Anything For You Read online

  Anything For You

  Landon & Maddie ~ The Connor Family, Book 1

  Layla Hagen

  Dear Reader,

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  Anything For You

  Copyright © 2018 Layla Hagen

  Cover: RBA Designs

  Cover Photography: Lauren Perry Photographer

  Anything For You

  Copyright ©2018 Layla Hagen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Landon

  “You need a vacation,” Adam said.

  I was pacing my corner office in the high-rise in San Jose, massaging my right temple. I could feel a headache forming.

  “I know.”

  “A real vacation. Not one that lasts forty-eight hours.”

  I laughed because that was an accurate description of my vacations for the past few years. As my right hand, Adam knew all about it. But now I’d just finished negotiations for a partnership with another important player in the software industry. For the next few weeks, everyone would be focusing on paperwork and celebrating. I wasn’t needed for either, and I was exhausted. The months leading to this point had been intense.

  “You’re right. Taking two weeks off wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

  Adam widened his eyes. “Are you serious?”

  I paced the office some more, keeping to the window, which was my favorite place in the room. It was floor-to-ceiling, with a generous view of the city. I spent most of my time indoors, but through this window, I’d always felt less removed from the outside world, like I was part of the excitement going on outside.

  “No. You’re right. The company won’t collapse if I take an extended leave.” Climbing to the top of the industry had required work. Staying there required even more work.

  “Landon, two weeks isn’t extended. We have people who take a year-long leave of absence. Part of the generous benefits you’re offering, remember? But two weeks is a miracle for you.”

  I finally stopped pacing, focusing on Adam instead. “Are you sure you can handle everything here?”

  “Of course. That’s why you hired me. I’m your trusted right hand, best friend, and all-around do-gooder.”

  I cocked a brow. “I can’t tell if you’re looking for a raise or just compliments.”

  “Maybe both. Or maybe neither and I just want your sorry ass out of San Jose before you burn out. Where do you want to go? Bahamas? Bali? Mexico?”

  I shook my head. I didn’t need any exotic destination. I knew exactly where I wanted to go: home. I’d grown up in LA, and my five siblings were still there. So was my nephew. It had been over four years since I’d spent more than two days in a row with them. Ever since my wife passed away, I’d focused on work.

  “Nah, LA. I want to spend some time with my family.”

  “That’s great. I can count on Val to throw your phone in the ocean if you overdo answering ‘urgent’ e-mails.” Adam nodded encouragingly, making air quotes around the word urgent.

  “Don’t give her any ideas,” I warned. My twin sister Valentina had too many ideas as it was. I reached for my smartphone on the desk. “I’ll call her right now.”

  Adam understood the dismissal and left the room. I dialed my sister’s number and she answered after the fifth ring.

  “Congratulations,” she exclaimed before I even had a chance to open my mouth. “You just finalized negotiations, right? How are you celebrating?”

  Only Val would remember the exact time I’d seal the deal. She was one of a kind.

  “Yes, I did. And as for celebrating... I want to come home for two weeks.”

  There was a pause, and I wondered if either of us had accidentally ended the call. Then Val exclaimed, “Wait, I think my ears might be deceiving me. Dearest brother of mine, did you actually say you’re coming home? For two weeks?”

  I could hear the smile in her voice. “Yes, exactly.”

  “On business?”

  “No, I want to take time off.”

  “Wow! Wow! To what do we owe this miracle? Actually, you know what? Don’t tell me. I don’t want to give you a chance to reconsider. When are you arriving?”

  “I can get on a plane tomorrow.”

  “Excellent. The sooner, the better. Oh, Milo is going to be so excited when I tell him. He talks about you nonstop.”

  I smiled. Milo was our sister Lori’s six-year-old son. I talked to him every Saturday morning, but I couldn’t wait to spend some time in person with my nephew. The boy hero-worshipped me, and I did my best to live up to that, be a good influence, but it was hard to be any kind of influence from a distance.

  “I’ll ask my assistant to buy me a ticket right away. Do you need something? Anything I should buy?”

  “No. Well, a present for our dearest nephew would be nice.”

  “I always bring him presents,” I reminded her, finally sitting behind my desk.

  “What time will you arrive?”

  “I’ll come to the office in the morning to finalize some things, but I’ll catch a flight early in the afternoon. I’ll make it in time for dinner.”

  Friday dinners were a tradition in our clan, and my siblings got together every week no matter what.

  “Perfect! We’ll all be here. Oh, Landon, this is so great. I can’t wait. It’s been so long since we’ve spent more than a few days together.”

  I heard the change in her voice, the sudden softness.

  “I can’t wait either, munchkin,” I said.

  “Don’t call me that,” Val protested. That had been our father’s nickname for her. He used it when he wanted to tease her. It had always made her smile.

