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“Logan.”
“Hello, Koty.”
“Koty?” Susan’s eyebrow rose. “I thought you hated that nickname?”
Dakota glanced at Logan. Despite the shock at seeing him, she schooled her features. When she spoke, her voice was firm. “No, just the person who used to use it.”
Logan crossed the room at an unhurried pace. “Is that how you greet a long-lost friend?”
“You were hardly lost,” she clarified. “You left, if I recall.”
“Well, that part may be true.”
“May be?” Dakota retorted. “You destroyed our friendship, Logan. You left abruptly—and you didn’t look back.” She left out the part about when she needed him most.
Susan glanced between the two of them. “Uh, I think I’ll let you two catch up.”
She stood up and bolted from the room.
The lofty reply got under Dakota’s skin in record time and spurred her to action. She was across the room in seconds.
“What are you doing here?”
Logan sat down on the couch. “Are you going to stand here hissing at me like an angry kitten, or are you going to welcome a good friend home?”
“There’s that word again,” she replied. “I haven’t seen you in how many years, Logan? I’d hardly call us friends—good or otherwise.”
“We were inseparable once.”
“Yes, we were…and then you ruined it.”
He nodded. “Fair enough, but it’s not like I’ve changed much, Koty.”
“Nope, still the selfish jackass you’ve always been,” she quipped. “And it’s Dakota. Nobody calls me Koty…not anymore.”
“How about we call a cease-fire, and you ask me why I’m here?”
“How about you explain why you stayed away in the first place? Better yet, why you didn’t level with me if your feelings had changed, and why you’re sitting here like I’m supposed to run into your arms and give you a big welcome-home hug. I can tell you right now, that ain’t happening.”
“Can you please sit down and let me explain?”
With an exasperated sigh, Dakota took a seat across from him. “I’m sitting. Now why are you here? I thought Chicago was the last place you wanted to be?”
He winced at the not-so-subtle reminder of words spoken long ago that she had overheard. “For a long time it was…but things change.”
Her expression was guarded. “I know that better than anyone.”
He sighed. “I did come back, often, if I recall.”
“Yes, you did, but nothing was ever the same. Tell me I’m wrong. Each time I saw you things were…awkward between us.”
“I don’t expect you to understand, but I stayed away to make a name for myself.”
“Last time I checked, you were a Montague. How many names do you need?”
“You know what I mean. I left at my father’s insistence to learn the family business, but I also went in search of life on my own terms…without all the baggage—and the money. It was important to me.”
“Obviously more important than our friendship.”
His expression turned remorseful. “You know that wasn’t the case.”
“Do I?” She stared at him. “What was I supposed to think, Logan? You spouted some gibberish about going off to work at Montague…something you said you’d never do.”
“It was at my parents’ insistence, Dakota. I didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter. I never wanted to leave Chicago—or you.”
“But you kissed me…we kissed, Logan. You literally ask me to wait for you, and then you leave and go to New York, but that’s not the best part. Then you go to California to attend Stanford instead of Georgetown University like we planned. You didn’t tell me about your decision until it was too late to stop you. Which I’m sure you bargained for.”
Logan glanced up. “Dakota, nothing during those years turned out the way I’d hoped. It was wrong of me to ask you to put your life on hold for me, but…I thought we had something developing between us that we should explore.”
“So did I, but then things changed.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Dakota.”
When she remained quiet, he continued. “So you did end up going to Georgetown?”
“That was the plan,” she said pointedly. “I kept my end of our promise. And to add insult to injury, you didn’t keep in contact.”
The bitter censure in her words was not lost on Logan.
“So what about you?”
She looked confused. “What about me?”
“You didn’t bother to visit. You knew where I was, and you didn’t come. Not once.”
