Page 26 of Fear of Love (Falling #3)

LYDIA

W atching Landon teach a little girl how to play hockey was the most attractive thing I ever saw in my entire life, and I’ve been around for twenty-nine years. He was so patient and kind as he taught her to hold the hockey stick and hit a puck.

I hadn’t told him I was dropping by, and I was glad I didn’t give him a heads-up.

I liked sitting there, watching him interact with the kids.

Observing him while he did something he enjoyed.

It was a different side to Landon, and I liked it.

He came off as an asshole, which he could be, but with these kids, he was far from it.

I thought seeing him with them a few weeks ago was sweet, but this was next-level.

I hadn’t thought too much about having children myself, too focused on building my company, but watching Landon with them had my ovaries wanting to explode.

Especially when the little girl looked at him like he was the coolest thing on the planet.

All the kids seemed to love it here, as well as the moms. I didn’t fail to notice the lingering glances they shot Landon’s way. The not so subtle whispers and eye fucking.

I didn’t necessarily blame them for coming to gawk at Landon.

He looked good out there on the ice, wearing joggers that clung to his muscular legs and a tight pullover sweatshirt that made his arms look fantastic.

He was drool-worthy. So, of course, the hockey moms showed up every time there was practice.

Was I jealous sitting there watching them bat their eyelashes at him? I couldn’t say I enjoyed it, but at the same time, they weren’t the ones he was sleeping with. I didn’t see them being bent over the couch and coming over and over again. It made me a bit smug knowing that.

“Want to help me out here?” Landon asked as he skated a few feet away.

“You want me to willingly come out on the ice?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“I can teach you to skate.” He shrugged.

“You wanna teach me?” I pointed to myself. “Weren’t you the one who said I was a lost cause on the ice?”

“That’s still true.” The smirk on his face made me want to smack him. “But I think I can help you stay upright, if you want.”

While a part of me wanted to say no, the idea of Landon taking the time to teach me had me saying the exact opposite. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

I gave him a nod, hoping I didn’t regret this. “Let’s get you some skates.”

Landon towered over me on a normal day, but with skates on, he was even taller.

I was jealous at how easily he walked in the skates on the carpet as we headed for the front desk.

Why did everyone in the Boone family have to be so freaking talented when it came to sports?

It would be nice if one of them sucked at something.

“Emily, what are you still doing here?” Landon asked the moment we got up to the skate rental counter. The familiar girl from a few weeks ago stood there looking between the two of us.

“I was just about to leave.” The look Landon gave her was one I saw him use countless times on Mateo.

“You didn’t need to stay this whole time. It’s Friday, go out with your friends.” The way he scolded her let me know the two of them were close.

“Yes, Dad.” She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. She looked over at me curiously, eyes darting back to Landon.

“I’m Lydia.” I introduced myself, feeling like I needed to say something.

“Hi, I’m Emily. This one’s favorite worker.” Emily gestured to Landon.

“She won’t be if she doesn’t get out of here.”

“Don’t worry, he’s actually a teddy bear.”

I decided right then I liked this girl. It was clear she adored Landon and loved giving him shit. Her and Mateo would get along swimmingly. “Need some skates?”

“Size seven,” Landon answered before I could. I glanced in his direction in surprise. He knew my shoe size? Ignoring my curious looks, Landon grabbed the skates from Emily. “Thanks. Now get going. I’ll see you Monday.”

“I’m going.” Coming around the counter, she gave me a parting smile. “Nice meeting you, Lydia. Feel free to give this one shit for me.”

“Oh, I will.” I mirrored her grin. Beside me, Landon sighed, which just made me smile that much harder.

“See ya, Boss.” With that, Emily left, leaving Landon and me.

“You two shouldn’t be left alone.” With a hand on my lower back, and my skates in his other hand, Landon guided me back to the benches. I took a seat and went to grab the skates from him only to have my hand smacked away.

I’ve seen Landon on his knees for me—just a few days ago, actually—but as he squatted down in front of me in a pair of skates, my stomach did a weird little summersault.

“Foot up,” he instructed as he tapped the inside of my knee. I saw the other guys do this for Josie and Tasha and never thought much of it, but holy shit . There was something so sexy and sweet about Landon balancing on his skates while sliding a pair on my feet.

