They should have been out by now. Logan had to fight the wave of nausea creeping up into her throat.
There was a crack, and everyone in the crowd gasped as a section of the roof collapsed. “Cole!” she cried out. “Daddy!” She felt like a little girl again, crying for her dad when the monsters under her bed tried to get her.
She’d never felt so helpless in her life.
Ten seconds later, she’d yanked her own collar up over her nose and mouth and was calculating how to dodge the officers standing nearby when a figure finally emerged from the smoky doorway. Her knees buckled, and she stumbled forward as Cole escaped the wreckage with a body slung over his shoulder. Two EMTs with a stretcher ran over to Cole and helped him lower her father onto the gurney.
Logan darted toward him, ignoring the officer yelling at her to stay back. Cole was bent over coughing, his skin dark from soot and ash. One of the paramedics placed an oxygen mask over his face as he struggled to breathe, before pulling him over to the ambulance. The other paramedic put a mask on her dad.
“Daddy!” His face was dirtier than Cole’s, and a cut on his forehead was bleeding profusely. She touched his arm, but he stayed unresponsive.
“He’s alive,” the paramedic reassured her as they reached the ambulance. “He’s pretty banged up, though. We need to get him to the hospital to check for any internal damage or head trauma.”
“I’m coming with him.”
The two EMTs worked together to get the stretcher up into the truck. “We don’t have room. You’ll have to ride behind.”
“But—” A warm hand caressed the back of her arm, and Logan turned to see Cole standing behind her.
He lowered the oxygen mask from his face. “They want me to ride in with them to get checked out,” he said between coughs. “I’ll go with your dad; you take my truck and go get your mom. Explain what happened and meet us at the hospital.”
She nodded, and Cole was ushered into the back of the ambulance.
Logan fled to the Bronco still running on the side of the road. She jumped into the driver’s side and, with some moderate effort and a few frustrated honks of her horn, she managed to get through the growing crowd in the middle of the street and take off down the main road. She ripped her phone from her coat pocket.
Her mom answered on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Momma, it’s me. Listen, I need you to grab your purse and meet me outside the house, okay? I’ll be there in just a second.”
Her mom was silent for a moment. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, making a sharp right onto McGarity. “I’ll explain when I get there. Just grab your stuff and meet me out front.” Logan hung up. She could just see her momma glaring down at her phone, blood burning hotter than a tin roof on a sunny August day. She threw the phone down in the seat next to her, speeding her way down the two miles to her road.
Just as she’d asked, Logan’s mom was standing in front of the house with her bag and a worried frown that deepened when she saw the truck. “Why on earth are you driving Cole Tucker’s truck? Have you and that boy gotten into even more trouble?” she asked, the scowl clear on her face as she settled into the passenger seat.
Logan took off again as soon as her momma shut the door. “There was a grease fire at Wade’s,” she said. “Daddy’s okay,” she rushed on, “but they’re taking him to the hospital. The roof collapsed. Cole was able to get him out.”
Tears fell down her momma’s cheeks. She wiped them away. “Was anyone else hurt?” Her voice hitched.
Logan shook her head. “I don’t know, but Lilly said Daddy was making sure everyone else got out first. So I don’t think so.”
The nearest hospital was almost thirty minutes out of town, over in Dublin. She tried not to think about her dad or the fear she’d felt waiting for him and Cole to emerge, instead forcing herself to focus on the highway traffic.
They made the trip in eighteen minutes.
*
They’d been sitting in the waiting room for more than an hour by the time someone came to get them. “Mr. Kase is stable,” the doctor told them. She had long, sleek, black hair and umber skin that looked too good to belong to a woman who worked at least seventy hours a week. “There was some smoke inhalation. His right arm is broken along with a few bruised ribs, but there are no signs of serious internal damage. He did suffer a heavy blow to the head, so we’d like to run a few more tests and keep him here for observation. But as long as everything checks out, you should be able to take him home tomorrow morning.”
“Can we see him?” Logan asked.
She nodded. “He’ll need lots of rest, but I think seeing his family will help ease his mind some. He’s been asking about you both,” she said with a soft smile. “I’ll show you where his room is.”
The doctor led them inside, and Logan felt her eyes prickle. Her father was bruised all over, and his forehead was wrapped in a large, white bandage. He lay slumped in the hospital bed, looking defeated and tired and older than he ever had before.
His gaze fell on them as she and her mom walked in. “My favorite girls,” he said with a lazy smile, and Logan suspected he was riding a very high dose of morphine. Her eyes watered, and she heard her mother sniffle next to her.
“Don’t go getting all weepy on me, now,” he told them both. “I’m fine. The doctor’s gonna fix me up, and then she says I’ll be back home in the morning.”
Momma rushed to his side, gently wrapping her arms around him and laying her head on his chest. “I’m just so glad you’re okay,” she cried as the tears fell freely. “I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t.”
Logan’s throat tightened.
The chief hugged his wife, kissing the top of her head. Logan stood with her arms crossed at the foot of his bed. It was all she could do not to lose it like her mother.
“I heard Cole ran in after me like a dumbass and saved my life,” he told her.
