervous," she blurts out as she practically hops from foot to foot, waiting for my parents to join us at the bar.

  "You have nothing to be nervous about," I assure her. I wish that I were telling the truth. In reality? I’m pretty sure she has plenty to be worried about right now.

  We have finally made it to Maui, and right now, we’re at the rehearsal dinner for my sister’s wedding. My parents have been so busy with all the guests that they haven’t been able to make time for me, but I know they’ve clocked the woman I’m with. The woman who is certainly not the one that they chose for me.

  "Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it," she mutters, and she grabs another drink and takes a sip. I don’t blame her for being nervous. Because she has nothing in common with most of the people here.

  And that’s just why I like her.

  Of course, my parents chose the fanciest resort they could pay for to stage this wedding. Best way to make it look like it might be real. I know that my sister doesn’t really want much to do with the man she’s going to marry, but she wants an easy life, not one where our parents are hanging over her shoulder and telling her what she should do and how she should do it.

  "Is everyone here a millionaire?" Lucky asks as she scans the room once more. "I swear I’ve seen most of these people in gossip magazines..."

  "Most of them, yes," I reply, and she whistles and shakes her head.

  "And here, I thought I would be the only one who got to travel to this place by private jet," she remarks, managing a wry smile. But before I can say anything else, my mother appears beside us, a worn-out version of my father by her side.

  "Hey, Mom, hey, Dad," I greet them, going to give my mother a kiss on the cheek. Her eyes are locked on the woman I am with, and I can tell that she wants nothing more than to turf her out of here.

  "Lovely to see you," I offer, hoping that it will break the tension. It doesn’t. Lucky smiles at them, biting her lip, and extends her hand.

  "It’s so nice to finally meet you," she tells them. My mother doesn’t even move, as though nobody is standing there in front of her. I feel a flare of anger in my gut – I'm not going to let them treat her like this.

  Lucky has worked harder and done more than most of the people in this room could ever dream of, and she doesn’t deserve to be treated as less-than just because her gown wasn’t custom-made by a designer, like the rest of the airheads here.

  "Sophia’s waiting, Landon," my mother tells me, her voice clipped. This is it – the last chance that she’s going to give me to dump my date and go be with the woman that she selected for me. I shake my head.

  "I have a date," I tell her, and I slip an arm around Lucky’s shoulders. My mother doesn’t have any choice but to acknowledge her standing there right now, and she looks her up and down as though she is a piece of dirt on her shoe.

  "And who’s this?" she asks. I glance to my father, appealing for his help, but it doesn’t come. He’s never been good at standing up to my mother, and that’s not going to change now.

  "This is Lucky," I tell them, and Lucky smiles up at me, snuggling against me and putting her hand on my chest. But as soon as she turns back to my mother, that smile drops. My mother is frowning back at her, shaking her head.

  "I don’t think so," she replies. I almost laugh at how absurd she sounds right now, but the anger gets the better of me.

  "What the hell are you talking about?" I snap back at her. "Show some respect–"

  "Not until you show some to Sophia," my mother shoots back. "She came all the way out here to meet you, and you turn up with..."

  She gestures vaguely to Lucky, and I take a deep breath to try and control myself. If I lose my shit at her, she’s going to find some way to use that against me. So, instead, I play by her rules, and I pretend that she’s not even there.

  "Lucky," I murmur, turning to the woman beside me. "Could you give me a moment? I need to speak to my sister. And then we can go."

  I ignore the stunned expressions on my parents’ faces as I brush past them to find Cassidy – if they think I am going to stand there and listen to them talk to Lucky like that, they’ve got another thing coming. I hear my mother’s voice calling after me, but I pay it no mind, instead scanning the crowd for my little sister.

  It doesn’t take long to find her – she's with her husband-to-be, a broker from another wealthy family who my parents all but sold her to. She smiles and gives me a big hug in greeting, and then glances over my shoulder to see how pissed our mom and dad are with everything that’s going down.

  "What’s going on?" she asks. "Why are you–"

  "I came with a date who didn’t get pre-approved by our parents," I reply, and she widens her eyes at me.

  "Oh, shit," she mutters. "Do you think that’s a good idea? Sophia’s really nice, you know, I met her and I–"

  "Cass, I don’t think I can be at this wedding," I admit to her. Her face drops and we take a few steps away from her fiancé, out of earshot.

  "What?”

  "I can’t stand by and watch another marriage start just because two families want to make sure that they can’t stab each other in the back," I go on. "I love you, Cass, you know that. And I hope that you’ll be happy with your new husband, I really do. But I can’t keep doing this, pretending that I want something like this, too."

  Her eyes gloss over for a moment, as though there is something clicking into place in her head. But I don’t have time to sit here and talk her through it – she has already gone along with what my parents wanted for her, and that’s the only thing that matters. I plant a kiss on her cheek, and turn to find Lucky again, to find the woman I really want to spend this night with, no matter what.

