“What about you?”
He moved her again and Tess could barely think.
“Tess?”
“Four,” she said on a shaky breath.
“Years?”
She unbuttoned her pajama top and threw it on the floor. “Give or take a few months.”
Logan’s hands caressed her breasts while his mouth worked their magic on her neck. “Are we officially making love?”
“I hope so.” Tess laughed.
“Thank God,” he groaned.
***
The next morning, Tess was baking in the café’s kitchen, when Annie threw open the back door and raced over to the sink.
“Sorry I’m late. I had a bowling competition last night and can you believe it? I got five strikes in a row. Five. And that doesn’t count the doubles and triples in my other games. Coach thinks I’m his Golden Girl, but you know, I do what I can.” She looked across the room and frowned. “What happened to you?”
Tess ran her knife around the edge of the apricot and coconut cake she’d taken out of the oven. “What do you mean?”
“You look terrible. Like you didn’t get any sleep last night. It wasn’t the reporters was it? I told Coach they’d been hanging around and he said to tell him if they came back. He knows a few muscley men that could show them…”
“Tables are nearly ready. I’ll refill two of your sugar bowls and some salt shakers. Hi, Annie.” Logan walked across the room, dropped the empty containers on the counter, then headed for the pantry.
While Logan looked for the sugar, Tess kept her head bent over the cake. Annie had a sixth sense when it came to people. She could read someone’s body language quicker than a hummingbird could fly. This was one time Tess didn’t need Annie’s voodoo magic telling her what had happened in the early hours of the morning. More than once.
It would be safe to say that Logan Allen had lived up to all of the fantasies Tess’ over-active imagination had created.
The man at the center of everyone’s attention looked over his shoulder. “Did I interrupt something?”
Annie’s eyes widened. She looked between Tess and Logan, then back again. “You had sex.”
Tess’ whole body felt as though it was on fire. A blush burned her skin, sending smoke signals to anyone in a fifty-foot radius, telling them she was guilty as charged.
Logan smiled, a slow sexy smile that gave Tess goose bumps. She wasn’t going to cuddle up to him, wrap her arms around his middle and tell Annie what an amazing man he was. He knew that, she’d already told him, and then he’d shown her there was always room for improvement.
Logan’s brown eyes practically glowed with laughter. “I’m going to be late for work.”
Tess glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s only seven-thirty.”
“What can I say? I’m an overachiever.”
Unlike Tess, he had no worries about sharing his lips in front of Annie. He leaned over the counter, kissed her like there’d be no tomorrow, and grabbed two chocolate chip cookies off a cooling rack.
After he’d left, Annie sighed. “I could almost forgive you for not saying anything after seeing that kiss. All I can say is that it took you long enough.”
Tess caught herself smiling at nothing in particular. “What do you mean?”
“Logan. You. The man has practically lived here for the past year. For most of that time, you’ve given him the cold shoulder. Now look at you. Kissing over the kitchen counter. It’s enough to make a recently single woman weep.”
“But you were never officially dating Carl.”
Annie held her hand to her forehead in a dramatic pose. “I can dream can’t I?” She reverted back to the normal Annie and sighed. “Carl wasn’t the man for me. There’s got to be someone out there who’ll love me for my food.”
“They’ll love you for a lot more than that, believe me.”
“I hope so.” Annie looked around the room. “Did Logan make all of the toasted sandwich fillings?”
Tess smiled. “I trained him well.”
Annie made a gagging sound. “I’m choking on all of the love hormones in the air.” She took a clean apron off a shelf and tied it around her waist. “Mrs. Donaldson will be in for her usual stack of pancakes in half an hour. I’ll fill the salt shakers Logan left on the counter and get a head start on Mrs. Donaldson. Did Sally tell you about Max, the dog from the shelter?”
Tess’ brain was still concentrating on love hormones. When she finally caught up with what Annie was talking about, she frowned. “Did he eat another pair of her boots?”
