4. Chase
Chase
I’m glad to be out of scrubs as I pull open the door to the bar. In the summer months, the whole front of this place opens up, but now that the weather has turned cold, the large window remains firmly closed.
It’s crowded, but surprisingly, I don’t have to wait for a table.
The hostess leads me toward the back of the pub-style bar and down a small flight of stairs.
The lights are low, and there are flameless candles on all the wooden tables.
Exposed brick walls and rich colors make it look like a place Al Capone would have done business.
I’m looking over the draft beer menu when a voice pulls me from my perusal.
“This looks an awful lot like a date, Matthews,” Logan says, sliding into the booth across from me, making me laugh.
“You’re not really my type, Kirkland,” I fire back, offering my fist for him to bump.
“Tatted, bad-ass pilots are everyone’s type,” he corrects with a half-hearted joke as he shrugs out of his thick winter jacket, revealing a Ricochet Ridge Ski Patrol hoodie.
“Mmm, not everyone’s,” I muse with a smile, thinking about Hanlon and Stone at the sight of the white cross on his red sweatshirt. I just spoke to Hanlon a couple hours ago, and my mood is better for it. Hearing him so happy always makes me feel lighter.
Logan’s brows furrow, but before I can ask what’s wrong, our waiter approaches.
“Hi. Welcome to Derringer’s. Can I start you off with something to drink?”
“Sam Adams Cold Snap, please,” I tell him.
“And for you?” he asks, turning to Logan.
“Just make it two,” he says, closing the drink menu.
“Great. Would you like to start with any appetizers?”
We place an order for the fried pickles and loaded potato wedges, and then he’s gone.
“I was going to start by asking how you like flying for the hospital, but since you’re currently sporting a Ricochet Ski Patrol hoodie instead of a Boston Memorial one, I think I have my answer.”
Logan huffs a laugh.
“It was just what was on top of the laundry basket,” he answers.
“I heard about the highway landing today. Sounded crazy,” I say, rusty at making small talk that has nothing to do with medicine.
“Everyone’s talking about it like it was some huge feat, but it was literally just putting the bird down on flat asphalt.
Nothing particularly crazy about that. It’s not like setting her down on an icy ledge, afraid your rotor blades are going to freeze.
Life Flight standards usually require a hundred-foot-by-hundred-foot square to land in, but I never had that back in Ricochet.
It was like, ‘Here’s a ledge just wide enough for your landing skid…
oh, and you’re on a thirty-degree slope. Good luck.’”
“You miss it out there, don’t you?” I ask, watching as Logan pulls his bottom lip into his mouth, chewing on it as he nods.
“Yeah,” he confirms. “I like high-stakes flying, and the views were hard to beat. I thought I’d have the opportunity to do runs that felt just as important out here, but the truth is that for every one true emergency I run, I have like nine or ten patient transfers between hospitals. I’m basically a helicopter rideshare.”
Logan drains his beer and orders another.
“I mean, it’s important to the patients and their families,” I argue.
“Yeah, I know, but a twisted part of me misses having to use the skills that really make me a pilot. With a decent YouTube video, anyone can get a bird off the ground.”
“Have you ever considered flying with the Coast Guard?” I ask.
Logan laughs and takes his second beer from the waiter as he cocks a brow in my direction, silently asking me if I’m ready for another.
Sure, why not? I don’t do this often.
I nod, and he disappears.
“I mean, I appreciate our military and the skills of those pilots, but I think that ship has sort of sailed for me. I know I look young, but I’m thirty-four,” Logan says, shocking the hell out of me. I’m not sure why I just assumed he was closer to my age, but I did.
“Damn, dude. I mean, thirty-four isn’t old or anything, but I thought you were in your twenties.”
I swear he blushes just a little—or I could be seeing things from the beer I consumed in under ten minutes.
“Thanks,” he says with a hint of shyness.
It’s cute.
“And I meant flying with them, not for them. The Coast Guard Auxiliary is a group of civilian volunteers who offer their skills without making the full commitment. We learned about all kinds of options during medical school. Since there’s a branch in Boston, they came and gave their spiel.”
Logan stays quiet longer than I expect, and I wonder if I somehow said the wrong thing.
“I mean, it was just a thought,” I quickly add. “What you do for the hospital is plenty important, and I think it’s pretty cool.”
“Well, as long as you think it’s cool,” Logan finally says with a crooked grin, making my cheeks flame.
I hate when I blush because it makes my skin match my hair and I feel like a fucking tomato, but Logan doesn’t give me shit.
“I’ll have to look into that, thanks,” he finally says.
“No problem.”
Silence hovers over us for a couple of seconds before Logan says, “You still seeing that girl you mentioned when we were back in Ricochet?”
My gut twists at the mention of Kendra, and my features must give away my anxiety because Logan quickly says, “Aw shit, did I just stick my foot in my mouth?”
“No, no, we’re still together,” I confirm. “Just, you know, kinda going through a rough patch.” Our waiter delivers our appetizers, and I dig in because I’m starving. Talking around the whole loaded potato wedge I just shoved in my mouth, I add, “Long distance is starting to take its toll.”
“Where is she?” he asks, taking a much more respectable bite than I did.
“Florida.”
“What the hell is she doing down there?” he laughs.
“Honestly? I’m not sure. I know she was ready to escape Vermont’s winters, but she also knew that I was committed to Boston for the next several years and chose to go anyway.
” I shrug. “Until recently, it’s been working out great.
I stay so busy, working eighty hours a week, that I don’t really have time to keep up with a relationship.
Med school was even worse. But, um, recently, things just seem tense, and we’re arguing a lot.
She does marketing for sports franchises and loves it, which is great, but it’s hard to be that committed to your job and your partner, especially when you only see each other once every six months. ”
“That sucks, man. I’m sure that’s added stress you don’t need.”
Right about that, isn’t he?
“What about you?” I ask. “Seeing anyone these days?”
“Hell no,” Logan snorts. “But not for lack of trying. Just can’t seem to find anyone that sparks my interest,” he says, dropping his eyes to his napkin.
“Well, there’s a table of four women behind you that’ve been eye-fucking you since you sat down,” I point out.
Logan barks out a laugh.
“They’d, uh, they’d have better luck getting my attention if they were men,” he says, watching me to gauge my reaction.
“Oh, right! I think Hanlon mentioned that to me once a long time ago,” I say, vaguely remembering the conversation.
“Of course he did,” Logan mutters.
“That reminds me. Did Stone call you?” I ask, wondering if they’d reached out to Logan with the news as well.
Logan’s eyes snap to mine as he reaches for his drink.
“Yeah,” he says in a confused tone. “How’d you know that?” he asks.
“After Hanlon called me, I figured they’d call all of their friends.”
I swear Logan stops breathing.
“I, uh, couldn’t take the call. What’s up?” he asks with a note of hesitation, as if he already knows.
“It’s not really my news to share,” I tell him, suddenly feeling awkward as I take a sip of my beer. But Logan doesn’t let it go.
“Look, I can show you the missed call. Just tell me what they wanted.”
He sounds almost desperate.
“Stone proposed. They’re getting married.”