  “Fair warning, you might have to put up with it for the next two weeks.”

  “You brute. At least give me a few days to enjoy having you here before you start annoying me.”

  “I’m not making any promises. See you tomorrow, Val. I want to ask my assistant to buy that airplane ticket before she leaves.”

  “Sure. Go ahead. See you tomorrow.”

  After the line went static, I rose from my leather seat, looked out the window, and smiled. I was going home.

  Cha
pter Two

  Maddie

  I straightened up when Val called my name, then sauntered toward the house, careful where I stepped. I’d transformed her front yard into a mess, but that was how landscaping worked in the initial phase.

  “Here, I made some iced tea.” She set the tray on the large wooden table in front of the house and poured the tea into two glasses.

  “Thanks!” I gulped it down greedily, the liquid cooling my throat. This was just what the doctor ordered. It was an unusually hot afternoon for the end of June in LA. Val’s ranch-style house was located on the northwestern side of the city, and the ocean was so far away that not even a wisp of a breeze reached us here.

  “How is it going?”

  “I’m done for the day, just waiting for the timber posts to be delivered. I talked to the driver a while ago. He should be here in ten minutes.”

  Val finished her tea, sweeping her gaze across the yard. She’d commissioned me to transform her downward-sloping property into a terraced garden, and the first step involved breaking down the smooth slope into multiple levels. I’d started the project only this week, so right now it looked as if a meteorite had hit it squarely in the center.

  “Okay. Landon will arrive from LAX soon. Do you want to join us for dinner? All my siblings are coming.” She smiled warmly. Val was an unusual employer. Unusual in the best way possible. I’d landscaped the yard surrounding her office building a few months back, and she’d loved the results so much that she commissioned me again.

  She was friendly and fun, and I was more than tempted to say yes. I’d met her sister Lori and her son Milo, and they were fun too. And last Friday I’d been here to discuss the last details of the project with Val and caught a glimpse of the entire family—minus Landon, of course—arriving for dinner, and they seemed very tight.

  I only had pizza leftovers waiting for me at home, and no company whatsoever, but I shook my head. I didn’t want to infringe on their family time.

  “Thanks, but I’m okay.”

  “Okay.” She drummed her fingers on the table, checking the time on her phone, her excitement palpable. When the unmistakable sound of a car pulling up to the front gate reached us, she rose from her seat and skidded down the patchy earth, her dark brown hair bobbing down her back. The house was at the top of the slope, the entrance gate at the very bottom. This place would look like the Garden of Eden by the time I was done with it. Shame it had to be in shambles exactly when her brother arrived.

  I rose from my seat too, trying to decide on the best way to make myself scarce so I could offer them privacy. I ended up heading inside the house. I’d deposited my bag and a change of clothes in the foyer this morning, and I could check my e-mails while I waited for the delivery. Even though the bulk of the landscaping business was hands-on, I still spent one or two hours dealing with organizational tasks or finalizing designs for the next project. I only played in the dirt in one project at a time, but I typically completed the design phase for the next project at the same time. Unfortunately, I found my phone was out of battery. It must have died after I talked to the delivery driver. I debated changing out of my work clothes, but there was no point. I’d have to help unload the truck, and I’d just get my good clothes dirty too.

  When I stepped out of the house again, Valentina and her brother were just finishing the climb up the slope, and holy hell. That was Landon Connor? When I saw the family last week, I gathered that the Connor gene pool was an enviable one.

  The women were tall, with delicate and elegant features, the men even taller—over six feet—and very handsome. But in my humble opinion, Landon was the best-looking of all.

  Of course, my opinion might have been skewed by the fact that he was wearing a suit right now. Since I worked outdoors, I mostly saw the opposite sex in tanks or short-sleeved T-shirts, soaked in sweat. I was a sucker for a man in a suit, especially one who wore it as well as Landon did. His hair was a darker shade of brown than Valentina’s, but their eyes seemed to be the same bright green. They both stopped talking upon seeing me.

  “Landon, this is Maddie Jennings.”

  “I hear you’re the one responsible for turning this”—he gestured to the terrain behind him—“unrecognizable.”

  “Guilty as charged.”

  The corners of his lips lifted. Oh my, that smile. I was wishing I had changed. Bits of earth clung to my jeans, and I’d smeared my T-shirt over the course of the day. My blonde hair was hanging in a limp ponytail. Not that I was trying to impress Landon, no matter how swoon-worthy his smile or how well he wore that suit, but I felt out of place between his pristine clothes and Val’s crisp pencil skirt and blouse.

  Val elbowed him playfully. “Well, if you’d given me a few days’ heads-up, I could have told Maddie to start after you leave. There was—” A ringtone interrupted her. It came from the inside of the house, and ceased after two rings.