“I don’t think so. He nearly ended up on death row after he ate the last pair. She might have found a permanent home for him.”
“Really?”
“Yep.” Annie screwed the lid on the last salt shaker and put it to one side. “Dylan’s got a friend who’s thinking about adopting him. He lives on a ranch somewhere between here and Sally’s parents’ place. He’s gone on vacation, but when he gets back, he’s going to look after Max for a few days and see how it goes.”
“I hope Dylan’s friend knows what he’s doing.”
“So do I. Max can be a handful at the best of times.” Annie took a mixing bowl out of a drawer and emptied four cups of flour into it. “Now tell me about Logan. I expect he can be more than a handful too.”
Tess took a bowl of frosting out of the fridge and scooped it into a piping bag. She ignored the curious smile on Annie’s face and started swirling chocolate squiggles over a cake she’d made yesterday.
Annie added buttermilk to the pancake mixture in front of her. “Some people might find your silence endearing. I’m more of a tell-it-like-it-really-is kind of girl.”
Tess laughed. “If I told you what Logan is like, you’d never speak to me again. I think he’s the one.”
Annie stopped stirring the pancake batter. “You mean ‘The One.’ The man that makes your heart go fluttery and your brain cells malfunction?”
Tess nodded.
“I think you need to take a leaf out of Dylan’s friend’s book. Don’t leap into anything with Logan until you’ve seen how it works out.”
“I thought you were an incurable romantic with an exceptional bowling point average? “
“Romance is over-rated,” Annie said. “Bowling is so much more rewarding, especially when I annihilate my competition.”
“You’ve turned into a bowling monster.” Tess laughed at the monsterish growl coming from Annie’s throat. “Just think happy thoughts when you serve our customers or they might run a mile.”
“Yes, boss,” Annie said demurely. “And when I’m feeling particularly growly you can let me loose on the reporters that come in here today. They won’t know what’s hit them.”
“Hopefully another story has made the headlines.”
“And if not we’ve always got Dylan’s phone number,” Annie said. “Do you know if he’s got a girlfriend?”
“And you tell me to be careful. Dylan’s a cross between James Bond and Rambo. He’s scary with a capital S.”
Annie smiled. “Only when he thinks people are watching. I bet you he’s a pussy cat under all of that indignant fur.”
Tess turned the cake around and frowned. “Be careful.”
But Annie wasn’t listening, and Tess couldn’t blame her.
***
“I hear the birds and the bees have been buzzing?”
Logan ignored the grin on Dylan’s face and retied his shoelace. They’d been running for the last twenty minutes, alternating between a fast jog and full throttle power. Dylan called it endurance training, Logan called it torture.
He stood up and stretched his back. “I know why you wanted to do an Ironman Competition, but why did you have to rope me into being your training buddy?”
Dylan’s lips twitched. “You’re the only person I know who’s mad enough to run forty miles a week for fun.”
“How’s the rest of your training going?”
“Biking is
okay. Swimming is on hold while the indoor pool’s being resurfaced. I’ll be back to normal next week. You wouldn’t be changing the subject would you?”
Logan took a water bottle out of his backpack. “Of course not. Do you want to keep running or are you more interested in talking?”
Dylan laughed. “Running could be safer.”
Logan finished his drink then followed Dylan. Sypes Canyon was one of the most popular running and hiking tracks in Bozeman. The wooded canyon was on the west side of the Bridger Range. Two miles into their run they’d stopped at the lookout, enjoying incredible views of Bozeman and the surrounding valley. They were up to the next part of their run, the track that would take them further into the canyon.
Logan wiped the sweat out of his eyes and got back into an easy rhythm, catching up with Dylan in no time at all.
“How long have you been seeing Tess? And before you make some wise ass comment, I don’t mean in the café.”
Logan ignored Dylan. He kept moving, dodging tree roots and stones on the trail. “How come you’re not out of breath?”
