“Bitch,” Maia snapped, furious.
Logan just nodded in agreement.
I rolled my eyes. “Maia, don’t use that word.” I looked at Logan. “But she’s right. Did you get the police involved?”
Logan shook his head. “You know Braden. I think he was worried it would stir trouble for me, so he told her that she could pay him back or he could go the police. She’s paying him back.”
Maia huffed, pushing her food around her plate. “People suck.”
“Only sometimes,” he told her. “They make mistakes. Everyone does.”
Sensing she was going into broody teenager mode over the unfairness dealt toward her dad, I decided to change the subject. “Speaking of mistakes, I made one today.”
“Yeah?” She looked up from her plate.
“Hmm. I listened to that bloody awful band you like so much.”
“Uh!” She made a noise of outrage. “Which one?”
“The Charmed Umbrellas… Potatoes… Walking stick.” I shrugged, teasing her.
“The Charitable Rifle,” she huffed. “They are not bloody awful.”
I looked at Logan. “How do they get away with a name like that? It doesn’t even make sense.”
He shrugged, his lips twitching.
“Jeez, Grace, you’re showing your age.” Maia was giving me what I referred to as her “hell no” look.
I gave her my own “hell no” look back. “You did just not say that. I will have you know that twenty-eight is not that old.”
“It’s thirteen years older than me.” She grinned cheekily.
“Now you’re just being mean.”
Logan lost his battle and grinned at his food.
Before Maia could respond, the doorbell rang, interrupting us. I frowned. “I wonder who that is.”
Who that was, was a tall, leggy, curvy blonde. She was wearing skinny jeans, stilettos, and a tight-fitting sweater with a deep V-neck that showed a very good cleavage. She wore no jacket and didn’t need one, considering we were having quite a warm May. Her wide blue eyes grew round at the sight of me. “Uh…” Her brows drew together in confusion. “I’m looking for Logan.”
She was American.
My stomach plummeted.
Was she the American?
“Come in,” I found myself uttering out of ingrained politeness. I stepped aside, letting her into my flat, and her strong perfume wafted over me.
Her stilettos clacked against my wooden floors as I led her into the kitchen. She stopped in the doorway, and Logan’s lips parted in surprise.
She gave him an intimate, cheeky smile. “Some old guy downstairs said you might be here.” Her smile dropped as she took in Maia, her expression turning confused when she looked at me.
He dropped his fork on his plate and slid off his stool. “What helpful neighbors we have.”
An awkward silence fell.
“Uh… Sharon, this is my daughter, Maia, and my friend Grace. Guys, Sharon.” He walked over to her and leaned in to her to ask quietly, “What are you doing here?”
“Well” – she put her hand into her large handbag and pulled out a device – “you left your iPad at my place this afternoon, and I thought you might need it.”
“Fuck. I was looking all over the office for that. Thanks.” He took it from her.
I felt sick.
All this time, he’d been seeing the American after he said he wasn’t.
I felt… betrayed.
I knew that wasn’t fair to Logan because that wasn’t what we had, but still… I guess you can’t help how you feel.
“Dad, who is this?” Maia demanded snottily. It also happened to be the first time she’d called Logan “Dad.”
He stared back at her a little dazed. “Uh… a friend, Maia.”
“Well, we’re having dinner. She’s interrupting.”
“Maia.” His voice lowered with warning. “Don’t be rude.”
“I’m not the one being rude,” she muttered, and turned around on her stool, pushing her food around her plate with her fork.
She was glaring at that plate with a fierceness that concerned me. Logan was really going to have to be careful when it came to introducing women into her life.
“Sharon —”
“I better go,” she said, throwing me an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry to interrupt.” She leaned in to kiss his cheek. “It was nice seeing you again.”
Logan walked her out, and I felt my frustration mount every time one of her heels clacked against my floorboards.
When Logan returned, Maia looked up at me. “Can I be excused?”
I stared over her shoulder at Logan, and he nodded wearily.
“Sure.” I smiled patiently at her and took her plate away.
Without another word, Maia got up and left the flat to go next door.
Logan rubbed the back of his neck, uncomfortable. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Feeling dread at the fact that I was the one he wanted to talk to about this, I turned my back on him and began emptying mine and Maia’s food into the bin. “If you have a woman, I think it best you ease her into your life with Maia. For future reference.”
“But I don’t… Sharon… I haven’t… Look, Sharon and I haven’t been together. I did break it off with her. Today was a slip.”
I didn’t say anything.
