Seven of Hearts

16. Logan

16

LOGAN

“ A re you excited?” Kristin asked as she passed behind my chair at the dining room table and gave my shoulders a squeeze.

Since I was working from Will and Kristin’s house, Will had basically moved his office to the dining room so we could work in the same space.

It was kind of nice. It annoyed the hell out of Kristin, though. Or at least she pretended like it did.

“Yeah,” I muttered as I finished reviewing one of the reports my team in Chicago had sent over.

“When are you leaving?” she asked.

I glanced at the clock. “I’ll walk next door in a few minutes.”

Kristin glanced out the window to where Leah’s car was parked in the DeRossis’ driveway. Orange and brown leaves covered the windshield as the sea breeze blew them off of the trees.

October had been a welcome reprieve from the summer heat, and had been gracious with only a mild hurricane season.

It had been a few weeks since I had crash-landed back at my sister’s house. A few weeks of finding my way with Leah and what that relationship would look like in just four months when the baby was born.

She was halfway through the pregnancy and handling it like a champ. We were slowly growing comfortable with each other, and had fallen into the routine of morning and evening check-ins, even if we couldn’t see each other.

I had never had a friend like Leah. But now that I did, I couldn’t imagine any other kind.

She was thoughtful and intuitive. She knew when to push a conversation, and when to back off. She was funny and quick-witted, and had half-decent taste in TV shows.

“Leah’s always welcome to come over here, you know.” Kristin laughed. “You two don’t have to meet in the driveway like you’re teenagers.”

“Kylie’s still being a stubborn asshole,” I said as I logged out of the team space and closed my laptop. “Leah hasn’t been able to get her to talk.”

Kristin sighed. “October is Kylie’s busy season with wedding and event planning. Maybe she’s just been swamped.”

I gave Kristin a look, and she just shrugged.

“I’ll talk to her. Again ,” Kristin said. “You gonna be home for dinner.”

“Not tonight,” I said as I found my shoes and grabbed my keys to the car I had bought, because a monthly payment was cheaper than renting indefinitely.

For some reason, spending money lately hadn’t given me the heart palpitations and anxiety that it usually did.

My inability to live comfortably and my compulsive need to save every penny was probably the aftermath of having my childhood house and life seized by the government because of something that someone else had done. I knew first-hand how quickly it could all go away, which meant I stored everything for a rainy day, even if I knew it wasn’t going to rain.

It was probably something I should unpack in therapy, but that meant I’d have to take time off work and spend money.

“Right,” Kristin said. “Dinner with the Holloways. Enjoy walking into your own execution.”

I chuckled, because there was no sense in pretending like it was going to go well. Leah’s parents didn’t like me. Frankly, the feeling was mutual. But she wanted to do a gender reveal with them after we got the news at her appointment in just a little while. If it was important to her, it was important to me.

“Do we get to find out?” Kristin asked as she walked me to the door.

“That’s up to Leah, but I don’t think she plans on keeping it a secret.”

“Good,” Kristin said. “I’ll see you whenever you get back.”

“After dinner with the Holloways,” I clarified.

Kristin just shrugged and shoved me out the door. “Or just stay with Leah. See what happens.”

I paused on the porch. “Are you trying to set me up with my baby mama?”

She grinned. “Maybe. Besides, the sooner you show Kylie you mean business, the sooner she’ll get her head out of her rear end.”

I just shook my head as I jogged down the porch steps right as Leah slipped out of the DeRossis’ house.

“You ready?” she asked as she shouldered her bag and slowly eased down the slight embankment that sloped from the DeRossis’ property down to Kristin and Will’s.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said as I ran over and reached for her. “Easy. You don’t want to slip and fall.”

Leah rolled her eyes, but took my hands and slipped her fingers between mine as we walked to the car.

She was so fucking pretty today. Her blonde hair was in a thick braid with a few little pieces hanging around her face. I liked that slightly imperfect side of her. Staying true to her declaration that she didn’t want to waste money on maternity clothes, she was in a pair of leggings and a thick, oversized sweater.

I wanted to unwrap her like a present.

We made the drive to her obstetrician’s office in Morehead City in silence, but Leah never let go of my hand.

I put my arm around her while we sat in the waiting room, and Leah rested her head on my shoulder. When a mom with a newborn in tow commented on what a cute couple we were, neither of us made any effort to correct her.

“Leah Holloway?” a nurse said as she poked her head out of the door.

Leah took a deep breath and pushed up on the arm rests, but I was already in front of her, offering a hand up.

