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As they spent the remainder of the afternoon divided between helping Liam pick apples and preventing him from falling head first into any of the wicker baskets on the ground, thoughts of a similar vein were silently running in the back of the minds of all three women.
Harry was mulling over Tilly’s revelation about Logan not having been home for three days, which was just not like the billionaire at all. It was almost like he was running away, and from what that could be, God only knew.
Charlotte, on the other hand, was remembering Tilly’s discomfited admission about the possibility Logan didn’t find her sexually attractive. The thought alone almost had her snorting. Yeah right. She and the boys had known each other since they were kids, and back then, Logan’s ultimate crush had been Elizabeth Taylor in her younger days. Tiny bombshell brunettes were his greatest weakness, and he especially loved it when a girl had the face of an angel and the body of a sex siren.
Drew Barrymore with black hair, Charlotte recalled Logan once describing his ideal woman, and…
“Hey, Tilly?”
“Yep?”
“Willy told me that you were mistaken for an actress yesterday.”
“Oh. That.” Tilly made a face. “I wouldn’t think much of that. She obviously has poor eyesight—”
“I still want to hear what she had to say,” Charlotte cajoled.
“She thought I was Adam Sandler’s ex-girlfriend, and that I had just dyed my hair black because I didn’t want to be recognized.”
Charlotte pretended to study her friend. “Mm…”
Tilly stuck her tongue out. “Shut up.”
“But it’s true,” Harry asserted earnestly. “I mean, I’ve been wondering myself who you remind me of, and now that Charlotte’s pointed it out, the resemblance is uncanny—”
“Will you guys quit it—” Tilly broke off when she noticed the rare look of discomfort on the little boy’s face. Kneeling down, she took a peek at his nappy – and pulled back right after.
Gaaah!
Why did baby poop seem to stink so much worse than its adult version?
“Excuse me for a moment, guys. Liam needs a quick restroom break.”
As she rose to her feet, Liam tugged on her hand, and when she glanced down, the little boy said with a toothless grin, “Race!”
Tilly grinned. “You got it.”
Harry and Charlotte both blinked in surprise when Tilly and Liam, hand in hand, suddenly broke into a run. A moment later, the two women turned to each other—
“Shall we make it a race?” Harry asked with a grin.
“On the count of three then…” Charlotte bent one knee. “One…two…” She sped off, saying over her shoulder, “Three!”
“Cheater!”
“I learned it from your husband!”
Tilly couldn’t help laughing when she heard the exchange between her friends. Harry really was the nicest person ever, someone who could never think ill of any person, while Charlotte, well…Tilly was just happy she was the other woman’s friend and not her enemy.
Either way though, life was really, really good, and Tilly absently placed a kiss on top of Liam’s head as she took him back to the nursery to change his nappy.
It had been almost a week since she and Billie had moved to Texas, and even now, she couldn’t help feeling everything was this long, beautiful dream she would one day wake up from.
Six days ago, all she knew of life was mostly hardship, having lost her parents one after another, followed by the subsequent struggle to carve out a living while scrambling for ways to keep up with the rising costs of keeping her little sister healthy.
But then she became Logan’s secret mail-order bride, and everything had changed in a blink of an eye.
With the exception of Sam, who seemed to think of her as a puzzle to solve, everyone else only saw her as the new nanny. Despite this, Tilly had nothing to complain about, with the life she was leading now a huge improvement over her previous existence.
In the past, Tilly used to suffer panic attacks all on her own, worrying if the day would come that she wouldn’t find enough part-time gigs to augment her wages as Mr. Hodge’s private cook, and Billie would die because of her.
But now…it was so much better.
She would never have to worry again about earning enough to put food on the table, pay for regular check-ups, and settle the bills that regularly arrived at her mailbox like clockwork.
Logan Hardwall had already given her so much, Tilly thought guiltily. Wouldn’t it be too greedy of her to wish that they could fall in love with each other, too?
When Tilly returned to the patio, a newly-washed Liam in her arms, she saw that the two women were huddled together on the couch, with Heart’s Match CEO looking particularly vexed.
“You’re still talking about Logan,” she guessed.
“Hmph.”
Plopping down on the armchair, she couldn’t help defending her billionaire boss-slash-husband, saying, “I really appreciate you guys being concerned about me, but maybe this is just a storm in a hiccup. Maybe he simply needs more time to process things. He might be used to solving financial crises and what not, but you have to admit: figuring out what to do with a secret wife and a surprise toddler doesn’t exactly fall under day-to-day problems.”