  She groaned. “That could be the supplier’s call I’ve been waiting for all day. I promise I won’t be long, but I have to call him back. One of the lavender suppliers jumped ship, and I need to replace him right away.”

  “I can pull some strings and ask in my circle about lavender producers—” Landon began, but Val interrupted him.

  “Landon Connor!” She slashed the air with her forefinger. “You’re here on vacation. You haven’t had one in so long that possibly you forgot what it means. Yes to cocktails and fun and lazy days in the sun. No to work of any kind.”

  Landon didn’t miss a beat. “I can do whatever I want.”

  “Oh don’t you dare pull the big brother card on me. I’m your twin.”

  His lips twitched. “Older than you by fifteen minutes.”

  She shook her head, turning to me. “He seems to have no concept of vacation, so he needs all our help. He’ll be staying here at the house, so do me a favor and be my spy. If you see him anywhere near his phone or laptop, I want an immediate report.”

  I smiled at their banter and felt the need to contribute too. “But you need a supplier, and he can pull strings. Just saying, if I had a brother who could pull strings for me, I wouldn’t say no.”

  Landon whistled appreciatively.

  Valentina stared at me. “Whose side are you on?”

  “Yours,” I replied with mock seriousness. “You sign my paychecks.”

  “I’m going to check my phone.” She narrowed her eyes, then headed inside the house. A few seconds later, I heard a truck come to a stop in front of the gate.

  “And that’ll be the delivery,” I informed Landon.

  “What delivery?”

  “Timber poles for the terracing process. To stabilize the earth.”

  “Who’s unloading them?”

  “The driver and I. The other guys working for me have gone home already.”

  Landon motioned with his head toward the gate. “Come on, I’ll help.”

  He shrugged out of his suit jacket, laid it on the wooden table, and strode down the slope before I could say anything to the contrary. On the way, he popped open the buttons of his sleeves, rolling said sleeves up to his elbow, revealing strong forearms. I sighed, shaking my head. I was a sucker for men in suits, but men with rolled-up sleeves and muscled forearms were my kryptonite.

  “I can handle this, Landon. It’s my job. Go relax!”

  He chuckled. “Let’s make a deal. You start the spying job for Val on Monday. It’ll be quicker if I help.”

  I couldn’t argue with him on that point. I opened the double gate and the driver backed the truck into the yard. He climbed out of it the next second.

  “Hiya, Maddie! Sorry for the delay. Traffic’s a nightmare.”

  “Hi, Johnny!” I’d worked with him on my past six projects, and he’d been late every time. But his timber was top-notch, and I liked working with small, local producers.

  Landon shook hands with Johnny. “Landon Connor.”

  I had to admit, the man packed more authority in those two words than others did in
entire speeches. The way in which he carried himself radiated confidence and power. I liked that he didn’t seem to think he was above physical work.

  Unloading still took a long time, even with Landon helping us. I’d quickly surmised that he worked out on a regular basis because he didn’t struggle once with the weight of the poles. When we were down to the last three, Johnny went to the front of the truck to bring the papers I had to sign to confirm the delivery. I was standing inside the truck and Landon down on the ground when I suddenly felt something tugging at my foot. Glancing down, I realized my shoelace had come undone, and one end was stuck under a pole. I yanked my foot, hoping to free the end of the shoelace. Instead, I managed to lose my balance. A shriek escaped my lips as I realized there was nothing I could grasp to stop my fall. I’d been at the edge of the truck, which meant I was hurtling directly toward the ground. I made a wild movement with my arms, my chest constricted, and my stomach lurched to my throat. My shoelace came free with a tiny pop, and then I felt two strong hands grip my shoulders, stopping my free fall just as I planted one foot firmly on the ground, then the other.

  “Oh God.” I clung to Landon for dear life, my breath coming out in pants. I was still unsteady on my feet.

  “You’re okay. Just breathe,” he said.

  I did just that, feeling a little foolish, and a lot hot. I realized the latter was because Landon had me tucked against his chest. He smelled like wood, and something else. Something masculine and potent. Landon was looking down at me with a mix of concern and reassurance, and I melted a little under his intense scrutiny. It had been a while since anyone except my younger sister, Grace, worried about me. The green of his eyes seemed even more intense up close. His arms felt so impossibly good around me, strong and steady, that it took me longer to wiggle out of his arms than it should have. My face was burning.

  “Thanks,” I muttered.

  “Maddie! What happened?” Johnny stepped into view, jaw slack, papers crumpled in his hand as he took in the sight of me, all flustered and disheveled.

  “Fell out of the truck, but I’m okay. My shoelace caught under a log and I lost my balance.”

  Johnny was distressed despite my reassurance. “Is your ankle okay?”