Page 63 of More Than Meets the Eye

“He’d done this before?” She sounded horrified, and frankly, he couldn’t blame her.

His father had been reckless. He won more often than he lost, bringing home jewelry for Mama and fine leather boots for Logan, but there were also times when Mama had to sell her jewelry and Logan ran around barefoot. Uncertainty hung over their household like an ever-present storm cloud. They never knew if it would bring a gentle restorative rain or pounding hail that destroyed everything in its path. Logan would never subject his family to such a thing. As soon as he made things right with Hamilton, he’d put away the cards for good.

“He held four kings that night. The only thing that would beat him was a stack of aces or a straight flush. He’d discarded an ace earlier, so he knew that possibility was gone, and he’d seen enough middle cards from each suit during play to negate the likelihood of a straight. Yet when your brother called his bet by offering up his gun, saddle, and horse, he miraculously turned over the three through seven of clubs. An impossible run, unless the deck had been stacked.”

Like a jousting knight of old, Logan held tight to his lance, not giving an inch. He had to unseat Eva’s brother from the pedestal she’d placed him on. She wouldn’t thank him for it now, but if he was to have any chance of winning her heart in the end, she had to recognize that Hamilton’s armor was just as dented and tarnished as Logan’s.

“Your brother dealt that hand, Eva,” he said, wielding the sharpest weapons in his arsenal. “Controlled the cards. Probably even fed my father the kings to induce a large bid. He manipulated play from the start so that he could dictate the outcome. Without a care for who it might hurt, your brother shredded my father with ruthless precision. All for a house and a piece of land.”

“A house that probably saved Seth’s life.” She threw out the rejoinder like a seaman tossing a bucket of water overboard from a ship already half sunk. The boat was going down, but she wasn’t yet willing to admit defeat. Her legs trembled, and this time when she crossed her arms over her midsection, there was no anger in the motion, only a bid for comfort, as if her insides had suddenly gone cold.

Logan’s heart twisted, and he stepped forward, wanting to hold her, to ease her pain somehow, even though he’d been the one to cause it.

She stumbled backward away from him, something wild entering her eyes. “Have I been a means to an end all this time? A tool for you to use against Zach? To manipulate him into a corner as some way to even the score?”

“No, Eva.” He advanced and took her arms in his hands. He couldn’t let her think that, not even for a moment. But he couldn’t lie to her, either, not if he wanted a solid foundation to build a future upon. “Not all this time.”

“But some of the time?” Eyes that had started to soften in relief hardened again with suspicion.

Logan sighed. “I’m tired of secrets between us, Eva. I want honesty, even when the truth is less than palatable. Don’t you want that, too?”

She pressed her lips together, stared at him for a long, searching moment, then gave a shaky nod.

“When I first met you,” Logan said as he rubbed her arms, “logic dictated that I keep you at a distance. Lower my risk of exposure.” A smile curved his lips as he remembered their first meeting. “But you were so different from what I expected. Different from any woman I’d ever met. Feisty. Cheerful. And with a generosity of spirit that stirred a craving inside me. A craving for sunshine.

“So I started rationalizing. Telling myself that being friendly with you would give me an advantage. That I could mine you for information and later use it against your brother.” His hands stilled as he silently pleaded with her to hear the truth in his words. “The more time I spent with you, the less I thought about my plans for justice. I started making new plans centered on you. On a future free of plots and schemes. A future where we shared that cabin I’ve been building.” He reached for her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I love you, Eva.”

Her eyes misted, the brown one pooling a little more deeply than the blue. “I’ve had the same dreams,” she admitted, and his heart tripped. “But I won’t abandon my family. Not even for you.”

He shook his head. “I’m not asking you to.”

“Of course you are.” There was no accusation in her words, only sadness. “You want me to choose you over Zach. To stand by your side and watch you destroy him.” A tear fell from that brown eye, moistening the pad of Logan’s thumb. “Don’t you see that by hurting him, you’re hurting me?”

What could he say to that? She was right, and he could do nothing except push through and hope that with time she’d forgive him.

“Please,” she entreated. “Just let this quest of yours go.” Her chin wobbled as she tilted her head back to meet his gaze more completely. “For me?”

He wanted to. So badly that he physically ached. This was the woman he loved begging him. His knees nearly gave way from the force of his desire to please her.

But another woman’s image rose in his mind. A woman with graying hair who withdrew inside herself more and more each day. A woman he’d loved his entire life. One he’d sacrifice anything to protect.

Even his future.

His hand slid slowly from Eva’s face, and her tiny moan echoed between them. A sword cleaved his heart as he stepped away.

“I . . . I can’t.”

26

Evangeline fisted her hands in her skirt, desperately grasping the fabric to find purchase against the flash flood that had just knocked her sideways and threatened to drag her under.

He couldn’t?

More like he wouldn’t. She pressed her lips together in a tight line. He wouldn’t choose love over vengeance. Wouldn’t release the past in order to build a future.

“You have to understand,” Logan began. His face, usually so stoic, was a picture of torment. Lines etched his forehead. His eyes pleaded. But she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

“No.” Evangeline shook her head. “No, I don’t have to understand. I can’t. A man who says he loves me shouldn’t seek to harm my family.”