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The questions in his eyes weren’t ones she wanted to answer. But she hadn’t exactly said yes earlier and he didn’t want to read her wrong again. He needed to hear the words.
“Walk with me on the beach?” she asked. “Let’s go somewhere where we can be alone.”
“Only if you’re sure,” he said. “I don’t need something else to regret tomorrow.”
“I don’t want to be something you regret,” she answered. “I want you, Logan. No strings. Nothing but the summer night and this moment.”
“Me too,” he said.
He slipped his hand in hers and led her away from the bonfire, stopping to grab a blanket from the pile the hotel staff had set out for the guests. They walked away from the crowd and the music. The night got darker and the breeze a bit stronger, but she grew more confident.
For too long she’d ignored the fact that she’d never had the closure she’d wanted with Logan. She’d given him an ultimatum—stop turning everything into a competition or leave—their senior year of college and had expected that he’d give in to her. Instead he’d walked away. She hadn’t had a chance to end things the way she’d wanted.
And this, of course, wasn’t an ending but it was one last time in his arms so she’d be able to finally put that chapter of her life to rest. Mark it ended and move on from Logan Bisset once and for all. It was past time that she did it, and tonight seemed the right moment.
A moment when they could just be Logan and Quinn and forget about the rest of the world.
Three
The farther away they got from the bonfire, the more relaxed Logan seemed to be. It was as if, in the darkness, with only the moon to light their way, he could let down his guard. A part of Quinn, the part that, if she were honest, probably still loved him a little bit, softened. She had always thought that Logan’s biggest problem was the fact that he thought he had to be invincible. She knew he’d never change. There was too much August Bisset in him for that to happen.
The walk gave her time to think. The thing about Logan was that he was better to deal with as an impulse and then move on. As soon as she started worrying about his happiness—seeing the broken man she wanted to fix no matter that she knew she couldn’t—she should walk away.
For her own sanity.
He stopped and let the blanket drop to the sand at their feet, pulling her into his arms with his chest to her back, just holding her.
“I’ll deny it if you ever repeat this, but there are times when I agree with Zac. I totally understand his love of the sea. There’s something soothing about the ocean that tempts me to forget all my problems,” he said. His voice was a low rumble and there was a softness to his words that surprised her.
This wasn’t the Logan she’d dated in college; she’d do well to remember that. And it was a good and bad thing, she thought.
“Why wouldn’t you want anyone to know that?” she asked, putting her hands over his wrists where they crossed over her stomach.
“Because I’m always giving Zac a hard time about being a sailor. I mean I know he’s so much more than that, as he is a captain for the America’s Cup and it’s highly competitive and he’s very good at it. But he’s my little brother...”
She shook her head. As an only child, she’d never really understood the sibling dynamic—especially the Bisset siblings—but she knew that whatever it was meant a lot to all of them. “Well, I doubt I’ll have a chance to speak to him, so your secret is safe with me.”
He sighed then.
“What?”
“Why is it that you’re the one woman I can trust?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I think if we dwell on this, then we will be heading back to the bonfire.”
He moved to stand next to her. They were facing the inky-dark ocean and the gentle sound of the waves wasn’t as soothing as it had been a few moments ago. This was what she’d hoped to avoid. There was no closure in talking to Logan. He was always going to be the guy he’d been. He was always going to let her down, not through a fault in him—he could only be the man he was—but in her own expectation of the man she wanted him to be.
“That would be the safe choice,” he said. “But I’ve never been one to avoid a risk and if you are anything like the woman I used to know, you’re the same.”
She groaned.
He laughed.
She shrugged. “I’m not that woman anymore, Logan.”
“Sure you are, Ace. That’s why you’re standing with me down the beach from the crowd. And if you are anything like me, you remember how good we were together,” he said.
They had been good together. Physically they’d always had that spark. There was something in him that drew her like a moth to a flame, ignoring the danger for the chance to get closer to him for a short amount of time. She wanted to turn and walk away. She was thirty. Smarter now than she had ever been. Well, if not smarter, at least wiser.
