Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
LOGAN
She gets ready way too fast in the morning, and I’m already driving her home. The only comfort I have is knowing I’ll see her in a few hours for our date. Not that a few hours are enough to plan a perfect date. And she deserves nothing short of perfection.
I contact Jim to check my job sites before calling my accountant to raise Jim’s salary permanently and give him a hefty bonus.
He’s been pulling half of my weight ever since I started working at Sadie’s, and I don’t plan to go back to my workaholic ways.
Nope, I need him to step into a big part of my role, and for that, he deserves a raise. A damn good one.
Next up are the restaurants for the date. Discovering every respectable one in the vicinity is full, I decide to improvise. I search my phone for an old high school buddy’s contact and tap my foot impatiently, waiting for him to answer.
“Logan?” Sam says when he picks up.
“Yeah. What’s up, man? How you’ve been?”
“Good. You?” His voice is still skeptical, and I typically hate these awkward chitchat moments, but there’s something I need to do .
“Good. Good. Look, I called you because I need your sister’s number.”
“What? My sister is fucking married.” His voice is pure rage now, and I realize my mistake.
“Nope. Nope. Nothing nefarious. I need to talk to her about the bookstore.”
I live in Seattle now, but I grew up in Ocean’s Harbor. Sam’s sister, Rebecca, owns the best and only bookstore in town, and she’s the only hope I have for tonight’s date.
“Oh, sure. I’ll text you her number. Take care.”
“You, too, man.”
Thank fuck, it’s over. The call with Rebecca passes much better—maybe because I offer her a shit ton of money—and in less than ten minutes, the formerly non-existent date takes shape.
Now, I just need to hit the store to get everything I need.
A few hours later, I’m parking in front of her house, more nervous than I was in ages. A part of me gave up on us, thinking there’s no chance that she would agree to date me.
I thought she was still hung up on her ex.
I thought I was too young, too immature, or not classy enough for her.
But now that she agreed to date me, the stakes have never been higher.
Now that I finally have her in my arms, there’s no chance I’m letting her go, so this date better be the best fucking date she’s ever been on.
No pressure.
But when she opens the door and greets me with a warm smile, her gray eyes crinkled, everything inside of me relaxes.
Awkwardly, I take her into my arms and land a kiss to her plump lips, and she squeals, not expecting it. But when I let her go, her cheeks are flushed, her hair mussed, and fuck, she looks even more beautiful.
“Hi,” she whispers .
“Hi,” I respond, chuckling. “Ready?”
“For what?”
“You’ll see.” I shoot her a wink.
“Am I dressed ok?”
“You’re dressed perfectly.” Her dark skirt is tight around her waist, but it flares around her hips, making her figure look mouthwatering.
I open the passenger doors, and she jumps in. She interrogates me about the location of our date the whole way there, but I don’t say a word.
I park on the lot closest to Main Street and she narrows her eyes. “Hmm. Main Street. So vague. You’re giving me zero clues.” Her mouth lowers into a pout, making me chuckle.
We get out of the car, and I take out the picnic basket from the bed of the truck.
She eyes it suspiciously. “A picnic on Main Street? Now you’re intentionally confusing me.”
This time, a deep laugh bubbles out of me. She’s so fucking cute. But I’m not sharing a thing.
After walking a few minutes, we stop in front of the bookstore. The lights are out since they close at 7 and it’s 7:15 now, just like Rebecca and I agreed. I place the picnic basket on the ground while lifting different plants in front of the entrance, looking for the key.
Sadie stares at me with a confused and slightly terrified look when I finally lift the key high in the air.
“Is this allowed?” she asks, apprehensively.
“Come on, live a little,” I respond, and her mouth parts in shock. “Kidding. The owner left the key for us.”
I unlock the door and let us inside before turning the lights on. The bookstore is a full tourist trap, with Instagram worthy decorations and reading nooks. I bring us to the back, to the most secluded nook, with two giant and comfortable reading chairs and a small coffee table.
“What are we doing here?” Sadie asks.
“Whatever we want.” I smirk, and she rolls her eyes. “But we can shop, read, eat.” I lift the basket.
“I can get some books?” Her voice is hopeful.
“Sure, you can get as many as you’d like. We’ll leave Rebecca, the owner, a list so she can ring them up.”
Like a kid in a candy store, her eyes widen, and she heads to the nearest shelf, her gaze trailing the book titles.
She quickly finds the romance section and takes out multiple books, putting them back before finding one she obviously likes.
I use the time to prepare the picnic. Or the adult version of a picnic.
Instead of champagne, which would be an obvious choice, I bring out a bottle of tequila, an orange liqueur, and lime juice.
