CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Logan
Logan sat on the tarmac of the tiny Meredith airport. Cooper and his family were flying in by private jet and would be here any minute. His excitement to show off the town had taken a nosedive after his confrontation with Tess that morning.
She hadn’t given him a chance to explain, and he couldn’t blame her. Even if she had, there was no excuse for his perceived betrayal. Withholding the information from her was a risky gamble, and waiting had backfired. Especially now that there was no way out of the deal.
He’d called the attorneys to verify and been disappointed to learn there was nothing they could do. They’d signed the papers, the seller had left town, and the ball was rolling.
Coop and his family deplaned, and Logan met them with hugs. They piled into his car, the little ones chattering endlessly about the flight.
“You don’t seem all that happy to see me, Brother,” Cooper said. “Small town shine wearing off? Or is it something else?”
“It’s a long story,” Logan said. “One that ends with me being a dumbass and ruining what I think was something great. Or at least the potential for something great.”
“The woman?” Annie asked, raising an eyebrow.
Logan nodded and explained what had happened the night before at the ice cream shop and that morning at the diner.
“Oof,” Annie said. “And this was after she told you how important honesty was to her?”
“To be fair, I had my mouth open to tell her yesterday, but her friend burst in with news about her mom being in the hospital and…never mind. That’s just an excuse. I should have come clean a long time ago.”
“Well, it’s not like you to give up on something you really want.” His brother slapped him on the back. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
“What are you going to do?” Annie asked.
“I thought I’d give her a few hours to cool off, then try and get a hold of her.”
They pulled into the inn’s parking lot. Logan gave them a quick tour and showed them to a room.
“I see what you mean,” Cooper said. “This place is an ocean of potential.”
“I’ve got a meeting with the new contractor in a few minutes,” Logan said. “You guys can take my car and wander around town. There’s a park off Main Street where the kids can play.”
“All right,” Coop said. “We’ll get settled here and then head out for a while. We also wanna check out the state park. Meet you back here later?”
“Sounds good.”
Logan drifted through the meeting and the rest of the day half-heartedly. He tried to call Tess a few times but was sent straight to voicemail on each attempt.
Later that night, he took Cooper and his family to The Rusty Nail for dinner. He had just bitten into his Windy River Smash burger when he heard a gasp from behind. Turning to the noise, he locked eyes with a horrified Faith.
He quickly swallowed what was in his mouth and began to apologize. Tess wasn’t with her, but she’d have told Faith what had gone down, and they were definitely a wrong-one-wrong-them-all kind of crowd.
“I know I screwed up.” Logan held up both hands. “But if you would hear my side—”
“Who’s…What’s…You have a twin ?” Faith interrupted, eyes darting back and forth between Logan and Cooper.
“What? No,” Logan said. “Though we get that a lot. This is my brother and his family.” He introduced them all by name.
“Oh, dear,” Faith said, shoulders sagging. “I think I’ve made a terrible mistake.”
Logan’s brows furrowed, and Nick stepped in to explain.
“Any chance your brother was at the park this morning?”
Logan looked at Cooper, who nodded.
“Oh, man,” Faith said.
“What’s going on?” Logan asked.
“I’m sooo sorry,” Faith said. “I saw your brother…kissing Annie and…and I thought it was you.”
“You told Tess.” It wasn’t a question. Of course she would tell her best friend.
The guilt on Faith’s face was his answer. “He looks exactly like you, and I’d already suspected a secret family.”
“Huh? Why would you think that?”
“No reason.”
“What’d Tess say? Crap. I’m already in the doghouse for the whole Outpost thing. Now this?” He needed to talk to Tess. Right away. If there was any chance of fixing this, he had to find her and explain. “Where is she?”
“Um.” Faith wrung her hands. “She left town.”
Logan tamped down the panic that came crawling up his throat. He couldn’t let Tess stew on this false information. Not on top of the true information she was already stewing on.
“Okay, well, I’ll go to her,” Logan said. “Where’d she go?”
“More bad news,” Faith said. “She knows I’m weak when it comes to keeping secrets, so she wouldn’t tell me. I have no idea where she is.”
“She must have told someone,” Logan said. “Will you ask around and find out?”
“Yes. I can do that. Right away.” Faith pulled out her phone and typed for a minute before hitting send on a text. Just then, Alex and Brody entered the restaurant. Alex was reading something on her phone.
“Wow,” she said, glancing between Logan and his brother. “You two really do look alike.”
“Alex, do you know where Tess went?” Logan asked.
She shook her head. “Honestly, this may explain the secret family, but you still didn’t tell her about buying The Outpost. I’m not sure finding her is going to help anything.”
