Arrange Marriage To A Billionaire

A ride home

Evelyn's P.O.V

God! What was he doing here ? I thought that he won't come, that he wasn't interested in family gatherings or having dinner with the whole family. But I was wrong. I should have said no when Mrs Mckendrick had called me.

Flashback

My phone start ringing right after Landon left.

"Hello." I managed to say.

"Hello. Mrs June Mckendrick speaking. Is it Miss Nolan ?" She asked kindly.

"Umm. Yes, It's me." I replied nervously. Why would she call me ? Does she know about the marriage contract ? Has Landon talked to her about it ? I don't think she knew anything about what conversation had taken place between her son and me. But why would she call me then ?

"How are you doing, dear ? I hope I haven't disturbed you." enquired Mrs Mckendrick.

"No, you haven't disturbed me at all. I'm fine. How are you and Mr Mckendrick doing ? " I queried out of formality.

"We are both doing great. I wanted to ask you if you are free tonight. Martin and I wanted to invite you for dinner." Mrs June said calmly with a slight touch of excitement in her voice. She surely didn't know anything happened between me and Mr Come-directly-to-the-point. Won't Landon also be there ? But as far as I know Landon was not the kind of person who liked to dine with his family. He would rather dine alone in his cold and lifeless house or apartment or wherever he lives. But one thing for sure. He didn't live with his parents, according to the internet and tabloids..

"Er.....Yes I'm free tonight and I would love to come."

"Oh honey, I am so happy that you're coming." announced Mrs Mckendrick excitedly. "I will send my son Nathan to pick you up at six thirty. I'm so happy you accepted this invitation, love. I'll see you tonight then. Bye Evelyn."

Wow ! Landon had a brother too. I hope he was not like his brother. Will he be elder than Landon or younger ? Will he be more handsome than Landon ? Oh god Evelyn ! You must stop thinking of Landon like that. He is your enemy. The devil in disguise.

"Bye Mrs Mckendrick." I smiled as I placed my phone on the table next to the contract, thinking about how awkward it would be tonight if Landon was there.

Flashback finish.

"I guess you both have already met each other. Am I right, Landon ?" interrogated Mrs Mckendrick with a genuine smile on her face.

"Of course. In fact, we had a very interesting meeting today itself, right Evelyn ?" Landon thrusted his hands in his pockets while he eyed me with a hint of naughtiness in his ocean like eyes.

"Supper's ready." Landon's father voiced out as he came out of the kitchen, smiling. He was wearing an apron around his waist. Normally, I would have expected Mrs Mckendrick coming out of the kitchen with an apron wrapped around her waist but it turned out that Mr Mckendrick was the best choice when it came to cook dinner on special and private occasions. Almost all the servants in the house was given a rest for the day because of this family dinner. It felt kinda weird to hear Mr and Mrs Mckendrick say that this is a family dinner as if I was already part of this family. Landon was right about how adamant they were into getting us married.

I looked at Landon and back to his father. They both resembled so much. Landon seemed to be the younger version of his father. A chip off the old block, I guessed.

"Hello Landon, I'm glad you came." said Mr Mckendrick, smiling and held his hand for a handshake. Landon, however, as arrogant as he was, shook hands with his father without returning the smile. He looked away right after the handshake. I rolled my eyes and huffed at Landon's action. Unfortunately, Landon had notice that and gave a me a look that said 'Really ? Was that necessary ?'. I shrugged it off.

Sensing a little tension in the atmosphere, Nathan cleared his throat to draw all the attention at him. "Have I tell you Evelyn that you are looking very beautiful tonight ? " Nathan asked me and I sighed and looked at him.

"Yes, you have already told me that a hundred times when we were in the car." I rolled my eyes.

"When we were in the car ?" Landon asked, putting emphasis on the 'we'. He looked serious. Well, he always looked serious but this time he was more serious.

"I meant, me and Nathan." I replied. "Nathan had come to pick me up from my place." I added.

"Oh." Was all that Landon could chuck out and then he looked away again. I frowned. What was wrong with him?

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The dinner table was set very beautifully. The table was covered with a long white cloth and on top of it, was a brown satin cloth which was placed decoratively. But the only thing that was intriguing to me was Landon. I just couldn't take my eyes off him. The chinos he wore fit the muscular firmness of his buttocks and shamefully, my heartbeat was increasing and my mind was going way wired. What was I doing ? Ogling a man's body ? Since when ? But he was looking so sexy and gorgeous. Wait ! Can we call a man gorgeous ? Well I don't know but you must have already got an idea of what I meant.

At one moment Landon caught me eyeing him and I quickly made it look as if I was looking at something behind him. I should stop behaving like a hormonal 16 year old girl now.

Nathan sat beside me and Landon sat on the other side of the table, in front me. We looked at each other as if we were two opponents in a boxing match and an image of what had happened between us earlier flashed suddenly before my eyes. It made my anger come back and I could feel myself heat up.

We all served ourselves with the wonderful and mouthwatering dishes and were ready to devour our little feast. While we were eating, whenever Mr Martin would try to make a conversation with Landon, Landon would only reply in yes or no or maybe. It was like he didn't want to be here. Like he didn't belong to these people. God forbid, if one day I married him, I'll be like a living dummy or like a robot.

"So Evelyn, do you like New York ?" Martin asked, taking a napkin at his side on the table and wiped his lips.

"Yeah, I really like New York. But I prefer Kansas much more." I replied kindly before indulging in my meal again. Dinner was so delicious.

