Chapter 27
Cowboy drove from HERO Force headquarters right to Logan’s condo and knocked on the door. It was sunny and warm, four days after they’d returned from the cruise, and he’d gotten up bright and early for his meeting with Jax.
To Cowboy’s surprise, Jax had nothing but praise for him on the mission, until he got to the part about Charlotte being there. Once Cowboy made it clear he hadn’t invited her on the trip, Jax was willing to let it go.
HERO Force was officially Cowboy’s responsibility. Jax would stay on working part time, but he’d no longer be calling the shots or going on the longer missions once they got their staffing up to where they needed it to be.
The hiring would be up to Cowboy.
Now he just needed to talk to Logan on neutral turf before they went back to the office with him as Logan’s boss. They had a new assignment he’d just heard about over the weekend, and everyone but Matteo would be going wheels up first thing Tuesday morning.
Matteo had a different assignment. Apparently Jax owed some Russian dignitary a favor big enough to marry off one of HERO Force’s men to the dignitary’s daughter for a month-long undercover op. Cowboy wasn’t sure about the details, but he was thoroughly amused by what he did know.
Logan opened the door to Cowboy and his face settled into an unpleasant expression.
“Can I come in?” asked Cowboy.
Logan stepped back for him to enter. “Charlotte isn’t here.”
So that was it. He’d wondered if she would stick around, maybe even contact him, but in the end she’d left Atlanta altogether. “Actually, I came to talk to you.”
Logan led the way into a small kitchen with blue countertops, opened the fridge, and took out two beers. He handed one to Leo. “What do you want, Cowboy?”
“I know it wasn’t cool to go after your sister like I did. For what it’s worth, I tried for a long time to stay away from her for your sake.”
“Did you? I hope exercising that kind of restraint didn’t cause any permanent damage. How long did you stay away, what, a few months?”
Cowboy took a sip of his drink. “Go ahead, man. This is only going to work if we both say what we’ve got to say.” He shrugged. “I deserve it.”
Logan shook his head. “I know she came to you. I’m not stupid. She saw the travel information on my computer and she took it upon herself to book the same cruise.” He eyed Cowboy for a long minute. “I know it was just as much her fault as yours. I just don’t want her to get hurt.”
“We’re all grown-ups, Logan. Everybody gets to make their own decisions.”
“Yeah, and you seem to make bad ones where women are concerned.”
“Ouch.”
“So what now? You pretend you didn’t break her heart and I pretend it didn’t bother me?”
Cowboy laughed against the mouth of his beer. “Trust me. I didn’t break her heart, and I see she didn’t lose any time getting the hell out of Dodge.”
“Why? Did you want to see her again? Didn’t get to do enough damage the first time? I know your cruise got cut short and all.”
“Actually, I did want to see her again. She’s the one who didn’t want to see me. Okay? Not that it’s any of your business, but I called her the day after we got off the boat. She didn’t call me back.”
He’d stood there on the dock at Nassau as all the passengers and police sorted through the chaos, watching her. She’d been standing a ways away with a red blanket wrapped around her shoulders, talking to Logan, and all Cowboy wanted to do was walk over there and pull her into his arms.
But she wouldn’t make eye contact with him, even though she knew he was there, and she stayed close to her brother. The message seemed loud and clear enough. The cruise was over, and so was their relationship.
She’d flown back to Atlanta on the HERO Force chopper with the team. She’d only looked at him once that he saw, offering him a small smile.
I’m sorry.
She didn’t need words to say it, and he certainly didn’t want to hear it anyway.
“Why did you call her?” asked Logan.
“Because I missed her. I wanted to see if she was okay.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I wanted to see if she wanted to have dinner with me one night.”
“Okay.” Charlotte’s voice behind him had him whirling around. She stood in the kitchen doorway and she smiled at him, a big, wide smile totally unlike the one she’d given him in the chopper. She looked different without makeup on. More beautiful, if that was possible.
He opened his arms and she stepped into them, squeezing him tightly. She smelled like candy instead of perfume, and he found he liked that, too. “I thought you left town,” he said.
“I thought you didn’t want to see me anymore.”
“I told you I did.”
“But then you wouldn’t even look at me in the chopper…” He turned to Logan. “Would you excuse us for a minute?”
Logan rolled his eyes but left the room.
Cowboy looked back at Charlotte. “I thought you changed your mind. That you just wanted an escape on the boat, like I was your boy toy.”
She laughed. “Oh, you are my boy toy, all right.” She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him. “And you owe me five more days in bed, thank you very much. Then you can take me to dinner.”
“I might have to split it up between HERO Force trips to South America and Nova Scotia.”
“That’s okay. I’m moving in with Logan next week, so I’m going to be around for a while.”
“Moving in with Logan, huh?” He rubbed his nose against hers. “I hope he has really thick walls,” he whispered.
Logan called from the other room. “You’re not funny, Cowboy.”
Cowboy and Charlotte laughed.
“I am, actually. I’m really funny. Aren’t I funny?”
Charlotte shook her head and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Shut up and kiss me, Leo.”