“No, you don’t,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Can we at least talk about the news?” Logan asked me.
I sighed. “Fine. It’s wonderful. Congrats. Anything else?”
“Nina, come on.”
“What? Do you need more ego stroking? It’samazing, Logan!” I said in a fake cheerful voice. “Oh my gosh, you’re such a visionary!”
“It wasn’t my idea,” he said flatly.
“Yeah, exactly.”
We both breathed into the phone. I had a feeling that Josie had rushed Noah out of the kitchen to give us privacy to talk frankly, but there was no need. I had nothing left to say to Logan, and my finger was hovering over the disconnect button.
“How are you?” Logan asked.
“Why would you care?” I snapped back like a surly teenager. “Logan, don’t try to pretend that we’re okay, because we aren’t.”
“I was wondering if you might want to?—”
I saw another couple headed to the Club to pick up through the glass dividing wall. “Listen, I’m sorry but I’m working right now. I’llalwaysanswer the phone for Noah, but there’s no need for the two of us to talk. You made it very clear that there’s no room for me in your life, so I have no choice but to respect that decision.”
He started to say something, but I cut him off again.
“Please let Noah know that we can keep talking about apologies and forgiveness if he wants more clarification, but from now on, I’m going to have to ask you to make sure that only Josie is monitoring the calls. I’m uncomfortable having you eavesdropping.”
“I’m really sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose. I walked into the room and heard your voice…” he trailed off and let out a heavy sigh.
“Well, you won’t have to worry about that if you follow the ground rules we laid out, right? Anyway, I need to get back to the kids for end-of-day pickup. Tell Noah I’ll be here whenever he needs me.”
“Nina…”
The pain in his voicealmostgot to me. Then I remembered what he’d done. The inexplicable anger directed at me when I was just trying to help him. His unwillingness to talk through the troubles.
He wasn’t the man I thought he was, and we both needed to accept that fact.
“Goodbye, Logan.”
He started to speak, but I cut off the call before I could get lulled by his voice.
I needed to cry, but even more parents were now streaming toward the Kids’ Club to pick up their children before dinner. Ashley would need my help to make sure everyone got signed out appropriately.
No time for tears.
If only my body would get the message. I tried every trick I knew, from jumping up and down to licking my front teeth, a bizarre acting tip.
Nothing worked, so I found a quiet alcove and promised myself that this would be the very last time I cried over Logan Ashford.
30
LOGAN
There were so many ways for my grand plan to fail—and the entire scenario was made worse by the fact that I was uncharacteristically nervous. I had to keep my hands shoved in my pockets to hide the way they trembled when I tucked the documents in my breast pocket.
Inevergot nervous. Ever. It didn’t matter who was sitting across from me—a princess, president, celebrity—I remained on an even keel.
Then again, those meetings were about business. This one was about…forever.
