Chapter 40
Logan
I make sure to keep my face impassive as I watch Macey walk away. Race away is more like it.
Knowing it will attract attention, I restrain myself from going after her.
I thought agreeing to this get-together would be okay. Macey seemed to want it, and I hoped it would help assuage any suspicions my friends might have over how I could possibly be engaged this quickly to someone they’ve never even met. Gigi’s doing her best to act natural.
But Macey and Gigi are polar opposites. And as much as Macey’s trying to be polite, it’s pretty obvious to anyone who knows her that she’s upset.
Blake’s acting like a fucking detective, and Ginny’s giving me strange looks like when she clearly wondered where I got the money for Gigi’s ring.
The fact that Gigi’s father bought it for her isn’t a detail I want mentioned; it will just exacerbate people’s suspicions about our relationship.
“Logan?” Gigi pokes me. “You zoned out there.”
I take a deep breath and force a grin. “Just thinking about you.”
“Ahhh.” She plays it up perfectly and tucks her hand around my arm. “Isn’t he sweet?”
“Logan is sweet,” Ginny says slowly. “I’m happy he found someone who realizes that.”
“I noticed it right away,” Gigi says quickly. “He’s the best.”
I make a joke about getting a big head from all these compliments, but my attention is on the empty hallway leading to the restrooms.
This time, I can’t stop myself from standing up. “Be right back.”
Macey
As I make my way down the hallway toward the restroom, I hear the echo of Ginny’s soft tones and Blake’s low drawl responding to Gigi’s squealy, girlish chatter. I imagine Logan sitting there as his right hand caresses his fiancée’s leg under the table, and I struggle to control my emotions.
I’m surprised how much the New York City trip affected me. Maybe because, except for Logan’s one year in Boston and annual trips to Wild Ranch in Montana for business, he never leaves Texas. But the moment he meets Gigi, he goes ahead and flies to the Big Apple to get engaged.
Seeing him so serious about someone else…doesn’t feel good. At all.
I take my time in the restroom, and when I leave, Logan’s standing in the hallway. His dark lashes frame his whiskey eyes, and his mouth is pursed in a worried frown.
He pushes off the wall and steps toward me. “Hey.”
I halt. “What are you doing?”
“I didn’t tell Gigi about your father. Just wanted to make that clear.” His eyes, which have remained dull since he came back from West Texas, swirl to life as his gaze pins me in place.
“Who did?”
He hesitates. Just enough that I notice. “She said somebody passing through town mentioned it.”
“You mean a reporter?”
He doesn’t answer that, but the pulse in his neck is throbbing.
And while I still don’t get how he got engaged so quickly, I’m getting a sense of how much this means to him.
“Okay. Well, Gigi’s…interesting,” I say to break the silence.
“I know she’s coming off a little strong,” he says. “But she’s not always so—”
Bitchy?
“Nervous.” Logan narrows his eyes at me. “Give her a break—she’s meeting my ex-wife.”
“Yeah, what’s the deal with that?” I say. “Because as you well know, I’m not your ex-wife yet. You lied to her?”
“Small omission of fact.” His face flushes. “I thought it would be easier for everyone if she didn’t know we were still…”
Attracted to each other?
My gaze wanders from his face down to his chest and then further.
Logan’s voice drops to barely above a whisper. “Mace, two huge favors.”
I drag my eyes back up to his face.
“Name them.”
“Please sign the papers.”
“That’s favor one. What’s two?”
“Do your best to be civil to Gigi.”
“Done.” I shift past him in the hallway. “We’d better get back.”
When I reach the booth, I beckon to Gigi. She steps out of the booth and follows me through the bar. The whole walk until I stop in the corner of the saloon, I’m wondering what she wants.
Does she want to make sure I’m not a threat?
Or is it to ask for some sort of permission?
No, that doesn’t make sense. That’s just for the father, I think.
And isn’t it the other way around, so Logan would’ve asked her father for permission?
I almost laugh out loud at the very thought.
I can’t imagine Logan asking someone for permission for anything.
“I’d be happy to help you out with anything you need,” I say to her.
“Thank you, Macey. That means so much.” She squeezes my arm. “And I realize you’re super busy. My mother’s already hired a wedding planner from New York City. But she can’t help fill me in on little details that would make my Logan happy.”
My jaw tightens, but I get out a nod.
Gigi lowers her voice conspiratorially. “You can’t tell anybody. Especially Logan.”
“Okay.” I lean closer so I can hear her.
“He knows my family’s going to throw us an engagement party here in Darcy in a couple of weeks.
But I want to surprise Logan with a gift.
You know, something really special from me to him.
The whole town will be watching us open our gifts, and I don’t want to come off like I’m a stranger to him. It would look…suspicious.”
The word seems to come out of her mouth unbidden, and she blushes as soon as she’s said it.
I cock my head. “Suspicious? I’m not sure I follow.”
She coughs. “I want to present Logan with something that he would genuinely want, as a token of the beginning of our new life together. And the thing is, I don’t know Logan’s tastes all that well.
I mean, it’s only been a few weeks!” She giggles.
“And you’ve known Logan your entire life.
He said you guys are kind of like brother and sister. ”
Did he?
“Kind of.” She flushes again, and then almost says the next part like it’s rehearsed, “Which is why I’m not concerned that you two got married. I get it. A drunken night in Vegas—it happens, right? It’s not like it means anything.”
She says the words with a cavalier wave of her hand, but the shadow behind her eyes tells me she’s not as na?ve about her fiancé’s first marriage as she claims to be.
I force a casual smile. “Right. But I don’t know about an engagement gift. I don’t want to get in the middle.”
“Oh, you aren’t! I’m asking you to help! Please? Pretty please?”
“Uh, I…”
“Macey, I won’t stop asking until you say yes! You have no idea how much I need your help. I feel like everything depends on it.”
Her tone borders on frantic, and I’ve never been good at turning away the desperate.
“Okay,” I say. “We could go shopping next Saturday. How’s eleven a.m. sound?”
“Sounds perfect, thank you!” She throws her arms around me while I stand like a stone, unable to hug her back. But it makes no difference. She’s on cloud nine.
I’m starting to understand more and more how Logan wound up in a permanent bond with this woman. She’s relentless. I wonder if she’s ever not gotten something she’s set her mind to have.
I follow her back to the booth in a daze.