by Kristi Gold
Dylan frowned. “Seriously?”
Leave it to Hannah to throw out a comeback, but then he’d really begun to appreciate her easy wit. “She’s a teacher during the day.”
“And Logan actually moonlights as a plumber,” she said.
They exchanged a smile and a look over their inside joke, interrupted by Dylan clearing his throat. “Logan, as a word of warning, I just had lunch with my sister. She’s still loaded for bear over the will, in case you want to reconsider and find somewhere else to dine.”
Great. Another Lassiter, and this one wasn’t going to be pleasant. “I can handle Angelica.” As long as he used kid gloves. He just hoped she wasn’t wearing boxing gloves.
Dylan slapped him on the back. “Good luck, Whittaker. And it was damn good to see you again. Nice to meet you, too, Hannah.”
After Dylan rushed away, Logan escorted Hannah into the restaurant and walked up to the hostess stand to request a table. He glanced across the crowded dining room and immediately spotted Angelica Lassiter sitting alone, wearing a white tailored business suit and a major scowl. Unfortunately, she spotted him as well. Too late to turn tail and run, he realized, when she slid out of the booth and approached him at a fast clip.
She bore down on him like a Texas tornado, her dark hair swaying and brown eyes flashing. “Logan Whittaker, you didn’t return my last call.”
An intentional oversight, not that he’d tell her. “I’ve been busy, Angelica, and you should address all questions regarding the will to Walter.”
“Walter won’t listen to me,” she said. “He keeps saying there’s nothing I can do to change the paltry percentage of Lassiter Media I inherited and I should learn to live with the fact Evan controls the majority of the shares, and the voting power that affords him. I still can’t believe Daddy did this to me.”
Frankly, neither could Logan. Nor could he believe how Angelica, a strong, independent businesswoman, reportedly the spitting image of her mother, could sound so much like a lost little girl. “I’m sure he had his reasons, and I know they don’t seem logical or fair. All I can say is hang in there.”
This time Hannah stepped forward on her own volition. “Hi, I’m Hannah Armstrong, a friend of Logan’s.”
Angelica gave Hannah’s offered hand a gentle shake and presented a pleasant smile. “It’s truly a pleasure to meet one of Logan’s friends. Perhaps we can have dinner at some point in time.”
“I’d like that.” And she would, for reasons she couldn’t even reveal—namely this woman could actually be her sister.
Angelica turned back to Logan. “I’m asking you as a friend to talk to Walter and see if I can somehow contest the will. That company should be mine, not Evan’s.” And with that she was gone as quickly as she’d come, fortunately for Logan and for Hannah.
Once they were seated across from each other in the booth Angelica had just vacated, Hannah folded her hands on the table before her. “What were the odds I’d meet two of J.D.’s offspring in one day?”
Slim to none. “Now that you have met them, what do you think?”
She seemed to mull over that query for a minute. “Well, Dylan seemed nice enough, and so did Angelica, although she did seem pretty angry. I assume it had something to do with the breakup and that will dispute that I came across in a newspaper article. Am I right?”
He wasn’t at liberty to hand her all the dirty details. “That’s part of it. But just so you know, she’s actually a very nice woman. Smart and savvy and she spends a lot of time involved in charity work.”
“Don’t forget she’s very pretty,” Hannah added.
“Yeah, you could say that.” And he’d probably said too much.
“Have you dated her?” Hannah asked, confirming his conjecture.
“No. She’s ten years younger and not my type.”
She braced her bent elbow on the table and propped her cheek on her palm, reminding him of that first night they’d had dinner together. “Exactly what is your type?”
Hard to say, other than she seemed to be fitting the bill just fine. “Keen intelligence, a nice smile. Green eyes. And most important, a smart-ass sense of humor.”
Hannah leaned back and laid a dramatic hand above her heart. “I do declare, Mr. Whittaker. You sure have high standards.”
He narrowed his eyes. “And you’re getting a Texas accent.”
“I wonder why.” She went from smiling to serious in less than a heartbeat. “It’s really hard for me to believe the people I met today could be my half siblings. And it makes me angry that my mother withheld vital information years ago, preventing me from making my own decision whether or not to connect with them.”
If she only knew the vital information he’d been withholding from her, she wouldn’t be too thrilled with him, either. But little by little, he’d begun to think he could trust her enough to tell her about his own sorry past. Eventually. “If you did decide to sign the nondisclosure, you’d never have a chance to get to know them. And since you’re determined not to sign it, you really should give getting to know them a shot.”
Hannah pondered that statement for a few moments before speaking again. “That’s an option I’m not ready to explore. And signing the nondisclosure waiver would be the price I’d pay if I claimed my inheritance.”
He wondered if she’d come to her senses and changed her mind. “Are you reconsidering taking the money?”
She shook her head. “No. Although it’s tempting, I still don’t feel I can claim it in good conscience, or sign the nondisclosure. Knowing the annuity will be turned over to charity does make my decision much easier.”
