He moves to the booth and places the cups down on the place mats. As I walk over, my mouth instantly starts watering. “It smells like heaven, as usual.”
Logan grins back proudly. “Give me another two seconds before you dig in.”
He jogs to the bar and then back to the table, holding a few tea lights and a lighter. He places the tea lights on the window sill and the center of the table and lights them. Then he walks over to the front door and flips off the set of lights back by our booth, and we plunge into romantic candlelight. I smile, and he slides into the booth across from me.
“Dear God, as delicious as I remember,” I say as I swallow my first spoonful.
“I hope it wins the title back at the festival this year,” Logan says proudly. “Ma was devasted when it came in second last year. We’d won in the past.”
“Are you going to that?” I ask.
“Yeah. Ma makes me go every year. I hate it. I like to keep a low profile in the business,” he says, taking a big spoonful of soup.
“Why is that?” I wonder out loud, and he opens his mouth like he’s going to answer but then closes it again and shrugs.
“I’m just not a people person, I guess.”
I know that’s not true. His job has him dealing with people every day. And not just normal people but people going through really horrible times, which is not what an introvert wants to be around. No, Logan likes people and he loves his family business. It’s something else. Just like his anger at Declan. It’s more than just my recipe that has him angry with his brother. “You and Declan don’t get along great, huh?”
“My parents, Finn, Terra, and I don’t care about the money. It drives Declan bonkers,” Logan says. “Also, he isn’t a forgive and forget kind of guy. I screwed up a lot when I was drinking, and he holds on to that.”
I watch him as he stirs his chowder, a scowl on his face. I hate to see him so upset, and I wish I could fix it even though it has nothing to do with me. “I’m sorry. I don’t have siblings, but my former husband had trouble with his brother, and I do too as you know, so I know it sucks.”
“I think we’ve had enough family drama for the night. Let’s change the subject,” he says while I finish eating. “What are you doing for Christmas?”
It’s only a little over a week away so I knew this would come up. “I have plans to go to Vermont with my friend Mitch,” I explain and his face falls. “I haven’t had to consider anyone else for holidays in a long time and didn’t expect to this year. Mitch is single and was disowned by his family in his twenties when he came out, so he always goes skiing for Christmas. Last year I went with him and I agreed to go again.”
“You ski?”
“I sit in the lounge and read by the fire,” I reply with a sheepish smile.
Logan’s eyes darken a little but he keeps a smile on his sexy lips and doesn’t say whatever it is he was going to say. Instead, he winks, making my heart flutter like a hummingbird, and stands. “Be back in a second with the main.” He heads back into the kitchen with our empty bowls. A few minutes later, Logan walks through the kitchen doors with two large plates brimming with a freshly boiled lobster, a triple-baked potato, coleslaw, and corn on the cob. He leans over and places a plate in front of me. He picks up the plastic bib that’s beside him on the table, but instead of putting it on, he leans forward and ties it on me. Then he grabs the other one and puts it on. He picks up the lobster cracker beside the fork and knife at his place setting. He pulls off the claw and starts to crack it but realizes I haven’t moved and stops.
“Everything looks incredible...but the lobster is freaking me out a little,” I confess, heat crawling up my face in embarrassment. “I’ve never eaten it out of the shell before. I tried a couple times, but…I cut my hand once on the shell and another time I got a piece in my eye. I also don’t like that it’s staring at me.”
Logan looks down at the lobster and back up at me. “Seriously?”
“That’s why I always just buy the meat at the store. No injury and no eyeballs.”
He laughs and cracks the claw open like it’s nothing. He pulls out the claw meat in one decadent piece, dips it in the butter, and holds it out in front of me. “Then I guess I’ll just have to feed you.”
24
Logan
“First I’m bathing you.Now I’m feeding you,” I say as she opens her mouth and takes the piece of lobster claw from my fork. “I can honestly say I’ve never had a landlord like this.”
Chloe reaches up and wipes a little bit of melted butter from her bottom lip. “I can definitely say being a landlord has been more fulfilling than I thought it would be.”
I open the other claw and dredge it through the butter and then pop it into my mouth. She watches me, her kitten gray eyes sparkling in the flickering candle light. “Your family must make a big deal out of Christmas, right? Big families always do, don’t they?”
“It’s happy chaos,” I reply and tell her about how we all used to decorate the tree together and we each have different ornaments that are our favorites and we have dibs on hanging them. How our grandmother handmade our stockings and all the special cookies Ma makes and how we used to fight over them.
She hangs on to every word of my stories. “Did you wish you had siblings?”
“Always. My parents had me late in life. My mom was almost forty and so there was no time left for siblings, really. And my grandparents on both sides died before I was three so I never had big holidays,” Chloe explains.
“It’s not always good times. Deck and I fought a lot as kids. Still do, actually. Finn was basically a human wrecking ball as a pre-teen, breaking everything he touched and coming home scraped or bruised every day. Then as teens, Terra was diagnosed with lupus and Declan with clinical depression. I was a drunk, as you know. The only thing I remember about my eighteenth Christmas was drinking so much vodka the night before that I puked on the Christmas turkey and told them it was the stomach flu.” I reach across the table and tear off the second claw so I can crack it and feed it to her. “I’m really lucky they didn’t disown me when they found out about my problem because I look forward to holidays with everyone now, and not just so I can steal booze. Anyway, if you didn’t have plans I was going to invite you to come with me on Christmas Eve. River will be with Bethany’s family in the Hamptons so I thought you and I could spend some time together.”
