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“Just needed some air.” Everly’s eyes drifted to the pharmacy across the street. Mrs. Hartl stayed open late on the weekends in case anyone had too much to drink at Harry’s and needed first aid or aspirin at the end of the night. She could see the older woman’s shadow movingaround as she restocked shelves. Everly wondered if she had anything for lost souls in there. “I assume you saw what happened.” He missed nothing, after all.
Logan was kind enough to only nod as he sat down beside her. There was a whole length of brick between them, and Everly hated how aware of the distance she was.
She raked her hands through the waves Jazzy had spent twenty minutes styling.
“You know you did nothing wrong by kissing him, right?”
Everly could only imagine how pathetic the whole scene was going to look on camera. She’d probably had some goofy, lovelorn expression on her face as she’d leaned toward James. He must have looked horrified. Sady was going to eat it up.
“I’m a fool,” Everly mumbled.
She was staring ahead, but she could feel Logan’s gaze. Heat sparked in the path his eyes trailed across her cheeks. “Why?” he asked.
She shifted to face him. The moment their eyes connected, the truth Everly had been fighting off hit her with the force of a train at full speed.
James had always been a fantasy. She kept him safely tucked away in a box she’d never planned to open. He was no different from any book boyfriend or hero in the romances she liked to read. He was safe. Never a threat. Because he’d never happen.
But from the second he had grumbled his way into her life, Logan had become something else entirely. He refused to stay in the box she put him in. Or out of her head.
He saw her. More than anyone had in a long, long time. Even with a camera between them.
And though she’d tried like hell to deny it, Everly saw him, too. Right through that gruff exterior to the softness at his center.
“You acted on your feelings. Not everyone is brave enough to do that.”
She watched him, not blinking until he stopped talking. His lips pressed together in a straight line. It was still unnerving to look at him without a camera between them. That lens often made her feel naked, but now she felt even more so.
Especially as the words left her lips.
“Did I, though? Because I’m pretty sure I kissed the wrong person.”
CHAPTER 18
Logan stared quietly at her.
Everly was afraid he was going to make her repeat herself, or worse, force her to explain what she meant.
But then his tongue slipped out to wet his lips, and his gaze deepened. “We should fix that,” he said softly. The gravel in his voice would have buckled Everly’s knees if she weren’t already sitting.
One of his large hands rose from his lap. Her breath hitched as he reached for her, gently sliding his palm across her cheek before circling the back of her neck and drawing her face to his.
Even after being inside a crowded bar for hours, he smelled like winter, and his lips were soft and supple, minty like a cold breeze.
One of his hands cupped her face while the other continued to cradle her head, keeping her close in a way that felt fragile, ephemeral, like the hold would break the moment she needed it to.
Each push and pull of her lips he answered with equal pressure. Matching her.
Her hands grasped his biceps to steady herself, and holy god theywere every bit as solid as they looked. She relished the sensation as her fingers sank into them.
The thump of her heart was so hard against her chest, she was sure Logan could feel it across the space between them. Yet her mind was oddly calm. Serene. Like she was exactly where she needed to be. Doing exactly what she should be doing. She wasn’t worried about her body or how it felt to him. She wasn’t worried about what he was thinking. There was only the perfect taste of his mouth and the race of her heart and how she wanted more and more of this.
That certainty vanished, though, the moment they pulled apart.
Doubt slammed into her like a tidal wave. What was she doing? Kissing Logan wasn’t going to help her fix herself. It was only going to confuse everything further.
“Everly.” He took her wrists gently in his hands. Her name was as gentle on his lips. Yet she was shaking enough to rattle her bones.
She didn’t remember standing, but suddenly she was on her feet, and he released her from his grasp. “I—I have to go.”