I even bought two margarita glasses and some limes, for the full effect.
She’s still browsing the shelves while I make margaritas and take out the food.
The store clerk was another person I went to high school with, and she was kind enough to make a platter of salami and cheeses, one that looks professionally made.
I place everything on the small coffee table, proud of my work, and she gets back with a few books in her hands.
Her eyes widen again before turning glossy, but I help her in the chair, placing a margarita glass in her hands. I take my glass and clink it to hers.
“To us!” I say.
“To us,” she repeats, her voice barely above a whisper.
Her eyes close as she takes a sip of her cocktail. Placing it back down on the table, she clears her throat.
“This is amazing,” she says, and I feel my lips turning up.
“It was short notice.” I shrug.
“Don’t undersell yourself. This is the most thoughtful date I’ve ever been on.”
I exhale a relieved breath. “Good. Now dig in.”
We snack on the delicious foods while chatting and laughing.
“Have you been enjoying the deck now that it’s done?” I ask, popping a grape into my mouth.
“Oh, we have. Well, the kids have. It was kind of hard for me to be outside without you being there.” Her eyes drop to the side as if she’s embarrassed to admit it.
“Yeah? You missed me?”
“I did.” She glances at me, sheepishly, her long lashes fluttering.
“I tried to stall for as long as I could but there was really nothing else to be done. And summer was already here.” I shrug, but her face scrunches in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
Shit, here it goes. I scratch my head before answering, “It’s possible that the deck could have been done sooner, but I might have prolonged the process to spend more time with you.”
She shakes her head as if trying to clear it. “So, what, you pretended to work so you could stay longer?”
“Something like that, yeah.” Acid builds in my stomach, expecting her to tell me to go to hell.
But she huffs a laugh, almost choking on her spit. “I thought you were overworking yourself because of me. I felt guilty, day in, day out, because you were wasting the days in my backyard. You’re really telling me you were just stalling to stay close to me?”
I dip my head. “I was afraid that when my work was done, you’d tell me we were done, too.”
“What gave you that crazy idea?” She deadpans and this time, my laughter joins hers.
It’s exactly what happened. I finished the deck, and she decided we were done. Luckily, she had a change of mind.
Our laughter settles, and she’s the one to speak first. “Sorry for being scared.”
“You never have to apologize for it.”
“Ok. Then thank you for being brave.”
“Brave? I was scared shitless. I’m just happy it worked out.” I huff, and her face transforms into a smile.
She looks so fucking cute I don’t resist inching forward and brushing my mouth over hers.
She hums as our lips connect. My tongue darts out, tasting the bitterness of the tequila and the sweetness of the orange liqueur.
This might be my favorite cocktail now, too.
I deepen the kiss, but she gently pushes me away.
“Do you want kids?” she blurts out. Her teeth bite into her lower lip, red and swollen from my kisses.
I’m glad she asked. It’s probably bothering her, and it means she wants things to be serious between us. “I never really saw myself as having them, no.”
“Oh,” her mouth drops.
“But I never thought I would be back to manual labor, just because a cute girl asked me to build her a deck.” She throws a napkin at me playfully, making me grin.
“If you’re asking me if I’d like to have babies of my own—no, that isn’t something that I’m interested in.
But are there kids that I’m fond of and would like to spend more time with? Yes, I think there are.”
Her smile returns full force, almost blinding me. “Kids like Asher and Olivia?”
“Yup. They’re awesome. And I kind of miss spending time with them.” Her gaze lifts to mine. “But I won’t force you to tell them about us. We can take this as slow as you want.”
She nods before responding, “They have missed you, too. Liv was devastated you won’t be working at the house anymore. Asher keeps suggesting other things that need work, so you would come back.”
“Yeah?” My heart does a little jump in my chest, something I haven’t felt before.
“Yeah. So I think we tell them. Not everything. But I think you should come around and hang out with us. Enjoy the fruits of your labor in the space you’ve built for us.”
I school my features, but I’m jumping up and down on the inside. I loved being at their house. I loved being a part of their family, even though I was an outsider.
“Now what?” she asks when we finish eating.
“Now we read.” Excitement overtakes her face as she tries to decide on a book. Finally, she settles on one and makes herself comfortable before starting it .
I take a random book out, opening it to look like I’m reading, but I have other plans.
I take the phone from my pocket, quickly typing the title of the book Sadie’s reading into the search bar.
The internet is such a vast jungle of knowledge that it takes me no time to find where the smutty scenes are in the book she’s reading.
Luckily, it’s only 50 pages in, so I let her read in peace.