“How old are the pictures?”
“Probably 1940s.”
“Then I doubt it. Unless one happens to be of my grandparents or something. My mom might know though.”
His mom? Yeah, I wasn’t going there. “Ok. thanks.” My stomach growled.
“You hungry?” he asked.
“My stomach gave me away. Huh?”
“I can make dinner.”
“You cooked last night. It’s my turn.”
“Oh. really? Inviting me over then?” He raised an eyebrow. Did he realize what that did to a girl when he was standing in only a towel?
“Yes. I guess I am.” I somehow managed to sound flirty not desperate. At least I hoped that’s how it came off.
“Then I’ll be there. Hope Maple doesn’t mind.”
“She likes you. I think we’re good.” I knew I was really good after seeing him half-baked.
“Great. I should probably get dressed first.”
“That might be a good idea.” Even if the view was unbelievably enticing. “You like stir fry?”
“Absolutely. Sounds great.”
“See you anytime. No rush at all.” I turned away.
“See you soon.”
I didn’t turn back around. I was afraid I’d say something I’d regret. It was really hard to talk to him when he was that close to naked. At least I knew I still had a sex drive. I hadn’t felt an inkling of interest in anyone in months.
I tried to put the photos and the image of Logan in only a towel away while I cooked, but neither would stay away from long. It was the photos I thought about as I cut up the chicken. It was the water dripping down Logan’s bare chest that I thought about as I prepped the veggies. On the whole, there was nothing wrong with thinking about either of those things, and it definitely beat many of the worse things I could be contemplating.
I had everything prepped and ready when I heard the knock on the door. I’d left it unlocked. “Come on it.”
Maple greeted Logan before he could even step inside. “Nice welcoming committee you have here.”
I turned to look at him. He was fully dressed now in a collared shirt and shorts. But now that I’d seen how good he looked without a shirt, I’d never manage to forget it. “I told you she wouldn’t mind your company.”
“I brought some wine.” He set a bottle down on the counter. “I assume there’s an opener here, but if not I’ll go back and grab one.”
“I haven’t looked yet, but feel free. And thanks for bringing the wine. I skipped the alcohol at the store.”
“I guess I never asked whether you liked to drink. This is the second time I’ve come with alcohol.”
“I drink in moderation.”
“Same here. Despite what you might think.”
“I’m thinking you’re normal.”
“Really? I’m not sure if I’d go that far.” He opened a drawer to the side of the sink, fished around, and pulled out an opener. “Got it.”
“I assume Frank leaves all these cabins stocked the same?” Finding the opener had been too easy otherwise.
“Yes. Although renters sometimes take things on their way out.”
“And let me guess, Frank doesn’t bill them for it?”
“I think it depends on whether he likes the renters or not.”
“I don’t plan to take anything that doesn't belong to me, but hopefully I’m a decent enough renter to stay on his good list.”
“He gave you this cabin. That means he likes you already.”
“Oh yeah?”
“You know that couple I told you about? The Allen’s?”
“The ones that come every year. Yup.”
“They are the only ones he rents number six to usually. Otherwise it stays empty even when all the others are full.”
“Really?” I thought over what Logan had just said. “That’s odd. First, why not rent every cabin so he makes more money, and second, why rent it to me?”
“I can’t pretend to know, but it works out. Otherwise I’d have had to walk a few extra feet tonight.”
I laughed. “And that would be horrible.” What I didn’t say was that I was grateful he was just next door.
“Frank is kind of weird about things.” Logan pulled down two wine glasses from a cabinet. “He has feelings about people and things and acts on them. Like how much did he charge you for the six-months if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Two-fifty deposit and then one hundred for each month. Insanely cheap even for my budget.”
“I bet he won’t ask for more beyond the deposit.”
“No way,” I shook my head. “That would be crazy.”
“Just watch and see. Also, that’s way below the rate he normally charges. He wanted you to come. He likes you.”
“He quoted me the rate over the phone.”
“But you talked?” Logan poured two generous glasses.
I nodded, “Yes. We discussed price and availability and the usual stuff.
“So he made his opinion based on that.”
“Maybe it was the desperation in my voice.”
“That could be part of it.” Logan held out a glass.
I accepted the glass and held it out in front of me. “Too good neighbors.”
Logan smiled. “To wonderful new neighbors.” He tapped his glass to mine. “And to their dogs, too.” He smiled down at Maple.
I sipped my wine. It was a smooth red. I didn’t know much about wine, but I knew I liked this. “Thank you.”
“You are very welcome. Can I help you cook?”
“It’s not going to take much work, but I never turn down a helping hand.” Plus, I knew when it was the other way around I always liked when the host let me help. “Mind putting up some water for the noodles?”
“Sure.” He pulled out a pot while I turned on the burner and added oil. “It helps that my kitchen is identical to yours.”
“It does. You know your way around this one way better than I do at this point.”
“Do you enjoy cooking?” He filled the pot with water.