“Must be getting fit.”
Logan huffed out a burst of laughter. He’d never known a time when Dylan wasn’t fit. The man was a machine, ready for anything life could throw at him. Well, almost anything. What Dylan had gone through in Afghanistan was horrific. He’d been on the receiving end of some of the cruelest treatment Logan had heard about, and he was still recovering.
Dylan also happened to be the most stubborn person Logan knew. If he didn’t tell Dylan something about Tess, he’d never stop bugging him. “Tess has been staying with me for five days. Mom gets back tomorrow.”
“Damn.”
That’s what Logan thought too. He loved his mom, but he loved Tess more. He was still getting used to it, the loving thing. Tess didn’t know how he felt about her. He didn’t know how to say the words, but he’d been trying damn hard to show her in other ways.
He’d never loved another person quite like he loved Tess. She made him laugh, made him content. Five years ago, if anyone had told him being content was important he would have laughed in their face. But just lately that feeling had become important. He wasn’t the same adrenaline junkie that used to leap off tall buildings and throw themselves under burning bridges. He’d put himself and others in danger and he wouldn’t do it again.
A tree branch snapped back and whacked him in the face. “Hey, watch what you’re doing.”
Dylan laughed. “Don’t run so close. So where’s this thing with Tess going?”
“What is this? Twenty questions?”
“If I could get one straight answer out of you I’d be happy. Twenty is pushing it.”
Logan picked up a stick and poked Dylan in the back. “It’s going nowhere while I’m running with you.”
“It’s a Saturday morning tradition. You can’t mess with tradition.”
“Some of us might have other traditions we want to work on.”
Dylan groaned. “That’s right. Remind me I’m not getting any.”
“Any what?”
Dylan veered to the right of the track and Logan nearly ran straight into a woman walking her dog.
“You want to warn me when there are other people up ahead?”
“You’re whining again,” Dylan said. “What do you have that I don’t?”
“Tess?”
“The man’s an A-grade genius.” Dylan slowed down. “Have the reporters backed off?”
“Mostly. The police have caught up with the Senator.”
“About time,” Dylan huffed. “What’s Tess going to do now?”
“What do you mean?”
Dylan stopped at a bend in the track and grabbed a drink out of his pack. “Is she going to stay in Bozeman?”
Logan didn’t understand why she wouldn’t. “It’s her home.”
“For now. She’s lived all over the world. Why would she stay when the Senator is behind bars?”
“Because she likes it?”
“Would you live here if you had a choice?”
Logan looked at the trees and wildflowers surrounding them. It was peaceful. You couldn’t hear any traffic, just the buzz of insects and the squawk of a few birds.
He kicked the edge of a stone and flipped it off the track. “When I came to Montana I’d run out of options. What happened in Afghanistan screwed me up. I couldn’t think straight and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Now I know.”
“And?”
“I’m staying. This place is good for me. Tess is good for me.”
Dylan stuck his hands on his hips. “Sounds like you’ve got everything sorted.”
“Not quite. I’ve read the letter from the nurse in Afghanistan.”
“The one Pastor Steven gave you?”
“Yeah. Abiba’s family didn’t die. They’re staying near an orphanage in Nau Deh. Other children made it out of the village alive, too. And that’s not all.”
“You’ve been asking people questions again, haven’t you?”
Logan started jogging. When he’d first arrived in Bozeman, Dylan thought he was crazy. Not in a paranoid, psychotic sense, but in a general what-do-you-think-you’re doing sense. Logan wasn’t convinced Abiba had been a suicide bomber. It was easier to blame the whole tragic morning on her and not look any further. For more than six months after the bombing, he’d tried to find answers to questions no one wanted to talk about. He’d almost given up, but the letter from Afghanistan had changed everything.
He turned around and made sure Dylan was following him. “I contacted one of my buddies from the counseling sessions I went to in Seattle. Jerry saw Abiba just before the explosion. She was carrying a box when she walked into the school. Suicide bombers don’t usually carry boxes.”
