Chapter 4
L ogan wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing. Hell he wasn’t sure of anything.
He was on his way to Puerto Rico for a photoshoot. His agent contacted him weeks ago and in exchange for a favor, he finally agreed to do this one last assignment.
The favor came to him last night after Melanie had texted him. He’d been looking for a way to use his love of photography to keep making money but without assignments. And then it hit him...why not change direction and put his photos up in galleries. Gorgeous landscapes and photos of everyday life had always been his true love.
So he’d called up his agent and said he would take this assignment if he could pull some strings and get a showing for him. Dave had readily agreed because in no way did he want to lose Logan as a client.
The only problem was the photoshoot started in two days and in order to be ready for it, he had to leave that morning.
Make no mistake, he did not want to leave town, not after the bomb that Mel had dropped on him the night before.
She’d wanted him her whole life.
Reading those words had just about stopped his heart.
Here he was thinking that she hated him, and yet the complete opposite was true.
After that, sleep was useless. So he made a plan; a plan that would set him up for life.
A life that he wanted to share with Melanie.
And that meant leaving her. For just a little while.
He knew she was going to be pissed. Figured she would probably hate him. But he had to do this. If he wanted any chance at being with her forever, he needed to be able to feel good about what he was doing for a living.
So he sent her an elusive text, packed a bag and left. On his way to the airport he made phone calls to his parents, Brandon, and Carly to let them know he was leaving but that he would be back.
His life was in Cedarville now and nothing could keep him from coming back.
When his plane landed in San Juan, he turned his phone back on and was bombarded with ten missed calls.
All of them were from Leah, his brother’s girlfriend.
Panicking and thinking the worst, he dialed her back.
“It’s about damn time,” she said when she answered.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong except for you being an idiot.”
He relaxed a little. So this wasn’t about his brother but instead about Mel. “You called me ten times to tell me that?”
“Mel is on the verge of a breakdown and you just up and left town.”
“I had to,” he told her. “But this is the last time.”
“That’s what Brandon said you told him. But what I don’t understand is why you kissed her and then left. Why kiss her at all?”
Thinking of the kiss made him smile. “I don’t have a good answer for that. All I know is that I was thinking about leaving to get some space and clear my head. Then she was there, at my house and kissing her was all I could think about. After the kiss, I had no plans to leave. How could I when she was what I wanted and she was there. But then I remembered that I needed to be happy in what I was doing too. And taking photographs, that makes me happy.”
“Bran says you have a plan?”
He had told only his brother about his plan and what he wanted to do. “I do.”
She sighed into the phone. “You know I’m on your side right? But if it comes down to it, I have to choose Mel over you. So don’t fuck this up.”
“Message received,” he said. “Hey Leah...” He waited for a beat. “Don’t let her decide to really hate me while I’m gone.”
“I’ll try my best.” She hung up and he did the same.
That was his worst fear. Was he doing something so unforgivable that he’d lose her? He could only hope that she would understand.
Two months ago, before his feelings for her changed, he would have said she was a reasonable person. But since that time, she had been acting so crazy that he had no clue.
Time would tell.
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A fter a night of sleep , he got to the location of the photoshoot early. He was eager to get started and more eager to talk to his agent, who would be there that day.
Day one of photoshoots were always just him and his camera, trying to find the best angles. Then a few stand-ins would come on day two so that he could see if they were actually good spots. The models didn’t show up until day three.
Lifting all his camera equipment from the trunk of the car he’d rented, he lugged it to the location he had been given the night before. Dave, his agent, was waiting for him.
“Hey man,” Dave said. “Do you need any help?”
“There are a few more cases,” Logan said and shook his hand. He and Dave had a relationship that was more friends than that of agent and client. They had met when Logan was a freshman in college. Dave was a senior and Logan had been taking pictures for the college newspaper at a school function. Dave had asked to see the photos before they were published and upon seeing them, declared that Logan had ‘massive talent.’ From that moment, they had become friends and, when Dave had become an agent for artists of all kinds, his first call had been to Logan. Since Logan had always wanted to be a photographer, he jumped at the chance to sign with Dave when he graduated college.
Ten years had passed and Logan was happy with how their working relationship had gone.
Dave set a few more bags on the ground. “I still can’t believe you want to give all this up for small-town life.”
“Small town life has more than enough excitement for me.”
“There’s a girl, right? There has to be for you to leave this.”
“Can’t a guy just want a change?” Dave had a knack for knowing when he was lying.
Dave scoffed. “No fucking way. Stop stalling and tell me about her.”
Logan laughed. “Her name is Melanie and she’s it for me, man.”
“I should have figured it was her. You talk about her all the time.”
Logan stood and stopped what he was doing. “I do?” He didn’t remember talking about her. Sure he had mentioned her once or twice, but that was it.
“Dude, I’ve never met the chick and I can tell you exactly what she looks like and everything else about her.”
He was stunned by Dave’s words. And his lack of response showed it.
“You really didn’t know you talked about her that much?”
“She was just my friend until a couple of months ago.”
“She might have been your friend, but for years, you’ve wanted it to be more.”
“I didn’t though,” he said.
“Believe what you want, but think about this...why would you have turned down all those nights out with hot models if you weren’t into someone else?”
Dave walked away, presumably to get the last of his bags and Logan just stood there. He had always turned down going out with models, but it was because he didn’t want to mix business and pleasure.
But now that he thought back on it, on the nights that he had turned down dates, instead of going out, he’d stayed in his room and called or texted Melanie.
Every time.
That had to mean something.
She was his go-to person. The person he called when things were good or bad. The person he went to when he had news. And the first person he wanted to see whenever he got home from a trip.
Had he been in love with her all these years but just too stupid to realize it?
It sure seemed that way.
Maybe Melanie wasn’t the only one who had been dreaming of something for their whole life.