“Invested? What do you mean?” The tea and crackers had settled her stomach and she was starting to feel human again. Instead of worrying about her nausea she was thinking about how it felt to be this close to him. She could feel the warmth from his body and smell the clean scent of his body wash. He was sexuality and tenderness all wrapped up in this delicious package. She was only human for heaven’s sake. If he’d been a jerk this morning she would have been okay. But he wasn’t in the least. He was a good person and she was a sucker for caring, sensitive men.
“I’m not their daughter. I don’t have a need to make them happy or proud of me. It frees me up to be firm and set boundaries with people unemotionally. Simple as that.”
“So you’re saying my need for their approval is what’s keeping me from breaking free completely?”
His words had hit home. Hard.
“Did I say all that?” Logan grinned. “All I said was I’m not their kid. You thought up the rest on your own.”
She picked up one of the throw pillows from the couch and smacked his arm with it, trying to put some emotional distance between the two of them. She felt way too vulnerable with him. “Sometimes I hate you.”
She really didn’t. She liked him way too much. He’d taken good care of her this morning.
“Sometimes I hate myself.” Logan laughed and leaned forward to press a brief kiss on her forehead. It made her feel about five years old but the alternative was much scarier. She’d be lost if he treated her like a desirable woman. “Drink your tea and then you can freshen up in the bathroom before we go.”
“The whiskey didn’t affect you at all, did it?” She sighed and drank more of her tea. “I guess you’re used to it.”
“Could be,” he agreed. “Or it could be I’d already puked up my stomach contents long before you woke up.”
Grinning, he headed into the kitchen, whistling a lilting tune. She couldn’t tell if he was serious or kidding, which was probably the point.
The sooner she returned home to Portland and got her head on straight the better. The more time she spent in Logan’s company the more she liked him. He was more than just sex on a stick. He was the kind of man she’d been looking for in her life. Caring, tender, smart, and fun. For her peace of mind, the sooner they solved this case the better.
* * * *
“Christ on a cracker, can’t you keep it down?” Logan asked the other five men as they sat at a long table in the roadhouse. Tanner had managed to get the entire group together this morning to talk about the latest with the vigilante. Normally Logan loved joking and spending time with his closest friends but this morning he felt decidedly ragged. He hadn’t puked as he had suggested to Ava, but his head wasn’t feeling all that great. He’d taken several aspirin and they had yet to kick in.
Griffin Sawyer’s brows shot up. “Are we feeling poorly this morning? Did someone have a little too much fun last night?”
The last thing he’d call last night was fun. Learning about his heritage the way he had could more readily be labeled as torture. The part with Ava had been okay though. It had been really sweet of her to come find him to make him feel better.
No one else had.
People might have been looking for him but they hadn’t looked very hard. Anyone who knew him would know where he was. Ava had found him after only hearing about the treehouse once in passing.
Waking up next to her this morning hadn’t been unpleasant in the least. He’d liked feeling her curves flush against his body. She’d been warm and womanly, her hand resting on his chest as if she was trying to feel his heartbeat.
He’d watched her sleep for quite awhile noticing how thick and dark her lashes were and how her full lips trembled as she dreamed. Her fist had been tucked under her cheek and a few dark curls had fallen over the satiny skin. He’d carefully reached out so as not to wake her and caressed it, then let her silky hair fall through his fingers. For the first time in his life he hadn’t been in a hurry to evict a woman from his bed.
He’d had to climb out of bed and get his shit together before she woke up. She’d knocked down all his defenses the night before leaving him raw and exposed. He’d told her more about his life than he’d ever told any woman.
Stop thinking about Ava.
It was getting him nowhere fast. Good girls like her didn’t date or have sex with bad boys like him. Just as well. He couldn’t promise her a future. Women like her would want that.
“There was no fun involved, I assure you,” Logan answered, popping open a can of soda. “How many days, Seth? What’s the latest countdown?”
Seth Reilly’s wife Presley was pregnant and due any day. Groaning, Seth grinned. “Ten days and counting. We both can’t wait. Poor Presley can hardly sleep or eat. She’s so uncomfortable. Luckily the doctor says it could be any time now.”
“Don’t wish these days away,” Tanner cautioned. “It’s much easier to take care of a baby that’s inside the mother than outside. You think you can’t sleep now? You don’t know what sleep deprivation truly is.”
Reed Mitchell shook his head with a grimace. “Shit, all this talk about babies gives me the creeps. When did we stop talking about hockey and football and start talking about diapers for fuck’s sake?”
Jared Monroe strummed his fingers on the table, an amused look on his face. “Relax, Reed. No one’s going to make you get married and have a baby. You can be single and alone the rest of your life.”
Apparently Reed thought that sounded like heaven. “Promise?” His face split into a grin. Reed was the most mysterious of the five lawmen that met on a regular basis to share information. “Alone sounds just right.”
Griffin slid a soda can down Reed’s way and snorted. “Who’d have you? I went camping with you that one time and didn’t get a wink of sleep. You snore like a buffalo. Holy shit, you should see someone about that. It can’t be a healthy thing.”
