Chapter Fourteen
“M om!” Biyen knew the rule she had set from the first time they’d come to visit Raven’s Cove. No standing on the seabus unless it was tied up and you were ready to get off. He was barely keeping his butt on the seat, though, as he waved hard enough, he ought to be steering it off course.
“Did I leave my sunglasses at your place last night?” Logan asked as he came to stand beside her on the wharf. He was squinting at the water. “I just looked through the office and couldn’t find them.”
Her heart took a lift and a dip and a swerve. Was she mad that he’d shut her down last night? Not exactly. Embarrassed? Enough that she hadn’t gone upstairs when she had been called out to fix a bent rudder, staying in the machine shop.
“They’re by the sink. I meant to grab them when I left this morning. I was in the garden, then I got talking to Gramps and forgot.”
She had almost called Logan to take the call out. Gramps had been complaining of a headache when he got up. He hadn’t been coughing or running a fever, just moving slow and looking pale. She’d offered to stay home when the phone rang, but he’d brushed her off.
“I’m going to nap in my chair. Call me when Biyen gets in. I’ll come truck him home,” he had said.
“I’d call Gramps to bring them, but I just called to remind him Biyen’s on his way. There was no answer, so he must have left already.”
“No problem. I’ll walk down later. Hey,” he greeted everyone as the seabus came close enough.
They both stood back to let the tourists off.
When Biyen’s feet hit the wharf, he hugged Sophie so hard, he squeezed an “Oof” out of her.
“I missed you, too.” Her heart finally felt as though it had settled back into its place after being stretched and searching for him all these days he’d been gone. “Did you have fun?” She smoothed his hair and planted a kiss on his head, drinking in the smell of her sweaty boy.
“Uh-huh. Except I cried a little bit when we had to say good-bye to Immy and Coop. Emma cried the most, though.”
“I did,” Emma admitted sheepishly, disembarking with Storm in her arms. “It was so much fun, though. Thank you for letting us bring him. It was such a nice way to end the trip for the kids. And you kept Storm entertained on the flight, didn’t you?” Emma said to Biyen. “I really appreciated that.”
“I just read books to her,” he said with a shrug.
“Dinosaur books?” Logan guessed. He accepted luggage from Reid and set it on the wharf. “Got any new facts for me?”
“A baby has a bigger brain than most dinosaurs. Thanks.” Biyen took the backpack Reid handed him and threaded his arms through the straps.
“I’m willing to bet that Storm’s brain is bigger than the average adult man’s,” Logan said dryly.
“Speak for yourself,” Reid said, stepping to the wharf with the diaper bag. He nodded out at the water beyond the cove. “Look who else is coming. That’s good. I had questions for him.”
“Do you mind if I take Storm home?” Emma asked. “She’s ready for her nap.”
Storm was rubbing her eyes.
“Yeah, I’ll see you up there.” Reid gave her a distracted kiss before he started quizzing Logan on whether he had anything to report.
Sophie picked up the car seat and joined the rest of them carrying luggage to the truck.
“Mom, can I see inside the Storm Ridge ? I never did and Immy and Cooper said it’s really cool.”
“We’ll ask Trys once all the guests are off. Gramps might like to see it, too. Then we can go see Logan’s new office. It will be like a Sunday drive, except on foot. How could you have ever wanted to leave?” She asked Reid, since he happened to be beside her. “Given this level of weekend entertainment?”
“It’s something I ask myself every day,” Reid drawled as he set the car seat into place. “Especially now I’m back.”
“Where’s Gramps?” Biyen looked around.
“He should have been here by now.” Sophie frowned.
“That Gator is older than he is,” Logan said. “I’ll drive Em home, then walk down to see what’s keeping him. I need my sunglasses anyway.”
Emma’s brows went up and Reid turned his head to send a questioning look at Logan.
“Are you that starved for entertainment?” Logan said with significantly more bite than their idle curiosity warranted. He held out his hand to Biyen, saying more gently, “I can take that, too.”
