*
Gabby felt asthough she couldn’t breathe as she watched her sister and Logan finish stocking the clean glasses. Slowly, she backed away from the door and leaned against the wall.
It was one thing to know she was falling in love with Logan Westfall, but it was also something completely different to hear him say that he could picture them together long term. Maybe even forever. The house that he already owned was exactly what she imagined when she dreamed of the home she would have with her husband.
And he mentioned kids. Kids. God, it was frightening and exhilarating at the same time. What was even more unsettling was that Gabby could see their children so clearly. A little girl with her blonde hair and his grey-green eyes, and probably at least one dimple. Or a boy with his hair and features, but her eyes.
The images made her heart twist in her chest. She could see it so clearly it hurt.
That was when the panic set in. Gabby realized that, while she wanted all of those things, she knew next to nothing about Logan. Sure, she knew him fourteen years ago, but people could change, sometimes drastically, in that amount of time. What she knew of him, she liked, no, she loved, but there was still so much she didn’t know.
Her ex-brother-in-law was a perfect example. When he and Phoebe married, he openly doted on her. He was devoted to her, constantly doing something sweet or finding new ways to make her smile. The problem was he stopped doing things that made her happy and started trying to buy her happiness. A bigger house, cars, jewelry.
Though Phoebe enjoyed them all, she really wanted his time and his attention. Two things he didn’t seem capable of giving any longer. Gabby didn’t have all the details, but the relationship eventually soured, until it was so acrimonious that her older sister looked like a ghost of her former self by the time the divorce was finalized.
Gabby had only been dating Logan for two weeks. They’d barely scratched the surface of each other. She didn’t even know what habits he had that annoyed her. And he didn’t know any of hers.
Not only that, but Logan had built a life back in Dallas. What if he decided that he wasn’t ready to abandon it after all? Even if he wanted her to go with him, Gabby knew she couldn’t leave her hometown. She loved it here. She had travelled all over the world and seen incredibly beautiful places, but nothing beat Diamond. He would leave her and that would be that.
Everything was moving so quickly that Gabby felt like she couldn’t think clearly. She wanted the possibilities she saw in her future with Logan. She wanted them badly, but she wasn’t sure she was ready now. The idea of getting in so deep, so quickly made it hard for her to breathe.
Though it was a fierce internal fight, Gabby managed to get herself under control and rein in the impulse to run out the back door of the shop. Running away wouldn’t fix anything. It was a kneejerk reaction.
She had to decide what she wanted and then figure out how to talk to Logan about it. Gabby only hoped that she didn’t stick her foot in her mouth at the wrong moment, which was a real possibility.
With her thoughts less chaotic, she finished cleaning up in the kitchen and walked out to the front of the shop where Phoebe and Logan were waiting.
The sight of Logan smiling at her and holding out a hand muted the doubts buzzing in her head. Faced with the sight of him, Gabby couldn’t think of a single reason she should be worried and that scared her even more. Chemistry that strong was dangerous.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked.
Lacing her fingers with his, Gabby held on tight. “I am if you are.”
She said good-bye to Phoebe, grabbed her purse from beneath the bar, and followed Logan out into the warm summer night.
