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“It’s nothing. He’s my neighbor and offered to drive me to work. I was having car trouble.”
I don’t know why I lied. I shouldn’t have. But I just couldn’t bring myself to tell Violet about what happened in the parking lot last night. Maybe because I knew she’d tell Rose and they’d call the police or maybe because they’d tell me to stay away from Logan. There was just no sense in worrying them when the chances of Conlon coming back to the farm were slim to none. I had a handle on the situation and so did Logan.
There was no valid explanation as to why I already trusted him. I barely knew him and dismissed him as a drug dealer, yet I was letting him take the lead on the whole thing and deal with it his way. I didn’t know a thing about Logan other than his underground profession, his beer preference- it was Guiness- and the fact that his car smelled like sandalwood.
Honestly, it was intoxicating.
“He’s just a friend,” I assured Vi.
“I know, honey. They always start off as just a friend.”
Chapter 5
One month later
O ver the course of the next thirty days, Mac grew so exponentially that no one could have possibly known he’d been malnourished. At eleven weeks he weighed in at just under fourteen pounds. He had a voracious appetite and was very playful and loving. Logan dropped him off twice a week for training sessions with me and, so far, they were paying off. Mac knew how to sit and lay down, but he really couldn’t grasp the concept of waiting to eat before all of his food was poured into his bowl. I couldn’t count the number of times both Logan and myself poured food directly on Mac’s head because he was so eager.
As predicted, I hadn’t seen Greg Conlon since the night he showed up at Arden and, as far as I knew, Logan hadn’t heard from him either.
Though, I had to admit that Logan’s behavior was sometimes erratic. There were days where he would disappear completely. He’d be radio silent and I wouldn’t hear from him for a while. It was slightly odd and made me wonder if I was missing something. Was I bothering him? Did he have a girlfriend that he didn’t want me to know about?
Not that it would matter if he did. We were strictly friends, as I told both Rose and Violet on more than one occasion. Sometimes I didn’t even consider us that. We were more of acquaintances. I helped him learn how to care for a dog and I taught his dog new tricks. We didn’t hang out and watch movies or get into deep discussions about life and love. Which was fine, I wasn’t looking for that and I doubted he was either.
“A big blizzard’s coming, baby,” I said to Sadie on one overcast Sunday as I grabbed my keys and jacket. The weather reported that come Monday the south shore would be buried under eighteen inches of snow, which meant that I needed to go to the grocery store and stock up on, well, everything. With how much I worked I never really had a ton of food in the house. I was always on the go, and with Sunday being my only day off, it usually turned into my errand day.
Of course, I should have been smarter than to go into a grocery store the day before a blizzard. Everyone in the north east part of the country turned into bread and milk fiends whenever a storm was about to hit. I never understood it because, hey, what if we lost power? Milk spoils. Easily. Bread gets moldy within a week. I thought it was smarter to stock up on water and cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.
I wheeled my carriage down the cookie and cracker aisle, dropping two boxes of pecan sandies in before going back and grabbing a box double stuffs, too. It was a zoo, though. The lines at the register were a mile long and people were running around with overflowing carts and carriages. It was complete insanity.
“Excuse me?” asked a soft voice from behind me.
I turned around to see a curvy blonde wringing her hands together. “Yes?”
The dark haired man behind her rolled his eyes as he grabbed his own box of oreos. “I told you to leave her alone. He does this all the time, Abbs.”
She huffed and turned to him, slapping the bag of cookies into the carriage. “Knox, I haven’t heard from him in three days, okay? I’m tired of this.” she turned to look at me again, her blue eyes bright. “Hi, I’m Abby Ashford. I think you know my brother, right? You train his dog.”
Ah, I knew she looked familiar. Abby Ashford. I’d read some article over the summer about how she moved home because of a stalker and then ended up turning into a total badass after she realized it was her doctor all along. Seriously, it was like something straight out of a movie.
Rose was right, Port James was a weird town.
I nodded my head after realizing I was still just staring at her. “Yeah, that’s right. I’m Juliette.”
She shook my hand and flashed a smile. “Getting ready for the snow? My boyfriend, the oreo addict, decided Sunday was a great day to grocery shop. Insane, right?”
She was bubbly and talking a mile a minute, using hand gestures and smiling. I had to admit that she was gorgeous just like her brother. Same blonde hair and skin tone. Same nose. The only difference that I could see was the eye color and, of course, that she was a female.
Her boyfriend, I thought I heard her call him Knox, shook his head before stretching an arm over her head to shake my hand. “I’m sorry. She drank way too much coffee and I would like you to know that it was her idea to come here.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. There was an obvious annoyance with each other but they were both still smiling and had their fingers linked together behind Abby’s back. Logan talked about them once or twice and said that his sister was one of his best friends. As far as I knew, he used to hate Knox but they were okay now. Some sort of family drama that I didn’t feel right asking about because, well…
Because you’re not friends. You don’t tell each other personal things.
“So, uh, I’m not trying to be pushy here, but I have a feeling you didn’t want to just introduce yourself.”
Abby’s eyes widened and she tucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “Okay, you’re a straight shooter. I like that. So is he.” she jabbed her boyfriend in the ribs. “Have you, um, have you seen Logan? I haven’t talked to him in a few days and when we went by his house earlier there was no answer. His car was in the driveway but…” she trailed off.
So it wasn’t just me who noticed when he disappeared. Logan said his family didn’t know about his job and I didn’t want to be the one to drop that bomb, though I really couldn’t say whether or not his sister would be supportive of it.