All I wanted to do was run my fingers through his hair and tug his face up to mine.

“I can lace up my own skates,” I said, trying to distract myself from the feelings that were growing in my chest.

“First step is making sure your skates are on right. Tight but not too tight that you can’t feel your toes,” Landon said as he slid my other foot into a skate. His fingers skillfully laced them up within seconds. “How does that feel?”

All I could do was wiggle my toes and nod. Words left me as he glanced up at me from under his lashes. It was like being sucker punched in the stomach with how handsome he was. Those gorgeous eyes leaned more toward blue today, thanks to what he was wearing.

“Let’s get you on the ice.” Landon stood to his full height, hand held out.

I liked how his dwarfed mine when he helped me off the bench. I wobbled as I took a step forward. Last time I did this, I clung to Mila the entire walk to the ice. This time was no different as I gripped Landon’s hand and arm.

“You can walk in high heels, but you can’t walk in skates?” Landon teased.

“High heels at least have a flat bottom!”

“Suck in your core for balance. A lot of it has to do with your control there so tighten it,” he advised.

Coming up to the edge of the rink where the carpet met the ice, Landon stopped. “You ready?”

“Maybe I should stick to the bench.” I wanted to take a step back, but my feet were glued to the floor.

“Don’t be a baby.” He easily stepped over the threshold before turning around to face me, hands extended. “I’ve got you.”

“Promise you won’t let me fall?”

“I promise.”

With a sigh, I placed my hand in his and stepped onto the ice.

“You are the world’s biggest asshole.”

“That wasn’t my fault.” Landon had his arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at me.

“Wasn’t mine! I did as you told!” I shot back.

“You did the opposite of what I said.”

“Did not!” I glared up at the man who should’ve been teaching me to skate but was doing the exact opposite. “Some teacher you are. Help me up, you hulking statue.”

“You seem pretty comfortable down there.” Landon had the nerve to smirk.

“Landon Boone, if you don’t help me off this ice right now, you will never receive another blowjob from me.” And I meant it. My ass was frozen, and I was pretty sure I was going to have a huge bruise.

“Wow, those are fighting words, Blondie.” But they worked as Landon reached down and hauled me up off the ice. I gripped his forearms so hard my knuckles turned white.

“What happened to not letting me fall?” I scolded.

“I’m trying to teach you.”

“By letting me fall on my ass every two seconds?”

“Teaches you that if you fall, you have to get back up.” The look on his face was enough to make me want to throttle him.

“I hate you so much right now.” With a shake of my head, I dropped my hands. I needed to get away from him right now or I actually would throttle him. Teaching, my ass .

With a scowl, I pushed off the ice and skated around him. It wasn’t until I was a few feet away from him that I noticed I was actually skating.

“LANDON!” I wasn’t sure I could stop without crashing so I kept going. “I’m doing it!” I yelled. Holy shit, I was skating. I wasn’t tripping over my own feet like I usually did, either.

I skated around the corner while beaming like a little kid. “Landon, look!”

“I’m looking.” I could hear the smile in his voice as I pushed off the ice with a little more force.

“I’m totally skating!” I didn’t care that I was yelling so loud my voice echoed around the rink. Staying upright on the ice was a miracle.

I came around the top part of the rink, Landon now in full view. He stood there, a rare grin on his face as I slowly skated toward him.

“I’m a pro!”

“Hell yeah, you are.”

As I got closer, panic grew since I had zero clue how to stop. I typically fell on my ass or slammed into the boards.

“Use the toe pick,” Landon called as I approached.

“Uhh…” My first mistake was looking down, as if that would do anything. By the time I glanced back up, I was directly in front of Landon.

Like a complete idiot, I closed my eyes and braced for impact, fully expecting to hit him and fall back on the ice.

Neither happened. Two big hands grabbed my waist and lifted me off the ground.

I opened my eyes as Landon twirled us in a circle, easily using my momentum to turn us instead of letting me fall.

Slowly, he eased us to a stop and gently placed my feet back on the ice. He didn’t let go as we stood there pressed against each other.

“You don’t listen to directions, do you?” His voice was low and gravely.

“I skated.”

