Chapter 4
Logan peeled off his jacket and plopped himself down on his couch.
His mind reviewed the entire night’s interactions with Brooke.
Friends? It sounded weak even to him. He groaned.
If he could go back, he would’ve asked her out.
But no, he chickened out, blamed her recent break up with Dr. Moreno as an excuse.
And snap, he single-handedly placed himself in the dreaded friend zone. Ugh.
He leaned forward and raked his hands through his hair. Surely, one could bridge the gap, right? Did any of his friends manage to parlay their way from friends into dating? Maybe they could offer him much-needed guidance to fix this. He came up blank. He’d dug himself into a hole.
His phone rang. He fetched it out of his pocket.
His sister’s name, Danielle, flashed across the screen.
Logan smiled to himself as he leaned back on his couch and kicked up his legs on the coffee table.
At least he could count on her to take his mind off the fiasco of his dating incompetence.
He tapped the screen to answer and put it to his ear.
“Danielle,” Logan cupped the back of his head with one hand, “are my cute nieces keeping you up again?”
“Yes,” she huffed. Danielle continued, “It’s a good thing they’re cute, because I swear—” Her voice was interrupted by a wail, soon another crier joined.
The twins cried in almost unison. The sound made him move the phone six inches away from his ear to keep from having permanent hearing damage.
“Have they been crying a lot today?” Logan spoke over the loud ruckus in the background with the phone still far from his ear. He hit the speakerphone and set his phone down on the coffee table.
“Off and on. I might lose it.” He heard Danielle try to soothe the twins. Logan waited, knowing his sister only needed someone to complain to. He heard Danielle speak calmly to them. A minute later the crying stopped. “There, I should be good for a minute or two.”
“What did you do?” He rested his forearms on his knees and leaned closer to his phone’s mic.
“I’m currently holding a pacifier into each of their mouths. Luckily, there was this invention of air pods to allow me to keep my hands free while on a call.”
“True.” More silence. Logan cleared his throat. “As much as I love to shoot the breeze with you, I know it isn’t what you do. Please ask whatever it is that you want to ask me.”
“Can’t a sister call to talk to her brother?” Danielle asked.
“Some sisters do, mine doesn’t.” He cradled his hands together. “Spit it out. What did you want? Free babysitting? Maybe going in on a group gift for Mom’s birthday? Or do you need me to get Mom and Dad out of your hair?”
Danielle groaned. “How do you know me so well?”
“I think living in the same house for half your life does that to people.”
A cry escaped. Danielle rustled around and then the crying stopped.
“Can you make it to dinner next Sunday?” she asked.
His stomach twisted. Danielle was up to something. She knew he would come if he could, but the dangling inquiry told him to tread lightly.
“Why?” he replied.
“Just answer the question,” she countered.
“Tell me what you are up to and then I’ll answer.”
Danielle huffed. “I ran into Shelby—”
“No,” he interrupted her. His jaw tightened while his neck stiffened. The mention of his ex-girlfriend made sweat tickle his brow. He never wanted to see her again. “Absolutely not.” He stood and paced the small length of his living room.
“Why not?” Her voice eked out of the speakerphone. “She’s back in town. Apparently, she’s single and working as a nurse at the dialysis center on Seventh Street. She kept asking about you, and Logan she looks good, like time hasn’t aged her one bit.”
Maybe time hadn’t aged her, but it had aged him.
He couldn’t and wouldn’t see her. Even after all these years, she still held this grip on him.
He wondered if first loves were like that with everyone.
He swore he would never agree with anyone more than Sheryl Crow singing about the first cut being the deepest. And the cut from Shelby managed to paralyze him.
The woman had broken his heart when she dumped him right before they went off to college.
It took his first year of college to learn how to function without her in his life.
Then it took another year to even have the courage to ask another woman out.
Shelby tossed him aside and never looked back.
He didn’t care how good she looked because being attracted to her had never been the problem.
Sure, he’d seen her a few times since they broke up.
He ran into her in between college and medical school, and he asked her out to grab lunch.
Bad idea. He fell back in love with her once again after a simple conversation.
When they made plans to meet up again, she ghosted him. It unraveled him even more.
No. No. No. He didn’t have it in him to get over her again.
She’d always be the one who got away, and he knew he wasn’t strong enough to see her again.
