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She wanted to kiss him so badly. Especially when his eyes went to her mouth. “Truth is I did get that, Logan. I just wanted to tease you about it.” Jinx stroked her hand down his arm and his eyes seemed to look right inside her. She leaned toward him and said in his ear, “You know I like to tease you.”
Just then the bartender set her drink down. “Chocolate martini.”
Logan tried to snatch it away from her. “You cannot drink things this strong. You’ll be sick.”
Jinx took the drink and turned away from the bar. “You walked out of my life. You don’t get to tell me what to do.” She headed across the room, spotted a dark corner and went straight for it.
“I had to, Jinx,” Logan said, following right behind her. “You think I wanted that?” His eyes took on a sorrowful look, his tone serious now.
She set her drink on a ledge and got up in his face. “No, you didn’t have to. You quit on me. Just like when you and Victor first had your falling out. You wouldn’t fight back. You let him decide what the reality was. And when you closed your email account and changed your phone, I went insane trying to reach you. I even found your father’s address but knew you would never go there.”
“I’m sorry, Jinx. I thought I’d finally found a family and when they threw me out just like my dad did, I gave up. No one had enough faith in me to take my side, to believe in me.”
“I did.” Jinx reached her arms up over his shoulders, one hand at the back of his head, pulling him down to meet her lips. And she kissed him. Deeply.
“Oh God, I love you, Jinx,” he breathed out when they came up for air. “I always knew I wanted you, and I used to mull it over trying to convince myself it was just hormones and or how sexy you are or that it was only about wanting to be a real part of your family.” He shook his head. “But when Victor got angry and beat on me, the real reason I wouldn’t fight him back—and believe me I wanted to let him have it for the things he accused me of—but it was you. I kept thinking ‘Jinx will hate me if I hit her brother’ and I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you.” He snorted. “Of course I did end up losing you anyway.”
“No. Never.” Her fingers gently touched his cheek. Jinx did not know if he really meant it when his ‘I love you’ slipped out, but she wasn’t going to hold back anymore. “I have been in love with you for so many years, Logan, and no matter how hard I try to make myself love someone else, I can’t do it. I can’t love anyone but you.”
He gripped her shoulders. “Okay, I’ll go to your parents and say whatever needs to be said so they don’t ostracize you because of me. I don’t care. Whatever will work. Because you are it for me, Jinx. There won’t ever be anyone for me but you.”
Jinx lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe we better go back to your place and have a strategy meeting.”
“Concurred.”
She grinned. “Are you starting up on that silly one-word speak again?”
He tilted his head. “Why not? You understood them all.”
“Actually, there was one I never figured out. What the hell was ‘MacKenzie’ supposed to mean?”
“Oh, that one was just to let you know I wasn’t a ‘lying, cheating dick.’”
“What?” Her voice rose. “I never thought you were.”
“After you saw me with Deena and I had to chase you through Central Park, you asked me if I was a lying, cheating dick.”
“Oh, right. And you said no and I believed you.”
“Yes, but the last time you were at my place and we had the upset about your brother, you screamed out another one of your strange questions at me as I was headed out the door.”
Maybe it was the martinis, but this was getting confusing. “What does the word ‘MacKenzie’ have to do with that?”
He gently cupped her cheek. “You asked me what happened to the T-shirt I got at the MIT Business and Technology conference. And I remembered that Conrad MacKenzie was the guy who borrowed that T-shirt.”
Her jaw dropped open as his meaning struck her. “Conrad MacKenzie who does computer tech?” He’d been part of Victor’s pack.
Logan shrugged. “That’s what he was studying in college. I have no idea what he is up to now since I haven’t seen him since that summer of the motorcycle tour.”
“I forgot he was part of the group who went on that trip with you and Victor.” Her finger tapped her chin. “Conrad MacKenzie. Hmmm.”
“Uh-oh. You’ve got that fierce look.”
“You bet I do.”
Jinx had to set it up just right to make sure there were no casualties. Victor and Regan had decided to stay with her parents for another the week so they could begin looking at houses for when he transferred east. So Jinx invited him to lunch at her cottage at a time when Anthia was working, and told him she did not want him to bring Regan because she had to talk to her big brother about something she wanted to keep private, at least for the time being.
When Victor arrived, she offered a plate of nice Italian cheeses that he liked, with his favorite crackers, sliced tomatoes, marinated black olives, and coffee.