“What’s with this secret family obsession?” he asked, confused. “Is that a thing in small towns?”
Alex bit her lip like she was holding in a laugh. “Faith?”
“Shut up,” Faith hissed.
“All right, well, moving on,” Logan said.
“Here’s the truth. I did come here just to do due diligence on The Outpost. I didn’t say anything on the campout because, I mean, I didn’t know Tess from Adam, and it didn’t really matter to me then.
After we became friends, I planned to tell her, but then the seller wanted to take it out of the deal, and I thought the point might become moot, so I put it off.
By the time we started dating, it was like I’d waited too long.
Whenever I finally came clean, it was gonna seem like I’d hidden it the whole time. ”
“Which you had,” Alex blurted.
“I know.” He sighed. “I wish she’d said something. I didn’t find out she wanted the business until yesterday. If I’d known that, I would have written it off straightaway.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed in disbelief.
“I’m serious,” Logan said. “Instead, I’ve made an utter mess of things.”
“A problem you could’ve solved by being honest from the start.” Alex sure had an uncomfortable way of cutting to the chase.
“Yes,” Logan admitted. “That is true. I accept full responsibility, but I also want to fix it. Bare minimum, I need to apologize. But I have to find her first.”
The thought of Tess, off somewhere fuming about what a lying, cheating jerk he was, had him in a panic.
By now, they’d drawn quite a bit of attention to themselves. A waitress approached.
“You want me to move some tables so y’all can sit together?” She glanced around, hinting that they were in the way.
“Sorry, Gwen,” Faith said. “Yes, that would be great. There’s the four of us and Juliet’s coming soon. Thank you.”
Nick and Brody helped the waitress pull a couple of tables next to Logan’s, and they all sat.
Logan stared at his burger, which had lost all appeal. He was desperate to get to Tess. To explain what an idiot he’d been, to beg for forgiveness, and to do whatever he could to salvage their relationship.
“Can any of you track her phone?” Logan pleaded. “Or will she tell any of the rest of you where she is?” His raw desperation seemed to cut through the wall of accusation built by Tess’s gang.
Juliet had slipped in quietly and had a hushed conversation with Alex, which Logan assumed meant she was up to speed.
“I called earlier, but only got voicemail,” Juliet said. “I think she turned her phone off.”
“Maybe she went up the mountain,” Logan said. “She’d have no signal up there. I’m going to see if her car is at the trailhead.” He stood.
“There are a million trails around here,” Alex said. “And if Tess doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be.”
“That’s totally unsafe,” Logan said, plopping back into his chair. “No way she’d do something dangerous.”
“Tess is tough,” Faith said. “You might just have to wait until she comes home.”
“Oh my gosh!” Cooper said. “You really like her.”
Logan had gotten himself into this mess by trifling with the truth. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. “I think I love her.”
Faith, Alex, and Juliet’s heads snapped his direction. They stared at him intently, as if trying to discern whether he really meant it by reading his mind.
“No,” Logan stated firmly. “I do love her. I love Tess.” The more he thought about it, the more certain he became.
Nick’s eyes widened, but he seemed to “read” Logan easier than the others—probably his FBI training—and verified in seconds that Logan was telling the truth. He gave a curt nod of approval. At least, that’s what Logan took it to mean.
“You guys have to help me,” Logan begged. “Please. You know her better than anyone. We gotta figure out where she is, so I can make this right.”
“I do feel a smidgen responsible,” Faith said. “That my secret family accusation might have pushed her over the edge to flee. So, I’ll do whatever I can.”
“She really likes you,” Juliet said. “That’s why I’ll help too.”
Alex nodded. “I texted to ask where she is. I’ll let you know if she responds.”
“Thanks, guys.” Logan turned to Cooper. “Bro, is the jet still in Meredith?”
“Yeah,” Cooper said. “We were gonna head home tomorrow. The pilot’s hanging around town.”
“Call him. I want to go back now.”
“Okaaaay.” Cooper pulled out his phone, stood, and walked away from the table.
“You have a private jet?” Alex asked. “With a pilot on standby?”
“Yes. There’s something I’ve got to do in Houston, but will you call me the second you find out her location? Day or night. I can be back here in four hours.”
The three women agreed.
“Pilot will meet us at the hangar in thirty,” Coop said, returning to the table. “That’ll give us time to grab our stuff from the inn. We might as well just go back with you.”
Logan only had the barest of ideas about what he could do to win Tess back, but he couldn’t stomach the thought of never seeing her again. And he didn’t want to simply patch things up. He wanted to commit and try a real relationship.
There would be obstacles, long-distance logistics to deal with, but Tess was worth the effort. He just had to find her.