Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Logan
L ogan slowed the truck to take the final bend that led to his home. The track opened into a clearing on a small peninsula that jutted out into a sheltered bay. Right now the water was hidden from view by the rain, but on clear nights Logan often sat on the small jetty, enjoying the quiet.
“So, this is my place,” he said. “You can stay tonight. In the morning we’ll head into town and see what can be done about your car. Might even get lucky with a cancellation at the hotel.”
He pulled up next to the house and switched off the engine.
“Thank you,” she said with a small smile.
He shrugged. “Nothing that anyone else wouldn’t do.”
Logan ignored the little voice that reminded him he’d never invited someone to stay overnight in his home before. But what was he meant to do? Leave her in the rain? Not going to happen. And there was no point in heading into town this late. The reception at the hotel shut hours ago, and it was peak season. It was rare to find anywhere to stay at short notice in the summer.
They may as well sort it out in the morning.
He opened the car door and stepped into the downpour, only pausing to grab Harper’s bags from the back seat. He headed to the covered porch at the side of the house. She quickly followed, pulling the blanket over her head to shield herself from the rain.
“I’ve probably made a mess of your truck.” She glanced at her sneakers, now so caked with mud that he couldn’t tell what color they had been.
“It’ll clean.” Logan wasn’t worried about a little mud and water. He bought that model truck on purpose for how easy it was to clean the interior. Working in construction tended to involve a fair bit of dirt at times, even if he was the boss.
He unlocked the door and stepped inside, turning on the light and placing her bags on the tiled floor of the mudroom. Holding the door open for Harper, he waited as she hesitated before stepping inside.
“Thank you for this,” she said, still standing in the open doorway.
“You already thanked me.” Logan bent down to undo the laces of his boots.
“But—”
“It’s really nothing,” he looked up at her. “Anyway, it’s just for tonight.”
It had to be just for tonight. He had too much work to do, finishing the house and preparing for the job that started in a week. This week was the only free time he’d have for months, and if he didn’t use it now, who knew when he’d get the chance?
Besides, Logan had been looking forward to spending time alone. There was nothing quite like doing what you wanted, when you wanted—exactly the opposite of growing up in a crowded house with too many kids and not enough bedrooms.
And a twin brother who snored.
She nodded and stepped inside, pulling the door shut behind her. She watched as Logan took off his boots and tucked them neatly on an empty shoe rack.
“Hold on a minute,” he said, padding away on socked feet into the house. He grabbed a towel from the cupboard near the downstairs bathroom and headed back to the mudroom.
She’d taken off her sneakers and socks and was standing on the cool tiles in her bare feet. Her toenails were painted a bright red, and he stared for a moment before looking away.
Her smaller sneakers sat next to his much larger boots on the rack. They looked positively child-sized in comparison, and he couldn’t help but smile.
Harper let the blanket slide from her shoulders, pooling in a wet pile on the floor. For the first time, Logan got a proper look at her. Until now, she had either been in the dark or wrapped in the blanket.
She glanced down at herself, crossing and uncrossing her arms over her chest in self-consciousness. Logan couldn’t help but notice the how the once pale pink sweater, now splattered with mud, clung to her generously curved breasts. He quickly shifted his eyes away. But when Harper turned and bent to pick up her handbag, which she must have dropped on the floor, he was presented with another problem.
Her denim-clad backside was now fully visible, and Logan suddenly became acutely aware of how small the mudroom was. She was already obviously uncomfortable about being stuck with a stranger. The least he could do was not leer at her. He cursed himself for being such a bad host. His mother would have his hide if she knew.
He managed to drag his eyes from her ass before she turned and caught him staring, which he congratulated himself for.
“You want a shower first or something to eat?” Logan asked, almost tripping over his feet in his haste to give Harper some space.
“A shower would be amazing,” she said, longing in her voice.
“Come on, I’ll give you the tour and show you where you can clean up.”
As Logan showed Harper his home, he looked at it with new eyes. What would she think of all the wood?
The house had been in a sorry state when he bought it a few years earlier. He had slowly renovated it in the spare time he could find between running Cape Wilde Construction, trading favors with friends in other trades to get things done beyond carpentry. The only downside was that he owed them favors in return, meaning some weekends, when he’d rather be working on his own place, he was stuck returning those favors instead. But that’s what friends were for.