“Thanks!” He slipped free of the backpack.
Logan set it next to where Emma had strapped Storm into her seat.
As Logan drove away, Biyen gave Sophie a hopeful look. “Ice cream?”
“I don’t know.” She put on her most skeptical look, even though she could really use an ice cream. “Do you think he behaved well enough to earn an ice cream?” she asked Reid.
“I do,” Reid said without hesitation. “I think I did as well.”
“For outstanding valor during trying circumstances?”
“For putting down a towel and sleeping where Cooper wet the sheets.”
“For being a parent, then. Fair enough. My treat.”
*
“It was dinner,” Logan grumbled the minute he was away with Em. “With her and Art. Don’t turn it into more than it was.” We kissed, though. It was fantastic. She wanted to come home with me. I hate myself for saying no.
“I didn’t say anything,” Emma said blandly. “You’re the one acting like it was more than that.”
“Because I don’t want anyone making her uncomfortable when we’re finally—”
“What?” She swung her attention onto him.
He parked and left the keys in the ignition, stepping out to bring in Storm, still in her carrier. She was complaining about being strapped into it, squirming and letting out squawks of frustration.
He walked her into the house and came back with the luggage in time to see Emma drawing Storm from her seat.
“She’s not as tough as she acts, you know,” she said, patting Storm’s back. “Sophie, I mean.”
Logan made a wild grab for his temper and managed to keep it.
“With respect, Em, don’t ever try to tell me you know Sophie better than I do.”
She huffed. “I don’t want to see her hurt. That’s all I’m saying.”
Storm rubbed her face into Em’s shoulder, making the whining sound that pitched anyone’s nerves to eleven.
“Me, either. So don’t put her in a position where she has to defend feeding me dinner. We’re trying to be friends. I can’t”—he curled his hand into a fist, conflicted—“I can’t leave here again with her hating me.”
“With respect, Logan,” she said in a very patronizing tone. “I know what it’s like to hate an ex. I wouldn’t spend five minutes in a room with him, let alone work for him and have him in my house for dinner. Even Nolan stays on the lawn. If you know her as well as you say you do, then you would see some significance in that.”
Storm reached the end of her patience and gave her dull, sad, tired cry.
Emma crooned something to her as she carried her upstairs.
Logan shouldered Biyen’s backpack and brooded as he walked down the hill to Sophie’s place, unable to see the right path forward with her. Last night, he had wanted to bring her home so badly, his entire torso had felt carved out and hollow when he had walked away from her.
He refused to take advantage of her, though. And Em’s words just now confirmed how vulnerable Sophie was to him.
You always seemed lost. You still do.
That seemed like such a ridiculous thing to say when he was at home in a marina. Professionally, he had known where he wanted to be and got there. He wasn’t his brothers, growing up shifting between two homes. He wasn’t Reid, whose mother was troubled or Trystan, who had been brought up in two different cultures. Logan was supposed to be the well-adjusted one. Why wasn’t he?
He passed the shed, noting that Art’s Gator was parked inside it. Weird.
He stepped onto the porch and gave the screen a couple of taps before pulling it open with a screech of the springs.
“Art? It’s me.” The inside door was open. He caught the screen so it wouldn’t bang as it dropped back into place behind him and hung Biyen’s backpack on a hook.
Sleeping? He was in his chair and didn’t rouse as Logan came in.
Logan picked up his sunglasses and dropped them into his shirt pocket, glancing again at Art. Should he wake him?
There was such a stillness to the man, however, and such a lack of color, Logan’s own heart and lungs and blood cells slowed to a halt.
No.
He walked over to see Art’s eyelids were partly open, his gaze fixed. Logan touched his cold hand. No pulse in his wrist, no movement in his chest.
Nooo. Such a waft of pain went through him, he was driven to his knees. Even as he was absorbing that Art was gone, an even more agonizing reality struck.
He would have to tell Sophie. And this was going to hurt her worse than anything else he had ever done.