giggling. My eyes
then meet Logan’s which are filled with laughter.
“Alexandra, you are full of surprises,
aren’t you?”
I take my sample from him and put it back
in the box. “Yep. So go ahead, get in all your digs. Laugh at my expense. There’s
not a joke I haven’t heard, believe me.”
“I’m not going to laugh,” he says, and I
angle him a look. “Anymore. I won’t laugh anymore .”
“Yeah, well, I’m laughing all the way to
the bank. I make more doing this than with my assistant job, and there just
aren’t a ton of jobs out here in the middle of nowhere. Do you know how much I
have to fork over in vet bills for all my fosters?”
His eyes are locked on mine with an
expression I’m not really familiar with. Is it… admiration?
“Good for you, Allie,” he replies with a
grin.
I look at him, suspicious.
“What? I’m serious. Good for you,” he
reiterates. “You know what you need, and you find a way to get it.”
“Thanks,” I say, for lack of knowing what
else to say. His response wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. Then again,
nothing about Logan is ever what I’m expecting.
Chapter 8
- LOGAN -
I step into the crisp spring air and into
the stillness of the night. Allie didn’t leave her front porch light on this
evening and I see her car is gone. So I flick on my own light so that she won’t
be welcomed home by the darkness when she returns.
She must be at one of those parties
tonight, I imagine with a slight grin. I hadn’t pegged her for the kind of girl
who had ever even wrapped her fingers around a vibrator, and she sells them?
I step quietly past her door so that I
don’t get her latest dogs fired up. The German shepherd and husky seem pretty
docile, but that corgi is a spitfire. I’ve never seen so much energy and muscle
packed into a tiny frame.
It’s the first night of having a neighbor
for me since Annapolis, and I have to admit, I like it. With the windows open
to let the cool spring air in, I could hear her friends talking up a storm all evening
till the three of them left at about nineteen hundred hours.
Background noise like their chatter soothes
me, and till she came along, I was regretting buying this stretch of townhomes
so far off the road. I still do, a little.
I turn the key in #3 and flick on the
lights. No matter that I don’t like it here. These townhomes will be complete
by fall if all continues to go on schedule. And I’ll be free to move on to
something else.
Someplace else. But where?
My heart tugs me toward San Diego. But
I’m not ready to face the demons of my past. Even now, as the thought passes
quickly, my throat burns enough that I’m pulling two antacids from the pill box
stashed in my cargo shorts.
No, not San Diego, I decide as I pour
some cream paint into a roller tray and load up my brush.
I’ll stay here, where I can at least keep
an eye on my family for a while longer. At least till Dad and Mom face reality
and settle him into a good memory care facility so that my mother isn’t
spending her every waking hour worrying he’ll wander off and forget where the
hell he is going.
Or am I using my family as an excuse?
I’m gratefully pulled off this dangerous
road of thought when I hear a knock at the door. “Come in,” I shout, knowing it
must be Allie. No one else would show up here this late at night.
“Hey. You’re up late,” she notices.
Her hair is down around her shoulders and
I think she’s wearing the same outfit that she wore the night we met. I
recognize the silk blouse and my fingers can still remember the feel of it
against her skin as I held her. She steps inside and her heels click against
the floor. Heels on her look as sexy as sin simply because she doesn’t seem the
type to wear them usually. So looking at her in heels is like looking at a tree
all covered in Christmas lights. Something special. A treat. A feast for the
eyes.
And too damn young for me to feast upon,
I remind
then meet Logan’s which are filled with laughter.
“Alexandra, you are full of surprises,
aren’t you?”
I take my sample from him and put it back
in the box. “Yep. So go ahead, get in all your digs. Laugh at my expense. There’s
not a joke I haven’t heard, believe me.”
“I’m not going to laugh,” he says, and I
angle him a look. “Anymore. I won’t laugh anymore .”
“Yeah, well, I’m laughing all the way to
the bank. I make more doing this than with my assistant job, and there just
aren’t a ton of jobs out here in the middle of nowhere. Do you know how much I
have to fork over in vet bills for all my fosters?”
His eyes are locked on mine with an
expression I’m not really familiar with. Is it… admiration?
“Good for you, Allie,” he replies with a
grin.
I look at him, suspicious.
“What? I’m serious. Good for you,” he
reiterates. “You know what you need, and you find a way to get it.”
“Thanks,” I say, for lack of knowing what
else to say. His response wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. Then again,
nothing about Logan is ever what I’m expecting.
Chapter 8
- LOGAN -
I step into the crisp spring air and into
the stillness of the night. Allie didn’t leave her front porch light on this
evening and I see her car is gone. So I flick on my own light so that she won’t
be welcomed home by the darkness when she returns.
She must be at one of those parties
tonight, I imagine with a slight grin. I hadn’t pegged her for the kind of girl
who had ever even wrapped her fingers around a vibrator, and she sells them?
I step quietly past her door so that I
don’t get her latest dogs fired up. The German shepherd and husky seem pretty
docile, but that corgi is a spitfire. I’ve never seen so much energy and muscle
packed into a tiny frame.
It’s the first night of having a neighbor
for me since Annapolis, and I have to admit, I like it. With the windows open
to let the cool spring air in, I could hear her friends talking up a storm all evening
till the three of them left at about nineteen hundred hours.
Background noise like their chatter soothes
me, and till she came along, I was regretting buying this stretch of townhomes
so far off the road. I still do, a little.
I turn the key in #3 and flick on the
lights. No matter that I don’t like it here. These townhomes will be complete
by fall if all continues to go on schedule. And I’ll be free to move on to
something else.
Someplace else. But where?
My heart tugs me toward San Diego. But
I’m not ready to face the demons of my past. Even now, as the thought passes
quickly, my throat burns enough that I’m pulling two antacids from the pill box
stashed in my cargo shorts.
No, not San Diego, I decide as I pour
some cream paint into a roller tray and load up my brush.
I’ll stay here, where I can at least keep
an eye on my family for a while longer. At least till Dad and Mom face reality
and settle him into a good memory care facility so that my mother isn’t
spending her every waking hour worrying he’ll wander off and forget where the
hell he is going.
Or am I using my family as an excuse?
I’m gratefully pulled off this dangerous
road of thought when I hear a knock at the door. “Come in,” I shout, knowing it
must be Allie. No one else would show up here this late at night.
“Hey. You’re up late,” she notices.
Her hair is down around her shoulders and
I think she’s wearing the same outfit that she wore the night we met. I
recognize the silk blouse and my fingers can still remember the feel of it
against her skin as I held her. She steps inside and her heels click against
the floor. Heels on her look as sexy as sin simply because she doesn’t seem the
type to wear them usually. So looking at her in heels is like looking at a tree
all covered in Christmas lights. Something special. A treat. A feast for the
eyes.
And too damn young for me to feast upon,
I remind
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