“I love it. You?”
“I do, but I get stuck in ruts a lot.” He set the pot on the stove and turned the burner on.
“Me too. Normally I search recipes online, but I’m 100% offline right now, so I’ll have to use my own creativity.”
“Or find a new cookbook in town.”
“There’s a bookstore?” Not that I should have been surprised, but it was one of those things I hadn’t thought to look into.
“There is. It’s called Half and Half. It’s half a bookstore. Half a coffee shop.”
“Very clever.” I was all for catchy naming.
“The owner’s kids have all opened identically named shops where they settled down so it’s an unofficial chain.”
“I don’t blame them for continuing to use the name. It’s kind of perfect.” I used a knife to slide the chicken in.
Maple barked.
I peered down at her. “I already fed you.”
“She wants the chicken.” Logan pointed to the stove. “Dog food can’t compare to the smell of meat.”
“I might give you some before I add the sauce, but only if you’re good.”
Maple seemed to understand me. She immediately stopped barking and curled up at my feet.
“That’s some dog you’ve got there,” Logan turned to look at her.
“I know. I’m lucky the Allen’s left her for me. She’s kind of perfect.”
“She fits you.” He brushed some hair away from my face.
“She does.”
He stared into my eyes, I thought he was going to kiss me, but I turned back to the chicken before it burned.
“Brooke?” He pulled my attention back to him.
“I hope I’m not misreading signals here, so hit me if I'm wrong, but I’m tired of waiting.” He leaned in and his lips met mine. They moved slowly at first, but they quickly sped up. I forgot all about the chicken as his arms wrapped around m
y waist. I wrapped an arm around his neck and let the spatula slide onto the counter. He deepened the kiss, and I moaned. Man, he was a good kisser. I felt like every inch of me was on fire.
There was a hiss. And we stepped apart in time to watch the now boiling water spill over the side of the pan. I returned to the chicken as I tried to catch my breath.
“So that…” Logan turned down the burner for the water. “That was something.”
“Yeah. It was something all right.” Here it was, the moment when I found out if it was as good for him as it was for me. It had been ages since I’d had to worry about something like that.
“Something good.” He opened the package of noodles and carefully slipped them in the water. “Something really good.”
“My thoughts exactly.” I could feel the grin on my face as I finished the chicken. I turned the heat down on the burner.
“Something that I hope happens again.” He stirred the noodles around. “Very soon.”
“I agree completely.”
“Good. I was hoping you’d say that.” His lips returned to mine.
Ten
Logan
“Well, the noodles are overcooked, but otherwise this is really good.” I couldn’t stop smiling. Her lips did something to me. It was impossible to snap out of my high. “And I happen to think it was worth having the noodles overcooked.”
“I definitely think it was worth it.” She looked down into her bowl, but her smile was clear as day. “And the chicken survived.”
“It did.” I took a bite. “We got lucky this time.”
She looked up from her food. Her grey-brown eyes were bright. “But we should probably get that kind of stuff out of our system before we cook anything more complicated.”
“I like that you are implying there will be more kissing and more cooking.”
“Well, won’t there be?” There was a hint of worry in her voice. “Well, at least cooking.”
“Oh there will be kissing as well.” I wanted to kiss her to get that worry away, but we were in the middle of dinner. I settled with putting my hand over hers. “At least I sure hope there is. If it’s up to me there will be.” Hopefully that would put her at ease. I didn’t know why I cared so much, but I did. She was vulnerable and I needed to be careful. Hurting her was not in the plans. “You don’t have to be nervous around me.”
“This is all pretty new to me. I mean, I’m rusty. You know, it’s been awhile.” She was struggling to get the words out, and it was adorable. I was pretty sure this was the good kind of nervous, the kind we all got when we really liked someone.
“Which should make this all the more fun for you.” I understood her nerves, but I didn’t want her to feel like she ever had to worry when we were together.
“And scary.” She sipped her wine.
“Nope not scary.” I took another bite. It really was a good stir fry if you avoided the noodles.
“You can’t know how I feel.” She set her glass down.
“No, but I know how you should feel.” I may have been pushing my luck, but I found pushing her buttons went a long way at putting her at ease.
“Same thing.”
“Not the same thing at all,” I sipped my wine. “I am only encouraging you to have positive feelings.”
“Encouraging? You’re telling me it’s not scary.” The worry was already disappearing. Instead it was replaced by annoyance. Much better.
“But see now when you think it’s scary you’ll remember this ridiculous argument instead.”
“It’s not an argument.” She rested an elbow on the table.
“But it is ridiculous,” I smiled.
“This is good stir fry.”
I laughed. Nice conversation change. “It’s been an interesting day.”
She took several long sips of wine. “Was everything ok earlier? When you got that call?”
“Oh. Yeah. Everything is fine.” I wasn’t expecting her to bring that up again out of the blue.
“Ok. Good.” She nodded. “Just making sure Jaylin isn’t having a day before school emergency.”
