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“Gabriella Perez was my high school girlfriend.”
“Oh… shit.”
Logan thought Ford might actually be blushing.
“Yeah, so maybe just… cool it,” Logan said.
“Sure, boss,” Ford said. “Sorry.”
Logan pulled away from the curb, already regretting the warning. He had no right to issue it. No right to even think it. Ella didn’t belong to him.
She never had.
10
Gabriella paced the kitchen in yoga pants, a T-shirt, and an oversize cardigan. It was late, way past the point when she should have been in bed if she wasn’t going to bother working.
But how could she sleep knowing Logan was out there, sitting in his car, watching her house? How could she sleep after he’d been in her house, talked to her son? After he’d been close enough to touch?
After so many years when he’d seemed totally out of reach, when she’d imagined all the things she would say to him if she ever got the chance, he was here.
She chewed on her thumbnail as she paced, an internal war playing out in her mind.
Finally she headed for the stairs, making her way down the second floor hall to Leo’s door. She peered through the half open door and smiled at the sight of him, limbs splayed out on his mattress, covers kicked down at the foot of the bed, the fish from his projector spinning across his walls.
He was a hot sleeper like his dad. Tendrils of sweaty dark hair stuck to his forehead, and his pajamas had ridden up to reveal his soft belly. She would leave the covers for now, pull them up when she got back.
She backed away from the door and descended the stairs, then returned to the kitchen where she brewed a fresh pot of coffee and packed up two of the leftover sandwiches, along with some of the grapes, a bag of chips, and a couple of the cookies Bea had baked earlier in the week.
She filled a thermos with coffee and headed for the front door, then made sure to disarm the alarm before opening the door.
Logan was across the street, behind the wheel of a black Lexus. He’d spoken to the officer in the cruiser when he arrived, and a half hour later, the police car had pulled away from the curb and disappeared down the street.
His head swiveled toward her the second she stepped onto the porch, and she headed down the driveway toward the Lexus, forcing herself not to look for the burgundy SUV. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
She crossed the street and Logan’s window retracted. He didn’t look happy to see her.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
She held up the thermos and the shopping bag full of food. “Thought you might need some food and caffeine.”
He frowned. “You shouldn’t be out here. The point of me being here is to watch the house so you can sleep, go about your daily life.”
She nodded. “I know. I just… I feel bad that you’re out here. You sure you don’t want to come in?”
“I’m sure.” He sounded it.
“All right then.” She handed him the food.
“Do you want to sit for a few minutes?” he asked.
She almost said no. He looked so pained. Like he was asking his dentist to perform a root canal.
But she didn’t want to say no. She wanted to sit in the dark next to him again. Wanted to know he didn’t hate her even though he had every right.
It was selfish. She knew that. Still, she found herself nodding, walking around the front of the car. She climbed into the passenger seat.
He unscrewed the lid on the thermos and sniffed appreciatively, then poured some of the coffee into an empty to-go cup in the Lexus’s console.
