by Kait Nolan
Reaching over, Logan laid a hand on her leg. “He’ll be how he is, and I’ll be right there with you. If you don’t get through to him today, maybe next time. I’ll be with you then, too. You’re not alone in this anymore.”
He parked in the small lot to the side of the main building, beneath the shade of a massive oak tree. Athena was out of the car almost before he’d shut it off, not from excitement, but as if she had to keep herself moving or risk not going at all. Hurrying after her, Logan wrapped an arm around her, pressing a kiss to her brow. “Whatever you need.”
For just a moment, she leaned into him, then straightened again, squaring her shoulders. As she marched through the front doors, she held the pie like a shield.
“Miss Reynolds! So lovely to see you again.” The woman behind the reception desk beamed at her.
“Hey Stacey. Can you tell me where he is at the moment?”
Stacey’s fingers flew over the keyboard of her computer as she consulted some kind of schedule. “Library.”
Athena blinked. “The library?”
“They’ve been trying something new with him. Do you know where it is?”
“I remember.” Back ramrod straight, shoulders back, she headed down the hall as if she were marching to an execution. The sight of it broke Logan’s heart.
At the door to the library, she hesitated, one hand on the wood. The skin over her cheeks was tight with strain.
Logan stroked a hand down her rigid back. “What is it?”
“I just…it’s hard to see him in here.”
“In the library? Why?”
Inhaling a shaky breath, she turned from the door to face him. “My father isn’t a traditionally educated man. He never got more than a high school diploma. But he firmly believed in educating yourself, in always continuing to learn. We had books all over the house, everything from Plato to Rumi to Tolkien. He loved mythology and fantasy. It’s how I got my name.”
Being a big reader himself, Logan liked the idea of her dad picking out her name from myth. A big name for the girl who would become an amazing woman. “Sounds like a nice memory.”
She swallowed hard. “He hasn’t been able to read since the overdose. We read to him, but I don’t know how much he really takes in anymore. I just think how much he would’ve loved this place before and knowing he can’t truly enjoy it now, I just…it’s unbearably sad.”
In contrast to her words, she fixed a smile on her face and pulled open the door. The big room was lined with bookcases that stretched all the way to the top of the vaulted ceiling. Huge picture windows looked out over more of the grounds, and there were groupings of comfortable chairs and couches, tables and chairs. The only patrons seemed to be a man in a wheelchair wearing headphones and a woman who sat knitting beside him. Athena strode straight to them, speaking first to the nurse.
“He so likes being read to, and so enjoys this room, we thought we’d try some audiobooks. The occupational therapist is working with him on being able to work the controls of the player.” She leaned over to stop the book and tugged the headphones off.
A faint flicker of something that might have been annoyance crossed the man’s otherwise vacant face, but it was hard to tell from this angle. The guy appeared to be in his late fifties, but Logan guessed he was actually younger than that. His mostly gray hair still held strands of the golden brown Athena must’ve inherited from him.
“Theo, you have a visitor.”
Athena set the pie on the table. Her father’s gaze followed it, and for a moment she could only stare, the dumbfounded shock on her face telling Logan that this kind of reaction wasn’t the usual. Finding her smile again, Athena took the chair across from him.
“Hey Daddy. I brought you a pie. It’s peach. Your favorite. I picked the peaches from the orchard at the farm myself this morning.”
With great effort, Theo turned his head toward his daughter. There was confusion in his expression, and something else.
When she reached out a trembling hand, Logan took it, stepping in to join her.
“There’s somebody I want you to meet. Daddy, this is Logan Maxwell. He bought our farm, and he’s done wonderful things with it. He’s expanded and planted everything you can imagine. I wish you could see it. It’s everything you knew it could be.”
“I’ve got pictures on my phone. If you’d like to see.” Belatedly, he wondered if he should’ve refrained from the offer. Would her father get upset at seeing someone else realize what he couldn’t?
But as Theo’s unsteady gaze tracked to Logan’s, Athena squeezed his hand. They were Athena’s eyes, without her sharp mind behind them. Yet her father clearly understood some of what they were saying. Taking that as interest, Logan flipped open his camera roll and pulled a chair up next to her dad.
“These are my dogs, Bo and Peep.”
Slowly, he swiped through his collection of pictures, giving Theo a virtual tour of the farm. The fields, the hoop houses, the barns, the horses and other livestock. Theo didn’t react to any of them. Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea.
Logan started to pull the phone away, but Theo’s hand jerked, as if reaching out to stop him. Logan looked down to see a selfie of him and Athena, pressed cheek to cheek, grinning on the porch swing on the front of the house.
Logan zoomed in on their faces and held it so Theo could see better. “She looks happy doesn’t she?”
Her dad’s breathing got heavier.
Praying he was making the right call, Logan continued. “She’s a helluva woman, your girl. I’m completely in love with her.”
Theo’s eyes wheeled toward Athena.
The gray of her eyes was silvered with the sheen of unshed tears, but she lifted the corners of her mouth. “Yeah, I’m in love with him, too.”
The nurse, who hadn’t left the table, clutched at her chest and sniffed. “Oh, that’s so lovely.”