“If they come a half a dozen times, they’re too tired to complain.” Reed winked, a mischievous grin on his face. “I guess you wouldn’t know anything about that.”
Griffin’s lips twisted into a half smile. “I haven’t heard any complaints. In fact, they’re usually calling me ‘Oh God’.”
Tanner pounded the table with his fist to bring the meeting to order. “We get it. You’re all studs. Some of us don’t have to brag. We’re secure enough in our manhood to keep it to ourselves.”
His lips were twitching so Logan knew Tanner was just busting their balls. Any other day he would have laughed but his head hurt too damn much.
“I’m as secure as they come. Can we get started now? I have work to do,” Logan declared. He wasn’t kidding. He’d taken a vacation day yesterday, then this whole thing with the reading of the will, the whiskey, and Ava being sick this morning had played hell with his schedule. Logan liked to keep to a routine and today he was supposed to be doing surprise checks on a few guys on parole.
Seth chuckled and looked around the room at the other guys. “I’m with you there. Why don’t you start?”
Logan filled them in on the ballistics report and then told them about the reading of the will the day before, telling them only enough of the pertinent details. He hated revealing anything about himself. He’d told Ava everything but these men would get the digest version. They didn’t need to know Logan’s old man had left him when he was young or that his mother had disappeared one day.
The room was silent and his friends didn’t seem to know what to say. Finally Tanner spoke. “I’m sure this has come as a great shock to you. We appreciate you being this open about why you want to put this killer behind bars once and for all.”
They didn’t have a fucking clue. Not really.
Logan lifted the soda can to his lips, draining the last of the liquid before responding. “I hope I don’t have to talk about this again. Let’s find out all we can about my…father and his business. I need to know why the vigilante would go after him. He doesn’t fit the pattern.”
>
Reed stroked his chin. “I have a few contacts I can talk to. Maybe there’s something in his real estate dealings.”
Griffin nodded. “I have a few contacts in government. There might be something there. I assume they applied for permits and variances, things like that.”
“That’s what I was hoping for. I have my hands full sifting through financial paperwork at the moment. I’m also planning to pull some old files of Sheriff Jesse’s down from the attic.”
“He kept police files in his attic?” Jared asked, clearly surprised. “Isn’t that against regulations?”
“Let’s just say when I took over Corville’s sheriff department, there were several things that were against regulations. I had bigger issues.” Logan chuckled. “I’ve never needed the files and the station storage room is packed to the rafters with boxes already. They’re as safe at the house as they are at the office.”
“You should think about digitizing all those files like Presley in Harper. It’s fantastic.”
“Jillie’s great but she hates computers. It’s all I can do to get her to read the email that comes in. She has to print off every one she wants me to read. She won’t just forward it to me. You could simply lend me Presley,” Logan said in a hopeful tone.
Seth laughed and tossed his empty can in the trash behind him. “Sorry. She’s going to be pretty busy here real soon. She could show Jillie but she can’t do it herself.”
“I may take you up on that offer after the baby’s born. I could always bring in a temp to get it done.” Logan was already mentally calculating where he could find the funds in his tight budget.
“Any other business?” Tanner asked from the head of the table. Logan couldn’t believe how happy and relaxed his friend looked these past months. Since meeting and falling in love with Madison he was a new man. A much more content man.
The men shook their heads and the meeting broke up. Logan headed to his truck but Griffin was right on his heels.
“Are you okay, man?” he asked. “A lot of shit has come down on you these past few days. Can I do anything for you?”
Logan opened the door to his truck. “Just what you’re going to do. I appreciate your help. I want this guy in the worst way.”
Griffin slapped Logan on the back. “We’ll get him. It’s only a matter of time before he fucks up. This murder could be the turning point. If he broke pattern and killed this Bryson guy, I mean your father, it could lead to information that will reveal his identity.”
“You don’t have to call him my dad. He didn’t act like it. I sure as fuck don’t feel like he’s my father.”
Logan felt a tightening in his chest whenever he talked about Bill Bryson. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel. Right now he was pissed as hell that the man had never told him while he was alive.
Griffin shrugged. “You probably don’t. Honestly I wasn’t sure how you wanted us to refer to him.”
“Right now I’d gladly call him that son of a bitch.”
Laughing, Griffin headed towards his own truck. “That sounds more like the Logan we all know and love. I’ll call you if I learn anything. See you.”
Griffin swung into his truck and gunned the engine. Logan did the same and backed out of the parking lot, turning towards Corville. He needed to get some work done today. Tonight he needed to finish going through the financial papers. It was a shit load of work.
He could use some help.
An image of Ava as she’d looked this morning, all sleepy and soft, rumpled from the night drifted through his brain. It wouldn’t hurt to ask her if she had some time. After all she wanted to help. She’d begged him to let her work on solving the case.
He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and punched a few buttons.
Chapter Twelve
“I’m worried about you, that’s all.” Ava’s mother sipped her coffee as they sat in the diner. “I know you’re a grown woman but you’re also my child. A mother never stops worrying about their child.”
“You don’t worry when I’m in Portland. I could be staying out all night, every night, there and you’d never know,” Ava pointed out. She understood her mother’s feelings but she needed to set some boundaries with her parents. She was thirty years old after all.
