Taking a deep breath, Logan runs his hand through his russet hair again and exhales slowly, and it’s like he’s replacing his usual armor and hiding all his vulnerable parts again. “Don’t listen to anything I say, Sav. Not right now. I’m… I’m stuck in my head when I should be angry at myself for giving you a reason to come out here instead of doing your job.” He squeezes my hand as he looks at the phone I’m holding. “You still have time, yeah?”
I fight a grimace, tempted to lie to him. The last thing I want to do is make his day worse. “Um.”
“Sav,” he growls, his tone full of warning. “Tell me you have time.”
“It’s fine. I’m glad I came to find you.”
Swearing again, he jumps to his feet and brings me up with him. “Where’d you park?” Before I can answer, he shakes his head and leads me to his sleek black car. “We’ll come back for it later.”
“I can drive my car, Logan,” I complain. “Going together isn’t going to make us any faster.”
“Moot.” Unlocking his car, he pulls the passenger door open and glares at me until I slip inside. “I’m not going to cost you a major client, so I’m getting you to the kitchen as fast as possible.” He slides into the driver’s seat and hits the ignition. When he practically peels out of the parking lot, I glare at him, and a bit of a smirk lifts the corners of his lips.
As glad as I am to see him in a lighter mood, I need to make sure he isn’t reckless. “Logan Callahan, getting pulled over or causing a crash isn’t going to get me back faster.”
Thankfully, he eases off the gas, but his smirk only grows. “Sorry, love.”
“You don’t look very sorry.”
“I’m not.”
I roll my eyes, though I’m grateful for the distraction from True Fuel’s likely downfall. “Guess you’re over the existential crisis?”
“Not really, but this is a better use of my time.”
Considering he’s dealing with some pretty heavy childhood trauma, I’m not sure my high-end client having to wait to gethis meals can compare. “I mean, we can talk about your birth parents while you drive, if you want to.”
Despite him keeping his eyes on the road, I can almost feel his attention focused on me. “Love, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not all that good with emotional things. I doubt this is a conversation you want to have.”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’tkeen on the chat, mate.”
He glances at me, and there’s a fire burning in his eyes now. It jumps over to me and settles in my belly as he responds in a deeper tone than normal. “Watch that language, love. You’ll give me dangerous ideas.”
I’m not so sure I wouldn’t like some of his dangerous ideas if they involve him getting real close to me and crossing the line I’ve been dying to cross for weeks. But I need to get back to his kitchen and at leasttryto get the meals made, and thinking about finally moving from friendship to something more isn’t going to get us to Logan’s apartment any faster.
“You never said why you were so scared to talk to Lola at my event,” I say carefully. He might really not want to talk about this, but I think he should. “You seemed pretty determined that day we met outside her house.”
He groans, and his fingers tighten around the steering wheel. “And here I was hoping you’d forgotten about my cowardice.”
“Nope. Not when I’ve been trying to get you another audience with her.”
“Sounds so formal,” he mutters.
“Yeah, well, you’re the one making a big deal out of it. I’m just following suit.”
Glancing back, Logan makes a quick lane shift and takes a turn so sharply that I grab his arm to steady myself. “I don’t know why I hid from her,” he says, catching my hand before I pull it away. His fingers lace with mine and settle on the console between us. “Not a lot scares me, but I got a look at her and recognized so much of what I see in the mirror every day. It all became too real.”
I squeeze his hand. “I can’t imagine being in your position, Logan. There’s no way that conversation is going to be easy.”
He lets out a gentle scoff. “Says the woman whose family forced her to look after herself because she went for what she wanted.”
“But they didn’t abandon me as a baby.” Thank the heavens for that. “My family still loves me, even if they have a terrible way of showing it.”
Logan lifts our clasped hands to his lips, sending a bolt of lightning down my arm to my heart. “Someday I want to have a talk with those parents of yours.”
I can only imagine how that conversation would go down. Big and burly Aussie going up against Mr. and Mrs. Prim and Proper? I would pay money to see that. Unfortunately, I’m not likely to have any funds to spare for a while, if ever. “I’ll have to introduce you.”
“Good.”