  But when I look to the bar, she is already gone. And my stomach drops at once.

  Chapter Eight

  Lucky

  Sitting there, my heels perched beside me and my bare feet dug into the warm, damp sand below me, I can almost pretend that none of this is happening.

  His parents hate me. And I mean hate me. Not to mention everyone else back up in that place – everyone else who looks at me out of the corners of their eyes, as though they’re trying to work out what I am doing here.

  Hell, I am not even sure right now. I want to be with him, I know that, but that world – it’s not something I can cope with. All that money, all that pressure to look and act a certain way. And his parents reacting to me as though I just shot the officiant for the wedding right in front of them, it would almost have been funny if it wasn’t so hurtful.

  If this is the life that Landon wants, that he lives, I know I can’t do it with him. I think back to the café, and I wonder if I would have been better off staying there after all. I take another sip of the wine that I managed to get out of the rehearsal dinner. At least the booze is good...

  "Lucky?”

  I glance over my shoulder, and to my surprise, see Landon standing there at the top of the path that leads down to the beach. I smile at him, a little sadly.

  "Hey."

  "Can I join you?”

  "If you don’t mind wrecking your suit..."

  "I don’t," he replies at once, and he plants himself down in the sand beside me, his hand just behind the small of my back. Even now, I can feel the heat of it burning against me, and I want nothing more than to shift over and snuggle myself into his arms.

  "Some party, huh?” I remark flippantly. He shakes his head.

  "Fuck them," he replies, and the vehemence in his voice catches me off-guard. I furrow my brow at him.

  "What did you sa
y?”

  "I said, fuck them," he repeats himself. "If they don’t even have the respect to treat you like a real person, I don’t want anything to do with them."

  "Landon, it’s your sister’s wedding," I remind him. "You don’t have to take a stand because of me–"

  "I want to," he replies, and he slides his hand over mine in the sand, the shape of our fingers marking the damp earth below us.

  "Really?" I murmur.

  He nods. "It has gone on long enough," he replies. "I have put up with it for a long time, I just – couldn't see it until now. Until I saw how they spoke to you. I’m sorry you had to put up with that. Nobody deserves to be treated that way, just because they come from a different world than you."

  "Agreed," I whisper in return.

  "And all they want is for me to be with that woman that they picked out for me," he continued. "I don’t know shit about her, but they’ve decided that she’s right, and I – I can’t go along with that. Not when I feel this with you."

  "You feel it, too?” I breathe. He turns to me, some of the moonlight that is glancing off the water catching the lines in his face. He looks older than he did before. But still just as handsome. More handsome, even. He is a real man, who knows what he wants, and God, that is sexy.

  "It’s why we’re leaving, tomorrow," he tells me. "I don’t want to sit through this farce. I want something real. And I don’t want to have to pretend anything else for another moment."

  He catches my hand and brings it to his lips, plants a kiss against the back of it. Even though I’m smiling, I feel a wash of emotion catch me off-guard, and it’s not until he turns to me and sees the tears in my eyes that he realizes.

  "What’s wrong?" he asks, worriedly, stroking my face and brushing away a tear with his thumb. I shake my head.

  "Nothing," I murmur. "It’s just... it’s been a long time since someone made a sacrifice like that for me. It means a lot. Especially since..." I trail off. I don’t want to dump this all on him. This trip was meant to be fun. But he cups my face in his hand, and I know that I can tell him the truth.

  "Especially since what?"

  I take a deep breath. I know that I need to tell him the truth.

  "I lost my parents," I confess. "Earlier this year. And God, it feels like it just ripped me apart. Both of them, gone in a car accident, just like that."

  "I’m so sorry," he murmurs, and I shake my head.

  "It’s why I opened the café," I explain. "Because when I was a kid – well, we never had much money, but my dad would bring home this ridiculous sugary cereal every Saturday morning, and we would all hang out on the couch and watch cartoons together, and it was... it was my happy place, really. I want to keep that alive. It’s why I didn’t want to leave the café, because if I fail at that, I feel like my last connection to them will be gone."

  "That’s not true," he tells me at once. "You guys loved each other. Still love each other. You know how precious that is? To just have those moments like that, know that you were cared for by people who really wanted the best for you?”

  "I think I’m starting to," I reply, and I kiss the center of his palm. "I can’t imagine how it must have been for you, being stuck with those – with people who just wanted to use you for what they needed."

  "And you never will," he replies. "We’re leaving. And you can get back to that café of yours. I want to hear all the stories you have about your parents, all right? Everything you remember from them, everything you don’t want to forget."

  "Thank you," I say back. It feels like far too small a sentence for everything that I am trying to say to him, but he understands me, and that is all that matters.

  And, as he gazes into my eyes, I know what he is going to say next.

