I recognized that look on his face. It was the same he’d worn when he stood up from the bar and told Carter the creep to come fight him. Too defiant for his own good.
“I’m telling everyone the truth,” Logan said. “The whole story. That I asked Alexis to pretend to date me to save me from press scrutiny. Which means she was free to see Will. She did nothing wrong.”
“You can’t.” Disbelief turned my voice hollow.
“Over my dead body,” agreed Nora, and she and everyone in the room launched into arguments about why Logan couldn’t, their protests tangling together.
He threw his hands up. “It’s not a debate. I appreciate your advice, but I’ve made up my mind.”
“Logan,” Nora whispered, and her quietness was the scariest thing of all. “If you do this, it’s career suicide.”
“Maybe,” he said, just as softly. His eyes tracked to mine and I held my breath. “But I’m not winning at the cost of Alexis.”
“The two of you.” Nora pointed between us. “First you’re competing to throw each other under the bus, and now you’re trying to out-sacrifice each other. Both games are equally infuriating, for the record.”
“Tell the reporters I’ll meet them at the office.” Logan nodded at me. “I’m going to fix this, I promise.” Then he took off.
Once the front door shut behind him, the whole room deflated. Cary fell onto his couch. “We’re fucked. I have to start sending my résumé out. And I was already choosing drapes for my new capitol office.”
Nora smacked his arm. “Don’t be a quitter.”
“Excuse me,” I said, fumbling out of my seat. I had to catch Logan before he made a life-altering mistake.
Luckily, the driveway to Cary’s mini-mansion was long, and Logan was just nearing the end. “Wait!” I called, suppressing the memory of the last time I’d chased after him and how poorly that had turned out.
He stopped so I could catch up, but he was already shaking his head. “There’s no use trying to convince me.”
Now that we were alone, panic leaked into my voice. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Of course I do. It’s the bloody right thing. We both knew this arrangement had the potential to blow up, and I promised you if it did, I’d deal with it. So here I am. Let me.”
“Will and I aren’t seeing each other anymore.” The words flew out before I could think.
He grew unnaturally still. “But you liked him.”
“I did. I do. Just—as a friend, it turns out.”
I could practically see the wheels turning as Logan studied me, trying to see inside my head.
“I’m sorry,” I said.Fix it, mend it,the familiar voice whispered.You’re going to lose him.“I’m sorry for going out in public with Will after our argument, and kissing him, and bringing him home. It was thoughtless, like Nora said, and I’m so—”
“No, you’re not,” Logan interrupted.
“Excuse me?”
He shook his head. “You’re not sorry, Alexis. You weremad. Admit you were mad at me for blowing you off when the union crisis hit.”
I felt a surge of panic. “No, I wasn’t—”
“You werejustifiablymad. Own it.” He watched me, waiting.
It was getting hard to breathe. I wasn’t allowed to make demands of other people. I was the one who accommodated.
Logan raised a hand as if to touch me, then clenched his jaw and pulled it back. “Lex. You’re allowed to be angry. You’re allowed to befurious, and vengeful, and whatever else you’re actually feeling. Fuck, you’re allowed to be a downright shitty person every once in a while, no one’s perfect. You could’ve told me I pissed you off, and I would’ve tried to make up for it. That’s all that would have happened. We would’ve argued, then made up.” When he laughed, the sound was so sad it made me sink my teeth into my tongue. “I wouldn’t have gone anywhere.”
“You made me feelsmall,” I burst, surprising even myself. Butwhywas I surprised? My filter had always been weakest around Logan. From the first night on, his brashness had been a magnet, pulling me out of my hiding place. “Yes, I was angry, okay? I was furious at you for dismissing me and making me feel less important than your campaign, even though I know that’s ridiculous. Of course I’m less important than your campaign! Your campaign is everything you’ve been working toward since you were ten years old, chaining yourself to that tree.” My chest heaved. “There. That’s how I felt. Are you happy?”
This time Logan did touch me, brushing his fingers down the side of my face. “Yes. Very.” As my heart hammered, he leaned in and kissed my forehead. I closed my eyes. “You’re not less important than the campaign,” he whispered. “I’m trying to show you.”
