“Yes, I am.” I couldn’t help smiling at him. I felt…relief at getting to see him. A deep contentment. Less lonely. But then sadness snuck in, followed by sheer happiness. He was yummy and dear. I laughed as I stared into those eyes that gentled just for me. “I know you’re busy. I can wait.”
“Bellini, I’m not going to leave you out here. You know that.”
I nodded. “Yes, I do.”
“How was Slip-and-Slide Sledding Day?”
I laughed. “Let’s see. I crashed twice. Fell off the sled on the jump and landed on Mickey. Jaxi and I flew off together another time, and I landed on top of her. Helena and I raced down on separate sleds and managed to crash and rolled together like a human snowball.”
“Sounds fun.” He smiled that lovely, sexy smile. I could not look away from that man. He stared back at me as one emotion after another chased across his face. Happiness to see me, sadness, grief, confusion, loss…
Stephan arrived, said hello to both of us, chatted, and got my truck loaded up.
“Thanks for waiting, Logan,” I said.
“I’ll drive you to work.”
“I can go with Stephan.”Why are you so handsome?
“I’ll drive you.” His tone was firm, and I didn’t argue. I thanked Stephan, and he waved as he drove off and said, “Seeyou at the T and A show! You know my band, The Ski Rockers, is playing.” I did. They would be a hit.
Logan opened the door of his truck for me, and I climbed in.
“Looking forward to the Christmas burlesque show?” he asked when he started his truck.
“Yes. Maybe. It’s a chaotic mess right now. I feel like I’m in a blender, and everything is spinning super-fast, and I can’t keep up. The other day, I had to talk Mrs. Granger out of doing a striptease. She said the rules should be changed for her since she’s eighty, and she said she promised to keep her bra on.”
Logan laughed. “She’s so…eccentric.”
“A group of women in their forties showed me the lyrics for their song, and one line is, ‘We’re done with men. We’d rather sleep with the Grinch again.’ And my uncles say they’re doing a dance wearing red and green sparkling tutus. They will probably bring down the house.”
“Lady Whiskey’s T and A Christmas Burlesque Show is going to be hilarious. Think we need another practice?”
“Yes.” Definitely. We shouldn’t. But I wanted to. “Do you?”Please say yes even though you know we shouldn’t.
“For sure.” He glanced at me and grinned. “I don’t want to drop you. I need more practice working on that.”
I laughed. “I don’t want to drop you either.”
And there we were. Joking about the dance and how Mrs. Kerns had not hesitated to sternly critique us. How we were still scared of her and how we still weren’t competent at different spin/twist moves. “When I roll over your back, I feel like a killer whale, ready to break your bones.”
“You could never break my bones, Bellini. You are not a killer whale.”
“Maybe a shark.”
He shrugged. “You do have sharp teeth.”
Logan’s phone rang, and he put it on speaker. “Sorry. I have to take this. It’s a nurse for my dad. I was just there, and she was leaving shortly.”
“Logan, your father isn’t doing well,” said the woman, older and firm, no-nonsense. “I think you should come back. It happened all the sudden. One minute, he was okay—well, as okay as your dad can be with his major health issues and with his general snippy and complaining attitude—and the next, he wasn’t.”
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s having trouble breathing. Sounds like a gasping fish. I told him I want to take him to the hospital, but he’s refusing. I called his doctor, and the doctor told him to come in, but he won’t go. He said he’s done with doctors and their quackery, and he also told me that I’m fat and stupid. I have to go and take care of another patient who is not nearly as obstinate as your father, so you’re up, Logan. Brace yourself.”
“I’m sorry, LaRue,” Logan said. “All right. I’m fifteen minutes out. I’m coming.”
He hung up and said, “Any chance you would like to see my dad?”