She didn’t sound all that convincing to Logan. “You still have some time to think it through before you have to leave.” And he wasn’t looking forward to her leaving, though he had no right whatsoever to ask her to stay.
After finishing their food, they engaged in casual conversation, covering movies and music they liked, before their discussion turned to Hannah’s child. Logan listened intently while Hannah verbally demonstrated her devotion to her daughter. Not a day had gone by when he hadn’t thought about his own daughter, Gracie, and what she would look like now at age twelve. If she’d be chasing boys, or chasing cows with her grandpa. If she’d be smart as a whip like her mom, and love all things horses like him. The signs had pointed to that equine love, but he’d never known for sure, and never would. Gracie had only ridden Lucy one time, and that was a shame on many counts. A mare that willing and able and gentle should be ridden more often....
“Did I lose you somewhere, Logan?”
His thoughts scattered and disappeared after Hannah made the inquiry. “Sorry. I just came up with a really good idea.” And he had. A banner idea.
“What would that be?” she asked.
He stood, held out his hand and helped her out of the booth. “I’m going to take the rest of the day off and we’re going to have some fun.”
“What, pray tell, do you have in mind, Mr. Whittaker?”
“Sweetheart, we’re going to take a long, long ride.”
Seven
This wasn’t at all what Hannah expected when Logan mentioned going for a ride. She’d envisioned satin sheets and afternoon delight in his bedroom that she had yet to see. She hadn’t expected to be sitting atop a plodding mare that kept stopping to graze as they headed toward the creek.
“You’re doing fairly well for someone who hasn’t been on a horse for a while.”
She shot him a withering look. “Remind me of that when I have a sore butt for the next few days.”
Logan’s rich, deep laugh echoed across the pastureland. “Nothing a good soak in the tub won’t cure. Or a massage.”
“Know a good massage therapist?”
That question brought a frown to Logan’s face. “Why wou
ld you need one when you have me?”
Her day suddenly brightened significantly, along with the sun. “Are you good at giving massages?”
“So I’ve been told.”
She didn’t care to ask who had told him. “That’s nice to know in case I do need your services.”
He winked. “Oh, you’re going to need them all right. And I promise you’re going to enjoy them.”
“I’m counting on you to make good on that promise.” And counting on herself not to let her heart get tangled up in him. Of course, that would be easier said than done.
They continued to ride in companionable silence, and after traveling over most the surrounding land, Logan finally dismounted in one smooth move a little farther away from where they’d stood the other night. Hannah did the same with much less poise, grabbed the reins and tugged a single-minded Lucy in Logan’s direction before the mare launched into another grass attack. “Why did we stop?”
Logan guided the gelding to the gate opening up to the pasture that led to the creek. “I want to show you another special place.”
“Good,” Hannah replied. “My bottom was just about to give out.”
After leading the horses through the gate, Logan turned and closed it, then said, “Let Lucy go for now.”
As predicted, the mare went to the nearest clump of grass. “She’s a regular chow hound.”
“She needs to be ridden more often,” Logan said as he detached a rolled blanket from the back of his saddle and tucked it beneath his left arm. “We can take another ride this weekend on my nearest neighbor’s property. He has a larger spread and he told me to feel free to use it anytime.”
Hannah’s spirits plummeted when she realized she was set to leave in three days. “I plan to go home on Saturday.”
He clasped her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You can stay until Sunday.”
She just might at that. One more day wouldn’t matter to Cassie. If anything, her daughter might be disappointed to see her if it meant going back to her normal routine. “We’ll see.”
Logan guided her down the incline a hundred yards or so from the fence and stopped beneath a cottonwood tree not far from the narrow creek. He released her hand to spread the blanket over the ground. “I’ve been known to come here to think.”
Hannah looked around the area, amazed at the absolute quiet. “It does seem to be a good place to clear your head.”
“Among other things.”
She turned to see Logan had already planted himself on the blanket, removed his boots and reserved a space beside him. “Take off your shoes and take a load off,” he said.
She really wanted to remove more than her shoes. More like her clothes. And his. It had now been confirmed—she could star in her own made-for-TV movie about a very bad girl titled Hannah and Her Outrageous Hormones.
After she toed out of her sneakers, she dropped down next to Logan as a little flurry of butterfly nerves flitted around in her belly. “So are we going to meditate now?”
Logan’s eyes appeared to grow darker in the shade, and undeniably more intense. “That’s up to you.”
With that, he brought her down onto the blanket in his arms, where she rested her head on his chest. They stayed that way for a time, the sound of his heart beating softly in Hannah’s ear, his arm stroking her shoulder back and forth in a soothing rhythm.
She lifted her head to find him staring at the overhead branches. “Dollar for your thoughts. To account for inflation.”
His smile made a short-lived appearance before he turned sullen again. “I was thinking how quickly life can change in one moment.”
Hannah returned her head to his chest. “I know that all too well. One day you’re sending the man you married off to work, the next you learn you’ll never see him again.”
“What exactly happened to him?” he asked. “If you don’t mind talking about it.”
