Sweet Resolve (The Lucky #2)

by Jill Sanders

  “Because then I wouldn’t have a date with you tomorrow night.”

  She glared at him. “And you still don’t.” She turned her chair around and started to pick up the phone to call the Lufts. There were so many other homes she could offer to show them that were better suited for a young family.

  Before she could dial the first number, her chair was spun around.

  “Hold on.” He leaned closer, his hands resting on the chair’s armrests. “A deal is a deal,” he said close to her face.

  “You could have lost this agency a lot of money, all because you wanted to gamble on a date?” Her eyes narrowed. “You need to know when to put childish games aside, Mr. Miller.” She tried to turn her chair back around, but he held her still. The phone receiver was still clenched in her hand and she felt like tossing it at him. “Let go,” she said under her breath.

  “You haven’t lost the deal yet. I emailed them a few other, more appropriate listings just yesterday.” He smiled as his eyes roamed over her face.

  “You did what?” She felt her body begin to vibrate with even more anger. “These are my clients.” She pushed herself up from her chair, causing him to take a step back as she let the phone dangle from the side of her desk. Then she shoved a finger into his chest. “You had no right. Who do you think you are?”

  He backed up a step. Then held his hands up and tried to open his mouth.

  “No!” She glared at him, not wanting to hear his voice at the moment. “I don’t know how they handled these kind of situations at CCR, but this is not how we do business at RMR. It is never okay to take clients away from another agent.” She turned, picked up her phone, and slammed it down. Reaching over, she closed her laptop and picked up her purse. She couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him anymore.

  Marching out of the room, without another word or look aimed in his direction, she left him standing behind her desk with his mouth hanging open. She was too revved up to stop and talk with Gary as she passed him in the hallway on her way out of the building.

  As she drove out of the parking lot, a lot of her anger turned to hurt, just as it had always done when he’d pulled a prank on her or teased her.

  She didn’t know why she allowed him to have this effect on her, especially since she hadn’t let anyone else affect her like that since then.

  She knew he’d been playing her. Why had she fallen for that kiss? She should have seen his betrayal coming, but she hadn’t.

  Her mind raced over the last few items on the list that Kristen and she had made, wishing there was something she could do to pay him back for this new infraction. But no matter how much she thought about it, she just couldn’t come up with anything.

  She parked her Jeep outside of Kristen’s office and glanced down at her watch. Her friend should be coming out of the building soon, so she texted her.

  I’m outside. Wanna get some drinks?

  It took a few minutes for Kristen to reply.

  On my way out now. Yes, Aiden is stuck in a meeting, so . . . good timing.

  When Kristen rushed across the street, her long curly hair flowing wildly behind her like her multicolored skirt, Amy couldn’t stop from smiling at her friend. She looked happy and in love.

  “Hey,” Kristen said, making sure her skirt was inside the Jeep before shutting the door. “Where to?” She glanced over at Amy, then frowned. “What’s up?” She turned her entire body toward her friend.

  “What else?” Amy groaned and leaned her head back against the headrest.

  “Logan?” Kristen said just as Amy nodded. “What did he do this time?”

  Amy rolled her eyes. “Drinks first, then I’ll tell you.”

  Kristen reached over and squeezed her hand. “We’ll make it through this.”

  “Right, just like last time.”

  “Maybe he’ll move again,” Kristen suggested.

  “One can only hope,” she prayed out loud.

  Logan watched Amy storm out of the office. He knew better than to stop a woman on a rampage. After all, that’s how a few of his relationships had ended over the years.

  When she was gone, he sat back down at his computer and finished his work. When his uncle walked into the room a few minutes later, worry written on his face, he knew he wouldn’t get any more work done for the day.

  “What have you done now to upset Amy?” His uncle leaned on the side of her desk and put his hands in his trouser pockets.

  Logan laughed. “Hell if I know.”

  His uncle just looked at him. So he threw his hands up, providing a better answer.

  “Fine, I might have maneuvered her into going out with me.”

  “You’re so desperate, you have to play games to get girls to go out with you now?”

  “When you know what kind of history we have . . . yeah. This was the only way to convince her,” he admitted.

  “Seems to me coming right out and saying you’re sorry would be easier.”

  “Easier, but not as fun.” He couldn’t admit to his uncle that it was really fear preventing him from apologizing to her for years of torment. Fear of messing things up with Amy again.

  “Boy,” his uncle walked over and patted him on the shoulder. “You don’t know what you’re in for. Amy has done a lot of growing herself. She’s not the little girl whose pigtails you used to tug on anymore.”

  “Trust me, I know that.” He thought about the differences in her and how much he’d been turned on by them.

  “She’s cautious,” his uncle said.

  “I’ve noticed.” He couldn’t remember her ever acting that way when they were younger, but then again, he hadn’t paid attention to her then as he was now.

  “She won’t take being treated badly lying down.”

  Logan leaned back in the chair.

