Logan opened her door and looked inside her fridge, which was bare apart from a few bottles of water and a whole bunch of condiments. He took a water and closed the door, twisting off the cap as he looked at all the little notes and things Stella had hanging up on the outside of it.
There were a few stubs for Mets games, all stuck together. A pic of her and some friends he didn’t recognize, a couple of takeout menus, and some notes to herself. All the items in a similar group were clustered together, which reminded Logan of the neat row of perfume bottles he’d seen on an elegant mirrored tray on the back of Stella’s toilet while he’d been changing. Everything was neat and organized, just like Stella.
Meandering into the living room as he took in the decorations in Stella’s home, Logan took in the couch situation, unclear on whether Stella wanted him to stay in her apartment or stay in her bed.
He knew which one he would prefer.
Logan sat down and relaxed back into the cushions. The sofa was comfortable; Stella’s apartment looked lived in, like the kind of place where you’d be welcome to put your feet up on the coffee table. The more time Logan spent there, the more he found that he liked it.
He maybe even preferred it to the cold, interior-designed space he had of his own. He hoped he’d be spending more time here soon. Or, maybe having Stella around would make his house feel more like a home.
He sighed at that thought, taking a sip of his water, then resting his head against the wall. He recalled the conversation they’d had earlier in the evening. It hurt to hear her say that she thought he’d only flirted with her to keep her around, but he could understand why she thought that. He was a jackass to her to create a wall, then kept her at a distance sometimes, but he’d inevitably destroy that wall and reveal more than he should’ve because no matter how hard he tried, he could never resist her.
He understood how that did some damage to her belief in his feelings for her before their relationship was even a possibility, and he had his work cut out for him to make it right.
He was going to have to tell his mother, because he refused to let her meddle in his love life anymore, and certainly didn’t want to have another situation like he did with Astrid tonight—with her or anyone else his mother might have designs on later. After seeing Stella’s reaction to those pictures, he never wanted to make her feel like that again. He had his work cut out for him.
He was up for and looking forward to the challenge.
On the end table next to him was a framed photo of Stella and her sisters at a Dodgers game from one of the trips she’d taken back home for a visit. The three of them were smiling, and Stella’s face was smeared with mustard. Her sister, Sofia, was holding a hot dog smeared with the stuff in the general vicinity of Stella’s face, and he could only imagine that she’d gone in for a bite only to have Sofia smash it against her lips.
Logan smiled.
He’d already felt terrible about the lost work on their project, and knowing that she was willingly spending time away from these women whom she loved so much made his chest ache.
He wanted to make it right. He needed to do something that respected her decision to stay here and finish what she was working on, but proved that the things that were special to her were special to him, too.
He stared at the picture a few more moments, and then it hit him.
He knew exactly what he needed to do.
With a glance at the clock, he second-guessed himself. It was late, but not rudely so. He didn’t want to wait; he wanted to get this settled and set into motion.
Logan pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts, and hit call when he found the name he was looking for.
He waited for an answer, and a second later, he got one.
“Hey,” he said. “I need a favor.”
Chapter Eleven
Late Tuesday evening, Stella was finally finished.
She’d stayed at home Monday and Tuesday so she wasn’t bothered with run-of-the mill office work, or distracted by her coworkers. She’d hunkered down and shut out all outside life, only taking breaks to eat (food that Logan sent her) and sleep (alone, because she didn’t want to get so wrapped up in Logan that she couldn’t think straight).
Stella uploaded everything to the company server, and cried tears of happiness and relief as she watched the completion rate tick its way to 100%.
She was finished. Everything was working properly. She’d never felt more accomplished and proud of herself in her life.
She’d exchanged a few texts with her sisters, who were already in Germany. Her flight was leaving the following evening, so she ultimately wasn’t going to be missing out on too much.
Despite the stress and the heartache of the past few days, she couldn’t be anything but glad for making the decision that she did. She felt good leaving the country for the holidays on a high note, knowing she hadn’t left Logan in the lurch. She’d be able to enjoy her time with her sisters, and she was definitely going to be treating herself to an extra mulled wine or two when she got to Europe.
Stella decided she was going to sleep in until at least noon, but before she trudged off to bed, she called Logan, who picked up on the first ring.
“I finished,” she said.
“You’re amazing.”
“Thank you.” She managed a tired smile. “I’m going to sleep for the next twenty hours, and only wake up to get on the plane.”
Logan laughed. “You deserve all twenty hours of it.”
A moment of silence passed between them, and Stella pulled on the hem of her top, twisting a loose thread around her finger. “Thank you for taking care of me these past couple of days. Dinner especially was amazing.”
“Next time I’ll make you something myself.”
That perked her up. She knew he cooked, but she’d never been on the receiving end of a meal that he’d made. “We’ll have to set up a date when I get back.” If there was a hint of sadness in her voice, well, two weeks was a long time. Especially since things were anything but settled where their relationship was concerned.