“Yep. Dumbass,” she repeated. The word described Cole and his act of heroism perfectly.
Daddy nodded. “I’m not surprised. He’s a good kid. I owe him my life.” Her momma whimpered into his hospital gown.
There was a light knock on the door. Momma sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. The door cracked open, and the doctor poked her head in. “I’d like the chief to get some rest before we take him in to get the CT. One of you can sit with him, but that’s the most I can advise at this time.”
Logan nodded, turning back to her parents. “I’ll go,” she said. She gave Daddy a quick, but heartfelt, hug. “You make sure you do what the doctor says. I’ll come pick you both up when you’re released.”
She kissed his cheek. “I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you, too, baby girl.”
She stood tall and turned for the door. “Logan,” her momma called. “Make sure Cole knows how grateful I am to him.”
“I will,” she assured her.
Right after she finished kicking his ass.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cowboy was in the waiting room when Logan walked out.
“Hey,” she said. “You looking for Cole? I was just about to track him down.”
“He already left. I was actually looking for you.” Cowboy pulled Logan’s keys from his pocket and placed them in her hand. “It’s parked right outside. And don’t worry, not a scratch on it,” he said with a grin.
She stared at him. “He left?” she practically shouted. “Just like that, without even saying anything?”
Cowboy shrugged. “He was released half an hour ago.”
She could punch someone. Of course Cole Tucker would just up and leave without telling anyone he was okay. “Come on,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’ll give you a ride home.”
“That’s okay. I have my eye on a sexy nurse whose shift ends in a few minutes.” He glanced over at the nurse’s station to her left and winked at a redhead in light blue scrubs. “I think Dana
will be more than willing to give me a lift.”
Logan rolled her eyes. “Shameless,” she muttered.
“Hey.” Cowboy turned serious as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m glad your dad’s okay.”
“Thanks. And thanks for bringing me these.” She held up the keys in her hand. “I’ll see you later. And have fun,” she said, nodding toward the nurse’s station.
“Oh, I plan to.”
*
Thirty minutes later, Logan pulled into Cole’s driveway and parked beside the Bronco. The front door was unlocked, and she didn’t hesitate before barging in.
“Cole Tucker, you stupid-ass idiot!” she yelled as she slammed the door behind her. She took a look around, not finding him, and then made a beeline down the hallway to his bedroom. “You really thought that you could not only run into a burning building and almost die but then check yourself out of the hospital without having the decency to tell me you were okay?”
She threw his bedroom door open. Cole stood in the middle of the room, shirtless, wearing a pair of fresh jeans and not so much as flinching when she charged in. He held a white towel in his hands, running it over his wet hair. The towel covered most of his chest and abdomen, but she still had to force herself not to look at the well-defined bits she could see.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“That I smelled like smoke and needed a shower?” he said with a grin she chose to ignore.
“What if something had happened to you? What if you never came out? What then?”
Cole sighed. “I’m sorry if I scared you. But that’s my job, Logan. It’s what I was trained for. I go into burning buildings all the time.”
“Not without protection you don’t. Not when the roof is caving in!”
Cole raised the towel to wipe his neck and shoulders. “I know you’re upset—”
“Damn right, I’m upset!” she yelled.
“It was your dad. If I hadn’t gone in there, this day would have turned out much worse.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Of course she did. She should be happy and grateful right now. And she was. So incredibly grateful that both men had come out of that building alive. But she still couldn’t shake the feeling that if anything happened to Cole, something inside her would be broken beyond repair. “You just…” Her voice softened. “You can’t do that to me again. Promise me you won’t do that again.”
Cole said nothing, but his look of despair told her exactly what she already knew. That he could never make that kind of promise. He glanced down at the wet towel in his hands, balled it up, and tossed it on the bed behind him. When he turned back, she caught a flash of something black on his side.
“Listen,” he said, “about earlier on the bridge—”
“What is that?” She was staring at the spot on the left side of his rib cage. She stepped closer, stopping inches from his bare chest. She couldn’t breathe as she slowly raised her hand. Cole’s body tensed, his breath hitching as she placed her finger to the elegantly familiar black letters that matched her own.
LBK
Logan Brynn Kase.
“I can explain.”
The memory of the night she’d been pushing away for years rushed back to her in a single instant.
“When did you—?” No. She couldn’t do this. Not now. She took several steps away from him, unable to meet his gaze. “I can’t…I have to go.”
Logan turned and ran out the door, making her hurried escape to the front door and ripping it open. In only a second, she was down the steps and sprinting to the truck.
“Lo, let’s just talk about this!” Cole raced after her, but she was too fast. She was in the truck with the engine running before he reached the porch steps.
She finally looked at him, her vision blurring.
“Stop, Logan! Don’t run away from me again.” But she didn’t stop. Because apparently running away from Cole Tucker was what she did best.
*
August—Night of the Farewell Bonfire
“I can’t believe you talked me into this.”
Cole sat in a chair against the wall, arms crossed. “A bet’s a bet. You agreed to the terms.”
“But this, seriously?” They were in the tattoo parlor in Dublin. Logan sat in the chair, her right arm lying wrist up. “I must be insane.”
