I dash out of the booth without looking back.
40
Logan
* * *
I make sure to keep my face impassive as I watch Macey walk away. Race away is more like it.
Knowing it will attract attention, I restrain myself from going after her.
I thought agreeing to this get-together would be okay. Macey seemed to want it, and I hoped it would help assuage any suspicions my friends might have over how I could possibly be engaged this quickly to someone they’ve never even met. Gigi’s doing her best to act natural.
But Macey and Gigi are polar opposites. And as much as Macey’s trying to be polite, it’s pretty obvious to anyone who knows her that she’s upset. Blake’s acting like a fucking detective, and Ginny’s giving me strange looks like when she clearly wondered where I got the money for Gigi’s ring. The fact that Gigi’s father bought it for her isn’t a detail I want mentioned; it will just exacerbate people’s suspicions about our relationship.
“Logan?” Gigi pokes me. “You zoned out there.”
I take a deep breath and force a grin. “Just thinking about you.”
“Ahhh.” She plays it up perfectly and tucks her hand around my arm. “Isn’t he sweet?”
“Logan is sweet,” Ginny says slowly. “I’m happy he found someone who realizes that.”
“I noticed it right away,” Gigi says quickly. “He’s the best.”
I make a joke about getting a big head from all these compliments, but my attention is on the empty hallway leading to the restrooms.
This time, I can’t stop myself from standing up. “Be right back.”
Macey
As I make my way down the hallway toward the restroom, I hear the echo of Ginny’s soft tones and Blake’s low drawl responding to Gigi’s squealy, girlish chatter. I imagine Logan sitting there as his right hand caresses his fiancée’s leg under the table, and I struggle to control my emotions.
I’m surprised how much the New York City trip affected me. Maybe because, except for Logan’s one year in Boston and annual trips to Wild Ranch in Montana for business, he never leaves Texas. But the moment he meets Gigi, he goes ahead and flies to the Big Apple to get engaged.
Seeing him so serious about someone else…doesn’t feel good. At all.
I take my time in the restroom, and when I leave, Logan’s standing in the hallway. His dark lashes frame his whiskey eyes, and his mouth is pursed in a worried frown.
He pushes off the wall and steps toward me. “Hey.”
I halt. “What are you doing?”
“I didn’t tell Gigi about your father. Just wanted to make that clear.” His eyes, which have remained dull since he came back from West Texas, swirl to life as his gaze pins me in place.
“Who did?”
He hesitates. Just enough that I notice. “She said somebody passing through town mentioned it.”
“You mean a reporter?”
He doesn’t answer that, but the pulse in his neck is throbbing.
And while I still don’t get how he got engaged so quickly, I’m getting a sense of how much this means to him.
“Okay. Well, Gigi’s…interesting,” I say to break the silence.
“I know she’s coming off a little strong,” he says. “But she’s not always so?—”
