12. Logan
logan
I barely had the will to actually go to sleep last night, the end of the night running through my mind repeatedly until I had a problem I had to take care of.
But it wasn’t just that part. It was the whole date.
From the moment I picked her up and saw that fucking addictive blush on her skin to the moment I walked her to her door, and she pulled me to her, pushing me—with zero reluctance on my part—to kiss her, it was the best date of my life.
Lue noticed too.
“Why are you smiling so much?” she asks curiously from the passenger side seat. She has her backpack in her lap, her hair done in two neat rows of braids that her friends helped her do last night, and a smile on her face.
“I’m always smiling.” This is something I get accused of often.
“Yeah…but this one is different.”
“How so? ”
“It seems I don’t know, real or something?”
I turn to look at her as I pull us into the middle school parking lot, waiting in the car drop-off line. “Real? My smiles are always real.”
“Hm,” she hums, tapping her finger to her lip. “Maybe real isn’t the right word.”
“Well.” I give a little shrug, inching forward in the line. “I’m pretty happy right now.”
“Because of Thea?” she retorts quickly, unbuckling her seat belt as we are next in line.
“Maybe,” I hedge. I know my dating Thea would make Lue happy, she’s always asked me when I was going to start dating, when I would have a girlfriend again, but part of me wondered if she wore rose-colored glasses about the whole situation.
I wonder if the reality of me dating someone seriously hasn’t quite stuck with her yet, and she was still in that phase of fantasy.
We pull up to the drop-off, and Lue grabs the handle of her backpack and opens the door.
“Have a good day,” I call out, watching my somehow rapidly growing daughter dart out of the truck. “Love you!”
“Love you too, Dad!” she yells over her shoulder, rushing into the building. I sigh as I watch her go and then pull my truck out of the school parking lot.
Minutes later, I’m pulling into Three Rivers, smiling at the horses out to pasture on the side of the long driveway.
The sun is still rising in the sky, and there’s a coolness to this early summer morning.
I roll my window down as I take in the moment of fresh air before I’m bombarded with the people I work with.
Nah, I am pretty lucky to call this my job .
Last year, CT had been in a pinch when he wanted to suddenly start showing again, around the same time my cousin had gotten back in the arena. So, when he heard I was hurting for work and needed some extra jobs, he pulled me into the ranch business.
It’s been my job ever since. I do a little bit of everything around here like fixing fences, pushing cattle, branding, riding, training, and even cleaning stalls out, and it’s not always a glamorous job.
But it is honest work, and the pay is good enough for me.
The barn is already humming with activity, and I see my cousin down at the end of the alleyway, a wheelbarrow in her hands as she pushes it down and grabs hay out of it, sliding the pieces into the feeders for each horse.
Without even thinking of it, I go on the opposite side of her and grab some hay, feeding the horses along that side. They paw and chuff impatiently.
“Morning, cuz,” I greet my little cousin. Dani has been like a sister to my brothers and me since she was born and is like an aunt to Lue.
She smiles brightly at me and continues with the chores. “Good morning.”
We finish the inside chores mostly in silence, the horses making enough noise for us with their stomping and chewing, and when we get to the end, I hear the ATV outside, meaning either my brother Stetson or CT is feeding outside.
“What’s got you so smiley this morning?” Dani asks, grabbing her to-go cup of coffee off a shelf by the tack room.
I scoff out a laugh and shake my head. “I’m not that smiley.”
“Oh really? ’Cause I heard a rumor about someone and someone going on a date last night.” She raises an eyebrow at me.
“Someone and someone? Really, Dani?”
She shrugs and grins at me. “What?”
“Where did you hear about it?” I give in, knowing that it’s just delaying the inevitable if I keep skirting around the topic.
“Well, my fiancé.” She jokingly flutters her eyes like she always does when she says that. “Told me that Thea showed up here a week ago for a ride. And of course, being a man, he only told me that last night after I saw a post online about your date.”
“Thea posted about our date?” I ask, excitement and confusion swirling around in my head.
“No,” Dani says. “It was an ‘anonymous participant’ in the Acton/Fall Springs Facebook group.”
I groan, though, this was the whole point—to get people to believe we were spending extra time together because we were dating.
However, it wasn’t fake anymore. No fucking way it was after that kiss last night.
“So, it was Meryl?” I ask, mentioning the town’s notorious gossip, Meryl Mason. She was the one who everyone went to for the “latest scoop,” and because she was so in demand—her words—she went ahead and started a town Facebook group for people to share what they wanted.
Which apparently included personal details of people’s lives, whether we like it or not.
“More than likely,” my cousin confirms. “So…”
“So.” I lift my brows at her. “What?”
Her jaw drops like she can’t believe I’m not immediately spilling the beans. “You went out with Thea!”
“So?” I shrug and turn to look at the dry erase board on the wall. It typically holds a list of work that needs completed for the day. I’m reading through it, fully aware that my cousin’s eyes are on me.