“And tried to take me out with you.”

“But I skated.” A grin slowly grew on my face. It didn’t matter that I almost mowed Landon over. I managed to stay upright and not tumble to the ground.

“Told you that you could do it,” Landon said, a soft smirk on his lips.

Something warm bloomed in my chest, and before I could stop myself, I reached out and cupped his face, thumbs brushing softly across his cheekbones. I leaned in and kissed him as the chill in the air slowly disappeared.

“You really need a better filing system,” I said for the tenth time as I shuffled through Landon’s paperwork.

“It works just fine,” he mumbled across from me.

“Why don’t you hire someone to do this for you? Then you’d have more time to focus on other stuff.” I asked. I had three piles of paperwork in front of me, having spent the last ten minutes going through and separating them. No clue why he had invoices mixed in with Junior League’s applications.

“Just seems unnecessary.” Landon shrugged. I hummed in response because I understood that. I had a financial advisor but all my other paperwork I did myself.

Standing, I made my way to the filing cabinets he had against the left wall of his office. On the opposite wall behind me, he had a couch and a chair, with his desk straight ahead when you walked through the door. It was a fairly big office and decorated like one would expect in a hockey rink.

The walls had a few posters of famous hockey players.

The only one I knew was Wayne Gretzky. The hockey legend was from Canada, not Toronto, but that didn’t matter to Canadian hockey fans.

My eyebrow raised in surprise at the signature on the bottom of the poster.

I had a feeling Wyatt got it personally signed for Landon.

Another poster was of the Toronto Knights.

It was a picture of the team winning the Cup Championship for the very first time a few years ago.

It was taken from above as the whole team stood on the ice, surrounding one another.

My eyes were drawn to Bryton and Trevor standing in the middle, both of them on Wyatt’s sides as he held the trophy above his head with the biggest smile on his face.

Picture frames caught my attention as I made my way back to his desk. The first one I noticed was one of his entire family. Evelyn was standing in the middle with Landon, Wyatt, and Mateo surrounding her with smiles. It looked only a few years old.

The one beside it was of Mateo, who looked to only be fifteen, holding up a trophy in his football uniform. I smiled at the picture, noting how grown up Mateo has gotten. But one caught my eye the most.

Before I could stop myself, I reached over and grabbed the framed photo.

In it was a younger Landon clad in a hockey uniform.

He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and his hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat.

He was standing beside another guy on the ice, both of their arms thrown over each other as they smiled.

“We had just won the National Ice Title,” Landon said suddenly. I glanced up to see him leaning back in his office chair watching me.

“Was this your senior year?” I asked, looking back at the picture.

“Yeah. My last hockey game.”

“Why didn’t you play professionally?” I put the photo back on his desk and sat down on the chair across from him. I watched his face to see if I had crossed a line in asking.

“I probably could have,” he answered truthfully.

“I wasn’t as good as Wyatt, that’s for sure, but I wasn’t horrible.

” Landon’s gaze cut to the poster on the wall of The Knights winning.

“It just wasn’t a guarantee, and as much as I wanted to play, I needed something stable.

Something that helped pay Mom’s bills and get Wyatt and Mateo what they needed. ”

Landon said it casually, like it wasn’t a big deal. I couldn’t help but wonder how much he sacrificed to make sure his mom and brothers were taken care of.

“What made you buy this place?”

“So many questions tonight, Blondie.”

“Yep.” I shrugged and leaned back, waiting for an answer. Landon chuckled before he continued.

“I wanted a change. The owners knew Wyatt and me from coming here as kids. They were a nice old couple that rarely made us pay. Always kept the doors open late for us to come and practice. Three years ago when I came in, they mentioned they were going to sell the place. I didn’t want it to go to some developer who would tear it down, so I bought it and quit my financial job. ”

I found myself looking at Landon in a whole new light. I knew what it was like to take a chance on yourself and build something from the ground up.

“Well, you’ve done a good job. The kids really love it here.” He built something incredible, and it showed.

“Thanks.” His voice was a bit gruff at my compliment, like he wasn’t used to it.

As we settled back into comfortable silence, I caught myself looking at him now and then, realizing that with every little thing I learned, my feelings for him were quietly growing.