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The items in Katherine’s storage unit were left as they were. Malone posted an officer to watch over it and sent Amanda and Trent home. She woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee and bacon, at seven thirty. That might as well have been the wee hours after only three hours of sleep.
The buzz of low chatter permeated the bedroom too. Zoe was an early riser, but Amanda was curious if that would change once she was a teenager. But no sense rushing time when it already flew.
She found Logan and Zoe in the kitchen. He was at the stove, tongs in hand, and Zoe was sitting at the peninsula.
“Look who finally decided to get out of bed.” Logan smiled and set down the tongs. He walked over to her, hugged her, and kissed her. “Good morning.”
“They usually start off that way.” The words tumbled out, and she wished she could retract the negativity. No one needed that first thing, but her sleep had been choppy. She’d suffered a barrage of strange dreams, and Freud’s diagnosis would put them down to helplessness over Katherine’s abduction. “But, good morning,” she added.
The bacon was sizzling madly, but he didn’t return to tend to it. Instead he held eye contact with her and brushed a hand to her cheek. “Let’s intend it stays that way.”
Logan’s loving, intimate touch had her transgression with Trent flooding back. She hadn’t just kissed Trent but had initiated it. “Let’s.”
The toaster kicked up two pieces of toast.
“Well, that’s my cue.” Logan went to butter them. “Are you going to hang around for breakfast? Ouch.” He tapped the tips of his fingers to his lips. “Hot toast.”
“As it should be, but yeah, I’ll stay.” Running off would be the easy way out, and she had no valid excuse to leave. The fact it was torturous facing Logan after what she’d done didn’t qualify. She came up behind Zoe and squeezed the girl, then swept back her hair and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Hey, sweetie.”
“Morning.” Zoe squirmed and turned to the side to face Amanda. “Do you want to see my Santa Claus?” Her eyes lit at the prospect of showing off her craft project to Amanda, and it had her heart swelling with gratitude. Life really was a series of ups and downs. Some of these veers were such drastic course corrections, they were as dizzying and nauseating as they were exhilarating.
“You know I do.”
“Can we wait until after breakfast?” Logan dropped two more slices of bread into the toaster and turned to the stove. There, he lifted the pieces of bacon out and placed them on top of paper towel and dabbed off the grease.
“We can do that,” Amanda answered, and Zoe pouted. “But right after, not a second longer.” She smiled and patted Zoe’s head, then took over duty at the toaster.
“Okay.” Zoe was placated but not entirely happy to be put off.
It turned out to be a nice, calm, and relaxing breakfast. Amanda did her best to stay in the moment, as Logan was always reminding her to do. And he had a point about wasted energy. No amount of worry about the future or regrets about the past changed a thing. If only. Then that blasted kiss never would have happened!
The pinch of a headache jabbed her left temple, and she winced.
“You got in pretty late last night,” he said.
“This morning. Technically.” She tagged on a brief smile. “But, yeah, it was almost four.”
“Any leads?”
“Possibly too many.”
“How is that possible?” He was smiling and not understanding, but there was no reason he would. He’d never been a cop and never would be.
“It makes it hard to know where to concentrate your efforts.” She left out the frustration that every wrong choice they made left Katherine out there for that much longer. “I should go. You got all this taken care of?” She referred to the dishes. Logan already had work at eight thirty ahead of him. He’d also volunteered to drop Zoe at her friend Maria’s for the day and a two-night sleepover. “If not, I’ll take care of it later.”
Logan didn’t jump on later, but she sensed judgment. His eyes seemed to ask, when later? “I’ll handle the cleanup,” he eventually offered.
“Mandy.” Zoe was glaring at her. “You were supposed to look at my Santa Claus.”
“Of course, sweetheart. Show me.” She smiled at the girl. The big fella in red had been the furthest thing from her mind. It was overridden by thoughts of Katherine and whether they’d be too late to save her. Her heart and mind betrayed her with memories of kissing Trent and stirred up both regret and desire. How she wished she could completely squash the latter. Logan was a good man and proving himself an excellent father figure for Zoe.
Zoe hopped off her chair and reached for Amanda’s hand. She led her to her bedroom where she pulled her Santa Claus from the bookshelf.
“So? What do you think?” She held up the glued and lovingly crafted Santa. He was sequined, and his beard was made of cotton balls. His red suit, boots, and black leather belt were made from felt.
“He’s fantastic. And you did this?” Amanda was grinning, as was Zoe.
“Uh-huh. All by myself. Libby just told me what to do. But I did it.” She was beaming with pride, as she should be.
