“Since when?” Huh. I thought that was relatively common knowledge.
“Since…I don’t know. A few years ago.”
“Do you know all this as a fact?”
“Straight from Kelsey’s lips.”
“Hmm.”
“I think I’m too deep for him these days.”
My mom adjusted her position. “Maybe he just needs help drawing it out.”
Nope. I didn’t need a ton of depth from Logan Marten. Just enough to not drive myself crazy on our dates. What I really needed was forty thousand dollars in the bank. Did that seem shallow to anybody else?
Finally, a cloud of dust by way of an old, red Ford F250 marked its path on our driveway. I half expected him to honk for me to meet him at the truck, but his door creaked open, and Logan stepped out. My heart sunk. Should I make a rule about wearing tight t-shirts that show off biceps made from working construction? No. Why punish us both? A throb from my back reminded me that I should not have been ogling the man who wastwenty-two minuteslate to pick me up.
“Depth is overrated, Tess,” Mom whispered as Logan spotted us and began making his way toward the porch.
“Quiet, you.”
Her deep, rich chuckle was a temporary balm to my back ache.
“Hey, Nancy. How are you? Is your physical therapist taking good care of you?” Logan leapt up the steps and leaned in close to give my mom a hug. Mom’s face showed nothing but delight as she maneuvered herself to have the range to hug him back.
Mom looked at me. “Eh, she could use some softening up.”
He nodded empathetically, eyes shining. “She’s kind of mean, isn’t she?”
“Feed her chocolate and baked goods, and her claws will usually retract.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Alright, that’s enough, you two.” I stood up slowly, bending over to stretch out my back before brushing past Logan and heading toward his truck. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Tessa!” Mom exclaimed after me.
“Now, that’s the attitude I want from the women I date,” Logan quipped, opening my door from behind me.
“He can handle it, Mom,” I yelled out before Logan shut me inside of his truck. He and my mom exchanged a few words I couldn’t hear before he slid in the driver’s side of his truck and began backing out of my driveway.
“You are twenty-two minutes late picking me up.” I placed the half-eaten chocolate brownie on his lap before I folded my arms, leaned back against the seat, and simmered, daring him to test me. On a scale of one to ten, I was at a hearty twenty-two with how much I didn’t care about my attitude so far that night. Maybe I should have canceled. Then, I remembered, Jake didn’t allow cancellations unless we were sick or dying. Though my back did feel like it was trying to kill me.
“Actually, sunshine, I’m eight minutes early. Did you eat half of my brownie?” He looked almost delighted at this fact for some reason.
My smug expression didn’t fall exactly, but it dropped a little. “What? No, you aren’t. 7:00. And you’re lucky I saved you half. I’m starving.”
“Check your message from Jake again, because he said 7:30.” He took a large bite of the brownie, saw there were a few morsels left in his hand and tossed the rest into his mouth, groaning with pleasure.
I wanted to scoff out loud to him. I should be confident in my time. No way was Logan right. Was he, though? Why did I not have any recollection of a 7:30 start time? I grabbed my phone and pulled up Jake’s last message to us both.
Jake: Hey, lovebirds. Since I can’t trust you with tools (really that was surprising, Logan), your next date is a hot night out in public—in Salmon, Tessa, don’t freak out. A nice dinner at The Sassy Heifer. Dress up, eat out on Logan’s dime (Tessa, I recommend the steak), and nobody should know you there. Logan will pick you up at 7:30.
I put the phone back in my purse, not willing or able to look at Logan yet. This news didn’t fill me with relief as one might have expected upon hearing the fact that her obnoxious date hadn’t forgotten about her, as originally implied.
No.
I was still annoyed at him. Almost like it was his fault I hadn’t read the text correctly. I knew it wasn’t right to feel this way, but I couldn’t help my thought process. Emotions were a complicated business.
