Chapter 13
Savannah
It takes me longer than I’d like to realize why my conversations are going nowhere.
The event is made up of local small businesses that Mrs. Shafer’s marketing firm hopes to work with in the future, and each company has their own table or booth to show off what they do and connect to the other businesses.
It’s not exactly the right space for someone like me, given the more personal nature of True Fuel Kitchen, but I’ll take any connections I can get.
Plus, everyone who has come by my table has mentioned how incredible my food tastes as they try the samples I brought.
That’s about as far as I’ve gotten in terms of conversation before the people scurry off to other tables, and I was thinking it was a problem with my intro or my pitch. That is until one woman throws a wary glance over my shoulder and darts away while I’m mid-sentence.
I turn to see Logan leaning against the back wall, his arms folded and a fiery scowl on his face as he scans the crowd. “Are you kidding me?”
His eyes jump to me. “What?”
“You’re a terrible assistant. No wonder no one’s sticking around to talk to me if you’re standing back there looking like that.”
Glancing down, he slowly lowers his arms to his sides, but nothing about his expression softens. “Sorry, love.”
“I’d believe that a lot more if you weren’t glaring at me.”
“I’m not—” He sighs and lets his features relax as he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his chinos. “Sorry,” he says again, and this time it sounds sincere. “I’m not in the best mood.”
I gasp dramatically. “Really? I couldn’t tell.”
“The Thunder are winning without me, and Lola’s not here, so I can’t…” He shrugs minutely. “I’ll take a lap so you can do your thing. I don’t want to be in your way.”
Grabbing his arm before he can pass me, I do a quick sweep of the room in case Lola has finally made it downstairs.
She texted me when the event started, apologizing for getting caught up on a call instead of being here to help introduce me to some of the other business owners, but I’ve been too busy trying to talk to people that I haven’t thought much about what that means for Logan.
“I’m sure she’ll show up eventually,” I tell him, hoping I’m not wrong.
His lips twitch, not quite a smile, and his eyes drift down to where my fingers rest on his warm skin.
I could almost swear there’s an electric current between us, one I also felt yesterday when he touched me in my kitchen.
Something new. “Yeah,” he agrees, then slowly pulls his arm out of my reach.
His muscles bunch as he curls his hand into a fist, making me wonder if he feels the same spark or if I’m delusional.
“Let me know if she does?” He slips away, leaving me on my own.
I can’t help looking down at my fingers to see if the contact left a mark behind. After two days of radio silence, he caught me off guard yesterday by showing up at my apartment and apologizing for something I knew nothing about, and I almost didn’t invite him tonight because that would mean…
It’s a bad idea to start thinking about Logan leaving the US once he makes his connection with Lola. Mostly because it’s a bad idea to hope he stays.
Someone clears their throat behind me, and I turn to smile at the man standing at my table. “Hi!”
“You’re a…” He squints at my display as he starts loading Thai chicken meatball skewers onto a napkin. “…caterer?”
“It’s more of a meal prep sort of thing, but I do events on occasion. Whatever people need.”
He asks a few more questions as a couple other people join him, and I start to breathe easier now that I’m not being actively avoided.
Thank goodness Logan really was the problem.
I still wish Lola were here so she could coach me through selling my services, but at least people are talking to me now.
Will any of these connections turn into money in the bank?
Probably not. Small business owners willing to give up precious time to come to a mixer likely don’t have a lot of money to spare. But I won’t leave any stones unturned.
Ten minutes before the event is supposed to end, Lola finally appears at my table with a warm but frazzled smile. “Savannah!”
“Lo—uh, Mrs. Shafer. Hey.” I curse myself for almost using her first name when I’ve always kept that professional boundary with her. I was calling her Lola in my head, which is entirely Logan’s fault, but at least I caught myself.
“How has it been going?” She looks around the room with a satisfied smile. “Oh good, Hyde Flooring made it. Give me just a minute, hon.” She strides away, stopping to talk to a man two tables down from mine.
I grab my phone, fingers trembling slightly as I type out a text to Logan. This had better not blow up in my face.
Savannah:
Lola’s here.
Logan:
Thanks.
Searching the room, I try to spot him in the dwindling crowd. He’s not the type to blend in, but it’s been a while since I saw him last.
Savannah:
Did you leave?
Logan:
Went outside.
Savannah:
The event’s almost over, so now’s your chance.
I really hope he thought of a way to play this meeting off as coincidence because I’m risking a lot by facilitating this.
If Lola finds out that I brought Logan, she’ll be furious with me.
And now that she’s getting me jobs with the school and inviting me to things like this, I might lose more than just her weekly orders.
“Has it been that bad?”
I jump at Lola’s question and force a smile as she comes back to my table. “It’s been fine. I don’t know if anyone here fits my clientele, but maybe I’ll get lucky. At least people have liked my food.”
“Of course they have!” She squeezes my elbow, and her expression softens.
“You’re amazing, Savannah, and sooner or later the world is going to figure that out.
Now.” She rubs her hands together, a bit of mischief entering her eyes.
It’s such a familiar expression—so much like Logan—that my stomach twists into a knot.
“Give me your best pitch, and I’ll let you know if and where you can improve it. ”
Logan’s nowhere in sight, and a quick glance at my phone tells me he’s read my last text. What’s taking him so long?
Feeling slightly nauseous, I try to keep my focus on Lola as I stumble through what I’ve been telling people all night, telling her about my questionnaire and how I target the specific dietary needs of each client.
Lola purses her lips. “Well, your ideas are spot on. The goal is to make people realize they can’t live without you.
Just like me.” She winks, pulling a little laugh out of me.
