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His face heated as he shrugged. “It’s okay. Really. I have another one.”
Dropping his wrist, she snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, I guess you do. Hmm.” Her eyes continued to gleam with amusement as she watched him. “I wonder why people do have two eyes. I mean, we only have one nose and one mouth. Why two eyes? Or…why not three or four?”
He blinked, wondering where the heck that thought had come from. Instead of telling her how adorable he found her weird, philosophical pondering, he scratched his temple. “I’ve always wondered the same thing.”
She lit with excitement. “Really?”
Oh, crap. He deflated and came clean. “No. Not really.”
Giving him a sideways smirk, she pushed playfully at this arm. “Are you calling me weird?”
“No.” He unconsciously reached for his sleeve where she’d touched him. “I wouldn’t dare.”
“You better not.” Grinning, she nodded in approval.
Then she turned away to help a group of guys who came into the shop. They didn’t have a chance to tease and play around for the rest of the night, but Logan still felt high from their brief encounter. By the time closing rolled around, he still had this euphoric surge of adrenaline pounding through him, like he could pick up the entire building and twirl it around on his pinkie.
As soon as Paige turned the Open sign around to display Closed, her nerves kicked in. She’d wanted to talk to Logan about his wrists for a while. After chickening out e
arlier, now was her last chance. But since “now” was actually here, saying what she wanted to say seemed awkward.
She cleared her throat as she hurried back the counter. “Do you mind if I turn on the radio? It helps me work better.” Maybe it’d help ease her nerves into saying what she wanted to say too.
He glanced at her with the most inscrutable expression, and then gave a slight shake of his head. “I don’t mind.”
She tried to smile and found it strained. Her chest felt full, crammed with anxiety. “Thanks.”
Gus kept an old alarm clock radio sitting on top of the tallest juice machine. Ricky had taught her she could turn the radio on after hours. Stretching up onto her tiptoes, she reached for the power button, her fingers stumbling blindly for the knob.
“Here.” A long arm swooped above her head and flipped the switch.
A low, slow melody flowed over them. Paige lowered her hand and turned, finding it difficult to breathe as she caught Logan’s gaze. With his arm still stretched over them, he asked, “Is this station okay?”
Her voice had definitely gone on vacation. She opened her mouth, tried to speak, and got nothing. Pressing her lips together, she nodded.
He lowered his arm, and she released her breath in a shudder.
When he shifted away, she felt a little lost. Pressing her hand against her heart, hoping to calm the rapid beat pouring through her, she closed her eyes, and steadied herself.
“I call dish duty.”
He’d have to roll up his sleeves to do the dishes, and she’d caught him more than once this evening tugging them down. He’d probably done it before around her, but now she noticed it. She wondered if he realized how hard he constantly worked to hide them though.
Logan moved to the meat slicer and began to disassemble it. They worked together in companionable silence, the radio lulling her as it played the top forty hits.
When they finished, she glanced around. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever finished clean up this fast before.” Tossing him a pleased grin, she added, “We make a good team.”
A choking sound came from his throat as he seared her with a dumbfounded glance.
She drew in a long breath, glad she had his attention, yet dreading the next few minutes.
“Actually, I’m glad we were scheduled together tonight,” she pushed out, ready to get her speech over and done with. Ignoring the shock on his face, she smiled again, hoping to reassure him that she wasn’t going to say anything rude or hateful. “I’ve been hoping to run across you for a while now. There was something I wanted to say. And I was going to do it on Halloween when you drove me and my friends home, but then Einstein got into trouble and sidetracked me, so…” She shrugged and sent him a rueful smile.
He blinked. “Okay.” When he just watched her, his face frozen as if he was reserving his reaction until he heard her out, she glanced away, suddenly self-conscious.
“Anyway, I wanted to tell you I…that is, it wasn’t fair of me to kick you out of the grief group. I shouldn’t have done that.”
He stared at her a moment longer, still frozen. Then he shook his head and frowned. “You didn’t kick me out. I left voluntarily.”