Hurry up and wait was the name of the game. Leah was rushed from one kiosk to the next, having her vitals taken before we were led to an ultrasound suite to wait, yet again.

“Where do you want me?” I asked as she settled on the exam table. The back was lifted so that she was mostly sitting.

“There’s fine,” she said as she pointed to the vinyl chair that was parked right beside her. “That way you can see the screen too.”

“Are you nervous?”

She shrugged. “A little. It’s always kind of tense while the sonographer is trying to find the baby and get the heartbeat. I always freak out and assume something’s wrong.”

I wrapped my hand around hers and brought it to my mouth. “I’ve got you,” I promised as I kissed the back of her hand.

“Hi, Leah!” the woman wearing scrubs said as she dipped into the room and dimmed the lights. “And we have a guest with us today,” she said. “Want to introduce me?”

Leah smiled nervously. “This is my . . . Logan.”

The nurse nodded. “And is your Logan a support person or?—”

“I’m the baby’s father,” I said as I shoved down the creeping anxiety that had started to claw its way up my neck. I gave Leah’s hand a squeeze.

I could do this.

“Excellent. Well, let’s get right to it,” she said as she dropped down to a rolling stool. “This is the anatomy scan where we look to see if the baby is growing right on track, so I’ll be taking lots of measurements. But I have a feeling you two might be most excited to see if the baby is a boy or a girl. Do you want me to tell you or keep it a surprise?”

“We’d like to know,” Leah said.

I sat still as a statue as Leah wiggled her leggings down below the curve of her belly, and folded her sweater up under her bra. The woman tucked a paper towel in the waistband of Leah’s leggings before smearing gel across her belly.

The screen flicked on, and the woman moved the wand across Leah’s skin, searching. “Is this your first time watching an ultrasound, Dad?” the sonographer asked.

It took me a minute to register that she was addressing me.

I was Dad.

“Uh, yes, ma’am.”

A black-and-white form appeared on the screen. “Well, here’s your little one.”

Leah squeezed my hand as a steady whooshing played through the computer’s speakers.

“That’s the heartbeat,” Leah said with a smile as she tilted her head over to look at me.

But I couldn’t stop staring at the screen.

“Everything’s looking normal so far,” the lady said as she clicked away on the computer, taking measurements of the head, body, arms, and legs. “Baby’s right on track. Just what we like to see.”

The glimpse of Leah’s face that I caught was pure, unfettered joy. She was radiant, beaming from ear to ear as she watched the screen.

I leaned up and kissed her temple. Instead of watching the screen, she closed her eyes and nuzzled closer.

“All right, Mom and Dad.” She paused with the ultrasound wand on a particular spot on Leah’s belly. “It looks like your baby is a boy.”

Leah’s eyes widened and her mouth popped open as she looked over at me. “A boy!” Her whisper was mixed with a laugh. “We’re having a boy!” Her feet wiggled as they hung off the end of the exam table because she just couldn’t contain herself.

Her excitement was the only thing keeping the tendrils of anxiety from strangling me completely. The thought of having a boy had pricked at my mind this morning.

That old saying about the sins of the father being laid on the children ate at me.

I didn’t know a damn thing about being a good father. All I knew was that my son deserved better than me.

“Wow. You look great,” Leah said with a bright smile when she opened her apartment door.

I lifted an eyebrow and looked down at my navy dress pants and pale blue button up. “You sound surprised.”

“Not surprised. I just haven’t seen you dressed up before.” She turned back into the apartment. “You know—besides at the wedding. Give me just a sec to grab the cupcakes out of the fridge and then we can go.”

I couldn’t help but watch the sway of her ass as she walked away.

“How was the rest of your day?” Leah called over her shoulder.

After the appointment, we had gone our separate ways to finish out our work days before meeting for dinner with her parents.

I would have preferred to attend my own funeral than this dinner, but I didn’t say that out loud. Second chances weren’t something that I gave out easily, and her parents were still on my shit list after they ambushed her.

But if it meant something to Leah for me to make an effort, then I was going to make a damn effort. She had invited them for dinner at Luca DeRossi’s restaurant so that we could tell them that the baby was a boy.

Leah had been on cloud nine since her appointment, and I had been reeling.

It hadn’t felt real until now. But in the span of one heartbeat, everything changed.

“It was fine.”

“Just fine?” she asked as she pulled a small box out of the fridge and shut the door with her foot.

“Let me get that for you,” I said as I took the box out of her hands. “Ready to go?”

“Lead the way.”

I kept one hand on the small of her back as we walked down the stairs to the parking lot. It struck me that, as her pregnancy progressed, stairs would get harder and harder.

