Chapter Sixteen
The knowledge struck her instantly as everything fell into place. Her attraction to him, her sudden certainty she and David would never work, her dreams at the breakfast table, lying on the beach. She was falling in love with Logan Beckett.
Panic set in. She wanted to run as far and as fast as she could. Trapped at this party, she felt helpless. Her mind spun, her thoughts in turmoil. What was she thinking of, falling for the man? He ate women like her up for lunch.
“Hi, Shelley. Have you met Lily Rambeau? She’s my next-door neighbor,” Logan said easily. “I think you already know Margot Porter.”
Shelley nodded at Margot, then swung her gaze at Emma. Her eyes narrowed briefly, then an insincere smile turned up her lips.
“Nice to meet you.”
Emma shivered. If looks could injure, she’d be picking herself up off the floor right now. The lovely Shelley must have a particular interest in Logan. One that was not returned? Jealousy speared again. She sure hoped it wasn’t returned.
“So you already know some people,” Phil said, joining them, his smile directed straight at her.
“Just met Shelley.” she murmured. Looking at the woman, she asked, “Do you work at Logan’s place, also?”
“Yes, production manager.”
Emma swung back to Phil.
“And what do you do?”
“Chief dreamer, right, boss?”
“After me,” Logan said.
“Dreamer?” Emma asked.
“I dream up the stuff. Sometimes the script calls for some sort of special effect we haven’t tried before. I dream up how to map it out to get the most realism from the scene, then block it out on the computer. And Logan’s right, he does it more than me. Funny, isn’t it?”
“What?” Emma asked.
“How a guy who is so adamantly against liars is such a liar himself.”
Phil laughed when he looked at Logan.
“I don’t equate the two,” Logan replied easily. “One deliberately obscures the truth, the other is fantasy.”
“I know, but when you think about it, that’s what we do. Sell lies to people.”
“Special effects are created from fiction, hardly the same thing as a lie.”
“Isn’t fiction one big lie?” Phil persisted.
“Most people can differentiate between a fictitious piece of work and a lie between friends or acquaintances,” Logan said.
“Or spouses,” Phil added slyly.
Logan nodded, his face stiff and expressionless.
Emma wanted to defuse the tension that sparked between the two men and escape from Logan for a few minutes. She needed some time to come to terms with her startling discovery.
“I’m hungry.”
She looked at the barbecue grills, the tantalizing aroma causing her mouth to water. Phil took her arm and turned her toward the grills.
“Come with me, pretty lady, and I’ll see you have more food than you can possibly eat.”
Logan said nothing, so Emma went meekly with Phil. At least peace was restored.
“Logan’s okay,” Phil said as they waited behind another couple to be served.
“From your discussion, I might have guessed you didn’t like him.”
“Hey, I think he’s great. He’s smart as a whip, really can do the most fantastic stuff with software and he’s easy to work for.”
“Weren’t you pushing a bit about the lies?” she asked quietly.
“Yes, maybe. I rag on him a bit because he’s so inflexible. Because of his exwife, of course.”
“She told lies,” Emma said.
“Whoppers. He has a bit of a strong moral backbone anyway, but Crystal really did a number on him. So now he tries to bend over the other way. Very intolerant about some things now. And he never tells even the smallest untruth that I’ve ever discovered.”
“Most people don’t.”
Most people didn’t impersonate their sisters, lie to everyone they met during the past week about whom they were. Guilt stole over her, heat colored her cheeks. She’d been living a lie. What had started out as merely a fun idea had now blown all out of proportion.
And the worst of it was, she was falling in love with a man who was highly intolerant of deception and liars and pretense.
“Here we go. What’s your pleasure?”
Phil handed her a plate. When both their plates had been piled high with barbecued chicken, he nodded to a quiet table near the pool.
“Want to sit while we eat?” he asked.
“Sure.”
She glanced back at Logan. He appeared in deep conversation with two other men. Shelley still hung on to his arm. Emma followed Phil to the empty table and sat down. The water reflected the late afternoon sun. The murmur of voices sounded quite different from the soft crash of waves from the sea.
Pretty soon she’d return home, hundreds of miles inland, away from the sea and the feeling of being on the edge of the world. And away from parties like this one.
Emma stared at Phil. His shaggy blond hair made him look as if he were a surfer rather than a highly skilled computer programmer. His tan proved he spent a lot of time outdoors. When did he work, at night?
“Do you always cut away your friends’ dates?” she teased.
“Do you always go?”
She shook her head, then glanced involuntarily at Logan, her smile fading a bit.
“No, but I don’t think he’ll miss me.”
“Shows how much you know or how little. This is the first time he’s brought someone to one of our parties. Logan has been a cagey man ever since he dumped Crystal. I find it very interesting that he brought you today.”
“He doesn’t date?” she asked, finding that almost impossible to believe.
“Of course he dates. He’s a man, isn’t he?
But there are dates and dates. The ones he usually goes on don’t involve friends.