  Chapter Nine

  Landon

  This woman. This woman – the way that she has just opened herself up to me, the way that she talks to me, the way that she lets me in, even when I brought her to a place where everyone treats her like an outsider, I don’t think I will ever have that kind of strength.

  But I want to share in hers, if she will let me.

  I know that the people back at that party will never understand what I feel for her. My parents never married for love, and my sister won’t, either. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t be honest about the way that I feel about this woman. She has been through so much, and I know she must still be so tender from all that she has experienced. And I want to be there for her as I help her through it. I want to prove to her that she can survive it all.

  "I’ve never met anyone like you before, Lucky," I tell her. She smiles, the last tear dripping down her cheek.

  "You know why I’m called that?" she asks. I shake my head.

  "Because my dad’s favorite cereal was Lucky Charms," she explains. "And that’s what he always called me. His lucky charm..."

  I lean towards her, and plant a kiss on her lips, tasting the salt of her tears mixed with the sea air around us. I want to lift this pain from her, but I know that the best I can do is offer to be here for her while she gets through it.

  "I love you, Lucky," I murmur to her. “It was love at first sight, if I’m being honest.” The words seem too small to capture everything that I am feeling right now, but they will have to do – they're the closest I can come to the truth, and for now, that is all that I want to share with her.

  She leans her head against mine for a moment, the words washing through us like the sound of the waves on the beach. I don’t care if she says it back or not – I know that we both feel it. I just needed to know that she heard it from me. Needed to know that she understands how deep my feelings already run for her. I’ve barely gotten to know her yet, but there is something inside of me telling me that this is it – this is the one.

  And I want to break a lifetime of tradition by making sure that I don’t let her slip through my fingers. That I love her the way I want to. She brushes her lips to mine, and I feel the words she speaks back to me before I hear them.

  "I know this is crazy, but I love you, too."

  And I know that this might be fast, but it’s right.

  When something is right, I know it, deep down, to my core. Even though I don’t want to be in this wedding, I want to be wherever she is.

  And if she is sitting barefoot on the beach next to the ocean in Maui, then I will spend all night being here right alongside her.

  Where I belong.

  Epilogue

  Lucky

  "Could you pass me the filters?" I call to Nina, one of the new staff members that I have hired at the café – she’s still getting used to everything, but she’s made a hell of a difference. She tosses me the coffee filters and I shoot her a thumbs-up, just as Landon comes staggering into the café holding a stack of boxes.

  "Oh, shit, let me help you," I tell him at once, diving towards him to grab them before they all fall out of his hands. We manage to maneuver them into the storeroom just before they crash to the floor completely.

  Landon has been working with me here for the last three months now, ever since we got back from Maui – he sold off his shares in his family business and invested everything into my place. He told me that he wanted to help me every way that he could to keep the memory of my parents alive, and honestly, with that extra money, I have finally been able to afford some time off. All of which has been spent with him, of course.

  He’s been helping out as much as he can, getting used to the grind of customer service, but he’s actually getting pretty good at bantering with our regulars and making the new fancy coffee selection that we’ve introduced. And I love having him around, love having a partner to enjoy all of this with. The success we share here just makes everything feel stronger, and I know that this is what I’ve been waiting for.

  "Hey, wait a second," he calls to me, grabbing my hand before I head back out to the café again. I turn to him, raise my eyebrows.

  "What’s up?”

  "This one comes with a
free gift," he tells me, holding out one of the new boxes of cereals that he brought in from the van outside. "Your turn to open it, I think."

  I grin. This is a game we’ve had from the start, sharing the toys that come in all the cereal boxes we use here. We have a row of them in the little apartment that we bought together, on the mantel, so I can see them first thing when I get up in the morning.

  He opens the box for me, and I use a nearby serving spoon to feel around the puffed corn until the spoon hits something.

  It doesn’t feel like a normal gift. No, it’s heavier than the usual cheap plastic we get in these things. I furrow my brow and pull it out – and my jaw drops when I see what it is.

  A ring box. Small, blue, velvet. And when I pop it open, a diamond set in a perfect silver band glimmers back up at me. I gaze up at Landon, who is grinning that same cocky grin that he wore the day I met him.

  "So, will you marry me?" he asks.

  I can hardly speak. This is perfect – the sweetest, loveliest proposal he could have come up with. And I am already sure that he knows what my answer is going to be.

  "Of course I’ll marry you!” I exclaim, and I throw myself into his arms, knocking the box out of his hands as he catches me where I stand.

  I bury my head against his shoulder, still clutching the ring box, unable to keep the smile off of my face.

  "I love you so much," I mumble into his ear, my face pressed to his neck.

  "I love you, too," he whispers back. "And I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, Lucky. I mean that."

  "I know you do," I reply, and I pull back to gaze into his eyes – the eyes of the man I want to spend the rest of my days with. And I know that he’s the best damn prize I ever could have pulled out of the cereal box.