"But why is that ?" Martin asked again. After his several attempts of making a conversation with Landon failed, he was now trying to make one with me.

"New York is such a busy city, full of people, it's like no one here has time except for working. Anywhere you see, you see only big buildings and really tall towers. You don't get to appreciate the nature properly. Whereas in Kansas, you get the opportunity to meet friendly people and neighbors almost everyday and every time you get out of the house. You get to breathe the fresh and pure air, to see the nature all around you, especially the large wheat fields." By the time I finished talking, everyone had stopped eating and were looking at me, smiling, except of course, the king of arrogance.

Landon had also stopped eating. He was looking at me without showing any emotion on his face. "So, you think people here work too much compared to the people in Kansas and that they have no time to do their leisure activities or be with their family ?" questioned Landon, frowning. Oh oh, it seemed I hit the wrong spot. "Well, I must tell you that it's not the case. People here work hard, really hard but when the time comes, they also take long holidays to spend with their family. " Landon added. "Everything has its own time. You have to make sacrifices to earn money. The more you work, the more money you gain and hence you'll be more successful."

"But money is not everything. Family bonds are much more important than money. You can always work while giving the attention a family deserves. There is no hard rule that says when you work hard you have to give your work all your time and attention and neglect your family or stop spending quality time with them." Everyone was quiet in the room. It was like Landon and I were having a debate. I felt a little strange to be the only one talking so much. "All I wanted to say earlier was that I miss Kansas, especially it's people, neighbors and my family there." I added.

"How did know that you wanted to be a supermodel ? Clearly you must not have dreamed to be a supermodel in a place like Kansas ? " Nathan inquired curiously.

"Actually, I never dreamed of becoming a model, let alone a supermodel in Kansas. I wanted to be a writer or that was what I thought I wanted to be." I replied, smiling at Nathan, earning a glare from Landon. Ughh ! He was really getting on my nerves.

" Ok. So how did you become one ? I mean become a model."

"A neighbor of mine suggested my mother that I should participate in a modeling competition which was being held in Kansas. At that time I had already completed my degrees in university and was at home. I was helping my father who would always discourage me to go and search for a job. We were and are, really close. He was a little protective when something involving me came up and I was always a daddy's girl. We were one team while my mother and sister were another team. So, when he got to know that my mother was planning to send me in that competition, he disagreed knowing that this competition would not end in Kansas but in New York. Later on, my mother and I had a serious discussion in which she requested me to at least take part in that competition. When I agreed, my father had no other choice and he went in that five stages of grief which is denial, anger and etc in just one day." I smiled at them. "And then _"

" Let me tell you what happened next." Nathan says teasingly. " You won that competition and continued your way up until you became a supermodel. Am I right ?"

"Yeah but I didn't win that beauty contest like that. It wasn't easy, especially not for me. Actually, back in Kansas, I was a tomboy. So it was difficult for me to blend myself into a completely new personality. So _" I was interrupt again by Nathan.

" You were a tomboy ? Wow, I didn't expect that." Nathan exclaimed, laughing and leaning back on his chair.

"I know this is difficult to believe but that's the truth." I shrugged.

With that our conversations continued like this. Nathan and his parents keep on questioning and me giving the answers. Landon stayed quiet on most of the topics. After the main course, we had chocolate mousse as dessert. The chocolate mousse tasted like heaven. It was so delicious.

"The chocolate mousse is really tasty." I relished the taste of it.

"Thanks. It was the only dish that Martin had let me make tonight." June replies.

Everyone was having chocolate mousse except Landon. He had a cup of black coffee in his hand. What the hell ? Doesn't he have a sweet tooth like everyone ? Why was he so different and distant ? He was like a mystery that refused to get solve. I get irritated when I see him. He always behaved as if he had an upper hand on all of us and as if he was doing us a favor by coming here for dinner.

God forbid, if one day I might marry a person like Landon, my life will become so boring and dull. God, how will I live ? I can't even imagine that kind of life right now. A suicide mission a far better idea than this.

"It's quite late now, I think it's time for me to take your leave. I have an early photo shoot next morning and I don't want to be late. And thanks for the dinner. I really appreciate you all for inviting to this small feast." I chuckled.

"I'll also take your leave now." Landon said to his mom.

"It was really nice having you both here for dinner. I missed you, Landon. It's been a long time since I've seen you. But I'm glad, once Evelyn and you get married, I'm sure you'll probably come to see me more often. I wish you both all the best." June said, tears in her eyes. Her hands were at either sides of Landon's face and she was looking at Landon longingly. Landon must be such a jerk for ignoring such a loving mother.

"Why don't you give Evelyn a lift home ? Her house is on your way." June told Landon. Oh no, please don't do that. Already you have talk too much on our relationship, why are you increasing my problems ?

"No, it's ok _" I tried to decline but I was interrupted by Landon.

"Ok mom, I'll give her a lift home. But please don't make any illusions about my and Evelyn's wedding. At least don't make any illusions on "my" wedding." Landon said nonchalantly to his mother, biting in his anger and his father cleared his throat as if passing a message to Landon.

On that, Landon's mom stayed quite. She kissed Landon and gave him a hug. She did the same to me. Landon walked his way to the door quickly and I have to run a little to catch him up.

Behind me, I heard Nathan saying to his mom that he would have gladly give me a ride home instead of asking Landon and his mother replies him by asking him to shut up.

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