He takes a woman to dinner or a movie or dancing, but it is strictly one-on-one.
He doesn’t mingle those women with his friends.
Especially not the friends he works with. You’re the first since Crystal.”
“So you knew Crystal?” she asked.
“Yes, still do, as a matter of fact. I see her from time to time. That’s the other thing.
You are even more beautiful than Crystal.
From the few women I’ve caught Logan with over the last three years, I thought he only picked out the ones who were not especially beautiful—a backlash, if you would, from Crystal. Another exception with you.”
“I’m not beautiful,” she protested.
Granted, her mother often said she looked pretty, but mothers were supposed to say so.
Phil put down the drumstick he’d almost bitten, staring at her.
“I think you believe that,” he said in wonder.
“I’m not.”
Emma was definite on that point. Maybe the clothes changed things a bit. They were daring and glamorous and colorful. Her usual pick of pastels and neutral tones had given way to Lily’s flamboyant selections.
That’s what Phil saw, and maybe Logan? He probably wouldn’t look twice at a woman who normally dressed in beige and tan.
“Now I get it,” he said mysteriously.
“Get what?” she asked warily as she ate the succulent chicken.
“The attraction. A beautiful woman who doesn’t know she’s beautiful. And I’ll bet you are not impressed with material things.”
“Like what?”
“You know, a house in Malibu, a Mercedes.”
“I’m living in a house in Malibu.”
“Do you like it?”
“Yes.”
“Are you so impressed by your address you mention it to all who come in contact with you?” he persisted. “I mean, I was the one who brought it up just now.”
“Of course not. It’s just a house on the beach.”
“Logan’s that way. He bought the house because he wanted to live at the beach and liked the architecture. I think he bought his car to get back at Crystal”
“You’re kidding.”
Phil shook his head, taking a huge bite from a drumstick.
“Nope. Does he strike you as car mad? I have friends who have fancy cars, and brag about them all the time, telling me how fast they go, or how many women’s heads they turn on the highway.
The common theme is they constantly talk about their car.
Logan never mentions his. I think he bought it solely to get back at Crystal. She loves flashy symbols of affluence.”
“Oh.”
She thought about her brothers. They fit the role Phil had described, talking about torque and RPMs and all sorts of things that weren’t a bit of interest to her. Logan had never said a word about his car.
“I take it this is not a private party,” Logan said, placing a plate on the table.
Emma looked up and smiled, shaking her head.
“I couldn’t wait to eat, though. We didn’t have lunch and brunch was a long time ago.”
Phil’s eyes gleamed at her remark.
“Maybe I’m the one crashing a private party,” he said.
Logan dragged a chair over and sat down, his knee brushing against Emma’s, resting against her leg.
“We’ll just leave if it comes to that,” he said.
Phil laughed.
“Where did you find this treasure?” he asked.
“Right under my nose. Lily has the house next door.”
“Ah, no wonder she’s not so impressed with your wealth.”
“Phil.”
There was a warning edge in Logan’s tone.
“I was just about to ask Lily for her life’s story.”
“You don’t want to hear it,” she replied. “I’d much rather hear about your firm, how you get contracts, how you decide what you’ll do for special effects, what works, what problems you’ve had, things like that. I know about me, I don’t have a clue about what y’all do.”
“Logan can go on all night if you get him started, so be careful what you ask for,” Phil said.
When a newly arrived couple paused on the steps, he rose.
“Duty calls. I’ll get back when I can. In the meantime, Logan, be sure to give credit where it’s due.”
With that parting comment, Phil shot across the patio to greet the newcomers.
“He’s funny,” Emma said, her eyes following him.
“He’s also brilliant. Though I don’t tell him often. He has a healthy ego and I don’t need to feed it to make it any larger.”
“He says you have the real brains in the company.”
“Politically correct to the end. I am the boss.”
“Somehow I don’t think he’d say that if it weren’t true. He also considers himself a friend of yours and vice versa.”
“That’s right.” Logan began to eat. “Why not?”
While Emma was on a cordial basis with her own boss, they were too far apart in experience, and age, to be friends. And they kept the chain of command very strict at the library. The friendship between Logan and his employees struck her as unusual. She shrugged.
“Nothing’s wrong with it. In fact, it sounds nice. But it’s a bit unusual, don’t you think?”
“No. It’s the way I wanted to run a company. We work together, sometimes days and nights if we get behind. If we didn’t like each other and respect each other, it’d be impossible.”
“I bet you’re a stickler.”
“I have high standards and expect everyone else to stick to them. Nothing I wouldn’t do myself.”
“And is your dislike for lies a part of your high standards?” she asked slowly.
“Doesn’t everyone dislike being lied to?” he countered.
She nodded, and let her gaze drift over the pool. How would she feel if she found that he’d been lying to her? That he wasn’t who she thought he was, that it had been a game?
Would she understand, or be incredibly hurt when she discovered the truth?