“Ah. No, Jaylin is fine, but she’d love to know you were worried about her.”
“If you do talk to her tonight, tell her I wish her luck.”
“I will.” It was sweet if she really was worried about my sister. And I was sure she was in some way, but I also knew she was asking the question for other reasons too. There was no way I’d call her out on it. “I’m glad you two hit it off.”
“She’s at a fun age.” Brooke ran her fingers over the stem of the wine glass. “It’s a hard age too, but it’s fun.”
“Speaking from experience?” I ate the last non-noodle bite from my plate.
“My experience. My younger cousins’ experience. Friends, kids when I was a camp counselor.”
“You were a camp counselor, huh?” I loved learning any new tidbits about her.
“Yes, for years.” She reached her hand toward her chair and then stopped it mid-air. “Oh. There I go again. I was all ready to whip out my phone and show you a picture.”
“It’s crazy how much we rely on our phones now.” We all did. I certainly wasn’t pointing any fingers.
“I know. I’ve always found those shows fascinating. You know the ones where some bomb or natural event destroys all power, and people have to rebuild without any technology?”
“I thought I was the only one who liked those shows.”
“Nope.” She straightened up in her chair. “There are two of us. It’s surprising how they always get cancelled.”
“I guess the two of us just don’t equal enough viewers.” I got up and got the wine bottle.
“It’s a shame.”
I refilled both of our glasses. “An absolute shame.”
“Do you also love space movies? Especially the ones where they are lost in space.” She pulled her leg up under her.
“I do.” My grin was back. “I’m sensing a movie marathon in the works.”
“Could be fun. Especially this winter when I refuse to go outside.”
I laughed. “You will go outside. Even if I have to find you the warmest clothes known to man.”
“Normally I’d say I’d order online, but you know…” she trailed off.
“I’d go off the grid with you if I could.”
“Oh?” She paused with her wine halfway to her lips.
“It sounds pretty nice. A good break.” No phone would certainly take some stress off.
“But you can’t?”
“I can’t do that to Mom and Jaylin.”
“No of course not.” She nodded.
“By the way, if you are fully off the grid that means no streaming anything. Right?”
“No streaming. It’s me, my books, and my words.”
“Then you’ll have to check out the video store.”
“You guys still have a video store?” Her voice was a mix of incredulous and awed.
“It’s really just a section in the hardware store, but it’s decent,” I shrugged. “The one benefit of a dying town is that some things don’t change.”
“That sounds nice in its own way.” She swirled her wine around in the glass.
“It’s stability which can be nice, but so is progress. You know?”
“It’s all about moderation I guess.” She held up her glass of wine. “As you said.”
“Yes. exactly. And, I know your whole point was to get off the grid, but if you want your parents to be able to contact you faster than through Frank, you can give them my number.” It was an off the cuff suggestion that I hoped came off okay.
“Oh. thanks, but it’s okay.”
“I mean, I’m sure they are worried.” It’s not like I was trying to force my number on a girl without a phone.
She seemed to mull it over before she nodded. “I’ll put your number in my next letter home.”
“Ok great.” Hopefully the suggestion helped. “So you’ve written home already?”
“Frank has a box at the office,” I pointed out.
“Oh. That’s great to know.”
“He doesn’t always do the best job of explaining things when you first get here.” That was putting it mildly.
“You’ve had to help renters before?”
“Plenty, but usually it’s not so enjoyable.”
“So you haven’t had a fling with one before?”
“Can’t say I have. I’m pretty sure Jaylin had her first crush on one this summer though.”
“Oh?” her voice lilted.
“Don’t tell her I said anything though. I don’t want to embarrass her.”
“Of course not.” Brooke looked positively horrified at the idea. “Those things are private.”
“You were probably the best camp counselor.” I leaned back in my chair.
“Can’t say I was the best, but I was pretty good.”
“Were you a rule stickler or lenient?” I had my own guess about this one.
“Both. It depended on the circumstances. Safety always came first, but I wanted the girls to have fun.”
Exactly what I expected her to say. “So like I thought. The best kind.”
She smiled. Man, I loved that smile. “I miss working at camp. I kind of think that’s part of why I came up here. I wanted to be back in a cabin at a lake, but without all the responsibility part.”
“You know yourself well. That’s important.”
“What makes you say that? That I know myself, that is. I feel the opposite.”
“Yet you knew to come up here. You knew what kind of place makes you happy. Not everyone knows that. You knew you needed a break, and you took it. That’s more important than you think.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way.” She sipped her wine. “Want to sit outside? I know I need to clean up, but I’m in the mood to look out at the lake.”
“Sure. That sounds great. And then we will clean up.”
“Hey, you already helped cook. You don’t have to clean. I certainly didn’t last night.”
He held open door. “Yes, but last night we hadn’t kissed while cooking, did we? Things have changed, neighbor.”
Halfway Whole and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves Page 8
