Chapter 5
Haylee
Haylee found Logan already seated in a booth along the back wall at eleven oh nine. Good thing, too, because The Dipper was packed.
She wove through the mob of hungry patrons, scanning for familiar faces and hoping to come up empty of anyone who might feel inclined to seek her out. With the Christmas carnival starting tomorrow, she expected there were more strangers than townsfolk crowded inside the popular restaurant.
Though she recognized some faces, and offered hello smiles to a couple of them, there were no immediate threats. Few nosy residents to pepper her with questions about the man she joined for lunch. Haylee relaxed, but only slightly.
Though she left Laurel at the store to cover during her lunch break, and Jamie was tied up with last-minute Christmas play errands, that left one sister unaccounted for—the unpredictable one.
Please let Sadie be anywhere else.
“Popular place,” Logan said, offering her a warm smile as she slid into the booth across from him.
“I haven’t read it yet,” she blurted before her bottom was firmly seated in the booth. Thankfully the cozy restaurant was buzzing with conversation, so no one paid her outburst any mind.
“Really, it’s okay,” Logan said, sliding a glass of ice water across the booth.
“I will read it,” Haylee clarified after a gulp of water. “I just . . .” She took a deep breath, summoning her courage. “Maybe you can tell me a little bit about Dylan first?”
“You want to know more about Dylan?” Logan’s eyebrows drew together, giving him a severe look that aroused those hibernating butterflies. Seriously, did this man have an unattractive expression in his arsenal?
It was an odd request, she realized. She had dated Dylan for almost a year.
She’d been ready to introduce him to her family.
Ready to tell everyone she was transferring colleges so she could be closer to the one who’d stolen her heart.
But the boy she pictured an entire future with left her behind and turned into a full-grown military man in her absence.
A man she didn’t know.
“I want to know who he became.”
When she and Allie returned to her apartment last night, she pulled the letter out from the hiding spot in the bottom of her purse, buried beneath her latest cozy mystery read for the book club Jamie convinced her to join.
She had every intention of opening it. Really, she did.
But the realization that the Dylan who wrote this letter might not be the same Dylan she knew held her back.
“I don’t know if you’re aware,” she explained. “But once Dylan left for West Point, I never heard from him again.” She remembered a letter she sent, a year after Melly was born. One that was returned, unopened. “Before I read his letter. I need a little . . . preparation.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Where did you meet him?”
“At West Point. We were roommates.”
“You were close?” she asked delicately.
“Like brothers.”
Knowing Logan was an only child made this simple declaration mean so much more. Her heart ached for the man she hardly knew and the loss he suffered. She knew what it was to grieve Dylan Webber.
“Did you ever meet his—”
“Order up, kids.” Willamina arrived at their table with two bowls of caribou chili and a generous side of her homemade cornbread.
Haylee’s stomach rumbled on sight, reminding her she skipped breakfast. Her appetite had been nonexistent since he spotted Melly at the gift shop yesterday and she watched realization dawn in his expression. The caribou chili seemed to revive her.
“Hope you don’t mind that I ordered you a bowl?” Logan asked as Willamina whisked away to her next table. “She highly encouraged me to.”
“Are you kidding? Willamina’s caribou chili is a hot commodity.
I should be hugging you for securing me a bowl before she sells out.
And on a day like today, she will sell out.
She only waits tables when things are crazy.
” Her cheeks heated when she realized the comment she made about hugging him.
One that reminded her how nice it felt to be held last night in the park—even if she’d been ugly crying. “I just meant—”
“This is good,” Logan said of the chili, saving her the embarrassment of backpedaling. “Like, really good.”
“Right?” She helped herself to a spoonful, and for a solitary moment, all her problems evaporated when that first bite hit her tongue. She was partially convinced that Willamina’s caribou chili was laced with magic.
“You like living here?” Logan asked.
“Yeah, I do,” she answered cautiously. “Why?”
“I just never lived anywhere this . . . small.”
“I can’t tell if you think that’s a good or a bad thing.”
“No conclusion. Just an observation.”
“Another thing Dylan would say.” Haylee pointed at him with her empty spoon before she dipped it back into her bowl.
Logan laughed silently, shaking his head. “I can’t help it. I spent so much time with him I guess he rubbed off on me.”
“That’s not a bad thing, right?”
