Somehow, all his male beauties—his height, handsome face, and confident, athletic grace—paled in comparison to the sheer force of his presence. It was him. The man who had somehow become the center of everything.
All morning, I’d been pushing away fantasies of how he’d greet me. Most of them had clearly been inspired by all the romantic scenes I’d gorged myself on over the weekend—desperate, crushing hugs. Passionate, demanding kisses. Cheesy but beautiful confessions.
Instead, he leaned his shoulder against the door frame as he frowned at me. “Who are the roses from?”
I narrowed my eyes, robbed of the lecture I’d been rehearsing in my mind. “What? Aren’t they from you?”
He shook his head. Despite the serious expression on his face, his gaze still felt like a warm caress as it swept over me.
His denial scrambled my brain. “Then who sent them?”
“I don’t know. Maybe your other secret boyfriend.”
Panic flooded me. I stood up so quickly, my chair tipped backwards. Rushing toward him, I grabbed his arm and pulled him the rest of the way into the room, shutting the door. Luckily, he moved willingly, since I was sure I wouldn’t have been able to move him against his will.
“Stop messing with me,” I demanded in a frustrated murmur.
He raised his hand to my shoulder, then slowly ran his hand down my arm until he reached my hand, which he turned in his before lacing our fingers together. “I’m not. I thought about sending you flowers but decided that, in our situation, it was better to give you this.”
I held my breath as he reached into his inner coat pocket and pulled out a white envelope. “What is it?”
With a tender smile, he let go of my hand. “Open it.” He kept talking as I did so. “I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what you’d be okay with, so I just got something discreet from my list.”
I pulled out a crisp piece of card stock. It was a gift card for a massage. “See? I feel like this is so much more your style. Do you think the roses and bear got delivered to the wrong office since there wasn’t a card with them?”
“It’s possible. And the jealous demon in me hopes so.”
Why did it make me happy that he was jealous? “Well, it’s either from you or an accident. There’s literally no other man in my life.” I dropped the envelope onto the table next to my laptop.
“In your life…” he repeated softly, looking down and taking my hand in his again.
I wished I could see his eyes, but even without that, I knew what he meant. Not just that his time in Spring View was dwindling fast, but that his job didn’t allow him to be much in anyone’s life.
But I’d been too lonely all weekend, waiting for him, to waste our time together now. “I hope you’re planning to take me to lunch today.”
He looked up then, his eyes glinting. “Planning to ask you, for sure, but not with much hope.”
I smiled up at him and pretended to straighten his already straight tie. “And I think we should do something together tonight, don’t you?”
“Huh,” he said, his voice warm with amusement. “You must have missed me. Let me cook you dinner.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Yes. Every restaurant in town will be too crowded tonight, and I want you all to myself.”
“Wow. Two meals with you in one day. We should try and have breakfast tomorrow too.”
“Breakfast? Why, Tessa. What do you have planned for me tonight?”
When I realized how that had sounded, my face must have resembled a fireball. Gasping, I covered my face with my hands. “I did not mean that.”
He laughed and pulled my hands away and lifted my chin with a firm nudge beneath my chin. “I know you didn’t. I couldn’t resist teasing you. Sorry.”
At that moment, the door opened behind him. In a flash, he lowered his hand and turned toward the door. Desperate to hide the blush I knew still lingered on my cheeks, I turned my back and tucked the envelope inside my laptop.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Great. It was Bree. Literally the only person in the office who already suspected my feelings for Logan.
“You didn’t,” Logan said, his voice as calm as usual. He sat on the edge of the table and crossed his arm. “Luckily we just wrapped up our meeting, but you should probably knock on the door before entering meeting rooms in the future.”
I took a deep, quiet breath and braced myself to face her. “Do you need the room? I’ve been using it since my office has been a circus this morning, but I can head out if you do.”
Her eyes flashed with anger. “Dawn told me to meet her here at eleven for some kind of assessment.”
“Is it eleven already?” Logan asked, standing up. “I have to get downstairs for a tour of the warehouse before lunch.”
I followed him to the door, but Bree called me back. “Can I speak with you a minute, Tessa?”
Logan had to fight back a smile at my expression, and he didn’t do a good job. But there was nothing for it but to turn around and face her as he slipped away. “Of course. What is it?”
Bree looked to the door, as if checking to make sure Logan was gone. “I know what you’re doing.”
I scrunched my brows together, totally confused. “What do you mean?”
“You and Logan. It’s easy to see—even without walking in on you like I just did. You’d think you’d be smart enough to at least keep it to after hours.”
I wasn’t a good liar. I never had been. But especially with the truth of her words burning through me, I knew there was no point in trying. “Bree, I was very careful on Friday to avoid making any accusations about you. Perhaps you could show me the same respect.” And since there was nothing to be gained by lingering, I turned to go, but her voice once again stopped me in my tracks.
“He must find one everywhere he goes, you know?”
“Find one what?”
“Some poor woman to have a fling with. And who better than someone desperate enough to take whatever she can get.”
