Chapter 11 Logan
Logan
“Ihad so much fun tonight.” Piper’s head lolls against Jackson’s shoulder, turning her face to the sky when they step through the front door. “Oh thank god, fresh air.”
The green tint that was starting to overtake her face begins to lessen almost instantly as the cool breeze reaches her face.
“I told you we needed to step outside and take a breather, but you wouldn’t listen to me.” Gwen opens the back door to Jackson’s truck. “I’m pretty sure you shouted something about more shots.”
Piper clutches her stomach, her eyes squeezing shut. “Shh, don’t speak those devil words to me.”
Jackson glares at his sister, though it holds zero heat. Her responding giggle has him rolling his eyes as he lays Piper down in the back seat.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come home with me?” Gwen brushes the hair that has fallen into Piper’s face away.
“Yes,” she slurs. “My bed is much better.” Her eyes flutter closed, this time staying shut as her breathing evens out.
“That didn’t take long,” I mutter.
“Great, now I’ll have to carry her in.” Jackson’s words sound annoyed, but the look on his face says otherwise as he keeps an eye on the girl in his backseat.
“You were going to have to do that either way. At least now she can’t talk back, so that’s a plus for you.”
He just grunts in response as he gently shuts the back door closed.
“Do you still have the spare key?”
Jackson jiggles his keyring in the air.
Gwen wraps her arms around her brother, and he does the same. “Thank you again.”
He waves his hand to swat away her words as he takes his place behind the wheel. “I’ll text you when I get her home.”
“And when—”
“And when I get home. Love ya, kid. Make sure Mr. Mayor gets home safely.”
We watch as he maneuvers his truck out of the parking lot and down the street. A left toward the residential area, a right toward Main Street. We take the right after his truck lights disappear from view.
“So that was an eventful night.”
Gwen groans, her hands covering her face for a second before she slides her fingers through her long red hair. I itch to do the same. To test my theory that the strands were as soft as they looked, almost like silk.
“They aren’t always like this.”
“You mean you don’t get on stage and belt out some Taylor Swift every weekend?”
She barks out a laugh, her head tossed back. “No, definitely not. That was a special show, one night only.” She thinks for a second. “Or until Piper guilts me into it again.”
“Is she okay?”
The question has Gwen biting down on her lip, her eyes going sad. I want to take the words back so I don’t ruin her mood, but it’s a valid question after seeing her tonight.
“Honestly, I don’t know. Which sounds terrible as her best friend that is literally with her every single day, but I can’t get her to talk about it.
It’s more than her attempt at making her art into a business.
I can’t figure out what else it is, though.
But I can see it in her eyes.” Gwen glances up to the sky while we slowly walk toward our building.
“She seems lost these days, and it kills me not to be able to help her. I just don’t know how. ”
I might not have been around any of them in recent years, but I could see exactly what Gwen is explaining in Piper’s eyes tonight.
She was lost. And I knew that feeling all too well, unfortunately.
“She will come to you when she’s ready.” The words feel lame coming out of my mouth, but it’s the best advice I can give her as someone on the other end of this.
Gwen nods. “Hopefully having something creative to focus on will help her.”
“It’s already helping me.”
I feel her eyes on me as we continue our walk toward home.
The businesses around us have already shut down for the night, so the only glow lighting our way is the moon and some streetlights every few feet.
No one else is out, leaving us with an uninterrupted soundtrack of the wildlife surrounding the town.
An owl hoots in the night while the chirp of crickets sing around us.
The same comforting sounds I was enjoying when I unknowingly became a stalker listening in on Gwen and Piper’s conversation about me.
The pang in my chest was an echo of what I felt when I pieced together their concerns that I would do anything but give this my all.
I have been reminding myself that I had to give them the benefit of the doubt.
It’s not like I have given them any reason to trust me seeing how they have only known me to not want to be part of this town.
But that’s changed, however I can’t exactly tell them why.
Instead I have to show them that I’m in this. I have to show her that I care.
It was the main reason I came out tonight. Well, one of the main reasons. The main one being right beside me now, her hair glowing like a halo beneath the moon.
“How so?”
“Don’t tell my mother this, I’ll deny it if you do.
” She giggles as we share a grin. “It’s giving me a bit of purpose that feels like I’m doing good.
I know that this will have a positive outcome, especially in your hands, so it’s nice to know that the effort will bring even more happiness to good people. ”
“Does that mean you don’t feel like stepping into your father’s position is purposeful? Like it’s not something good?”
I arch a brow at her. “Do you moonlight as a therapist?”
She raises her hands in a shrug. “Sometimes. When I feel like a friend might need it.”
“Is that what we are? Friends?”
Her shoulder bumps with my arm as she looks up at me. Her ethereal green eyes twinkling. “We can be.”
I slow my steps to a stop as I realize we have made it to our stoop. Though I have no desire to go inside to my empty apartment especially knowing she is right on the other side of the wall.
She takes the first step and I feel a bit of sadness that our night is ending, until she turns her body toward me.
We were walking so close that now I can see every freckle dotting the bridge of her nose.
And, just like when we were slow dancing earlier, I crave to reach out and trace every single one.
Her lower lip is trapped between her teeth for a moment. Her eyes narrowed in deep thought before she speaks again. “Can I take you somewhere?”
My brows fly up to my hairline. “Now?”
“It’s just a quick walk that way.” Her finger points in the location I saw her coming from the other night. She doesn’t wait for my answer when she hops down to the sidewalk again, beckoning me with her hands as she walks backward.
