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“Right. Five guys and three women, Darla being one of them, traveling cross-country on their motorcycles. Well, they never made it all the way across because somewhere around Michigan Victor found out Darla was cheating on him. With Logan. And when he confronted her on it, she revealed that it had been going on for a long time behind his back. So, all those visits when Logan was welcome at our house, he’d been undermining the guy who was supposed to be his best friend. When I talked to Darla’s sister, she described the story as Victor taking his shy college roommate, Logan, under his wing, and then once Logan gained confidence he wanted everything Vic had and tried to steal it from him.”
Yeah, Jinx was ready to explode hearing that, but she kept her word and only said calmly, “That is such bullshit.”
“I wasn’t completely sold on the story when Tess filled me in. Truthfully, I did not find it hard to believe that Darla had cheated, but Logan? That sweet guy who’d become like a brother to Victor and a part of our family? I know you didn’t think anyone heard your objections, but I did.”
“Did you ever try talking to Victor about it?” she asked. “Getting more information about how it went down? At least he had some respect for you, unlike me, the weirdo baby of the family who was just a pain in his butt.”
Natalie pressed her lips together as if she was hesitating. “I went to Victor and asked how he could be so sure it was Logan. Vic told me that during the road trip they were staying in different low-cost motels along the route and Darla had said she would not room with him because they couldn’t prove they were married—which of course they were not. Vic told me he later realized this excuse was so she could ‘spend time’ with someone else. He’d begun to suspect some of her odd behavior was because she was cheating on him and one day he went into her room and saw a T-shirt of Logan’s tossed on the floor near the bed.”
“That’s pretty lame. How did he know it was Logan’s T-shirt?”
“Vic said it was a one-of-a-kind tee that had been given to participants at a Technology in Business conference that he and Logan had attended. None of the other men on the trip had gone to it, so they wouldn’t have one. You couldn’t buy the tee anywhere, since it was part of a gift package given to attendees. When Vic asked me what I thought Logan’s sweaty T-shirt might have been doing in Darla’s room, I couldn’t come up with any answer.”
Jinx put a hand to her stomach, her breakfast suddenly feeling like it was too much.
Natalie went on. “And that was when Darla threw in Vic’s face that she had been having sex with Logan for about a year. She’d said that Logan got really excited that he could have Vic’s girl whenever he was in town. I’m guessing she might have said a lot of other hurtful things too, but I didn’t expect Victor to recount them all and did not want to hear them anyway.”
Fighting back tears, Jinx struggled against the logic of what her sister said. Was it just that she didn’t want to see who Logan really was? But he swore to her the other night that he did not betray her brother. There had to be another answer. “Maybe Darla borrowed Logan’s tee.”
Natalie pulled her chin back. “It’s kind of an intimate thing for a girl to be wearing a guy’s tee, so if she needed to borrow one, it would be from her boyfriend.”
“Or else someone she was intimate with,” Jinx murmured, half to herself.
“I’m sorry, sweetie. That is why I never told you.”
“I understand,” Jinx said, nodding, “but some part of me still finds it hard to believe.”
“Really? This is a guy who couldn’t wait until his father died to get his company, so he joined up with a competitor when his father was sick, beat him at his own game, and then took over his father’s company.”
Jinx crossed her arms over her chest. “But the reason Logan used to come to our house when school was on break was because his father was cruel to him and threw him out.”
“Do you know why his father threw him out?” When Jinx shook her head, Natalie said, “Logan’s father had married a few times and his third wife was apparently quite a beauty and much younger than him. Victor told me Logan was thrown out because his dad caught him in bed with his new wife.”
“If that were true, why would Logan tell Victor? Wouldn’t he want to hide it?”
“I’m not sure how Vic found out the story. I think he said Logan had told him it was a trap, but after what happened with Darla, Vic no longer believed him.” Natalie patted her hand. “Don’t feel bad for falling for him. Some people are experts at conning others, and it seems Logan has made a lifestyle out of it.”
Jinx pulled her hand away. “Sorry, but I beg to differ. I have excellent senses for seeing what people are like inside and—”
“Baby sis, you have a pretty bad record of getting caught up in your fantasies and falling for guys you think are great, only to discover the are anything but.”
Jinx could not deny that, but over the last couple of days she’d realized the reason she had allowed herself to get caught that way was because her heart had been searching for Logan. “Does Darla still live around here?”
Natalie heaved a sigh. “No. She is married and living in Utah or somewhere like that. And I doubt she would answer any communication from you. There was plenty of bad blood at the end.”
“What about Tess?”
“I have no idea where she is and already told you what Tess knew. Please, Jinx, don’t get into a—”
“Do not tell me what to do.” Jinx stood up. “Thank you for filling me in on all of this and for your concern, but I will figure this out on my own. I am well aware of the possibility that I may end up discovering I am the biggest fool on the planet, but I have to pursue it until all the questions inside me are satisfied.”
She gave Natalie a kiss on the cheek, and walked out of the office, then straight outside to her car.
Jinx could not stop the tears as she drove home. Maybe it was for the best if she and Logan had nothing more than a two-night fling. It would save her from her brother’s fury and her parents’ disdain for being a traitor to the family.
And with Logan’s way-too-sexy body and perfect face and his extreme wealth and his smooth style…who was she kidding? He no doubt had one-night flings with a ton of women everywhere. She should accept the fact that he was not going to call her or want to see her again. That he had probably already chalked her up as nothing more than a couple fun nights in the sack. Just another female he could use to satisfy himself.
The hard part was accepting the fact that she might mean nothing to him, when he was so important to her. That the talks they had remembering their past together were nothing more than conversations to him—when to her it was acknowledging a special bond she’d thought they shared.
