Страница 44 из 82
Chapter Eighteen
For the second night in a row, Logan found himself in town against his will. It was Nana’s turn to go to the town meeting, but she pulled a muscle at her aqua aerobics for seniors class and had sent Logan in her place. He was hoping he could just confirm the farm’s contribution to the Fall Festival – something he definitely could have done over email if the mayor didn’t insist on doing it in person every year – and get out of there. But, of course, that’s not how these things went in Dream Harbor.
‘Order in the court,’ Pete hollered from the front of the room. ‘Only joking, folks,’ he added with a chuckle. ‘But if people could take their seats, that’d be great.’
The crowd was only half-listening. Everyone was too keyed up about the Fall Festival. It was Dream Harbor’s second-largest event. Second only to the Christmas-tree lighting, which Logan refused to think about.
Logan sat in his usual seat in the back. His shoulders and arms hurt from lugging pumpkins around all day; moving them from one side of the barn to the other when Nana decided they looked better in the dappled sunlight. It had been a long day. After a long night of barely sleeping. He couldn’t get Jeanie out of his head, everything they’d done in that alley. And everything he wished they’d done.
Maybe he should have kissed her again? Maybe he should have stayed?
But the moment had been broken and then he didn’t know what to do. Before Lucy, Logan hadn’t dated many women. Not surprisingly, his inability to strike up a casual conversation didn’t help when trying to meet someone. It was why he thought Lucy was different. At least at first. She didn’t seem to mind his quiet nature. Until she did.
Until she eventually found him and his life here lacking.
It hurt all the more because he thought he’d found someone who understood him. Showed how much he knew about reading women. So when Jeanie backed off last night, he wasn’t about to initiate anything more.
He stretched his arms out in front of him, hands clasped, and cracked his knuckles. He noticed the way his forearms looked with his sleeves rolled up. Then he thought about Jeanie noticing the way his forearms looked with his sleeves rolled up, and heat rushed to his face.
Quickly following that thought was a crowd of others including the taste of her mouth (spiked sweetness), the feel of her thighs around him (strong and warm), and the memory of her body pressed against his (perfection). He dropped his hands into his lap, changing his thoughts to aqua aerobics for seniors before he embarrassed himself.
Good old Logan, ruining town events with ill-fated marriage proposals and inappropriate erections.
He sighed and ran a hand down his beard, praying Pete would keep this meeting short. But so far, the mayor hadn’t even gotten everyone to sit down and shut up so Logan wasn’t holding out a lot of hope.
‘Well, look who it is! Two meetings in a row!’
A
‘Are we late?’ she whispered, sitting on his other side.
‘Doesn’t matter. Nothing’s started yet anyway,’ he said, avoiding her gaze. How on earth was he supposed to sit next to her like everything was normal, when all he wanted to do was kiss her again?
It was possible that a secret relationship was even more stressful than a public one.
‘What are you doing here anyway?’ A
‘She pulled a muscle.’
A
‘Fine. Just sore.’
‘So, we get the pleasure of your company again,’ she cooed, landing in the seat in front of him.
‘Apparently.’
‘Well, I’m glad you’re here,’ Jeanie said, and then Logan made a tactical error. He looked at her. He looked at her and she was smiling at him, and her eyes were bright chocolate-brown and a slow blush was creeping up her cheeks and he couldn’t look away.
He couldn’t look away until A
‘You two alright?’ she asked, with a raised eyebrow.
‘We’re great,’ Jeanie said at the same time he bit out a terse, ‘Yep.’
‘Did Jeanie tell you about her break-in?’ Hazel asked.
‘Break-in?’
‘It wasn’t a break-in really. More like a break-and-run away,’ Jeanie said, attempting to reassure him with her smile, but all Logan heard was that something bad happened to Jeanie and he simply could not allow that.
‘Well, what the hell happened?’ He sounded like he was mad at everyone in the room when really, he was just mad at himself for not being there.
‘Hey, hey. Calm down there, Hulk.’ A
‘Someone broke a window in the middle of the night. It’s really not a big deal.’ Jeanie waved a hand like it was nothing and Logan hated it. Why wasn’t she going on about murder theories? Why no stakeout? Why no convoluted ideas about what happened?
Why the hell wasn’t she letting him fix it?
‘Why didn’t you call me?’ he ground out.
‘I ... well...’
‘Why would she call you?’ Hazel asked, eyes round and i
Logan frowned. ‘And what would you have done?’
‘Same as you! Call the police.’
Right. Why hadn’t Jeanie called the police?
He didn’t have time to ask before Deputy Mayor Mindy’s sharp whistle tore through the din of the crowd. ‘Let’s get started,’ she said, her tone just as serious as it had been at school assemblies.
Logan squirmed in his seat. The quicker they started the sooner they would be done, but he had more questions for Jeanie.
‘Why didn’t you tell me about it?’ he whispered, letting himself get close enough to brush his nose in her hair. She smelled like French roast today.
‘I didn’t want to bother you,’ she whispered back. ‘Hazel’s making it sound worse than it was. It really isn’t a big deal.’
‘Yeah, but last night you were trying to tell me—’
‘Logan.’ The sound of his name, too loud in the quiet room, was an instant flashback to any time he’d gotten in trouble in class. Never for chatting with his neighbor, though; usually for staring out the window. ‘You and Jeanie must be talking about how much you want to judge the costume contest, since that’s what we’re discussing right now.’ Pete’s cheerful tone covered up the sheer evil of his words.
‘I ... we ... that’s not...’
‘Sounds fun.’ Jeanie, sweet i
‘Wonderful!’ Mayor Kelly beamed, and Logan felt his soul wither inside him. This was bound to be a disaster. ‘Okay, next matter of business, bobbing for apples: good, clean fun, or ground zero for disease? Let’s discuss.’