I glared at him for a solid minute before sighing. “Deal.”
Adam and Logan started jumping up and down around me, hooting and hollering and fist bumping each other. I rolled my eyes again and looked back toward my father. “I’m parked down a bit further. Where are we going to dinner? I’ll meet you guys there.”
ChapterTwenty-Two
Andre sure knewhow to throw a party. Or at least, his friends knew how to throw one for him. Beautiful Spanish music played through a sound system that had been set up outside as people danced on a slab of concrete near where Logan and I sat together in a camping chair. We were two of what felt like a hundred people in the deceptively large backyard of the tiny bungalow home that Andre lived in with his sister. The music was turned up loud enough that I would have been worried about a noise complaint, but it seemed the whole street lit up with activity at night—much more activity than I would have expected on a Monday evening in late November.
We were in a part of the city I didn’t frequent much growing up. I’d always heard stories about East Colfax and the crime that happened here, but tonight I was seeing the old neighborhood in a different light. The houses all around us were lit up with colorful Christmas lights, and I could hear similar, joyous music playing from the other houses around us.
Logan and I had gotten here less than an hour ago. We were a bit late because Adam left for work later than usual, and I had to wait until he left before I texted Logan that it was safe to pick me up. I felt a little guilty about all the secrecy, but I knew it was for good reason. Hopefully things between Logan and I would keep progressing in a positive way and we could eventually shout about our relationship from the rooftops for everyone to hear. For now, though, I was rather enjoying sitting in his lap in front of his employees.
When we arrived at the quaint white house with yellow shutters, we could hear the party from across the street where Logan had parked the Chevelle. Logan—who looked absolutely edible in jeans, a white henley and a brown leather jacket—held my hand on our way up the front walkway. The door to the house opened before we had a chance to knock, revealing Manny holding two cans of beer stacked in a one-handed grip. “What up, boss man!” he shouted.
Logan chuckled. “Manny, you already look halfway to hell-bound.”
Manny’s smile widened, the skin around this dark brown eyes crinkling. “Nah, boss, I’m cool. Just burning off a little steam, you know?”
After Manny gave us a quick tour of the house, which was decorated on the inside with a gorgeous Christmas tree and a garland along the kitchen counter, he opened the back door where the party was unfolding. I recognized a few of the mechanics from Logan’s shop gathered together in a corner of the yard, but there were dozens of other people milling about as well—it definitely wasn’t a small party.
Logan had found a free chair and pulled it over to where the rest of the shop’s team was sitting around a makeshift fire near the dance floor. He sat in it, and then patted his lap for me to sit on him, and we’d been hanging out here and people watching ever since.
Eventually, the man of the hour made his way over to us. Andre looked sharp in a black long-sleeved button-up and black pants. His dark hair was shaved close to his head, and his gray eyes glinted beneath an expression of mischief. My attention caught on his neck, where a bold tattoo of a skull with roses for eyes and a pair of what looked like hawk wings spread out from the sides. It covered the whole front of his throat, the realistic wings spreading out to behind his ears.
“You all came—” he nodded toward our group huddled around the fire—“thank you, it truly means a lot to me to have you here.” He eyed Logan and I sitting together and grinned out of the corner of his mouth. “Would you or your friend like a drink, boss?”
Logan looked at me in question, and I nodded. “Amelia will have one, thanks. I’m okay though, I’m driving.”
Andre’s gaze moved to me. “What would you like? We have beer, tequila . . . I think my sister has a margarita mix going in the kitchen . . .”
“I’d love some tequila, please.”
Andre’s grin turned into a smile. “That a girl. Ice?”
“No, thank you, just straight up is fine.” I could see Logan’s eyebrows raise in my peripheral vision. “What?” I said, looking at him.
His smile matched Andre’s. “Nothing, I just didn’t realize you were a tequila-straight-up girl.”
Shrugging, I leaned back against him and settled my head on his shoulder. One of Logan’s mechanics, Cameron, sat up straighter as he watched Andre walk away. “What about the rest of us? I’ll take a tequila, too!”
Without pausing, he called back, “Get your own fucking tequila, Cameron,” over his shoulder.
Everyone around us laughed as Cameron’s face flushed red. “Aw, don’t mind him, Cam,” Manny said, slapping him on the shoulder. “It’s his birthday . . . he just wanted to pay respects to boss man and his lady friend.”
I felt Logan’s arms around me tighten as he sighed quietly into my hair. I turned to face him. “You okay?”
He nodded. “I'm good.” His face shimmered under the holiday lights, like the dream that he was. I considered for a moment that all of this might actuallybea dream, that I would wake up in the morning and realize I dreamt up this chance with Logan. Just to make sure, I cupped his face in my palm. I needed to feel him, the coarse stubble of his chin against my wrist, his pulse beneath my fingers.
“What?” he asked, bemused.
“Nothing,” I whispered, before pecking him on the cheek with a quick kiss. I heard his soft hum as he again tightened his arms around me with comfortable pressure. His nose grazed the back of my neck and it sent chills up my spine.
Andre came back a moment later with a very generous glass of tequila. “Here you go, Amelia.” He handed it to me with a gleam in his eye. I was slightly caught off guard that he’d called me by my name, since all of Logan’s employees had only called me his “friend” up until this point.
“Thank you, Andre,” I responded. He turned his attention to Logan then. I registered the respect and admiration in his expression as he dipped his head again. “You sure you’re okay, boss?”
Logan’s velvet voice rumbled behind me. “I’m great, Andre, thank you. Don’t worry about me, just enjoy your party. It’s your birthday.”
Andre grinned just as a bout of cheering sounded from the other side of the yard where a group of people were gathered around a keg. It looked like someone might have been about to do a keg stand. Andre rolled his eyes and grumbled, “Dammit, Chino,” as he started in their direction.