“So, you have been crushing on her for years, and you’re just gonna act like this isn’t a big deal?”
I purse my lips to keep my grin at bay, but it’s no use.
“Oh my gosh! Logan!” Dani comes closer, looking at me. “You’re blushing!”
I scoff and shove at her shoulder. “I am not blushing.”
“You totally are,” she confirms, patting me on the cheek. “Even under that scruff, I can see your cheeks. You are totally in love.”
She’s teasing me, but I turn and glare at her. “No. I am not.”
“Come on, it’s okay to be in love, big cousin. It happens to the best of us.”
“Yeah, well, not everyone needs to be in love.”
“That’s true,” she concedes, but she pokes me in the chest. “But I know what being smitten looks like, and you, my friend, are completely smitten.”
Maybe this was what Dani meant by being smitten, but after work, I found a voicemail from my mom saying she was taking Lue out for dinner tonight before bringing her home, which gave me a little bit of time.
I could spend it working on the garage I was building on my property, something that could double as a workshop for projects and something to keep my truck in when the winters got cold.
But instead, I found myself getting redressed after my shower and hopping back into my truck, driving it into town, and parking.
Of course, my eyes are drawn to the crowd outside of Bottle Grounds, the Friday night crowd gathering for a night of dinner, drinks, and music. I hear the music spilling out of the door whenever it opens, and I sigh at myself.
I take my keys and my hat, tucking the keys in my pocket and my hat onto my head before heading toward the front door.
I was a sucker.
A sucker for the brunette who was currently slinging drinks behind the bar, who was barking orders at her employees and giving half-tired, half-stressed smiles to her customers as she set drinks down and took more orders.
I find myself tucked away in the corner, not wanting to converse with the townsfolk tonight. I knew about eighty percent of the patrons in here, and yet, I had zero desire to bullshit with people tonight.
I only had eyes for her.
I shake my head at myself. It was probably the cheesiest thought I’ve ever had, but it was true. I was able to zone everyone else out and focus on just Thea.
An hour later, after one of her waitresses has served me a beer, and I’ve declined more, there’s a small lull in the crowd around the bar.
I take that as my chance to get her to myself for a minute.
Standing, I abandon my little table in the back corner and make my way to the side of the bar that’s open for the workers to run in and out of.
When Thea catches sight of me at the end, she does a double take, and on the second one, her lips grow into a grin, and I see that blush rise into her cheeks .
She ducks her head for a minute before saying something to Annmarie, who shoos her away without looking.
Thea makes her way through her employees until she gets to me, and by the time she’s standing there, she’s schooled her expression and gives me a cool and calculating look.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, looking around the bar. Presumably for some of my usual buddies I show up with.
“Had some time, thought I’d stop by.” Complete bullshit.
“Oh.” She looks behind me and purses her lips. “Where’s Lue?”
“With my mom,” I answer, looking at her again and hearing the music change. A thought occurs to me, something she said last time we danced here. “I don’t dance here, I work here.”
Well, now was the opportunity to show her she could do both.
“May I have this dance?”
She lifts a brow and looks around the bar. “What? Why?”
“Because you deserve a dance.”
She eyes me again and sighs. “I’m working.”
“I’m pretty sure they can spare you for three minutes.”
I look around and lock eyes with Annmarie, gesturing from her sister to me and to the dance floor. Annmarie waves us off like she couldn’t care less and turns back to work.
“See? All good.”
“Logan.” She groans my name but lets me take her hand and pull her out through the crowd and onto the dance floor. I wrap her up in my arms, her body stiff against mine, and I raise my eyebrows at her.
She sighs and loosens up. “I’m supposed to be working tonight. I’ve had two nights off in a row. ”
“Even bosses get breaks, Thea. And something tells me you rarely take time enough for yourself as it is.”
She looks away, letting me lead her in a dance, following my lead with only a couple of bobbles.
“You don’t dance much.”
Thea shrugs at my observation but says nothing else.
“When was the last time someone asked you to dance?”
Her eyes meet mine, and she frowns. “You did. Last week.”
“Before that, I mean.”
Again, she looks away from me, her hand loosely holding my own.
“Thea.” I frown at her, and she looks back at me. What she doesn’t say is written in her eyes, and I sigh, looking away from her this time. “Thea, you deserve to be asked to dance.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be asked.”
“Maybe you haven’t had the right person asking,” I retort, and our eyes clash together again as she absorbs those words.
“Maybe you’re right.”
She doesn’t say much more than that, and I don’t need her to. I’ve known this woman in my arms for over three years, and after last night—hell, after last week—I knew to my core that I want to be the one who asks her to dance. I want to be the man she turns to when she needs something.
I want her to be the only person I seek in a room full of people.
Maybe that was too fast too soon, but I’ve waited this long, and I was willing to wait as long as Thea needed to get her to fully trust me.