I smiled at her clumsy attempt to wound me. If there was one thing that I didn’t doubt about this whole situation, it was Logan’s sincerity. “You’re aiming the wrong weapons at me, Bree. I suggest you give up and focus on keeping your job.”
This time when I left, she didn’t try to stop me.
But as I walked back to my office, I couldn’t help but worry about what Bree might do. One thing was certain—I had to be careful. There were already rumors flying around about who I was dating. If Bree decided to share her suspicions with the others, this was going to be a mess. Logan and I couldn’t make one false step. Which was why I had to cancel our lunch date.
Stupid, stupid me.
Chapter Nineteen
My favorite part of the day had finally arrived—five o’clock, when Logan and I got the whole office to ourselves. But today, Melinda hadn’t only come into work, she was working late. I had no idea what she was doing, since she’d handed off all the day-to-day work of the business to her staff years ago and only came in to keep an eye on things.
I moved to the doorway of my office and looked down the hall toward hers. Thanks to the glass that Hector kept so clean, I had a clear shot of her sitting at her desk, staring out the windows of her corner office with what looked like a glass of wine in her hands. And then it hit me. It was Valentine’s Day. She’d been single for the last fifteen years, and now that her daughter had moved away to school, she had nothing but an empty house to go home to.
Watching her, I felt a pang in my chest—not just of sympathy but because I knew all too well that my future might very well be nothing more than busy days and empty, lonely nights if I never found the courage to take a chance on love again. But even if I did, I might still end up where she was now if it didn’t work out.
What needy fools we humans were.
“What are you thinking about?” Logan asked, leaning against his doorway, only a few feet away. Once again,
he had his suit coat off and his sleeves rolled up. Remembering how he’d looked in that blue dress shirt in his text that morning, I had to fight an impulse to go pull his tie off and unbutton a few buttons. Stupid, reckless fools.
“Melinda. It’s a rough night for people who have loved and lost. It makes me wonder…”
“Well, stop. We’re not at the wondering or thinking or analyzing stage. We’re still collecting data, remember?”
I laughed. “Are you bringing your notebook to dinner?”
“And my pen. What do you say we get going? She won’t see us.”
My heart took off like an out-of-control jackhammer, but there was nothing I wanted more than to be alone with him—even if it left me with a lifetime of bittersweet memories. “I’ll get my things.”
I met Logan in the hall a minute later, with my coat on, the vase of roses in one arm and the giant teddy bear under the other.
“Here, let me carry those for you,” he said, reaching out for the teddy bear.
Turning away, I shook my head. “No way. The last thing I need is for someone to see you carrying these out for me. I’ve got it.” Barely. And I couldn’t really see where I was going. But I had it.
“You could just leave them here.”
“No way. I don’t want anything to remind people I got them. The sooner they forget about my dating life, the better.”
As we got to the elevator, the door opened before Logan could hit the call button. Moving blindly, I stepped forward, but Logan caught me by the waist and pulled me back. “Hold on a second.”
“Wow, Tessa,” a familiar voice said from the elevator. “Looks like someone knows how to treat you.”
Looking between the roses and the bear, I saw Hector getting off the elevator with his cart of cleaning supplies.
Logan smiled and said, “If you ask me, anyone who sends bulky gifts to your office should help you get them home too.”
Hector laughed. “That’s true. I’d bet this guy would help you.”
“I offered, believe me. She’s stubborn though.”
Before I knew what was happening, Hector pulled the teddy bear away from me and handed it to Logan. “Sometimes you just have to ignore them,” Hector told him. “But let her carry the roses. She looks pretty with them all around her face.”
Logan grinned. “She does, doesn’t she?”
I had to smile, but the elevator doors were shutting. “Sheesh. Logan…”
He stopped it by sticking the teddy bear between them, tripping the safety sensor.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Hector.”
“You too,” he called. “Have fun with whoever it is.”
The doors closed, and Logan grinned. “With me. Too bad we aren’t alone in the elevator right now or we could start now.”
“Yep. Too bad,” I said, keeping my eyes on the doors as we moved down. Teasing him was too much fun.
As we went through the warehouse, I peeked into the big rooms on either side of the back hallway where excess inventory was stored. Not too bad. There wasn’t a ton of the Valentine’s stock left, and most of it could still be sold going forward.
Because the bear was so bulky, Logan had gone ahead of me and stood holding the door. The frigid breeze swept around my bare legs, no doubt giving me an attractive case of goosebumps.
“I think it would be best for us to drive separately,” Logan said, “but I’ll meet you over at your apartment and you can ride to my place with me from there.”
“Sure.” But after we loaded my things in the car, I worried all the way to my apartment that Madi would be there. If she caught a glimpse of Logan, it wouldn’t be good.
Luckily, her car wasn’t in the parking lot, so we were safe. Knowing her, she’d managed to get herself a date with someone—probably Taylor. Logan pulled up in the spot next to me as I got out. I motioned for him to put his passenger window down. “I’m going to take these things up and stash them in my room so Madi doesn’t see them and give me the third degree.”