She didn’t mind, at least not now. “He was rewiring a commercial building that was under renovation and something went wrong. After the electrocution, they rushed him to the hospital and tried everything they could to save him, but it was too late.”
“Does anyone know what went wrong now?”
“At first the insurance company claimed Danny was at fault, but his coworkers said he did everything he should have been doing in accordance with the wiring diagram. So they offered me a two-hundred-thousand-dollar settlement and I took it.”
“You should have sued them.”
Spoken like an attorney. “With a baby on the way and a new mortgage, I couldn’t afford to ride it out, possibly for years, or risk losing the suit and ending up with nothing. Danny had a small insurance policy, but it barely covered funeral expenses, let alone any hospital bills I incurred after having Cassie.”
“And your mother couldn’t help out financially?”
A cynical laugh slipped out before she could stop it. “She always acted as if she didn’t have a dime. However, she gifted us the down payment on our house out of the blue. I was able to repay her in a manner of speaking when I took care of her after her cancer diagnosis.”
“You did that and attended school?” he asked, his voice somewhat incredulous.
“She only lasted two more months during the summer, so I wasn’t in school.” Hannah thought back to that time and the bittersweet memories. “Funny, I always felt as if I’d been a burden to her because she was so unhappy and bitter. Yet the day before she died, she told me thank you, and said she loved me. I don’t recall her telling me that the entire time I was growing up. She was never the demonstrative type.”
He released a rough sigh. “I can’t imagine a parent not telling a child they loved them. But maybe she was so consumed by anger over being jilted by your father, she couldn’t see what a gift she had in you.”
Hannah’s heart panged in her chest. “I don’t know about being a gift, but I tried my best to be a good girl so I could win her approval. Unfortunately it never seemed to be enough.”
He gave her a gentle squeeze. “As hard as it was, her attitude probably made you a stronger person. Definitely a good person. One of the best I’ve met in a long time.”
He was saying all the right things, and he’d said them with sincerity. “You’re kind of remarkable yourself.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Hannah. I’m just an average guy who’s made more than my share of mistakes.”
Those mystery mistakes he had yet to reveal, leaving Hannah’s imagination wide open. “Haven’t we all screwed up a time or two, Logan? You just have to learn from those mistakes and move on. And eventually you have to stop blaming yourself for your shortcomings. That was fairly hard for me.”
“Why were you blaming yourself?”
She truly hated to drudge that up, but soul-cleansing seemed to be the order of the day. “The morning Danny died, I got on him about leaving his shoes on the living room floor and missing the clothes hamper. I should have said I loved him, but the last words he heard from me had to do with cleanliness. I can count on one hand the times I didn’t say I loved him before he left for work.”
He brushed a kiss over her forehead. “You had no way of knowing he wouldn’t be coming home.”
If only she had known. “I finally acknowledged that, but it didn’t lessen the guilt for a long time. If it hadn’t been for Gina verbally kicking my butt, I might still not be over it.”
“She’s a good friend, huh?”
The very best and one of the few people she’d trust with her child. “Yes, she is. Granted, she does like to throw out advice whether I ask or not.”
“How does she feel about you being here with me?”
She thought it best to hand him the abridged version. “Oh, she’s all for it. In fact, if she’d had her way, we would’ve been having wild monkey
sex from the minute I walked through your door.”
“That would’ve worked for me.”
She looked up to see his grin and poked him in the side. “That’s rich coming from the guy who left me high and dry in his home theater.”
“Believe me, that wasn’t an easy decision.”
Revelation time. “Just so you know, the way you make me feel...well...I thought I might never feel that way again.”
He tipped her chin up and said, “That’s my goal right now, to make you—” he kissed her forehead “—feel—” he kissed her cheek “—real good.”
When Logan finally moved to her mouth, all Hannah’s pent-up desire seemed to come out in that kiss, a hot meeting of tastes and tongues and mingled breath. Soon they were not only lip-to-lip, but also facing each other body-to-body until Logan nudged Hannah onto her back. He kissed the side of her neck as he slid his calloused hand beneath her T-shirt, at first breezing up her rib cage until he found her breasts. When he kissed her thoroughly again, he also circled her nipple with his fingertip through the lacy bra, and she reacted with an involuntary movement of her hips. Dampness began to gather in a place too long neglected, and she felt as if she might spontaneously combust due to the heat his touch was generating.
Her breathing, as well as her pulse, sped up as he skimmed his palm down her belly. She would swear her respiration stopped when he slipped the button on her jeans and then slid the zipper down.
Logan left her lips and softly said, “Lift up,” and when Hannah answered his command, he pushed her pants down to her thighs, leaving her brand-new, leopard-skin panties intact.
For a few minutes, he seemed determined to keep her in suspended animation, toying with the lace band below her navel without sliding his hand inside the silk, no matter how badly Hannah wanted it. He finally streamed a fingertip between her thighs and sent it in a back-and-forth motion. He knew exactly how and where to touch her, but he only continued a brief time before he took his hand away. She responded with a somewhat embarrassing groan of protest, yet she soon discovered she had nothing to complain about when Logan worked her panties down to join her jeans.
