She no longer had an appetite. Not with the man who’d stomped on her heart sleeping less than twenty yards away. The guest cottage no longer offered enough privacy to satisfy her.
She plopped onto the couch and flipped on the TV. Maybe she could distract herself with an episode ofNCIS. Gibbs sat at her feet, eyes expectant. Feeling guilty about the cooling dinner she wasn’t sharing, she nodded. “Fine, just this once.” Gibbs climbed, as delicately as his seventy-five-pound body allowed, onto the couch he frequented when she wasn’t home. His fluffy head dropped into her lap.
“Where does he get off staying withmyfamily?” she asked with a shout, startling Gibbs. She stroked her dog’s head in apology. “It’s bad enough the rodeo found its way back to town after all these years. Butthis?”
A gentle knock on her door caused her to stiffen. She couldn’t handle seeing Logan. Not yet. Sooner or later, she’d have to face him to request an interview he didn’t want to give anyone. But she needed an episode or two to prepare herself to ask the dreadful favor.
“Go away, Logan!”
“It’s just me.” Erin poked her head around the door. “Can I come in?”
She almost said no. She was just as furious with her best friend for keeping Logan’s stay a secret from her until the very last second. Until tonight, she hadn’t even realized Cliff and Logan had stayed friends. “Sure.”
Lifting the remote, she flipped the TV back off. She hadn’t been paying attention anyway. Despite her fury, she’d never been able to stay mad at Erin for long.
“Look,” Erin started, raising a plate with what looked suspiciously like her famous cinnamon apple crumble cake.Probably a peace offering. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you about Logan staying with us.”
Abbie folded her arms, bumping Gibbs’s head in the process. She tried to look mad for Erin’s sake, but she felt too guilty and started petting her dog instead. “Why didn’t you? You didn’t think I would like some warning?”
After setting the plate on the kitchen counter, Erin fell onto the couch, in the small gap Gibbs left open. “What would you have done, Abbs?”
Fled town.But she didn’t say those words out loud. It would be admitting Erin was right. “You know I don’t handle surprises well, even when they’re good ones. And this? This wasnota good one.” It was only dumb luck that Izzy needed to wash her hands, and even if she hadn’t, Abbie would’ve dragged her to the bathroom. She needed that minute to gain some composure.
“Seeing Logan so unexpectedly like this . . . it’s unsettling.” He had more stubble on his cheeks where he’d hardly been able to grow any. He filled out his shirt a little more in the muscle department. There’d been a scar she didn’t remember on his neck, peeking out from his shirt collar.
But everything else . . . the swagger, the cool and calm demeanor, those dark eyes . . . everything else was the same. And dang it, she wasn’t braced for a surprise like that.
“It’s been two years.” Erin ran her fingers along Gibbs’s back, earning a grateful moan of appreciation. “Don’t you think you should talk to him?”
Abbie’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Whose side are you on?”
“For closure, Abbs.”
“I don’t need closure.” Although living in her brother’s guest cottage, single without any prospects, well, anyone could beg to differ at least a little. But so what? She loved her life. Her dream job as a journalist with a promotion in reach. Tomorrow morning, she had a showing at a house she’d admired for years. She didn’t need to wait for a man to start her own life. She’d only ever made that mistake once.
“Think about it, okay?”
Dread washed over her, and she covered her face with her hands. Gibbs licked her fingers in concern. “Vince wants me to interview him.”
“Logan?”
She nodded, her eyes squinting shut as though she might awaken from some nightmare if she squeezed them hard enough. “He wants me to write an exclusive for the front page. Thewholefront page.”
“An exclusive? Abbs, that’s wonderful!”
Opening one eye to make sure it was really Erin sitting across from her and not some stranger in her place, she sat baffled. “Wonderful? That wasn’t the choice word I had in mind. Not even in my top ten.”
“This is your big break! Don’t you see? You’ve been waiting for a front-page story since you started working at theGazette, and now you have one.”
Gibbs wagged his tail, sensing excitement.
“But it means I have to interview Logan. That I have totalkto him. Spendtimewith him. Erin, I’m not ready to do any of those things. At the very least, he could’ve had the decency to wait a couple days before showing up. I haven’t even had time to adjust to the idea.” Although she was sure a lifetime would still not be enough time to prepare herself for Logan Attwood waltzing back into town.
“Does he know?”
“That’s the worst part.” Not only did he not know, he would have to be convinced. She knew she could accomplish that, but at what cost? She shook her head. “No.”
“When you planning to ask him?” Both Gibbs and Erin looked at her expectantly.
