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“Stephen Colbert’s about to come on.” He hoped she’d talk to him instead of watch TV, but he’d take her beside him either way. “Friends watch late night talk shows together.”
She hesitated, and he was sure she’d refuse him. But then she shrugged. “Okay.”
Thank God she didn’t see the ear-splitting grin he aimed at her back.
* * *
“So, what’s with the Hawaii sticker on your truck?”
Logan glanced over at her, sitting on the couch beside him. She’d changed into one of his T-shirts, and he liked seeing her in it entirely too much. “Came with the truck. I bought it used and never took it off.”
“Oh.” She turned her attention to the television, where the host interviewed some famous actress.
“Did you know Colbert’s been married twenty-five years? Says it was love at first sight.” It was a risky thing to say but he went with it.
Jeni rolled her eyes. “What a load of bull.”
“Which part? Being married that long or love at first sight?”
“Both.”
“You sure are jaded, aren’t you?”
“I’m twenty-six and divorced.”
“You can’t let one event reconfigure your entire life.”
“Sure, I can. People do it all the time. Because of my accident, I chose a completely different career path. The job offer with the Chiefs changed yours. I’d bet when Andrew’s finished with this whole cancer thing, he’ll say the process permanently altered his life in some way or another.”
“Those are different.”
“How?”
He paused. “I don’t know.”
She looked pleased with herself. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
“You can ask anything you want.” He just might choose not to answer. He crossed one ankle over his opposite knee.
She tucked her hair behind her ear, her gaze steady on his. “How did you lose your dad?”
“Aneurysm,” he said, rubbing at his ear. It had been a long time since he’d told anyone about it, but with her attention on him like a warm ray of sunshine somehow soothing the pain of the memory, he kept going. “It was sudden. I still remember exactly where I was when my mom called. I was at a bar with some friends. Straight up dropped the beer bottle in my hand, and it shattered all over the floor. My buddies laughed at me like I’d just had too much, and I just turned and walked out. It was one in the morning and I was a good two miles from home, but I walked the entire way.”
“That’s terrible. I’m sorry.”
“Me too. I didn’t have enough time with him.”
“You were in your twenties?”
“Twenty-one.” He almost added that he hadn’t met his dad until he was thirteen and had only had eight years to get to know him.
To learn from him.
But the words got stuck in his throat. He never talked about his life before coming to live with his parents. Tried not to think about it either. But that was harder to do.
“This is going to sound so nosy, but I thought maybe he had cancer. Andrew mentioned you’d been through that with someone.”
Andrew needed to keep his mouth shut. Logan didn’t want to talk about himself. He wanted to learn more about her. “That was my mom. She was diagnosed with breast cancer two years after my dad died.”
