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But first! If you’re curious how Logan and Paige got their epic start, here’s an excerpt from The Marriage Effect.
“So you’re like …”
I kept my eyes aimed up when I answered. There was no particular desire to see the look on her face when I told her something I’d managed to keep under the radar for more than two years. “Their legal guardian.”
Paige was quiet for a couple of seconds as she processed. “And he wants to be.”
“Yeah. He and his wife do.”
“And you don’t want them to be,” she clarified.
I dropped my chin so she could see my face again. “Definitely not.”
She cupped her cheeks in her hands and stared at me. “And me saying I was your fiancée was …” Was what? I wanted to ask. Because I had a few words I could drop into that particular empty space.
Perfectly timed.
Brilliant.
Crazy.
Fate.
Paige didn’t say any of those things, though. “It was really stupid, wasn’t it?”
I closed my eyes and wiped a hand over my mouth. I didn’t know why I thought Paige would make this easy on me. Why I thought her mind would follow the same path that mine was.
Probably because that path was certifiable, padded cell insanity.
Except it wasn’t. Not at all.
“I just … didn’t think, really. I’m so sorry, Logan. I don’t blame you for being furious.”
I dropped my hand and stared at her.
“Oh my gosh, would you say something? You’re starting to freak me out.”
“I’m not furious,” I told her.
She blinked a few times. “You’re not?”
“Nope.”
Paige sat back and exhaled audibly. “Well, that’s good. I thought you’d flip the hell out on me, tell me I should think things through better, blah, blah. That’s what Allie tells me all the time.”
“Oh,” I interjected, “you should think things through better, but I’m not furious.”
“Well, that’s good.” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why? You’re not exactly Susy Sunshine, if you know what I’m sayin’. I figured you’d be breathing fire right now.”
I leaned forward and plucked her hand from her lap, turned it side to side so I could study the ring. When she sucked in an audible breath, I kept my eyes down because I didn’t want to know what was on her face. The skin of her long, graceful fingers was smooth and soft. No callouses like the ones covering mine. No scars from broken fingers or skin that had been ripped off by an overzealous lineman.
“Nick is an asshole,” I told her as I studied her fingers in mine. “But he’s married. He works a job with normal hours. During the season, I probably work a hundred hours a week. My housekeeper just quit, the third in a year. And under my watch, my sixteen-year-old sister just got in a car accident driving around with her drunk friend, so he’s going to try to take them from me because of it.”
Paige’s chest rose and fell with increasing speed. Her pink lips were full and open slightly as she watched me. The bridge of her nose was covered with light freckles, and it worked. All of her separate pieces, they worked really, really well together.
“He’s better on paper,” she said. “That’s what you’re trying to say?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He checks a lot of boxes that I don’t.”