Her building had an elevator, but it was on the other side of the complex. And, according to Leah, it was a Final Destination plot waiting to happen.

I wasn’t sure how to solve that problem yet.

“I don’t know how you had time to bake a whole cake,” I said as I opened the passenger door to my car and waited as she eased in, then took the box from me.

“Oh, I just did cupcakes, so it didn’t take long,” Leah said when I slid behind the wheel and pulled away. “And it’s nothing fancy. Just a box mix and some canned frosting. Gio was horrified that I didn’t make them from scratch, but he and Ellie helped.”

There was still a little bit of blue frosting on the corner of her mouth. I came to a stop at a red light, reached over, and cupped her jaw so I could wipe it off with my finger.

But instead of finding a fast food napkin to clean my hand, I sucked it off the pad of my thumb.

Leah’s mouth popped open.

“Now I really want a cupcake,” I said as I pulled onto the road. I also wanted to lick that frosting off of her body. But I put that thought out of my mind.

If there was something I tried not to let myself stew on, it was how much her body had changed, and how much I craved it. The further she progressed in her pregnancy, the more self-control it took for me to keep my hands off of her.

But that urge went away the moment we set foot into Revanche and were confronted with the two sour faces of Dr. Laura and John Holloway.

“Mom, Dad, you remember Logan, right?” Leah said as she clutched the cake box like a life preserver.

Unfortunately, life preservers didn’t do much good in hurricanes.

“Logan,” Mr. Holloway said in place of a friendly greeting. My name was laced with an icy chill and disdain.

“Nice to see you, Mr. Holloway.” I turned and tipped my chin toward Leah’s mom while keeping a hand securely on Leah’s back. “Dr. Holloway. It’s nice to see you as well.”

Thankfully, we were saved by the hostess, leading us to a neatly set table with far too many forks in front of each place setting.

The four of us avoided conversation as the sommelier went back and forth with Leah’s parents about their wine selections, while Leah and I opted for water.

“What do you do for work, Logan?” Mr. Holloway asked as he fluffed his cloth napkin like he was waving a battle flag.

“I work in tech,” I said as I draped my arm across the back of Leah’s chair.

Dr. Holloway huffed. “Tech? Like that...Nerd Herd service where you bring in your computer to get it fixed?”

Under the table, Leah tightened her hand on my thigh. Above the table, she sighed. “It’s the “Geek Squad,” Mom. And no?—”

“I should have clarified. I’m a VP for SolomonTech. We specialize in cybersecurity and advanced systems solutions and integrations,” I said as I took a sip of water. “But that’s a mouthful, so I usually just say I work in tech.”

Leah stifled a smile.

Mr. Holloway scoffed. “No need to get defensive.”

The sommelier brought the bottle they had ordered and went through the song and dance of making sure it was to their liking.

“I’ve never even heard of SolomonTech,” Dr. Holloway sniffed over her wine glass.

“Most of our work is with corporations or under military defense contracts. We’re rarely in the public eye. Discretion is far more profitable.”

Leah jumped in. “The company was started by Logan and Kylie’s brother-in-law, Will.”

“Oh. So, it was nepotism, then?” Dr. Holloway said before rattling off her order with no fewer than fifty modification requests for the dish.

Mr. Holloway went for the steak—well done twice over—while Leah opted for pasta, and I went with chicken.

“ Mom ,” Leah hissed when the server disappeared.

I trailed my fingers across her back to try and soothe her and keep my temper at bay, but I wasn’t entirely sure it was working for either of us.

“It’s a family business,” I said. “Both of my brothers-in-law work for the company, and we’re anticipating my younger brother, Hunter, will join the company soon.”

“You can’t fault anyone for being suspicious of you being a vice president at your age. It’s suspect,” Mr. Holloway said.

“Or I’m good at my job,” I shot back.

“I think that’s enough posturing for one dinner,” Leah said. “Besides, the food hasn’t even come yet. How about we start with dessert? Logan and I found out the baby’s gender today and I thought it would be fun to do a little reveal.” She popped the top of the box and doled out each of the four cupcakes. They were topped in white frosting and pink and blue sprinkles.

Dr. Holloway grimaced. “I don’t do processed sugar, dairy, artificial dyes, or gluten.”

“Well, I do,” Leah chirped without a care in the world. “You can just break yours in half to see the color inside, and then I’ll eat it.”

“You should really watch your weight,” Dr. Holloway snipped. “You’re letting yourself go. I only gained nine and a half pounds when I was pregnant with you.”

Leah flinched, and her eyes turned glassy.