“Nice try, but you’re wrong,” Dylan said. “Boxes hide bombs. Suicide bombers carry bombs.”
“But she was a good kid. We were waiting to hear if she’d been granted an American student visa. Why the hell would she get mixed up with the Taliban?”
“You tell me?”
“I don’t know.” Logan stopped running. “She knew the statistics as well as we did. She was an official government interpreter. She had a ninety percent chance of being killed as soon as the Army left. It wouldn’t have mattered how much she helped her village. She had a target on her back and she knew it.”
Dylan started stretching his calf muscles. “Maybe she’d been blackmailed? Who knows what makes some people do things they don’t want to? We’ve been there, we know what it’s like. She didn’t stand a chance once the school was a target.”
“I need answers. I need to be able to tell her family that she was a good person.”
“Even if it’s not the truth?”
Logan shoved his hands on his hips. “It is the truth. She was a good person.”
“Looks to me like you’ve got to find people who can answer your questions.”
“At the rate I’m going I’ll be an old man before I find out what really happened.” Logan took a deep breath and pushed the tragedy of what happened in Afghanistan to one side.
He needed to focus on what he was doing now. As he looked at the trees surrounding him, he thought about Tess and how he felt about her. He thought about the good things she’d brought into his life, and he thought about what he’d miss if she wasn’t there.
Dylan stretched his other leg. “Your face gets wrinkly when you’re thinking too much. Makes you look twenty years older.”
“Smart ass.” Logan puffed his chest out. “Age makes no difference. I have it on good authority from Tess that I’m a stud.”
Dylan lost his balance and landed on his butt. “That’s too much information.”
Logan started to put his hand out to pull Dylan to his feet, then stopped. “How’s the hunt for the perfect woman going?”
Dylan rolled to his feet. “It’d be fine if I didn’t mind touching people. Makes kissing a challenge.”
Even though he had a
small smile on his face, Logan knew Dylan didn’t find anything funny in what he’d just said. Dylan’s parting gift from Afghanistan had pretty much stuffed his ability to tolerate the slightest touch from anyone. Even around Logan, he was hypersensitive to any form of affection. But Dylan did feel things, maybe deeper than most.
Logan looked closely at his friend. “I take it you’re still single then?”
“You could say that.”
“You need help finding someone?”
Dylan got a wary look in his eyes. “Who have you got in mind?”
Logan smiled. “I might know three single women who’d be perfect for you.”
“I’m not greedy. One would do.” He glanced at Logan, then frowned. “You’ve got to be kidding? You want to fix me up with someone in The Bridesmaids Club?”
“What’s wrong with that? They’re all hot, single women. The only person that’s off limits is Tess.”
“Forget it,” Dylan muttered. “They’re not my type.”
Logan had a feeling they were, but Dylan was too unsure of himself to try. “Okay, Romeo. What do you say we finish our run then have brunch at the café?”
“You sound like a city slicker. Last one back to the truck pays.” Dylan tore down the track with Logan hot on his heels.
They might not have cured the world’s troubles, but their run had made Logan even more determined to find out what had happened to Abiba. And after he’d given that some thought he’d concentrate on Dylan and Tess.
His friend was lonely and Logan knew from personal experience how soul destroying that could be. And then there was Tess…she took the darkness in Logan’s life away and made him appreciate each day. He loved her and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do about it.
***
Tess leaned on the handle of the mop and frowned at the sparkling floors. There must be something wrong with her when she got a kick out of seeing the café looking so good. It didn’t matter how tired she was, she always helped make the floors clean and tidy for the next day.
“You missed a spot.” Logan was leaning against the doorframe, smiling across the room at her.
“I’ve missed a big spot.” Tess left the mop in the bucket and walked toward Logan. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him close. “When did you get home?”
All of Me (The Bridesmaids Club Book 1) Page 23