“I only just got her to admit it, but I’m working my way toward convincing her to move in with me. To come back home to where her heart never left.”
Athena hissed a breath, but Logan kept his attention on her father, willing him to understand. He had no idea how much of his mind was left, but if there was any of the father, he had to carry guilt over what had happened, over what had happened to his daughter because of it. Maybe this was a way of setting things right for both of them.
After an endless minute, Theo’s hand lifted, trembling with palsy before it finally landed on Logan’s arm. It felt like a victory.
Without hesitation, he covered it with his own hand. “I promise I’ll take care of her.”
Theo managed a single, shaky nod before his hand fell away.
Silent tears streamed down Athena’s cheeks, but when she spoke, her voice was lighter, brighter. “Yeah, so, that’s the big news. I’m staying in Eden’s Ridge. I haven’t exactly figured out how yet, but I’ll be around to see you more often.”
Her father’s gaze shifted toward her again, and Logan could see recognition there. Something she obviously hadn’t seen in a long time. Sucking in a breath, his lips worked until he managed to push out one, clear syllable. “Pie.”
Athena laughed through harder tears. “We can totally have some pie.”
As soon as they left Haven Acres, Athena called Kennedy. “I need you to gather everybody for a family meeting.”
“Sure. Is this to do with the show? How did your meeting go?”
“I’ll tell you about it when I get there.” She glanced at the clock and did a little math. By the time they got back to the farm and she picked up her car… “I should get there in about an hour.”
“Wait, here? You’re back?”
So Maggie hadn’t blabbed. “I am. Or will be. Just get everybody, okay?”
“I’ll do my best. Spouses, too?”
Athena glanced over at Logan. “Yeah. Spouses, too. We’ll see you in an hour.”
“We?” But she hung up without answering Kennedy’s question.
Logan w
ent brows up. “You want me there for a family meeting?”
“It’s about helping me find a way to stay. I figured you’d want in on that.”
“Hell yeah.”
It felt good having him by her side, in knowing she wasn’t going into this alone. Weird, but good. She went quiet, thinking about how the visit with her dad had gone. Better than her wildest imaginings. Her father had known her. He’d responded to her. He’d spoken for the first time in years. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it was so much more than she’d had for far too long. All because of Logan. Because of the farm. Because he’d promised to take care of her. Because he loved her.
“Did you mean it?”
Logan glanced over from the driver’s seat. “Mean what?”
“What you said to Daddy about me moving in with you.”
“That is the next step, as far as I’m concerned. You love the farm. You love me. Why not come home?”
Athena closed her eyes against overwhelming emotion. He couldn’t possibly know how huge this was for her. It was the one thing she couldn’t work toward, couldn’t earn herself. The one thing she’d wanted more than anything else for the past fourteen years. And here he was offering it freely. A part of her wanted to jump. Wanted to go back to Chicago, pack up all her stuff, and move right on in to make a life with him. And yet…
“I want to come home. You can’t know how much. But we’re so new, Logan, and I don’t want to make a hasty decision colored by you giving me the one thing absolutely no one else possibly could.”
His lips curved up into a smile as he grabbed her hand. “That’s why I haven’t asked you yet. You’re not ready. Now you’ve got plenty of time to get used to the idea, so when I do ask, you’ll have an answer.” He pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “One thing at a time. Right now, let’s sort out the details for how you get to stay.”
For the rest of the drive, she turned over the details in her head, but it was just more looking at pieces that didn’t seem to fit. Coming home wasn’t going to be smooth or easy. Maybe that was because she was one of those pieces that didn’t fit. In some ways she never had. But that was the beauty of the home she’d been given. The Misfit Inn had been a home for misfit kids long before she and her sisters had turned it into an inn. Somehow Joan had always known the right way to reach each and every one. To make those differences things to be celebrated. She’d always encouraged her kids to build their place, and so Athena had. Far away from here. She’d made a name for herself. But as the sprawling Victorian came into view and she thought of the family waiting for her inside, she decided she was tired of trying to build a name. She was ready to build a life.
Logan met her at the bottom of the steps. “You ready?”
She slid her hand into his and felt at least one of those pieces clicking into place. “Absolutely.”
The sound of voices drew them back to the kitchen.
“You’re back early!” Ari flew across the room, wrapping Athena in a tight hug. “Does this mean L.A. was terrible and you’re not moving?”
Trust the kid to zero in on the heart of the matter. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes.”
Ari whooped and pumped her fist.
“Ari, that might not be good news to Athena,” Pru pointed out.
The girl’s cheeks colored. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. I mean, I’m disappointed. I liked the idea of a show, but it wasn’t the right fit. Somebody get Maggie on the line.”
As Flynn set up the iPad for teleconferencing at the kitchen table, Athena moved around the room, giving and receiving hugs from her sisters and her brothers-in-law. And if she held on a little longer than she would have in the past, no one remarked on it. There were a few raised eyebrows at Logan’s presence, particularly when Athena pulled him down beside her at the table, but for the moment, everyone seemed content to wait for her explanation.
Maggie’s face filled the screen. “Well, I’m glad to see you got back okay last night.”
