by Linda Wisdom
“Zach made me rethink my life,” Ginna said. “That there was a way to have it all.”
The women turned to Abby. She rolled her eyes and sighed, “The bonding thing.” She chuckled. “Jeff has always been considered the quiet brother. Trust me, he’s not. The man can be an animal.” She cocked an eyebrow. “I was raised with an in-your-face attitude that pretty much scared off the men. Except it never scared off Jeff. He looked beneath the exterior. He is definitely my soul mate.”
Lucy blinked her eyes. “I hope this mascara is waterproof,” she murmured. “Logan was just there. He has this caring nature that I don’t think he’s totally aware of. He said he was ‘surfer dude’ in high school, but there’s a lot more to him than that. I mean, who else lets his dog have his cell phone?” She gulped and shook her head in an attempt to compose herself.
The four women looked at each other and nodded in unison. Lucy caught the movement.
“What?”
Ginna reached inside her purse and pulled out a folded newspaper page. She handed it to Lucy.
“We wanted you to have the day just for you before you read this,” Ginna said.
“The classified ads?” Lucy looked down and easily found a section circled in red ink.
Two single dogs and macaw with cat seek someone to give them the tender loving care they deserve. Must be willing to put up with male Homo Sapiens who wants to make things right. Only someone whose name begins with L need apply. 951/555-9344.
Lucy felt the blood leave her face.
“First he dragged you out of the reunion so he could make out with you in a hallway, then he takes out an ad,” Abby said.
“Logan made out with you in a hallway at the reunion?” Gail’s eyes widened.
Lucy nodded. “When the man kisses you, you forget your own name.”
“Someone who kisses like that can’t be allowed to run free,” Nora proclaimed. “It isn’t safe for him at all. What if some hussy gets her hooks in him?”
“He took out a newspaper ad?” Lucy said numbly. Only someone whose name begins with L need apply.
“There’s nothing like a man admitting it in print,” Ginna pointed out.
Lucy thought of her cell phone tucked away in her purse on her dresser back at home. She hadn’t been allowed to bring it. When she looked up, she saw four cell phones on the table in front of her.
She slowly picked one up and punched out the number. Her stomach tightened when a familiar voice answered.
“Uh, yes, I’m calling about your ad.”
LOGAN WANTED to see her.
She had no idea what he wanted to tell her and he’d given her no hint on the phone. The newspaper ad gave her hope, but what if it only meant that he wanted to apologize for his bad behavior? Could she say, “Yes, I just want to be friends, too,” and sound as if she meant it?
Not when she’d changed her mind. She wanted everything she used to say she didn’t want. She wanted it all. And she wanted it with Logan.
Nick looked at her strangely the next morning when she went all out with breakfast, preparing waffles, bacon and even hash-browned potatoes.
“Is this my last meal or something?” He looked at the food on the table.
“I do cook sometimes,” she reminded him. She toyed with her mug of coffee. “Logan’s coming by this afternoon.”
Nick stilled. “And?”
“And I don’t know.”
He used his fork to draw circles on the tabletop. “So he’s not mad at us anymore.”
“I don’t know that either.” She watched him carefully pour a drop of syrup in each crevice of his waffle as he’d done since he was old enough to hold the syrup bottle by himself. She knew he would take one bite of waffle then a bite of bacon then a forkful of hash browns. Her son was a creature of habit.
He was great big-brother material. Even with all his complaining last night, he’d enjoyed the day at Sea World with his cousins.
She should have opened her mind to marriage long ago. Given Nick those brothers and sisters he deserved.
Maybe she would have a chance to make it up to him.
Nick ate slowly. “If you want I can go over to Grandpa Lou and Grandma Cathy’s,” he offered.
“You don’t need to.” She picked up a piece of bacon.
He looked up. “Then I think I should stay here.”
Lucy thought the clock would move slowly, but instead, it seemed to race. Nick mowed the front and back lawns without being told to and then cleaned the pool and spa. She grew tired just watching him.
Even with her watching the clock, she wasn’t aware anyone had arrived until the doorbell chimed. She quickly glanced out the window and saw Logan’s Jeep SUV parked in front. It seemed as if the moment the doorbell sounded Nick disappeared into his room.
“Breathe,” she ordered herself as she walked toward the door.
Lucy wasn’t sure what to expect when she opened it, but the sight of two dogs sitting there, each holding a red rose in his mouth, wasn’t it. Each dog wore a red ribbon with a neatly printed sign hanging down. Magnum’s sign read I’m Sorry while Jake’s declared Please Forgive Me? There was no sign of Logan.
“So you were the one who put in the ad,” she said to Magnum. The Malamute’s plumed tail waved back and forth like a banner while the Australian shepherd’s back end wiggled at a faster beat.
“Turn them over.” Logan’s voice sounded off to the side.
Guessing he meant the signs, not the dogs themselves, she stepped forward and turned over the signs. Magnum’s read I Love You while Jake’s asked Marry Me?
Lucy felt her entire body trembling.
“How do you know it’s real?” she asked, even though Logan still remained out of sight.
He walked from around the side of the house. She noted he looked thinner and as if he hadn’t slept well. But even so, there was something different about him.
It was his eyes, she realized. They were smiling. The gold that dusted his brown eyes sparkled brightly.
Logan stopped when he reached her.