“A date, huh?” he asked, and maybe it was the fact that she’d spent the past two days isolating herself, or the exhaustion that made her misread his words.
“Yeah,” she replied nervously. “Isn’t that want you want?”
“Stella, I want more than a date.”
She didn’t know if he was being intentionally suggestive or not, but either way the answer was still the same. “You can have whatever you want.”
He groaned, probably because they were separated, and wouldn’t be able to see each other for very long before she left town.
“I set up an appointment for you with a masseuse tomorrow to work out some of the kinks in your back and your arms so you can get ready to sit on an eight-hour flight tomorrow.”
“And in first class,” she added.
“It was the very least I could do.”
Had she mentioned how much she loved his thoughtful side? “Thank you, Logan.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied warmly.
“Are you going to come and say goodbye tomorrow?”
“Do you honestly think I would let you go for two weeks without seeing you one more time?”
She laughed. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Stella hesitated for a moment, fighting an internal argument over whether she should ask him to come over or not. In the end, she leaned toward not, but only because she worried that if she did, she wouldn’t get any sleep.
And she really, really needed sleep.
“Goodnight, Logan.”
“Goodnight.”
Stella padded into her bedroom and crawled under her sheets, snuggling into her pillow with the promise of the sweetest dreams.
* * *
Morning sunlight was streaming through Stella’s bedroom window when she cracked her eyes open, and rolled over in bed with a groan so
she could see what time it was.
She lifted her phone off the night stand, and mumbled irritably at the time.
It was just before 9, meaning she’d fallen way short of her 20-hour sleep goal. She was still a little lagging and tired, but the nearly 11 hours of sleep she’d managed had helped that tremendously. And at least this morning she isn’t waking up with a headache and heavy, sandy eyes that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep open or not.
Stella yawned and stretched out in her bed, pressing her arms against the headboard to work out her arm muscles.
It wasn’t until her second yawn when her brain registered the aroma of coffee in the air, along with the smell of bacon. Occasionally she’d woken up smelling her neighbor’s breakfast, but it hadn’t ever been that strong. Having lived in New York City for a while and experiencing its utter weirdness, she knew it wasn’t impossible for someone to have broken into her apartment to use her kitchen to cook breakfast, even though it wasn’t likely.
She sat up in bed, dangling her legs over the side. Even though there was someone in her apartment she most definitely did not let in, the weirdest sense of calm fell over her. Maybe Logan had sweet-talked the super into letting him in to surprise her. Or…there were two people who had keys to her apartment, people who were supposed to be in Germany…
Stella rushed to her bedroom door and pulled it open, and the sight in front of her was the very last thing in the world she expected to see. Her sisters—Maria and Sofia—were standing at the stove making breakfast. She had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.
“Oh my god,” she cried, running into the kitchen. “What are you doing here?”
Her two older sisters engulfed her in hugs. Stella buried her face in Maria’s neck. She’d always smelled like home to Stella, ever since they were kids. She held on tight to her sisters while she cried happy tears, utterly taken by surprise.
“Why aren’t you in Germany?” she asked, confused. She stepped back and placed a hand on each sister’s shoulder, like she wanted to keep them in place, to reassure herself that they were really here.
Sofia reached out and cupped Stella’s face, swiping the tears under her eyes with the pads of her thumbs.
“You didn’t cancel the trip because of me, did you?” she asked, a quick, hot panic taking over her.
“No,” Maria said, shaking her head. “We’re leaving tonight.”
“I don’t understand.” Stella thought maybe that was because she still hadn’t had her coffee yet, and she was usually slow on the uptake before she was caffeinated.
Sofia heaped some bacon on a plate, grabbed another one full of toast, as Maria took care of the butter dish and one of the cups of coffee Sofia had poured. Stella picked up the other two, and they all settled in at the tiny, cramped table in the corner of Stella’s kitchen.
“So, the other day I got a call from your boss,” Sofia said with a raised brow, like she knew without asking that he was more than just her boss. “As he spoke, he went into great detail about you as an employee, as well as you as a person, which we found very interesting, didn’t we, Maria?”
Her sister swiped a piece of bacon off the plate and took a bite. “Mmm-hmm,” she hummed. “Very interesting.”
“He told us how amazing you are—”
“At great length,” interrupted Maria.
“Yes,” Sofia continued, nodding. “He also made it very clear how important you were to him, and that knowing how important this trip was to you made him want to make up for the time you were missing. Which he did by upgrading pretty much every part of said vacation. First class seats on a flight to Frankfurt this evening, five star hotels…he even bought us first class train tickets.”
“I think he wanted to hire a guy to drive us wherever we wanted, but Sofia and I talked him out of that.”
Sofia nodded. “He also booked us all into a spa later this morning, so we figured we’d wake you up in the most pleasant way possible, one that’s worked for as long as you’ve been alive.”
She popped a piece of bacon in her mouth. “This works every time.”