  “She’s . . .” His uncle shook his head. “I won’t stand here warning you anymore. I can tell you’re not going to listen to a word I say.” He laughed. “What do you say you take an old man out for dinner so I won’t have to eat alone?”

  Logan shut down his computer and stood. “Fine, but you’re buying.”

  His uncle slapped him on the shoulder. “Fine, but you’re buying the beer.”

  They headed out and Logan drove to one of his uncle’s favorite Mexican restaurants. When the smell of the food hit him, he realized he’d been starving. As the soft music floated around him and the warm atmosphere surrounded him, along with the refreshing taste of a good imported beer, he thought about how he had always had a good time with his uncle. Even though the man had been missing for most of his childhood, he still felt close to him.

  Maybe because he reminded him so much of himself. Gary Bartolo was a joker. Most people in his office didn’t know it, but the man knew how to make people laugh.

  By the time their dinner was served, his uncle had their waitress crying with laughter.

  “Kill ’em with laughter, son,” he said, smiling over the table at him. “No matter what’s going on in life, there isn’t a situation that can’t be solved or gotten over with a good laugh.”

  He thought about it and didn’t want to contradict him. Not since they were both working on their second beer.

  Logan had used humor most of his life to mask the pain of his childhood. He knew he’d been a little devil growing up. He could easily blame it on the fact that his parents had never really been around. He’d gotten away with anything.

  Looking back at it, he no longer could justify the terrible things he’d done as a child. One of the main reasons he’d taken the job with his uncle was because Amy worked there. A small part of him wanted to set things right with her. Now, however, he couldn’t deny the attraction he felt every time he watched her straighten her skirt or tuck a strand of her long hair behind her sexy little ears.

  He knew the underlying reason he let her get away with the pranks she was pulling on him now. Guilt. Pure and simple. He kept telling himself that if she played out her revenge, it would be easier
for them to be on the same level. But part of him had to admit that he just couldn’t seem to break his habit of riling her. Something in him loved to see her face flush and her eyes heat. Not that he would do anything as bad as tossing firecrackers at her again, but just knowing that he could do or say the smallest thing and see her react had him going out of his way to poke at her.

  He had every intention of getting what he wanted, and what he wanted was Amelia Walker.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Amy stormed in her front door and felt a little better after slamming it behind her. Knowing no one was around to hear or see her tantrum didn’t stop her from feeling satisfied either.

  Because of Logan, she’d spent her entire day off at the office, working. Now, not only was she annoyed, but she was tired and hungry as well.

  Since the office only had a small vending machine filled with every sugary snack known to man, she had skipped lunch. Of course it had been hard to resist a quick treat, and at one point, she had stood in front of the machine and cursed herself for gaining five pounds last winter.

  She always gained weight during the colder months of Colorado’s winters. She supposed it was her body’s way of trying to go into hibernation by telling her to eat all those holiday treats everyone always brought into the office. She struggled to lose the weight every spring no matter how many times she promised herself she’d cut out the sweets.

  It had taken all her willpower to walk away from the snack machine and nibble on the granola bar she’d stocked in her desk drawer instead. But now, as she was mentally running through other food options, her doorbell rang.

  Thinking it was Kristen, she called out, “Come in,” as she walked back into her kitchen to scrounge up a meal.

  Her head was buried deep in her fridge when she heard a man clear his throat behind her. She jumped and her hand knocked against the top shelf, dislodging a large bottle of wine she’d half drunk the night before. The bottle twirled a few times before finally tipping over and falling off the shelf onto her foot.

  She found herself hopping up and down on one foot and holding her hurt hand to her chest. She glared at Logan, who was standing less than a foot behind her. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

  “Are you okay?” He looked down at her foot as she continued to hop on the other one. “Here.” He walked over and took her arm and led her to a kitchen stool. “Sit.” He pushed her shoulders lightly until she fell back. Then he shocked her by pulling her bare foot up and rubbing his hand over the red mark.

  “Ouch!” She tried to tug her foot away.

  “It doesn’t appear to be broken,” he said, still looking down at her bruised foot.

  “Of course it’s not broken.” She pushed on him, until he moved back. “Are you going to answer me?”

  He leaned back and smiled at her. “I’m here to collect.”

  “Collect what?” She frowned down at him.

  “Your debt.” He finally released her foot and she felt a chill run up her leg from losing the warmth of his hands.

  “Debt?” She blinked a few times.

  “Dinner.”

  She felt all the anger from the day before rush into her again. “You’ve got to be . . .”

  “Unless you want to go back on a bet?” He stood up and leaned a little closer to her. She could smell his aftershave and for a moment she lost her train of thought.

  Shaking her head, she swallowed hard and tried not to let how sexy he looked in a pair of worn jeans and a button-up shirt affect her.

  “Good.” He held out his hand for her to take. She looked at it. His eyebrows rose as he waited for her to move.

  “How did you find out where I live?” she asked, putting her hands together.

  “I’m not stalking you. It’s a small town still. Besides, my uncle told me.”

  She thought about it, then took his hand and let him help her stand up off the stool.

  “How does your foot feel?” He looked down at it.