“But nothing is going to do that better than confidence. Standing tall and letting the world know that you’ve earned your place in it.
” Straightening her shoulders and lifting her chin, she demonstrates what she’s saying.
And reminds me so much of her son that I almost blurt out that he’s here and wants to talk to her.
“I’ll…” I choke on my words. Swallowing, I search the room one more time, but when I don’t see Logan, I do my best to follow Lola’s instructions and stand up straight.
I’m not going to let him ruin this for me.
“I’ll be sure to work on that for next time.
If you can’t live without me, no one else can either. ”
Grinning, Lola puts both her hands on my shoulders and gives me such a look of pride that I feel it down to my toes. “That’s the spirit! But there’s still time tonight. Who haven’t you talked to yet? Let’s go find you some clients.”
For the final few minutes of the night, I try to dazzle every person Lola introduces me to, including her partner at the firm.
Only one or two of the people I talk to seem genuinely interested, but that doesn’t stop me from giving the best pitches of my life.
My enthusiasm is as much to convince them to hire me as it is to keep my mind off the fact that Logan still hasn’t shown up.
He hasn’t texted again either.
I don’t know if I should be relieved that my relationship with Lola is intact, frustrated that I was nervous for nothing, or worried that he’s not here, which means I’m mostly just dizzy when I get back to my table.
“You were fantastic!” Lola tells me, her attention shifting to her phone.
She sighs. “Looks like I need to go back upstairs to put out a fire. I can send my assistant down to help you with all this if you need.” Gesturing to my many boxes and containers, she frowns at the mess I get to deal with now that all the food has been eaten.
“I’ll be okay,” I tell her, hoping I won’t have to haul everything back to my car on my own. “Thank you so much for inviting me tonight, Mrs. Shafer.”
“Of course!” She takes a few steps but pauses, throwing a warm smile back at me. “And you can call me Lola, if you’d like. I think we can call ourselves friends now.”
As I watch her head through the doors, I have to grab the edge of the table to keep from swaying where I stand.
I should be glad that she’s so comfortable with me, but her gesture of familiarity is only going to make things worse if she finds out about Logan.
She’ll see my friendship with him as a betrayal of my friendship with her.
I’ll cause her pain, which is so much worse than losing her business and connections.
A tingle of awareness runs up my spine, and I turn to the doors on the opposite end of the room.
Logan leans against one of the frames with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the place Lola disappeared.
He would be the epitome of calm and casual if not for the panicked look in his eyes and the tight set of his jaw.
I still don’t know how to feel about his failure to return on time, so I try to ignore him, tossing trays and utensils into a bin with a lot less care than I usually give my supplies.
He comes to my table with his eyebrows furrowed and his shoulders tense. “How can I help?”
He’s not okay. I’ve seen Logan in a lot of different moods, but I’ve never seen him look so…small. There’s not a trace of his usual confidence, and I can’t help staring at him, wishing I could read his thoughts and understand what kept him away.
“What happened?” I ask, ignoring his question. “Why didn’t you come back inside sooner?”
“Got a phone call?”
I lift an eyebrow. “Was that a question?”
“More of a lie.” He ducks his head. “I couldn’t do it.”
His honesty catches me off guard, leaving me momentarily speechless.
First he apologizes yesterday, now he’s being vulnerable and open.
What’s he going to do next—start actively finding me new clients or find me a better kitchen to work in?
I’m not sure I’d be able to hold a professional boundary if he did something like that.
Biting the inside of my lips, I search for a way to lighten the mood and say the first thing that comes to mind. “Are you telling me you chickened out?”
He looks up, a bit of a defiant glint sparking in his eyes. “Dogged it,” he corrects, which I’m assuming means the same thing. “I’m sorry. I know you risked a lot tonight.”
At least he recognizes that, though it doesn’t explain what held him back. “Isn’t talking to Lola the whole reason you came to California?”
“Maybe.” He actually looks sheepish as he shifts his weight, hunching his shoulders. “Yes. Call me gutless if you want. I took the coward’s way out, and I hate that I blew this chance to give my parents peace of mind.” He exhales slowly, uncertainty creeping into his expression now.
Seeing him so unsure of himself is doing something to my insides, crumbling the part of me that has tried to keep her distance from this man.
He may have an ego big enough to need its own zip code, but underneath that cocky exterior is a man who’s harboring a lot of emotion that I’m guessing he doesn’t know what to do with.
He came here for his parents’ sake, but I’d bet Logan cares more than he’s been willing to admit.
“I’ve never called anyone gutless in my life,” I say truthfully, biting my lip when Logan’s expression lifts a bit. “Lily-livered, on the other hand…”
He cracks a small smile. “You never did think all that highly of me. I’ve gone and made it worse, haven’t I?”
What he’s gone and done is made me feel sympathy for him, which is exactly how Beef worked his way into my heart at the shelter. Once I saw past my cat’s bravado and caught the fear and hurt in his green eyes, I couldn’t walk away without taking him with me.
And dang it all, I think Logan might have just done the same thing.
“Call me crazy,” I murmur, “but I might actually be starting to like you, Logan Callahan.”
He grins, and I melt. There’s a buzz in my stomach that tells me I might be moving right past ‘like’ and entering dangerous territory.
It’s one thing to be attracted to this man, but it’s a whole other thing to have feelings when he’ll be heading back to Australia in a few months. If I thought I was lonely before…
As long as he doesn’t start showing signs of interest in return, I can make it through our business relationship with my heart in one piece.
“How can I help?” Logan asks again, still smiling as he makes his way around the table. He stops only a few inches from me, close enough that I have to look up to meet his gaze, and then he leans closer, dropping his voice to a low murmur. “I’m all yours.”
Well, crap.