When I couldn’t see him anymore, I let the tears flow.
5
Logan
Logan Hamilton could hardly concentrate on the meeting he had arranged to discuss upcoming projects. He sat at the head of the carved wood table in his large, open-concept office and tried to seem interested and engaged. He tried hard. He had a dedicated staff, several had prepared presentations, there were ongoing discussions, and he needed to respect their work and their time.
At the end, he said, “Thanks to all of you. Thank you for your hard work and dedication.” He shared more words of appreciation, then said, “I know the holidays are going to be super busy for all of you. Remember that you have ten days paid vacation coming up. No work allowed.” He pretended to glower at his staff. “Oh, one more thing. We always participate in Whiskey O’Donnell’s Christmas fundraiser. You know what this one is called?”
Oh, his staff did, and they were already laughing.
“Lady Whiskey’s T and A Christmas Burlesque Show,” Macie Xander said. The young woman had a multitude of piercings in her ears, tattoos down her arms, and was an excellent architect.
“Yes, that’s it,” Logan said, tapping his finger like a drum roll and grinning. “The T and A are supposed to stand fortinselandAllI Want for Christmas Is Santa.”
“Sure, sure,” said DeLanders Smyth, cackling. “That’s exactly what Whiskey meant.”
They laughed again.
“I’ll need volunteers to get their own acts together. It’s a burlesque show, whatever that means,” Logan said. “Dancing.Jokes. Bands. Playing instruments. I don’t really know. Who’s in?”
And that was the funny part. All his employees raised their hands, as always.
He hired people who were super bright, curious, and adventurous.
“Being in a burlesque show fits right in with my image of myself,” Bre’Anna D’Angelo said. “I am a show girl!” She spread her arms and pitched a long high C.
“If you haven’t seen me in sparkles and a pink boa, you haven’t seen anything yet,” D’Shawn Alexander said. He was six six and a former football player.
“This I have to see,” Logan said.
“But I heard that Whiskey isn’t organizing it,” Fred Chao said. “She had an operation, and Dr. Brenda stole her uterus, and Bellini is back and taking over.”
“Bellini’s back?”
There was cheerful chitchat about her return. They liked her! She was fun! She had officially lived in Oregon for years, but she was in and out of Kalulell for Christmas—usually, although sometimes in the past she hadn’t been there for Christmas, right? But her reputation as being quirky, kind, her momma’s girl, and a bartender with a photographic memory of everyone’s favorite drinks made her famous.
“I can’t imagine her in a burlesque-type outfit,” Coralinne Zhu said, “but if you want this show to be organized from top to bottom, down to the minutiae, she’s your gal.”
They all agreed it was true.
“She’s a list maker, and so am I,” Coralinne said. “I relate to her need to rule over tiny details.”
“Get ready for a military-type planning for the T and A Christmas Burlesque Show,” Bre’Anna said. “I went to school one year behind Bellini and Logan here, and when Bellini wasinvolved in something, whether it was the debate club or chess club or some dance at school, it was done right. Plus, she doesn’t drink, which means we’ll have at least one sober person running the show, and that’s important. Especially if D’Shawn is wearing pink wings or a pink bathing suit. Who knows what will happen?”
There was a lot of joking and chortling, but they began their discussions about their own performances, which, they were sure, would “bring down the house.”
Logan drifted off but pretended to pay attention. He had known, through Whiskey, that Bellini was coming home to help, but seeing her on the sidewalk, with no warning, had been like being hit by a truck. He had stopped walking until the shock faded, then started again, pulled to Bellini as if she were a human magnet.
She was a red-haired, green-eyed truck with full lips and dimples. She looked thinner than she was before, but she was still beautiful. Her voice was deeper, maybe. The wind had ruffled her hair, and it had been falling out of her bun. She liked to wear it in a bun so it wouldn’t “look like a red-brown beehive,” she’d told him years ago. “I can’t have bees making a home in my hair.”
There’d been something…tired about her, maybe. He’d seen her before she’d seen him, and there’d been an expression on her face that was definitely sad…
His face had probably looked sad, too, but he’d tried to cover it. He, too, had fought a lingering sadness for years. He couldn’t remember when he’d fallen in love with Bellini. It could literally have been in kindergarten because he couldn’t remember a time when hewasn’tin love with her. He was still in love with her.
And that’s what had him taking deep, calming breaths to slow his heart rate and his heartache as he continued to pretend to pay attention to the meeting in which his team was havinga “drawing contest” to see whose burlesque outfit would be the most outrageous.
“But keep your T and A covered,” Bre’Anna reminded them. “We don’t want to get arrested on the night of the burlesque show.”
