Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich Page B

rate?” He could practically hear her smirking.
    â€œNot even close,” he responded from the kitchen. “But that’s not a bad idea.”
    Holly could hear him rustling about, the sound of drawers opening and closing. “I promise never to call you in the middle of the night again?” she called back to him. She was only half-teasing.
    He returned. “Oh, forget that, but thank you in advance.” He sat down with a spoon and the pint of ice cream. He took off the lid and tossed it on the coffee table in front of them before jamming the spoon in it and giving her a significant look. He held the pint of ice cream up in front of her. “This is not the enemy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with rewarding yourself with some treats now and again, in either celebration or even self-pity. What is not okay is going outside the box and looking at the treat as a failure and thereby giving yourself license to keep failing. This is not the enemy!” he repeated with mock severity. “This is ice cream. Karamel Sutra, to be exact. Sounds sexy.” He scooped a spoonful of ice cream and put it in his mouth. “What else don’t I know about you? Holy shit, this stuff really is delicious.” He looked at the container again before taking another spoonful and holding it out to her. “Come on, tough girl, join me in this before I eat it all myself.”
    I should have told him about the Milky Way was Holly’s first thought. Logan would have really been able to put that sucker into perspective.
    He brought the spoon to her lips, and as she opened her mouth, her second thought began to emerge. She began mentally composing a letter to the chubby girl’s version of Penthouse Forum, starting with The most handsome man in the world has a penchant for feeding me ice cream . . . while naked. Her smile got wide. So did his. For entirely different reasons, she was sure. They ate the whole pint, giggling.
    â€œSee?” he said, licking the spoon for the last time and dropping it back into the now-empty container. “No harm, no foul. A little ice cream never hurt anyone, except maybe the lactose intolerant. Like I told you before, it’s about coexisting. Just remember, when you eat those calories, you just have to work a little harder the next day to burn them off. I already put the rest of the food away. If you’re smart, you’ll wake up tomorrow and throw it all out. But don’t let me find out they shared a table for one again, or there’ll be hell to pay, got me?”
    She blushed, feeling naughty and contented at the same time. She gave him a stiff-armed military salute. “Understood. But what’s fair is fair. I just spilled my guts. Now, what’s your life story, or did Zeus just throw down a thunderbolt and you landed on Nordhoff Place?”
    â€œWell,” he said, grinning with pride, “he would have had to throw down two. Don’t forget about my location on West Thirty-fifth.” Logan kept a fully equipped facility in the city, for clients who were city dwellers. He didn’t generally make house calls, although most of his clients had their own fully equipped spaces. It was a short ride through the Lincoln Tunnel and he booked about a third of his sessions there. “I much prefer the Englewood location though. The air just seems cleaner, the vibe a little less hectic. I’m a pretty simple guy. I grew up with an insanely average life in Danbury, Connecticut. My dad’s an accountant, my mom a fourth-grade schoolteacher. I have a sister named Joanna, JoJo for short. She’s three years older and a school psychologist up near where my folks live. She’s married and has three kids of her own. I grew up loving baseball, played a lot in school, and ended up getting a scholarship to the University of California at Irvine, where I found out I liked sports physiology better. That turned out to be a good move. I