He nodded and put his window up.
I had to walk around the car because the teddy bear was in the front seat with the flowers between its legs and the seat belt keeping both in place. I unbuckled them and awkwardly pulled them out of the car, but almost fell when I crashed into something as I took a step backwards. I squealed but didn’t fall since someone caught me from behind and steadied me.
“That was close,” Logan said in my ear as he held me against his chest.
“Close all right. Are you going to let me go so we can get upstairs, or are we going to stand like this all night?”
He sighed and dropped his hands to my hips, spinning me around. “Give me the bear to hold, since I can’t hold anything else.”
Even though I knew Madi was gone, I still felt uncomfortable bringing him into the apartment, like a teenager sneaking her boyfriend into her room.
“Here, give me that,” I said, reaching for the bear as we got inside.
“I can take it to your room.”
“No, you can’t. It’s a mess.”
“I don’t believe it,” he said, relinquishing the bear.
“Ha ha. I’ll be right back.”
I tossed the bear on my bed and put the flowers on my dresser. Before I went back out though, I quickly brushed my hair and spritzed on just a tiny bit of my favorite perfume. When I got back to the kitchen, Logan stood in front of the refrigerator, studying my Worth It list.
“Before we go, you have to explain this to me.”
“I don’t have to.”
“Okay, true. But will you? Please? Because since I was here last, you’ve added a bunch of names. What are they, Chinese?”
“Korean.”
He crossed his arms and stared me down. “Tessa, I’m not leaving until you spill.”
Truly anxious with every moment that passed, I gave in. “Fine. Okay, so I have sensitive skin and shaving my legs is tricky. I get razor burn really easy, and my hair isn’t even that dark since I’m a redhead, so…” Dang, this was embarrassing. “So I don’t even mess with it all the time. Madi has always made fun of me, and we ended up starting this silly list of things that would be worth shaving for.”
“Okay. So, massages and going to the beach are—”
“Worth it,” I finished for him.
“And Chris Hemsworth.”
I grinned. “Worth it.”
Logan’s expression was the exact opposite of mine. “And all these Korean men?”
I looked at the names, remembering them from the dramas I’d binged over the weekend. “Worth it. Worth it. And…mmmmm…definitely worth it.”
Logan sighed and reached into his coat pocket. Before I’d even realized what he was doing, he pulled out his pen. I tried to grab his hand, but he held me off with his arm—which proved as effective as a steel beam. All I could do was watch in horror as he wrote Logan on my list.
“Oh my gosh! What are you doing? Madi’s going to see that.”
He shrugged, looking way too satisfied with himself and put his pen back into his pocket. “Just tell her you were remembering our date.”
I rubbed my forehead, trying to ease the stress. As soon as he was gone, I’d have to scribble his name out or something, but she’d still ask what I’d written. I could feel the lies stacking up in my mind.
And then I heard the sound of the electric lock moving the mechanism to open the front door.
Madi was home.
Chapter Twenty
“Logan, get down.”
“What?”
Completely panicking, I grabbed at his arms and shoulders, pulling and pushing him down behind the counter. The only thing that saved me was that Madi had trouble getting the door open. When she finally got through, she had two paper takeout bags from a nearby Italian restaurant, her purse, and a bag of groceries.
“Hey, Madi,” I called, forcing a cheerful tone into my voice to hide my terror.
She looked up in surprise, which reminded me th
at we hadn’t exactly been talking for the last couple of days. I shouldn’t have been quite so friendly. But with Logan crouching down next to me, waiting like a ticking bomb that would forever destroy my friendship, thinking clearly just wasn’t going to happen.
But then she smiled and even relaxed, despite the massive load she carried. “Are we friends again? I never heard from you about the roses and teddy bear, so I was sure you still hated me.”
“Those were from you?”
She set her bags down on the table. The grocery bag fell over and spilled bags of chocolate and a glass bottle that landed with a clunk. “Of course they were.”
“Oh. You didn’t send a card.”
“Well, who else would they be from? It’s not like you’re dating someone.”
Well, technically, she was right. But I did have a really hot one at my feet who was going to get kicked if he didn’t do a better job of suppressing his laugh.
Madi walked over and braced her hands on the countertop as she faced me. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a crappy person the last week or so. No man is worth ruining our friendship. Not even a masterpiece like Logan.”
Logan let out a huff of air that there was no way Madi didn’t hear. Moving like lightening, I reached out and turned on the faucet so there would be something to drown out any other noises he made. And then I had to wash my hands so I didn’t look like a complete freak. “Not even Logan. More like especially Logan.”
Yes, I said that specifically for him to hear but realized too late how it must have sounded to Madi.
“Why especially Logan?” she asked. “It’s not like you’ve even seen him again.”
At that precise moment, I felt a tickling sensation on my leg and realized Logan had run his thumb over my calf. What was he doing? Somehow I had to answer Madi, but my brain had literally stopped functioning. “I’m just mad because we’ve had issues over him. But what do you say we just agree not to talk about him anymore and move on?”
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