  “Fine.” She wiggled her toes and was happy that most of the pain was gone. He walked over and picked up the bottle of red wine that had rolled toward her dishwasher.

  “Nice.” He smiled down at the label. “How about we grab a bottle of this at Bono’s?”

  Her stomach growled loudly at the thought of a large cheese pizza at her favorite Italian restaurant.

  “My thoughts exactly.” He nodded to her feet. “You’ll want some shoes on first.” Since it had been her day off, she’d worn cotton capris and a light cream shirt. She walked over to slip on a pair of practical, but stylish shoes.

  She didn’t own a pair of old jeans like the ones he was wearing. They looked as comfortable as her pants did, but his fit him a lot better. Not to mention that when he faced away from her, her eyes zeroed in on his butt and she had a difficult time looking away.

  Damn, it was going to be hard having dinner with him while she was still trying to hate him so much.

  Logan couldn’t concentrate on the short drive to Bono’s. He didn’t know how she still looked so fresh when she’d spent the entire day at the office working. Even when she’d been hopping up and down on one foot in her kitchen, she’d looked perfect. Her hair had fallen across her face in the frenzy, but she had still looked beautiful, flushed and breathless.

  Something tugged at him to see if he could make her come undone a little. To see what she would look like with her hair messed up from his fingers, or better yet, fanned out on his pillow after a night of making love.

  He shook his head and growled when he almost drove past the turn to the popular restaurant. He’d missed Bono’s while living in Cherry Creek. The small strip mall was in an older part of town, and Bono’s had been a staple there for as long as he could remember.

  The pizza was some of the best he’d ever had. Although it was the good times he’d spent hanging out with his junior high buddies near the back of the dark restaurant that he remembered the most.

  He threw his new Audi into park and before Amy could get out, rushed around to open her door for her.

  As he helped her out of the car, he added, “I haven’t been here in years.” He opened the front door of the restaurant and the smells hit him, flooding his mind with even more good memories.

  “How long have you been back in Golden?” she asked as they sat at a table near the back.

  “Just the month.” He looked down at the menu.

  “You haven’t been back since you left?” she asked, pushing her menu aside and leaning on the table, watching him.

  “Nope. I kept meaning to come, but . . .” he sighed, “. . . life just got in the way.”

  She sat back when the waitress walked over and poured them each a glass of water. “Hey, Amy,” the teenager said.

  “Hi, Rachelle.” She smiled up at the redhead.

  “Do you guys know what you want?” she asked him.

  “We’ll start with a bottle of red wine.” Logan watched Rachelle walk away to the bar to get their wine. “Not much in town has changed since I’ve been away.”

  “Did you expect it to?”

  He tilted his head and thought about it as his eyes ran over her slowly. When her face heated, he said in a low voice, “I had kind of hoped they’d fill in the pothole on Main.”

  She took a drink of her water and he could see her color return to normal. “It’s been filled at least a dozen times in the same number of years. Each time we have a big snowfall, it sinks in again.”

  “Go figure.”

  “There’s the new statue along the Riverwalk.”

  “I haven’t seen it yet.” He loved the Riverwalk in downtown Golden. It had been one of the best places he had escaped to as a child.

  “I noticed it the last time I went canoeing.”

  He couldn’t hide his interest. “You canoe?”

  He wondered what other secrets she was hiding. It was hard to imagine her rushing down a Colorado river in a small boat. The wind and water spraying her face.

>   He leaned forward. “Maybe it’s about time I got back in the water myself.”

  When the waitress walked up again, he looked over at Amy. “Large cheese okay with you?”

  “As long as we start off with some cheesy bread. I’m starved.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Over the next few minutes, he asked her question after question about herself. Why she chose her career path. What schools she went to. More about the men she’d dated.

  When he tried to get a little more out of her about her family, she closed up and started asking him questions.

  All of which he answered willingly. She was playing the part of not knowing him well, so he figured he’d keep playing along with her game. He didn’t want to rock the boat too much, and chance spooking her so soon. He was amused when she started asking questions about his family and acting like she didn’t know that he had a younger sister or that his father had been away in the military for most of his childhood.

  Just as he had always done as a child, he omitted the family secret: that his father would come home and beat him.

  By the time their pizza was delivered, Amy was completely relaxed, enjoying their conversation. It was hard to imagine there was another side to Logan that she hadn’t seen before. She knew that she’d done a lot of growing up in the almost thirteen years since she’d seen him last, but she had never really thought about him changing as well. In her mind, Logan was still the bully with torn jeans from her childhood.

  She could see how much he’d changed as she sat across from him in the small restaurant. His shoulders were broader than they had been in school. His face still looked the same, but he’d lost a lot of his childhood chubbiness. His chin was stronger looking, and the slight stubble he had on his face added a hint of danger. His arms were full of muscles that hadn’t been there before either. Not to mention that butt of his. She didn’t remember her mouth drooling at it before.

  She watched him eat the pizza like it was the best thing on earth, and it was. She savored her slice just as much.