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A crinkle appears between her shaped brows. “Umm, sorry … but Jason just texted to say the guys are on their way here.”
I raise my glass to my lips, hiding a smile at her casual mention of Jason; I’m not believing this is pure coincidence. But wait a minute, she said guys.
“Does guys happen to include Logan?” I ask, not really wanting to hear the answer. If Dana has something going on with Jason, I’m happy for my friend because he’s a great guy. I’d just prefer him to come alone.
She nods. “Jason, Hunter, Blake, and Logan. Is that okay?”
“Sure,” I say too quickly. Great, now I have to face Logan again. Twice in one night. I may need to get another drink to cope with more of his oddly intense staring. I’m not thrilled to have Logan joining us, not after our earlier interaction.
I position my body so I’m angled away from the entrance; otherwise, the temptation to watch for him would be too great. I thought I’d have at least twenty-four hours before I had to deal with his ever-changing personality swings again.
Chapter seven
Logan
Allie is on a date. It bothers me more than it should. She looked gorgeous tonight, all dressed up for some other lucky bastard.
Old habits die hard when it comes to her. It’s screwing with my head, especially when she’s living in my home, and a constant reminder of what I can’t have.
I’m glad I have plans tonight too, even if it’s only a simple poker night with my brothers upstairs in Hunter’s penthouse. I hope it’s enough of a distraction to keep me from thinking about who her date is and what she’s doing with him.
I’m still scowling when I let myself into Hunter’s apartment and go straight to his liquor cabinet. A Macallan Ruby single malt whiskey will improve my mood. My oldest brother can always be relied upon to have a bottle of the best.
Hunter watches me through squinted eyes while I help myself and only when the first burn of the whiskey hits my throat do I turn to say hello to both of my older brothers sitting in the living area.
From his stretched-out position on the sofa, Blake looks over his shoulder at me and asks, “What’s crawled up your ass tonight? You sound even moodier than usual, and that’s saying something.”
I glare at him, probably proving his point.
“Allie is messing with his head,” Hunter drawls out, similarly relaxing back on an adjacent large armchair. My glare turns in his direction. What the fuck? Aren’t my brothers supposed to be distracting me from thoughts of Allie not making matters worse by mentioning her name?
“She’s not messing with my head. She’s messing up my apartment, asshole,” I respond, dropping onto the sofa between them and putting my feet up on his coffee table in front of me. He hates it when I do that.
“Feet off my table,” Hunter grinds out through clenched teeth. I smile smugly at him and drop my feet back onto the plush rug.
Blake looks over at me, smiling at my deliberate act to piss off Hunter. But if I thought he’d be the one to leave the topic alone, I was wrong. “Didn’t you have a thing for Allie at one point?”
It’s the same question Hunter asked me a few months ago when I’d first reluctantly agreed to Katie’s request to have her stay.
“That was years ago, and I’d rather not talk about it tonight,” I respond through a tight jaw. Stupidly, one drunken night on a visit home from college, I admitted to my brothers that Allie had rejected me. I’ve regretted my confession ever since.
“That’s your problem, Logan, you never want to talk about anything personal,” Blake says, watching Hunter stand to retrieve the bottle from the bar and pour another measure of the golden liquid into his crystal glass.
I scoff. “You can talk, Blake.”
Of my two brothers, Blake has always been the more difficult to get a read on. Everything with him is all good times on the surface, but Hunter and I know you don’t have to dig too deep to hit a whole world of tightly coiled pain. A lot of it carried over from his time in the military. Lately though, his chilled façade seems more real, and I’m sure it has everything to do with his new girlfriend, Bec. However, the downside to him finding happiness seems to be his need to get Hunter and I to spill our guts and talk through our insecurities or worse feelings. Last time it was Hunter, and tonight it seems to be my turn. Well, he can go to hell, that’s not happening.
Hunter returns to sit beside me on the sofa. “Logan, you can’t deny that you and Allie have issues you need to work through. We’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching you circle each other for years. If you ask me …”
I go to interrupt, but he stops me as only Hunter can with his controlled calm authority. “I know you’re not asking but maybe it’s time you spoke to someone professionally.”
I sit up straighter, looking from one brother to the other. “What is this, some kind of intervention? I thought I was here to play poker.” I jump up unable to remain seated. “Just because I refuse to go with you to see our biological mother, it doesn’t mean I have mommy issues.” Over the years, my brothers have wanted me to go with them when they meet her, and with another visit coming up, the pressure is increasing. Why would I want to go see the woman who walked out on us when I was five? I continue, “She left us when I was too young to even remember her. As far as I’m concerned, Ada is the only woman who has been a mother to me.”
“Logan, sit down,” Hunter demands, and I return to my seat. He’s not my CEO here but still, he’s the one person to command and get my immediate compliance. Well, maybe Blake too. I look between them. Worry lines furrow their brows, highlighting the similarities in their features. I guess if I could see my own face, we’d be a matched set. Carlson men willing to go to war for each other.
I direct one of my death stares at Hunter, which would normally make the recipient skulk away in fear. On my brothers, it’s completely ineffectual; they’ve seen it too many times.
“I’ll consider seeing a therapist but not the woman who gave birth to me.” They both nod. I take another sip of my whiskey. My head is still spinning, trying to figure out how we got from talking about Allie and me, to the subject of our mother leaving us.