“Last night?” Pru asked.
Athena leaned into the arm Logan wrapped around her. “I got back late and had some business to tend to.”
“Is that what they’re calling it these days?” Xander huffed a laugh as Kennedy drove an elbow into his gut.
“So that got fixed,” Pru concluded. “Good.”
“You know, I knew as soon as you got out here that you weren’t going to stay in L.A.” Maggie’s attention shifted to Logan. “Much as I wanted family close by, I was pulling for you. You’re good for her.”
“Thanks.”
Athena hated being talked about as if she wasn’t in the room. “I’m right here, y’all.”
Logan pressed a kiss to her temple. “Then take the floor.”
“Okay, so I don’t much feel like getting into the nitty gritty about my meeting with the producers at SizzleTV. Let’s just say we did not come to an agreement on our visions for the show and leave it at that.” She’d love to leave that whole experience in the past, never to be thought of again. “The point of this meeting is to brainstorm. I want to stay here. Not just as a temporary stopover until I figure out what’s next. I want to come home for real. I need a viable way to do it that still allows me to financially take care of my dad.”
Everybody started talking at once and the immediate outpouring of enthusiasm made Athena’s eyes burn. She’d had enough with crying today, even for good reasons, but it was so wonderful to feel her family’s support.
Logan’s calm, matter-of-fact voice cut through the noise. “Okay, everybody slow down.”
“I still think the most obvious and practical answer is to open a restaurant as part of the inn,” Pru said.
Of course the ready answer was to bring her in as part of the family business. A part of her liked the idea of it, of being a part of something greater. She’d spent a long time running her own ship. But none of this was as simple as they thought it was.
“That might be something to think about down the line, but right now the concept should be tabled.” At the chorus of buts that sounded, Athena lifted a hand. “Opening a restaurant, even a small scale one, is extremely expensive and right now there’s simply not the money to support it. Profits are being funneled into the second phase expansion for the spa, and that’s as it should be. I’m not saying never, but that’s not a decision I could make fast or lightly. Eden’s Ridge is a town of less than three thousand people. Even with tourism, I don’t know that there’s an adequate market to justify the expense.”
“What about the cooking school?” Ari asked. “That went really well, and you enjoyed it. Well, except for the asshat.” At her mother’s bland stare, she shrugged. “Well he was.”
“I like the cooking school better. I truly did enjoy teaching. But I don’t think I could sustain that scale all the time. By the end of that four week stretch, I was peopled out.”
“So do a smaller scale,” Xander urged.
“There comes a point of diminishing returns. It’s one thing to do a short run of something out of the diner, but that’s not practical for creating an actual business. To do a cooking school right, it would have to be more than one day a week, and would need its own space. Something would have to be leased or built or bought, then furnished with multiple sets of tools and appliances, all of which cost more money than I’m afraid we have right now and would require a higher student enrollment than I think I could stand.”
Ari started to speak again but Kennedy jumped in.
“What about catering?”
Athena shuddered. “It’s…not at the top of my list. But I’m not in a financial position to be a snob about it. It’s something I can do with the facilities we have. I did it to make extra money while I was in culinary school. It might be something I could do for the short-term to start saving toward one of the other options.” And that might be how she’d have to approach this. Cobbling together a lot of different things to save up for something longer term. Once she figured out what that would
be, anyway.
“Good. Because I’ve got another idea.” Kennedy leaned forward. “My book launch is coming up week after next. My editor is going to be in town. When I told her you were here, she might have casually mentioned the advances for some higher profile cookbooks lately and said that her colleague is still interested.”
Athena dimly remembered that conversation with Elena Beckhoff at the inn’s opening last year. She’d shrugged it off at the time, too focused on Olympus to consider it. But now? “What kind of advances?”
Kennedy named several figures that had Athena’s interest sparking anew.
“An advance like that would give me enough to cover several more months at Haven Acres for Daddy.”
“I mean, no guarantees obviously, but it seems worth a shot if you’re interested,” Kennedy said. “And with a cookbook, you’d put together a proposal for what you want to do, so it’s not like the SizzleTV thing where you were going in mostly blind.”
“I like the idea of a cookbook. It’s a project I’d enjoy. One that wouldn’t require enormous amounts of peopling.” And while it would certainly require input from a team, it wouldn’t be like the train wreck of a show. A cookbook would inherently be about the food. “Yeah, I’d like to talk to Elena’s colleague if they’re still interested.”
Kennedy grinned. “Well, obviously you’ll cater the affair to knock Elena’s socks off to send good word back to New York. And I’ll help you put together a proposal.”
Feeling as if she at least had a direction, Athena grabbed a notebook from the counter. “Let’s talk menu.”
Athena paced a tight circle around the island in the inn’s kitchen, mentally reviewing her lists. The charcuterie trays were finished. The cheese boards were loaded. The crudités were laid out in a rainbow of foodie perfection. Every public room on the lower floor of the inn was set up with elegantly-appointed food tables that represented the different regions highlighted in Kennedy’s book. A culinary journey for the guests of the travel writer. If they ever freaking arrived.