It had been a slow process, and Logan was proud of the work he had done.
The house was two stories, with the mudroom, an office, a laundry, and a small downstairs bathroom on one side of the lower floor. The other half was an open-plan kitchen, dining, and living room. The kitchen was his particular pride and joy, all sleek white cabinets and a marble countertop with stainless steel appliances. He’d only just finished work on it last month.
But the feature he liked the most was the wall of sliding glass doors that opened the living and dining room onto a large porch overlooking the bay.
In summer, you could open the entire living area to the outdoors.
He knew the style wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but he loved it.
Upstairs was where the bedrooms were. The only finished one was the master suite. The other two remained bare and unpainted, still needing work to get them in order. Most importantly, they didn’t have any furniture. Until tonight, Logan had never needed another bed in his home, a fact he now regretted. It looked like he was going to be spending the night on the couch.
He led Harper up the stairs and paused outside his bedroom door.
“Uh, just give me a second?” He asked, rubbing the back of his neck. She nodded and he disappeared into the room.
He stared around his bedroom, quickly stuffing dirty clothes into the hamper and straightening the bedspread. He had only changed the sheets that morning, so they were clean and hadn’t been slept in yet.
The ensuite bathroom was in slightly worse shape. He swiftly wiped away whiskers from the sink, checked to make sure the toilet was clean, and the seat was down. Logan hadn’t grown up sharing a bathroom with his sister and mother for nothing. Satisfied, he nodded to himself and barely remembered to grab his used towels.
He stepped into the hallway. “You can have my room tonight. There’s only one bed in the place,” he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t really have guests that often. Or at all.”
“Oh, no I can’t take your bed. I can sleep on your couch.”
Logan laughed and shook his head. “No way. My mom would skin me alive.”
Harper gave him a timid smile and nodded.
She looked over his shoulder and took a deep breath. “Logan, there’s something I need to tell you.”
He waited. Bad news never got better for waiting, from his experience. He’d rather hear what she had to say now. “Go on.”
“My friend who knows your brother, Mason?” Her eyes were wide as she spoke. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, worrying at it.
He nodded for her to continue.
“Well, he’s not really my friend,” her eyes darted away as she made the admission, her hands playing with the hem of her sweater. There was a brief flash of smooth white stomach.
He blinked, willing the image out of his mind and dragging his eyes back to her face. Now they weren’t in the dim light of his truck, he could see her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed, like she had been crying. There were dark circles underneath her eyes, and she swayed on her feet.
Despite how obviously exhausted she was, he got the impression she needed to get something off her chest. Logan waited. In his experience, most folks rushed the talking and missed important things. She’d say what she needed to in her own time.
“He—King—is my sister’s bodyguard,” she said.
Logan blinked. Not much surprised him, but that did.
He’d spent a lifetime watching and listening, and often knew what others would do before they’d even realized it themselves. A fact that had annoyed the hell out of his little sister, Cassie, when he’d stopped her from climbing out her bedroom window at night on more than one occasion as a teenager.
The only people who had bodyguards were those who could afford them, which really wasn’t that many people. He’d known a few people who had bodyguards, but that was in another life. That was before. What was so risky to her—and her family—that they needed to hire a bodyguard?
What was Harper running from?
“Your sister has a bodyguard.” He stated bluntly, crossing his arms.
“Yes.” She looked down, twisting her fingers in the fabric of her sweater.
He knew Mason had friends from the Marines, and he vaguely remembered a few of them worked in private security. But Harper had a sister who needed a bodyguard?
“Are you in some kind of danger?”
Logan quickly ran through what he knew of her. She was frightened, but not of him. She had been sent to a stranger to stay at short notice by her sister’s bodyguard who had served with his brother Mason in the Marines. She had to come without Mason knowing, because if he had known he would have made arrangements for her arrival.
So she had to be in some kind of trouble. Because why else would she have been sent to Mason?
“No. I don’t know. Probably not. I hope not.” She paled as she spoke, and he regretted asking the question. “My sister is Isla Holden.”
Logan might be something of a loner, but even he knew who Isla Holden was.
“Ok.” So, his house guest was the sister of one of the world’s most popular singers.
Cassidy was going to go nuts. She was one of Isla’s biggest fans.
“And I think I just ruined her career.”