Maria nodded. “Like a charm.”
“When did you guys get in?”
“Late last night,” Sofia said. “Logan put us up at The Carlyle. I almost didn’t want to leave this morning, but I suppose you’re more important than that wonderful, wonderful bed.”
Stella felt overwhelmed, absolutely dumbfounded. She’d been on the receiving end of Logan’s kindness so many times, but she never would have expected anything like this. She wanted to cry, she wanted to laugh…she needed to get a handle on herself. That he knew how much this trip meant to her, and went to such lengths to surprise her and make sure that they all had an unforgettable time, meant more to her than she could ever possibly express. Especially since she thought this would probably be one of the last times—if not the last time—they got to spend this time of year alone together, considering Maria was getting married in the spring.
Her eyes welled up with tears again, and she laughed as they spilled over. Given the past few days she’d had, it was nice to be crying from joy, at least.
“So,” Maria said, adjusting herself on the chair so she could tuck her leg under her, “your boss, huh?”
He wouldn’t be her boss much longer. If the position working with Omar somehow didn’t work out, she was going to take the job at Alejandro’s start up. She knew she had to give this thing between her and Logan a real shot, and she wouldn’t be able to do that if she was still Logan’s employee.
They needed to be on equal footing if their relationship had even the slightest chance of working out.
“Yeah,” she said, reaching for a slice of toast. “My boss.”
“He’s obviously a man in love.”
Hearing her sister say that made a warmth rush through her, blooming goosebumps across her skin and making her smile involuntarily.
“He’s usually not this materialistic,” she explained, trying to make up for his show of wealth. “He’s not the kind of guy who goes so over the top for people, but I think—”
“She’s not talking about the trip,” Sofia added.
“The way he talks about you, the things he’s noticed about you…” Maria got that lovestruck, sappy look in her eyes like the hopeless romantic she was. “And you had no idea he did any of this?”
Stella shook her head. “No idea. I was kind of preoccupied the last couple of days, but…no.”
Maria shot Sofia a mischievous look that in the past had always indicated they were about to gang up on her.
“If you wanted to go over and say thank you, the two of us could find something to do.”
“But you just got here,” Stella argued, even though the idea of finding Logan and talking to him about all this, about them was immensely appealing.
“And we’re going to be spending the next couple of weeks together, and at some point during that time you’re going to wish you had a little time away from us. We’re telling you it’s okay to go and take it.”
Stella gave Maria a hesitant look. Logan usually worked from home on Wednesday mornings; it would be the perfect time to go and catch him away from the prying eyes in the office.
“Really, we’ll be fine,” she said, popping a piece of toast into her mouth before winking at Stella.
“Go.”
Spurred on by her sisters’ encouragement and the overwhelming need to see Logan now, to touch him, to kiss him…she headed right for the door.
“Not like that,” Maria said, laughing. “Get dressed first.”
Stella looked down, realizing she was still in her pajamas. She laughed, floating on a cloud back to her room, where she changed, threw on some makeup, and did something with her hair.
When she walked back into the main room, she found her sisters on the couch, flipping through a couple of magazines she’d had on her coffee table and hadn’t gotten around to reading yet.
“You guys are sure
it’s okay if I—”
Maria tossed a decorative pillow at her. “Go.”
With a goofy grin, Stella did as she was told. Before she closed the door behind her, Sofia called her name.
“He’s a good one,” she said honestly. “Don’t let him get away.”
“I’m not planning on it!”
Chapter Twelve
Getting a call from his doorman letting him know that Stella was there to see him was definitely something Logan hadn’t expected. He’d just gotten off of a call with Drake about the app development, and was getting ready to wade through his never-ending emails, so the fact that she was there and waiting was welcome news.
He told the doorman to let her up, and paced across his living room, waiting for her to arrive. Logan shook his head and laughed at himself acting like a lovesick teenager.
He opened the door when she knocked, and he smiled when he saw her standing there with a wrapped gift tucked under her arm. She looked fresh-faced and beautiful, and more rested than she had over the last few days when he’d seen her.
“Hey,” he said warmly.
She smiled softly, kicking his heartbeat up a few notches. “Hey. Can I come in?”
He nodded and stepped back, opening the door wider.
Once inside, she placed the gift on the chaise of his sofa, and looked around. She’d been there a few times before, but never when it was decorated for Christmas. All the Armstrong homes currently were, complete with a tree, poinsettias, and garland strung from every mantel and railing available. It was a nice change of pace to get him into the holiday spirit, but it wasn’t something he would’ve bothered with on his own if someone hadn’t come in and done it for him.
“It’s very festive in here,” she said, turning to him with a smile.
“Thank you.” Not that he wasn’t open to compliments, but he knew that wasn’t why she was here. “Not that I’m not happy to see you,” he said, taking a couple of steps closer, right into her personal space. “I’m always happy to see you, but I thought you’d be spending time with your sisters.”
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