10. Logan
logan
It had been a long and grueling day. Summer had found us unexpectedly soon, and the heat had beat us down all day long with unrelenting force.
I drag myself home, desperate for a shower and half-hoping my mom handled dinner so we could eat and get to bed.
Pulling my truck into my driveway, I think I’m hallucinating when I see Thea’s car parked right there. It sits perfectly right beneath the weeping willow tree. I don’t hate seeing it here, like it belongs.
I step out of the truck, throwing my hat back on, and making my way to the front door.
The sound of music hits my ears, and the smell of something cooking hits me in the senses, pulling me further into the house.
I hear laughter from the kitchen, and when I peek my head around the doorframe, Thea and Lue are standing at the island assembling something in a cast-iron skillet.
They haven’t noticed me yet, and I take a second to admire the sight. Something about it has my stomach twisting with…something. I don’t know if it’s fear or excitement or something else.
My boot scuffs against the floor, and Thea glances up, startled. Her features relax when she realizes it’s me, and she smiles so broadly, I’m struck.
“Oh, hi. I didn’t hear you come in.”
Lue’s head snaps up. “Hi, Dad!”
“Hey, pumpkin,” I greet her, wrapping an arm around her when she comes over and snuggles into my side for a brief second before returning to her job. “What’s going on here?”
Thea frowns at me. “Did your mom reach out?”
I shake my head and purse my lips, a grin threatening to tug wide. “Nope. I haven’t heard from her.”
For whatever reason, this makes Thea blush. I fucking love that blush. “Oh shoot. I’m sorry. Your mom had some sort of emergency?—!”
“And Thea volunteered to help me with my lines!”
I lift a brow at Thea. “You did?”
She turns her attention back to her food prep and lifts her shoulders. “Sure. No big deal.”
But it was a big deal. It was a big deal to me.
Seeing them in here together, cooking a meal and laughing with each other after practicing for my daughter’s play—something that was incredibly important to her—fills my mind and my heart with all sorts of ideas about how the future could look.
Of course, I won’t say that out loud. Not yet.
“What are you guys cooking?”
“Shepherd’s pie!” Lue answers enthusiastically. “Thea’s teaching me how.”
Thea chuckles lightly, glancing at me before returning to her task again. “It’s not that hard, Lue follows instruction very well.”
That’s not my experience, but I don’t say so.
“Well, do I have a minute to shower before dinner?”
“Sure, go, do what you need to do.” Thea waves me off, not looking up from the food, and I hustle down the hallway.
Twenty minutes later, I head down the hallway to see Lue standing in front of Thea, going over her lines. Thea answers back with lines of her own, reading off the script I’ve read from at least three times now.
When they hear me come in, they pause their reading, and Thea stands, setting the script down.
I changed into clean jeans and a T-shirt, leaving my feet bare, wanting to be comfortable for the evening. Thea tracks her eyes over me quickly before diverting her attention.
“Okay, well, dinner should be done when the tops are golden brown.” She points over at the stove, not making eye contact with me as I frown. “Lue, you are going to nail the audition. You’re so talented.”
Luella frowns at her, too. “You’re leaving? But we made dinner.”
Thea waves her hand around, grabbing her bag off a chair. My gut churns uncomfortably. “Oh, I made that for you two.”
“But you said that’s what you were having for dinner. Did you buy extra for home?”
Thea’s skin pinks, her eyes moving to Lue. “Sure, yeah.”
“Thea—”
She cuts me off. “I’ll see you guys around, though, and Lue, be sure to come in and tell me how the auditions go.”
“Okay.” Lue sounds disappointed, and I’m still rooted there, confused. Thea retreats down the hallway, and I realize this is up to me. She doesn’t feel welcome because of my being home, so I’m the one who has to convince her to stay.
“Thea, wait.” I shoot a “stay put” look at Lue and rush after Thea, who’s already got her hand on the door.
From this point of view, the hallway walls block Lue’s view, so I take advantage of that and grab Thea’s arm, spinning her around to look at me.
“Where are you rushing off to?” I ask, my chest nearly meeting hers. Her eyes snap up to mine, and I give her a grin. “There’s dinner to be had.”
“Oh, no. I made that for you guys.”
“You made us dinner, then rush off without eating with us?”
Her frown appears, and fuck, something is wrong with me because I find it adorable and have to physically hold myself back from taking her lips with my own. “You don’t need me to eat with you, Logan.”
“No,” I agree easily, and she looks at me in surprise. “But we want you to eat with us.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll…see you tomorrow.” Her hesitation about meeting with me tomorrow makes me want to laugh.
So that’s what this is about.
“I think.” I step just slightly closer, bringing us together with one tug on her arm. One of her hands grabs my hip for balance, and I smile. “You should come sit down, tell me about your day, and eat some dinner with me and my daughter.”
Thea stares up at me, maybe shocked by my words. Maybe excited, deep down underneath, even if she won’t admit it.
“I…” She bites her lip, and I’m not ashamed to say my gaze lands there and stays firmly put.
“Say yes,” I encourage again. Thea needs to be pushed. She needs to be needed. She needs to be taken care of and cherished and thought of as someone other than the organized bar owner she is.
“Okay,” she says, letting out the deep breath she’d been holding. “But only because Lue may be upset if I don’t.”
Sure, we’ll go with that.
We sat down together around the table, Thea serving everyone portions of her shepherd’s pie—mine being far larger than the rest—and me getting everyone settled with drinks.
We worked around each other easily, getting things ready for dinner, and I had more than one daydream about this being a reality we eventually fall into.
Us getting dinner on the table, sitting down as a family.
That’s one dream I keep to myself, but secretly, I’ve always longed to share my life with someone in that way.
Lue talks to us the whole time, telling Thea about her play and everything she wants to accomplish before high school starts.
Thea listens with intent, making sure my daughter knows she’s heard, and I’m so grateful for that.
Lue is the most important thing in my life. She’s the center of our family, the one thing that my brothers don’t fuck with because they all love her so much.
I think about Jax and Mitch, how they haven’t come home much in the past few months, only making short appearances for holidays. Stetson and I kind of hold down the fort.
Mitch has a past in this town, and his best way of dealing with that past is staying far, far away. I can’t blame him, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt when he never comes home .
Then Jax…Jax’s excuse is not really an excuse. He was too big for this small town, wanting to venture out and make a name for himself. I’d say he’s done so, but maybe not the way he wants to.
So, it was important to me that the people I brought into Lue’s life were good ones, ones that had the potential to stick around.
I’ve rarely dated, and by that, I mean never dated.
There was far more risk than reward when it came to dating someone seriously.
But when I’d met Thea a few years ago, she’d hit me like a strike of lightning.
I had no idea what to do with myself, and so I stayed a friend, waiting for something to tell me that it would be okay for us to become more than that.
I didn’t know if it would ever happen when I met her, I had no idea if she was with anyone or if she was even interested in being more with me.
But that thought had niggled at the back of my brain for years, wondering, hoping, praying that someday we’d reach a point where we could try this out.
My gut told me that the time was now.
I look from Thea, who’s smiling at my daughter, to Lue, who has been my entire world for the last fourteen years, and I take a deep breath, calming the churning in my gut that told me this could be the moment my life changes forever.
And hoping that I’m not wrong.