Finding Home (Montana Born Homecoming Book 2) by Roxanne Snopek Page B

in his arms, pinning the flailing limbs as best he could. “Let’s go.”
    She had no choice but to follow. They garnered much attention as they made their way through the corridors and out the front doors, but as they walked to the parking lot, Jade’s cries had begun to fade.
    By the time they reached her car, and Logan lowered her into her car seat, she was down to hiccupping sobs.
    By the time Samara had her properly buckled in, she was asleep.
    “Get in,” said Logan, pointing to the passenger seat.
    “Logan,” she began.
    “That wasn’t a suggestion, Sam.”
    He slid awkwardly behind the wheel, then adjusted the seat to fit his frame. She got in and immediately turned around to check on Jade.
    “She’s fine.” Logan started the engine and moved the mirrors. “Just like she was two seconds ago.”
    “You’re way out of line, Logan,” she said quietly.
    “Maybe,” he said, turning onto the road. “But so are you. You had no right to go off on them like that.”
    Guilt squirmed hot and uncomfortable inside. She had no response and they traveled the short trip to Bramble House in silence.
    She was suddenly exhausted beyond measure. Logan shut off the engine and got out, closing his door carefully. Before she could get to Jade’s door, he was already there, undoing the buckles and gathering her into his arms.
    “I can take it from here, Logan.”
    He ignored her weak protest. “Get your things.”
    With one big hand stroking her hair, Logan cradled Jade’s head gently against his shoulder and strode down the walkway ahead of her.
    The image triggered something in Samara, a yearning so powerful, so unexpected, that it nearly felled her.
    Logan had no right to take over the way he had.
    But the sense of having someone else to rely on, to let herself feel tired, without feeling either guilty or terrified that she was indulging herself at her daughter’s expense…
    Tears choked her throat. The rush of emotions that had flooded over her in the space of a single day left her feeling weak and off kilter. And through those doors, were two women who’d befriended her, and were now undoubtedly regretting it.
    She’d barely remembered to ask after Mabel.
    She’d come to Marietta to find a forever home, to hopefully join a community and learn what it meant to be a part of something.
    And within a week, she’d alienated the first people to be nice to her.
    “Come on in, honey.” Logan stood under the porch light, holding the door open for her. He held Jade against him with one arm, managing the weight far more easily than Sam herself could.
    “Sam,” he said gently. That beautiful blue-green gaze was so soft, so full of compassion. She walked forward, hardly feeling her legs, bypassing the kitchen and leading Logan to her suite.
    Bob greeted them with quiet concern, snuffling insistently at whatever part of Jade she could access. The dog had probably been almost as worried as she’d been herself.
    At Jade’s doorway Samara stopped. “You can put her down on the bed. I’ll get her into her pajamas.”
    But Logan pushed past her. He flipped back the coverlet, lowered Jade onto the sheets and slipped off her shoes. “She can sleep in her clothes.”
    She didn’t have energy to argue. She could always get Jade settled properly once he was gone.
    But Logan turned off the light, pulled the door almost but not completely closed, and turned to her.
    “Now,” he said, his eyes glittering. “Your turn.”
    *
    He wanted her .
    Logan looked down at Sam, standing in the dim hallway light, her posture still tight and determined, despite the mixture of emotions he knew she was feeling.
    Almost a decade and a half since high school, and she was as beautiful as ever.
    More, in fact.
    Back then, he’d wanted to gather her under his arm and be her shield against the world, or her entry ticket into it. He was the big-man-on-campus and he wanted to prove it to her. He was the guy who got the new girl. The ice queen