Category:

She held up two fingers. "That's two conditions."

"So I can't count. Good thing I'm not in the math department." With an indifferent shrug Landon strolled around his desk and reclaimed his spot in the squeaky desk chair.

Helena sighed to show her annoyance, although she wasn't quite sure whether that annoyance was directed at Landon or herself. "It's not a thing. It's a..."

She let her voice trail away because she wasn't exactly sure how to classify it. It wasn't like she'd meant to start crushing on her soon-to-be-stepsister's fiancé. It had just sort of happened.

The first time she'd met Gage Demetrius was at the front desk of the beach resort where she was about to spend the weekend meeting her new step-family. In fact, he was the very first Perfect she met, if he could even be considered a Perfect. She was checking in, trying to decide if the jittery feeling in her stomach was from her excitement about the weekend or her nerves about what lay ahead, when the man at the other end of the long front desk interrupted her thoughts.

All right, she'd admit it: his broad, friendly smile might have momentarily captivated her. But she brushed it off. Just because she found him attractive didn't mean she was attracted 'to' him.

But as the weekend progressed, their connection seemed to deepen. Every time she tried to fit in with this new family but inevitably began to feel out of place, Gage was right there to sympathize as a fellow newcomer. Every time she remembered everything was changing and began to tear up, he made her laugh. Plus, there was the fact that if she looked up the definition of "tall, dark, and handsome," his picture would be there. It would've been impossible for Helena to walk away from the weekend without a few teensy feelings.

But it wasn't until their second meeting, when she flew to Dallas for the engagement party, that Helena realized she'd sailed right past the finding-Gage-attractive zone and was now standing smack in the middle of full-on crush town. She didn't want to be there, but she couldn't help it. The more time she spent with him, the more their connection grew. They had read many of the same books and liked the same kinds of music. Gage got her sense of humor, and their conversations never lulled. He was the perfect combination of rugged and sophisticated. The only problem was that he was already taken.

Normally, this would've been an unfortunate situation, but one Helena could've walked away from. The happy couple could go on living their perfect life, and she could work on forgetting him while she pondered the truth that "all the good ones were already taken." But this was different. After a couple sets of "I do's," Gage would be connected to her family forever. It was a lot harder to forget about someone you'd have to ask to pass the potatoes at every family holiday.

"It's ridiculous. Out of all the men in the world, why do I have to have a crush on the one who's engaged to her?" The impossible situation dragged Helena down, and she slumped against the desk again.

"'The course of true love never did run smooth.'"

Helena narrowed her eyes on him. "Are you quoting Shakespeare to me?" Landon winked. 

"Is it helping?"

Since whatever romantic connection there might have been between them fizzled sometime on their first date, Landon's boyish charm was completely lost on her. "No. Besides, it's not even relevant. No one said anything about the L word. I've known the man for about fifteen minutes."

"My mistake. The course of crushing never did run smooth."

Helena rolled her eyes. "How about we discuss your love life for a while?" 

He pulled the stack of papers toward him and picked up a pen, seemingly uninterested in Helena's conversation switch. "Nothing to talk about. I'm in a great place."

"Really? How did your date last weekend go?"

Landon scribbled something in the margin of the paper he was grading. "I don't know why I let you talk me into that dating app."

Helena knew. Landon was a romantic. He believed in love and forevers and happily-ever-afters more than anyone she'd ever met. And she wanted that for him. But some girl from his past had ruined it.

"How'd this one rate on the Mia Meter?"

Mia was the one who had broken Landon's heart. She'd been before Helena's time, so Helena didn't know all the specifics. What she did know was that Landon had been completely in love with her, but she'd walked away for whatever idiotic reason and no one had ever come close to capturing his heart since. Helena pretty much considered this Mia to be the biggest fool who'd ever lived.

"We've been over this. I don't compare every date to Mia."

Of course he did. But if that was the lie he needed to believe, Helena would back him on it.

"I guess there's not going to be a second date?" 

"No." He returned his attention to the grading.