My feet seem to have a mind of their own as I move toward her without the conscious thought to do so. And in that moment I realized I would follow Gwendolyn anywhere.
***
“Are you going to murder me out here?”
“Please,” she snorts a laugh. “I would have done it further in the woods and not a few feet off a well-known trail if that was the case.”
“The fact that you thought of that is not worrisome at all.”
Gwen smirks, stopping at a line of willows. “You don’t watch horror movies and not pick up a few helpful tips and tricks. To answer your question, no. But I will have to kill you if you share this spot with anyone else.”
Using her hand to part the limbs of the tree, she uses her free one to urge me through the golden foliage. My breath catches as I step through the curtain and take in the sight before me.
The lake glistens beneath the clear night sky, but it’s the mountains surrounding it that really set the scene.
“My parents brought us here when we were kids,” Gwen passes by and takes a seat on the log in the sand. She pats the open spot beside her, a silent request for me to join that I accept. “It’s become our own spot since then.”
“How does no one know about this?”
“Oh, I’m sure tons of people know about it.
But it helps that it’s slightly off the path.
You know, some people rarely stray from it, despite how beautiful the view might be.
Their loss is our gain, though. My siblings and I come here when we need a moment to reconnect.
Our own little special place away from the real world.
Only the best of the best are allowed in. ”
“And I’m one of the best?”
“I think so.”
“Why did you bring me here, though?”
She stares out at the water, her hands running along her thighs before she tucks them underneath her.
“Seemed like you needed a little safe space. Somewhere you can go where there are no expectations, no heavy weight of parental wants or needs.” Her hair falls from behind her ear as she looks over at me.
“Somewhere for you to just be, well, you.” Her knee knocks with mine, her voice dropping in a whisper.
“Where you can find yourself, if you want.”
“How do you know I’m lost?”
Her hand lifts up to my face, a feather light touch ghosting around my eyes. Her grin turns sad at the edges as she looks over my face. “It’s in the eyes.”
The breeze moves between us, floating her hair around her face and sending the scent of peaches wafting over me.
Her hand falls away, and the feeling of our connection separating sends an emptiness through me.
It’s the same feeling I felt earlier as I held her on the dance floor and wished for the world’s longest slow song to play.
“Gwen,” I whisper. My hand brushes back the hair falling along the side of her face. Her eyes flutter closed when I touch her skin. She leans into my touch as if it’s the most natural thing in the world to do.
“Don’t.” Her eyes open back up and lock onto mine, pleading with wideness while she bites down on her lower lip.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t say my name like that. Like you feel something more than what this needs to be.” She pulls away from my touch, and my hand falls noisily to my lap. She turns back toward the water, though her head ducks down to stare at the ground.
“I’m confused. Do you not feel whatever is going on between us?”
She shakes her head. “There is nothing going on between us besides a working relationship. We barely even know each other.”
“I don’t believe that. We’ve known each other since we were kids.”
“Which we most definitely are not anymore. There has been a lot of time between then and now.”
I sigh. “That’s the truth.”
“Besides, you just got back in town and you’ve got a lot going on.
This,” her hand waves in the space between us, “is just the forced proximity trope at play. Whatever these feelings are or are not will clear up as soon as the festival is over and we can go back to our normal schedules. Whatever that looks like for you as you take on your new role, Mr. Mayor.”
I flinch at the finality of her words, but I’m still stuck on something else she said.
“Forced…what? What are you talking about?”
Tossing her head back, she groans loudly.
“Forced proximity trope. It’s what happens when an author needs a reason for the characters to be with each other, so they put them into a situation where they basically Stockholm Syndrome each other.
It’s one of the worst tropes in the books, right after accidental pregnancy. ” She shivers animatedly.
“Let me get this straight.” I turn my upper body toward her, my knee shifting on to the log between us. “You think that the feelings I’m developing for you are based off of a horror book trope?”
She rolls her eyes. “Romance book, but yes.”
“I’m not following.”
“Can you honestly tell me that you would have given me a second thought after you came back into town if it weren’t for the fact that we were partnered up for the festival or that we lived next to each other?”
Yes, my mind instantly yells.
“Or maybe,” I start sliding an inch closer to Gwen. Her eyes narrow at my movement before flicking up with an unamused expression. “The universe put us in this situation to make sure we gave these feelings a chance without wasting time.”
She doesn’t look like she believes me as her eyes roll.
“I’m not asking for forever, Gwen. I’m not crazy. You’re right. We don’t know each other. But you can’t tell me right now that what you are feeling building between us isn’t something worth exploring. Isn’t worth getting to know each other again to see if it’s real or one of your sister’s tropes.”
Her lips purse; deep in thought as she absorbs my words. I can almost see the wheels turning in her mind, see the exact moment she starts to agree in the softness of her eyes.
“You know I’m onto something,” I smirk.
“Don’t act so smug.”
Her sass has my smirk widening even more. “What do you say?”
With a deep breath, she turns to give me her full attention. “I say I know I’m right.” My shoulders deflate almost instantly at her admission. “But…”
I perk back up as she continues. “I also say I know I feel something else. Whether it’s just the situation we are in or if it’s real, however, I’m not sure. So let’s play it safe.”
Her hand shoots out in front of me. “Friends?”
Slowly, I grasp hers within mine while tingles dance across my skin at the contact. And though the word that leaves my mouth is an agreeing “Friends,”…
My mind is telling me there is no way in hell I can be just friends with Gwendolyn Prescott.