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“I’ve been dumped,” Logan says good-naturedly. “You’ve won the heart of my princess, Lady Quinn. I bow down.” He splays a hand over his chest and leans forward.
“I’m sure you’re still the crown prince,” I say. “She’ll be missing you in about five minutes.”
Logan’s hazel eyes lock on mine for a moment, and I feel suspended in time and space. I want to get lost in their browny-green depths forever. But I don’t want him to know that. Or do I?
“I doubt that, but I know I’ll be missing her,” he says, his voice slipping into a sexy low register. “And her new best friend.”
What did he just say? I smile and wave off the comment, and whatever he intends by it. Any analysis of it might quash the little thrill it triggers in my heart, and I promised Rochelle I’d quit analyzing.
“You don’t want to be late,” I say, glancing toward the door. “We’ll be fine, don’t you worry about a thing.”
“I won’t be worried,” he says and turns toward the door. “Oh, wait.” He stops and reaches into the breast pocket of his jacket. “You might as well take this now—before I forget again.” He hands me a stack of bills. “Two hundred, as agreed.”
My fingers brush his as I take the crisp green notes from his hand. I’m probably imagining things, but a sizzle of electricity seems to bolt up my arm even from this innocent contact.
“Thank you,” I say, the same hot blush as yesterday rising up my neck.
“Thank you,” he replies, his gaze lingering on me before he finally turns and steps out the door. I breathe a sigh of relief as he closes it behind him. Now at least I can concentrate on Rose’s needs and not my own that seem to have settled in the region between my legs. Damn. Logan Brenner is one HOT papa.
***
After three games of Chutes & Ladders, while sitting on the carpet in Rose’s room, I ask if she wants to watch a movie.
“Yeah!” she says, jumping up and scattering the playing board and pieces in the air. “Pock-corn?”
“Okay, but you have to get your PJs on first,” I say, gathering the game box and collecting the pieces. I hope there’s popcorn in the kitchen because I didn’t think to bring any snacks. After helping her into her pajamas, Rose finds some microwave packets in the pantry. I’m impressed at how tidy and organized the house looks since yesterday. Logan seems to be a good housekeeper in addition to an incredibly handsome man and a successful business owner. Man, talk about having the whole package!
We settle into the couch, and I let Rose pick a disc from the pile I’ve brought. I smile as she points to the Dirty Dancing cover. I’m sure she has no idea what the movie is about, but I’ve always loved it because it reminds me of my own mom. We always watched it together when Dad was working a lot. I know she would have been a dancer herself if she hadn’t decided to settle down and become the doctor’s perfect wife.
When Rose starts to nod off in my lap, I carry her back to her bedroom and tuck her in. She rolls over and falls fast asleep. It’s just after eight o’clock, and Logan’s not back yet, so I curl up on the couch and indulge in the rest of Dirty Dancing and bittersweet memories of my beautiful mother, Erica VanderKemp. I can’t help but shed a nostalgic tear when I hear the line, “No one puts Baby in the corner!” It was her favorite, and it only underscores how much I miss her. I wonder if Rose even knew her mother well enough to miss her. I doze off trying to imagine what circumstances surrounded the absence of Mrs. Brenner.
Chapter Six
Logan
Forbidden Fruit
I slide behind the wheel of my truck and start the engine, desperately thankful to be out of the restaurant at last. Two hours of arguing with a supposedly reformed alcoholic and drug addict have tested the limits of my nerves and my temper. I’d been reluctant to agree to this meeting without the mediator present, and I regretted it now more than ever.
Jolene claimed to be a changed person, but she wasn’t fooling me. Not this time.
“I have a right to see my daughter!” she’d demanded, pounding her fist on the table. Her agitation only proved how unchanged she really was. The off-color stares of the patrons around us supported that. Always one to make a scene, I recalled with bitter clarity. The only thing worse than having this deranged woman as the mother of my child would have been to have her as my wife. Thank God I never married her.
I told her she’d have to take me to court to get visitation rights, then paid the check and left. I’m a reasonable man, but betrayal by the two women I’d loved most in my lifetime has eroded my capacity to forgive. Or forget.
All that mattered to me was Rose’s well-being, and I knew from bitter experience that exposing her to an unbalanced individual like her birth mother at this stage of her young life would only be damaging. Rose has no memory of Jolene, and I intend to keep it that way.
I step on the accelerator to get out of the area and back home as quickly as possible. I’m already overdue, and this emotional meeting has escalated my need to be with my daughter; to protect her and keep her safe.
Yet I’ve left her with a near stranger. Ironically, I trust the neighbor girl whom I only met yesterday more than Rose’s own flesh and blood. Though I’d let Lila back into my life after Rose was born, it doesn’t change how she’d treated me all those years growing up. The twenty-pound chip on my shoulder won’t be dislodged that easily, no matter how good a grandma she tries to be.
The lights are dim inside the windows of my house as I pull up at the curb, and it reminds me that I have no blinds or drapes yet. I make a mental note to hire one of the decorating contractors I know ASAP. Though curtains aren’t much of a barrier, with the specter of Jolene potentially haunting us, I need to shield my daughter and me in every way I can.
The door is locked when I try the knob, and as I fish for my key, I’m glad that it is. At least someone else is taking the welfare of my daughter seriously. Quinn seems to have a good head on her shoulders; if she didn’t, she wouldn’t be in a Master’s program at University. Education means everything these days, and that’s one thing I intend to see that Rose gets, no matter the cost. Surrounding her with educated people is important too, and Quinn certainly fits that description.
However, educated isn’t the f
irst adjective that comes to mind when I think of Quinn. The image of her soaking wet body in my backyard is burned into my brain forever. I know it was all a misunderstanding and horribly bad timing, but I’d hardly be a man if what I saw didn’t make me hard as hell… make me want her in every way.