Because three years ago, during Christmas he ran into her at the grocery store.
They chatted for a half hour in the cereal aisle.
She was as beautiful and intriguing as always.
Then for the next six months, Logan had to will her away from his psyche as he replayed the conversation over and over again hoping to find a glimmer of hope that she felt what he felt.
Nope. Sometimes you needed to leave the past in the past, which was exactly what he planned to do. No family dinner dates with Shelby.
“I don’t care.” He raked his hair and practically shouted in the direction of his phone. “I’m not seeing her again. I can’t do it. She messes with my head too much. You know she does, why would you even bring her up?”
“I think she’s different now.” Danielle paused, “Plus, I invited her to dinner. It’s the perfect chance to either reconnect or close that chapter of your life for good.”
His jaw clenched. “Uninvite her.” His hands drew into fists at his sides while his heart rose to an astronomical level.
“Why would I do that?” Danielle asked with a voice laced with fake innocence. “I’ve already invited her, and it would be rude to take back the invitation.”
“But I’ve met someone, that’s why,” he blurted out without thinking.
It came out of left field, but somehow deep down he knew it was his only shield of defense. When Danielle had an idea, she stopped at nothing to see it to fruition. Though he knew she’d back down if she thought he had a chance with someone else.
“What? When?” A stray cry sounded through the speaker, and Danielle hushed the baby for a moment. When the crying subsided, she added, “You’ve barely moved to Chicago. How in the world have you had time to meet someone?”
She called his bluff. But the idea of seeing Shelby made him dig in his heels and burrow himself deeper in the lie he set up.
“I guess chalk it up to fate.” He dropped back down on his sofa and swiped the phone off the coffee table. “I don’t tell you everything. Besides, the relationship is new, and I wanted to see where it went before I told you about it.”
“I don’t believe you. I think you’re making this up,” Danielle hissed. “You’re trying to get out of seeing Shelby which I don’t understand. The timing was never right between you two, but you’re both back in Chicago permanently. This is your chance to be together.”
“No, it’s not our chance to be together.
” Logan closed his eyes for a moment and tried to find his equilibrium again.
“She dumped me. End of story. She didn’t want me then, why would she want me now?
If she somehow agreed to date me, it would only be until somebody better came along.
Then she’d leave me high and dry again. No, thank you.
” He forced himself to take a deep settling breath in an attempt to lessen the pounding behind his ears.
“Ok.”
“Huh?” He scratched his head.
“Bring your new lady friend to dinner next Sunday, and I’ll uninvite Shelby. I’ll text her and apologize and tell her I didn’t know you were dating someone.”
He liked that idea. He liked Shelby feeling the sting of rejection versus the other way around. It was a thousand percent childish of him, but sometimes past relationships did that to a person.
“I’ll find out if Brooke is free.”
“Oh, she has a name,” Danielle said.
He cranked his neck in each direction to loosen the tightening of it.
Why, oh why, had he opened his mouth? Because you don’t want to see Shelby.
And your sister has it in her mind that you two are going to have some fairy tale reconnection.
“Yes, her name is Brooke. She’s a busy pediatrician, and I’m not sure about her work schedule—” Logan let his voice fade.
He never lied, but here he managed to create a lie deep enough he already needed to find a way to get out of it.
But why Brooke? Wishful thinking? Either way, a fake girlfriend with a busy job meant he had managed to buy himself a few weeks before he revealed he broke up with her.
Danielle would be none the wiser, and he’ll have avoided a dinner which would have sent him into an unraveling tailspin.
“Pediatrician, you say.”
“Yep.”
This could work. Mentioning Brooke’s name meant it was easier to keep track of these lies.
“I’m assuming you met her at the hospital.”
The spot between his shoulder blades pinched.
Admit the truth. You still have time to fess up.
“I did.”
“Then find out if Brooke can make it next Sunday for dinner at Mom and Dad’s.”
“I can’t make any promises,” Logan countered.
Meaning, Brooke would never be going to dinner at his parents’ house. A long span of possible excuses for her absence rattled off in his brain. Whether or not he liked it, he’d have to see this thing through. Danielle could never know he lied about having a girlfriend.
“Because Brooke isn’t real,” Danielle scoffed.
“No—”