He catches it quickly and takes a bite. “Better ask Logan, Pops. Waves and I have to go deal with the animals.”
“Speak for yourself. I’ve got studying to do,” she snaps, then pouts when we all stare at her.
“You’re the reason we have the damn animals, Waves,” Jasper groans and tosses her his apple. “Eat something and get moving.”
“Eww. I’m not eating your half-eaten apple. I don’t know where your mouth’s been.” She chucks it back at him but misses by a mile, and we all watch as it lands in the sink. “Whatever. Let’s go.”
“Have fun,” my sister mouths before following Jasper out the kitchen door, and I feel like we’re ten years old again, right before we got caught taking the horses out of the stalls in the middle of the night. Pops is like a bloodhound. Once he has a scent of something, you’re fucked. There’s no stopping him until he’s followed the trail.
“You got something you want to tell me, Logan?” He bends down and kisses the top of Maggie’s head, then her hand as she tries to feed him a smooshed piece of banana. “You didn’t have a wife when you left for Las Vegas. Far as I knew, you didn’t have a girl either. Tell me you didn’t marry some stripper, now, did you?”
“Christ, Pops. No, I didn’t marry a stripper.” But damn if that doesn’t conjure images of Olivia dancing in sexy lingerie and those red-soled shoes of hers. Images I push away. Probably eats her prey too I remind myself and take the seat next to Maggie.
“Explain, son. And don’t make me wait. I’m old. I could die before you spit it out.” At eighty-two, Beau Adler might technically be old, but I’d put bets on him outliving us all.
I wipe Maggie’s mouth, then push her pink sippy cup closer. I knew lying to Jasper and Waverly would suck. I don’t lie to my siblings.
But lying to Pops is so much worse.
I fall back on what Olivia said on the jet.
Keep it simple and anchor it with as much truth as possible.
“We’ve known each other since college and reconnected last year.” Not a complete lie. We’ve known each other for that long, and we did reconnect in a way when she fucked me out of a few million dollars. “It felt right, so we eloped in Vegas.”
“It felt right?” His weathered eyes narrow, and I wait. “Sounds like horseshit, Logan, and I know horseshit.”
“It’s not, Pops.” I don’t tell him it’s love because I’m not sure he wouldn’t hear the lie in my voice.
Guess I better work on that.
“And when do I get to meet this woman who’s stolen your heart?”
More like stole my fucking contract. I don’t have a heart to steal. My daughter and my family have the only pieces of it I have to give. “She’ll be back later today.”
“Good. Then we’ll do dinner tonight.” He rinses his coffee cup and grabs his hat from the hook on the wall by the door. “And Logan?—”
“Yeah?” I look away from Maggie to catch the old man’s glare.
“Better make your story more believable by then.”
Fuck.
Olivia
“Aren’t you going to miss this view?” Serena asks as she walks out onto our covered porch overlooking the back-end of Cherry Creek Vineyards. The house isn’t on the vineyards property, but it backs right up to the rolling hills, and we both love it. It’s far enough from town to afford us more privacy than our meddling family willingly gives any of us, but close enough that we can be in town in under thirty minutes if need be. And today, it’s needed.
“I will,” I sigh. “But it won’t be for too long.”
She pulls out one of the chairs lining the teak table and eyes my laptop warily. “Why are you here, Liv? I thought you’d be at Logan’s place for at least a full day before you needed to retreat.”
“Retreat?” What the hell? I don’t retreat. “Because our cousin is screwed.”
Serena pulls her feet up onto the chair and rests her pink coffee cup on her knees. “You’re going to have to narrow that down. We’ve got twenty cousins.”
“Ryker.” I close my MacBook and grab my own mug. I’m running on two hours of sleep from last night and maybe three from the night before. My days of being fueled by caffeine and chaos are behind me. I like my bed and a solid five hours if I’m going to function at optimum ability, and that’s not happening any time soon.
“Seriously? Ryker never gets into trouble.” She’s not wrong. He doesn’t. Our other cousins may be a bit of a different story, but Ryker is steady and stable. Apparently, until he’s not.