“He was a good influence,” Logan agreed, dipping his cornbread into his chili.
“He was always studying. I mean always. Even when we had passes to leave for the weekend, he insisted he should stay back and study. Sometimes, I hung back with him to study too, which probably helped me pass classes I might have failed otherwise. Dylan wanted to be top in our class.”
“Was he?”
“Oh, yeah,” Logan answered, breaking off a bite of cornbread, one corner of his mouth tipping up.
“But it wasn’t just about the achievement, you know?
It was this excitement he had about learning everything he could.
He went back and forth on his major our freshman year, mostly because he couldn’t narrow it down.
If they’d let him have three majors, he would have asked for four. ”
A quiet bubble of laughter erupted from Haylee’s throat, followed by an old ache in her chest.
It’d been years since she thought about the life she was once certain she’d have with Dylan.
One where they traveled the world together on different military assignments.
Where she was married to a prestigious, accomplished military officer, raising their two point five children while he did important things that kept their nation safe.
Nineteen-year-old Haylee was convinced she would be fulfilled simply being Dylan Webber’s wife.
That was before his declaration that he didn’t want children. Before she found out she was pregnant.
At least he’d been honest about his reason for breaking things off. He did want to focus on his military career.
“He was a good man,” Logan said. “Really, he was.”
“I believe you.” Haylee lifted her gaze above her soup bowl, locking it with Logan’s.
The roar of conversation around them seemed to hush in this silent shared moment between them.
Just because Dylan didn’t want children didn’t make him a terrible person.
Had he actually read her letter, maybe things would be different. Maybe—
“Can I meet your daughter?” Logan asked.
The moment shattered, the loud chatter erupting around them so suddenly Haylee flinched.
“You want to meet Melly?” Her heart raced, threatening to bust her ribs with its violent pounding.
It was one thing for him to know about Melly, but it was another thing entirely to tangle their lives together more than they already had.
Allowing Dylan’s best friend to meet their daughter felt too . . . real.
“Would that be okay? I just— She looks so much like Dylan.”
Before Haylee could decide how to respond, she was shoulder-checked by the redheaded sister who pushed her way into the booth.
“Caribou chili is my favorite,” Sadie announced, swiping a piece of cornbread from Haylee’s plate and dipping it into her chili.
“Hey, get your own.”
“Willamina’s grabbing it now,” Sadie said, moaning when she took a bite. “Sorry. This baby is just so hungry all the time.”
“Did you need something?” Haylee asked, forcing a smile through gritted teeth. Dang it, she knew better than to leave Sadie unaccounted for.
“Yeah, lunch.” Sadie looked to Logan then. “I’m Sadie. Haylee’s favorite sister.”
“That’s highly debatable,” Haylee muttered beneath her breath.
“I’m Logan.”
“I know.”
“You do?” he asked, eyebrow raised in confusion as he looked to Haylee.
“You’re the letter messenger,” Sadie said, as though that would clear everything up.
“Sadie—”
Willamina slid a bowl of caribou chili and a plate with a double portion of cornbread onto the table, cutting Haylee off before she could politely but firmly suggest Sadie find another table.
But now that the lunch rush was fully underway, there were no empty tables.
“I’ll make a to-go order for that husband of yours. ”
“Could’ve just gotten two to-go orders,” Haylee mumbled.
“You’re the best, Willamina!”
“I’m sorry,” she mouthed to Logan while Sadie was momentarily distracted. Much to her surprise, Logan looked . . . amused.
It was perhaps the first difference she noticed between Logan and Dylan. Dylan didn’t like surprises or interruptions to plans. He liked things a certain way, in a certain order. At the time, Haylee found it attractive. She liked a man who knew what he wanted.
Or she thought she had.
Logan seemed more the go-with-the-flow type, and she decided she liked that a little more.
“How long are you in town?” Sadie asked Logan, as though picking up a conversation. As though she’d been invited to join them.
“A few days,” he answered between bites. If he was put out by Sadie’s unexpected arrival, he didn’t show it.
“Heard you’re here with your grandma?”
“My sisters talk—too much,” Haylee added with an eye roll.
Logan laughed once, his shoulders shaking. His caramel chocolate eyes danced with more of that amusement. Haylee pretended not to notice. The butterflies didn’t bother pretending anything. They were fluttering with life once again, proving they could be a problem if she didn’t get ahold on herself.