“True. I just want you to be happy, sweetheart. I get the feeling you’re not. Not really.” Red tinged her mother’s cheeks. “When you have children you want them to have everything.”
“What would you do if I wasn’t happy?” Ava challenged. “You can’t make me be happy. I have to find that on my own. Do you worry about Mary like this?”
Ava’s mother shook her head. “Not in the same way. You and Mary are very different people. Her idea of happiness is not the same as yours. You’ll only be happy when you find love.”
“Love?” Ava echoed. “Mom, I’m not a woman who needs a man in her life. I do fine on my own.”
“I didn’t say you needed a man. I’m sure you can kill your own spiders by now. I’m talking about a man that adores you, who wants to love and protect you. A man that thinks you hung the moon.”
Ava couldn’t think of one man she’d ever dated that fit that description.
“I don’t see that happening. Modern men don’t do that.”
“Then find an old-fashioned one. I’m sure they’re out there. But you have to leave the house to look.” Ava’s mother teased.
“I leave the house. You know I’ve been helping Logan with the Bryson murder.”
Although after this morning Ava wasn’t sure she would ever see Logan again. He’d been kind but a man like him would feel vulnerable after what he’d revealed to her.
“That’s true. It would be nice if you stayed here for awhile. I’m selfish enough to want both my daughters close.”
“I’m not leaving right away,” Ava assured her. “Now can I have a bite of your cheesecake?”
Carol laughed and pushed the plate across the table. “As long as I can have a bite of your tiramisu.”
Ava slid her own plate into the middle of the table. They were happily munching away on their fattening desserts when they heard voices from the next table.
“She’s been spending a lot of time with the sheriff,” one voice said. “A lot of time, if you know what I mean.”
“I heard she went dancing with him at the roadhouse the other night. Shocking,” the second voice said, her tone prissy and uptight. “A nice girl like her with a playboy like him. Next thing you know he’ll get her in trouble and leave her for a prettier face.”
“Hmmm, he usually dates the more glamorous ones,” the first voice responded. Ava could feel her anger rising and heat suffused her entire body. These busy-bodies were obviously talking about her. She didn’t like it one bit and it was all she could do not to turn around in her chair and let them know how rude they were being.
Ava gritted her teeth and set her fork on the table, her appetite vanished. Her mother was looking at her very calmly and finally said, “Is Logan Wright a playboy? I know he appears that way on the surface but one never knows what’s underneath.”
Chewing her bottom lip, Ava thought about the question and shook her head. “No. He’s a nice man. He took care of me when I was sick. There’s more to him than meets the eye.”
Ava’s mother smiled. “Being that handsome is certainly enough. Doesn’t seem fair to womankind that he’s not a jerk.”
“I wish he was.” Ava sighed and tried to eat more of her tiramisu. “It would be better for me.”
“You’re falling for him, aren’t you?” her mother asked gently.
There was no censure or judgment in her mother’s tone. It was simply a question.
“I don’t know,” Ava admitted. “If you’d ask me yesterday, I would have said no. I wish I didn’t like him.”
“If wishes were horses,” her mother began.
Ava tried to smile. “I know, beggars would ride.” She’d heard her mother use that saying many times over the years. “I
think it’s just a crush.”
“Probably,” her mother nodded in agreement. “Although I would be happy if you fell in love, married the sheriff, and stayed in town.”
Laughter Ava couldn’t contain bubbled up. “Whoa. Just because I have feelings for Logan doesn’t mean he has them for me. I don’t see us setting up housekeeping, Mom. Far from it.”
The two women at the table behind them got up to leave and Ava caught sight of them. Harriet Weatherby and Louise Farmer were two of the biggest gossips in Corville. Louise had the grace to turn pink when she saw that Ava was sitting right next to them. They must not have seen her and her mother sit down.
“Harriet. Louise. How are you today?” Ava’s mother asked politely, looking them right in the eye. “I think we’ll have good weather for the church picnic on Sunday.”
“Indeed we will,” agreed Harriet, sneaking glances at Ava out of the corner of her eye. “This weather we’ve been having the last few weeks has been excellent. I don’t remember a stretch this long since oh, ninety-eight, I think.”
Louise shook her head. “It was ninety-six. That’s the year that Jackson boy ran off with—”
Louise broke off abruptly as if talking about someone else’s exploits would reveal she’d been talking about Ava’s.
Harriet rushed in to cover the gaffe. “I hope you’re going to make your famous pistachio salad, Carol. I look forward to it every year.”
“I am. I think Ava’s going to make a chocolate cake as well.”
Both women nodded enthusiastically as if they hadn’t tasted cake in years. Louise waved toward the door. “Well, we must be off. See you Sunday!”
The two women exited the diner and headed quickly down the street, probably already talking about Ava and her mother. Some people just never learned to keep things to themselves.
“I hope you marry Logan Wright and have ten kids and thirty grandchildren, dying in each other’s arms when you’re a hundred years old.” Her mother was staring out the window of the diner at the retreating figures of Louise and Harriet.
Cowboy Truth: Cowboy Justice Association #3 Page 11