“I never thought of myself as a coward,” he said. “But I was where you were concerned. I saw what we had as special and I guess I thought it would go on that way until we both decided it was over. Except everyone around us saw it differently. I felt…” He searched for the right word. “Manipulated.” His face mimicked Lucy’s wince. “Please, hear me out,” he said quickly, as if afraid she would go back in the house and lock him out. Not that he could blame her. He’d put Lucy through hell when she didn’t deserve it. Now she stood there looking beautiful and ready to listen to him. He suddenly wished he knew what to say to make things better. He decided his best bet was to speak from the heart.
“All right,” she said.
He knew he wasn’t home free. She hadn’t invited him inside, and she stood in the open doorway. Magnum and Jake abandoned him and now sat on either side of Lucy.
“I let memories of Shannon color any woman who tried to come close to me,” he said slowly. “You were the first woman I felt such a strong attraction to. Except you didn’t want anything to do with me.” His lips twisted. “Then…then I realized how much there was to you. That you’re nothing like Shannon. You never tried to make me into something I’m not and you didn’t believe in vengeance.”
A tiny smile curved Lucy’s lips. “On that point you would be wrong. I did imagine you taking a bath in a very large vat of boiling oil. I have a dark side,” she admitted with the tiniest of smiles.
“I think I was in love with you all along. I just didn’t want to admit it. Then I did something very wrong. I walled myself off from you without any explanation. I might as well have left the state.”
“That was cruel.” Her voice trembled with remembered hurt.
“It was, and I am more sorry than I can say.” He held his hands out to the sides. “I know I can’t make that hurt go away, but I’m hoping you’ll forgive me for being an idiot and give me a chance to make it up to y
ou.”
“Even if making it up to me meant you’d have to go away?”
Logan’s face fell at her words. He seemed to steel himself.
“Even if,” he whispered. He started to turn around.
“But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?” Her words stopped him. “My son would tell you I torture him every so often because I’m the mom and I can do it. Maybe I need to broaden my skills to concentrate on a larger target. Besides…” Her hands dropped down to stroke each dog’s head. Jake tipped his head up, his tongue lolling happily, while Magnum remained his stoic self. “These dogs need a good role model.”
Hopeful, Logan took a step forward, then a second step. Encouraged, even though Lucy hadn’t said another word, he kept moving until he could pull her into his arms. His kiss betrayed the hunger that had been raging in him for a long time. More than that, it showed the love he’d been afraid to admit.
Lucy pulled back slightly. “If I accept your proposal, it’s forever,” she said fiercely with her eyes blazing. “I won’t be talking about you moving the practice out of the area or changing the way you are, so don’t think there’s a chance it will happen. We’ll have enough going on once Nick starts dating. Not to mention whatever trouble our own kids stir up. And I don’t expect to wait too long. You’re not getting any younger, you know!”
Logan rested his forehead against hers. His shoulders shook with his laughter. “You don’t waste any time, do you?”
She framed his face with her hands. She could feel the slight roughness of his skin against her palms.
“I should make you suffer.” Her voice shook with tears. “I should make you grovel.”
“I am groveling.” He brushed his mouth across hers.
But it wasn’t enough.
He cupped her face with his hands and took her lips in a full-onslaught kiss. He let the kiss say all the things he couldn’t find the words to express.
“I love you, Lucy,” he finally said when they broke apart.
“I love you, Logan.” Lucy gave him one of her patented wicked smiles. “But there’s one more thing.”
Was this going to turn into yet another test of wills? He hoped not. He just wanted to get her somewhere alone. “What is it?” he asked.
“I’m not getting any younger, either.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him through the doorway. “So come on in.”
Logan grinned. “I always knew you were my kind of woman.”
Epilogue
There was nothing like a wedding in the Walker family, even if the family member involved might only be related by marriage.
Abby, Gail and Nora were Lucy’s bridesmaids, and Ginna acted as her matron of honor.
Logan said it was only proper that Nick be his best man. Magnum and Jake were attired in formal bow ties for the occasion, and Judge Kincaid officiated at the ceremony, where he announced to the guests he was only too happy to marry off his son.
At the reception, the youngest Walker sibling, Nikki, announced to everyone she was not following the family tradition of getting married.
“We did it,” Logan said, as he danced with his wife of one hour.
Lucy’s smile rivaled his own. “Yes, we did. And it even looks as if we’ll survive to tell the tale.”
He ducked his head. “You know what I think,” he whispered in her ear. “I think we should go down to the Mañana every year to celebrate.”
“Our wedding anniversary?” she teased.
He shook his head. “No, I think we should go there to celebrate the night you became my wicked woman.”
“And you turned into my wild man. I think it’s a wonderful idea, but only on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“Your suit coat has to come, too.”
THE BRIDE AND GROOM were so engrossed with each other they didn’t notice that Lucy’s son and Logan’s father were over in a corner. Frank Kincaid held up a glass of champagne in a toast to the new couple and thoughtfully ignored Nick holding up the same. Of course, Nick would only be allowed a sip before the glass would be confiscated.
“We did it,” Nick told his step-grandfather with a grin stretched from ear to ear.
Frank nodded. “Yes, my boy, we certainly did.”
Nick looked at his mother and new stepfather. “Now if they’ll just get to work on a baby brother or sister so they won’t worry about me as a teenager.”
Frank choked on his champagne.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-6929-6
SINGLE KID SEEKS DAD
Copyright © 2005 by Words by Wisdom.
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