“I hear they’re not so bad if you’re not afraid of needles.”
Lo bit her lip. Apparently, she wasn’t as fearless as she claimed.
A tattoo artist with a shaved head, dark beard, and gauges in his earlobes—Toby, according to the business card he’d given Cole—approached. He put on sterile gloves and opened a new needle. “You ready?” he asked Lo.
She nodded, her bottom lip still caught between her teeth. He grabbed her arm and brought the needle to her skin.
She jumped. “Son of a bitch!” The machine stopped, and Toby pulled it away. She sighed. “Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting it to hurt that much.”
The machine buzzed to life again, and Lo flinched. A second later, the room went quiet again.
Toby turned to Cole. “Sometimes it helps if the boyfriend holds her hand.”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “And besides, he’s not my—”
Cole’s chair scraped as he dragged it across the floor. He took Lo’s free hand in his. The buzzing of the needle filled the room once more. She sucked in a breath, her fingers squeezing his tightly as Toby started etching three bold, black letters onto her wrist. Her eyes glistened with moisture.
Cole took the opportunity to study her, the way her lips twitched every few seconds as the needle pricked her skin repeatedly, and his brittle mood softened. He liked seeing her this way, vulnerable. As the chief’s daughter, she was always so set on showing the world how tough she was. But, every once in a while, he was lucky enough to slip past her defenses, see her in a way few people ever got to. To be the one to comfort her like he was now.
Not that it meant anything. After tomorrow, she’d be gone, and he’d be lost in a town that didn’t make sense without her.
Christ, he was pathetic. And even as she squeezed his hand, she had no idea the kind of effect she had on him just being near him like this. Maybe it was a good thing she was going away. Maybe then he could finally get her out from under his skin.
*
Lo picked at the bandage on her wrist.
“Knock it off,” Cole scolded. “He said to leave it alone for a couple hours.”
They were in the Bronco, parked outside the tattoo parlor. He’d completely sobered up more than an hour ago, and as he readied to take her back to the bonfire, that dark disposition settled back over him like a shadow.
“What am I supposed to tell my parents? How am I going to explain this to them?”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you agreed to the bet,” he grumbled.
She glared at him from across the cab. “Why are you in such a shitty mood lately? It’s starting to piss me off.”
“Doesn’t matter.” None of it would after tomorrow.
“It matters to me. You’ve been acting weird all summer. First you were all moody at the bonfire, but just now, inside, you were actually acting like a decent human being. And now you’re all grumpy again. Are you mad at me? Did I do something?”
“You didn’t do anything.”
“Then tell me what’s going on.”
Cole let out a heavy breath and slumped in the seat. He was so tired of pretending in front of her, of holding everything in. And what good had it done him? She’d be gone soon, and he’d still be in the exact same spot, exhausted and empty.
“I think it’s just hitting me.”
“What is?”
He looked up to meet her eyes. “You’re leaving tomorrow,” he whispered.
She stiffened, the harsh set of her lips and jaw melting into a frown. Her forehead crinkled, and she looked down at her lap. “Oh.”
“It won’t be the sa
me around here,” he said, scratching the prickly shadow on his jaw. “Not without you.”
Her throat bobbed when she swallowed. “Yeah, but I won’t be gone forever, and I’m sure you can find some other girl to torture in the meantime.” Logan’s fingers toyed with the hem of her Lynyrd Skynyrd tank top. “What about Sarah Newnan? She looked like she wouldn’t mind some extra attention from you at the bonfire tonight.”
So she had seen that. Was it too much to hope that the bitterness he heard in her voice was real?
“You could tell her the Earth is round and really throw her for a loop,” she sneered.
Cole chuckled to himself. “She is a bit of a ditz, isn’t she?” He laughed again until it grew so loud that soon Logan joined in. He took in her wrinkled nose and the little lines at the corners of her eyes.
He sighed. “You’re so pretty when you laugh.” Where the hell had that come from? Maybe he wasn’t as sober as he’d thought.
Her eyes doubled in size before she laughed it off. “Okay, maybe I should be the one to drive us back. You’ve clearly had too much to drink,” she echoed his thoughts. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing quickly. Heat spread through his chest at the sight.
Cole turned to face her while he still had the nerve. “I need to tell you something, and I feel like if I don’t say all this now, I never will.”
“Then say it,” she whispered.
Cole scooted closer. They were sitting with their faces mere inches apart. “I don’t want you to go. And I don’t want to torture some other girl,” he told her, blood hammering in his ears. “I only want you.”
Logan stared at him silently, and her eyes took on that dark shade he’d loved since that day at the dock in ninth grade. He didn’t move or speak, afraid to break whatever spell was cast between them.
He waited, daring her to speak first, but no words came. She glanced down at his lips.
It was all she needed to say. Cole reached forward, placing one hand on her neck before he pulled her toward him. Their lips crashed together, and she gasped.
He’d wondered a million times what it would be like to finally kiss Logan Kase. Dreamed it a million and one. It went beyond anything he’d ever imagined. The raw emotion he’d tried to keep buried these last couple months came bursting at the surface. It burned within him, like the delicious sting of salt in an open wound.
Keeping Score Page 19