“I’m saying I spent two years in prison, and when I got out, I may have been trying to make up for the fact that I hadn’t had sex in two years. When you get used to it regular… She called me, and I went to her place on my lunch break and —”
“I don’t need to know the details.” I shot him a look over my shoulder, trying to hide my fury. “We’re friends, but we’re not that close.”
“I’m just saying it happened. It’s not serious, and it won’t happen again.”
I started loading the plates into the dishwasher now. “Does she know that?”
“She’s here on a six-month visa. We both knew it was temporary. Would you turn around? I hate talking to your back.”
I braced myself and spun around, leaning against the counter for support. “Unless she’s dreaming of the rough-around-the-edges Scotsman popping the question.”
Logan stared at me like I was nuts.
I gave a huff of unamused laughter. “What? You don’t think women think like that? Many women have romantic fantasies and notions, and as much as we understand the reality of a situation, there’s always these little things called imagination and hope, and they make us think crazy things such as wanting a manwhore nightclub manager to marry us and give us a permanent visa.”
Logan processed this. “No?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, well, it’s definitely finished, then.”
“The horror. However will you find your next booty call?”
Logan burst into laughter and got up off the stool. Still laughing, he took his empty plate and put it in the dishwasher. When he stood up, we were way too close for my liking. He grinned. “Thanks for dinner.”
I watched him walk away, thinking perhaps I hated him a little, and I hated myself for hating him when it wasn’t his fault I had feelings for him.
“Oh and, Grace.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t ever say ‘booty call’ again.”
CHAPTER 12
“D
o I know you?” Chloe dragged her gaze down the length of me and back up again with exaggerated attitude.
“Don’t.” I sighed and slipped onto the stool next to her at the bar. After Logan had left, I’d called Chloe to arrange an emergency night out. I needed a drink and I needed my friend. I did not, however, need her to be snarky. “I know I’ve been preoccupied lately and I’m sorry, but…” I trailed off. The truth was, I really hadn’t been the greatest friend. “Actually, I’m just sorry.”
Chloe made a face. “You got yourself a life, Grace. There’s nothing to be sorry for. I was just teasing.”
The bartender interrupted.
“What can I get you?”
I slumped, leaning my elbow on the bar and my chin in the palm of my hand. “Talisker and ginger ale, please.”
Chloe sucked in her breath beside me. “You’re on the whisky? Okay, whose head do I need to be cracking?”
“Mine.” I groaned and squeezed my eyes closed. “Shit, Chloe. I’m letting myself fall for Logan MacLeod and I need you to help me stop.”
“I knew it!”
My eyes popped open to glare at her. “No gloating.”
She hid her smile behind her glass and took a sip of the fruity-looking cocktail she was drinking.
“Stop smiling.”
She huffed. “Right, you grumpy cow. Tell me why I’m stopping you from falling for Mr. MacLeod. I saw a picture of him on Facebook. Can I just say… wow.”
My brows puckered. “Facebook?” How on earth did she find him on Facebook? Logan had a Facebook account? That didn’t sound right.
“I friended Maia after we talked on the phone the other day and —”
“You talked to Maia?”
“Yes. When I called you, she picked up. We had a wee chat. She’s a cutie.”
Trust Chloe to make friends with Maia after one conversation. “So you added her to your Facebook? You do know you’re thirteen years older than her?”
Chloe made a face. “I didn’t friend her to friend her. I friended her for the purpose of snooping, and it paid off.”
“Ed really needs to get a job closer to home,” I murmured.
She ignored my dig. “Maia posted a selfie of her and Logan.”
I perked up. The thought of Logan posing for a selfie with his daughter made me feel all warm inside. “Let me see.”
Grinning, Chloe reached into her clutch and pulled out her phone. She played around with it for a few seconds and then passed it to me. She had brought up Maia’s profile on Facebook, and sure enough, her profile pic was a selfie of her and Logan.
It was adorable.
Maia was grinning widely into the camera, her cheek pressed to Logan’s as he gave that little smirk of his that was sexy even when he didn’t mean it to be. I scrolled through the comments and started to frown. “Look what these children are saying about Logan.”
“They’re fifteen and he’s hot.”
“It’s Maia’s father, not…” My mouth hung open. I pushed the phone in Chloe’s face, pointing to a comment. “Where did she learn about that? That is inappropriate. That… Bloody hell, that’s Layla.” I was aghast. “Okay, I think I need to curb how much time Maia is spending with that little dirty-mouthed… girl.”
“Ooh nice, Grace. You really got vicious there.”
“I’m not going to be vicious about a fifteen-year-old, even if she is cruder than porn.”
“Is it possible to be cruder than porn?”
“Depends on the porn,” the bartender said with a cheeky smile as he put my whisky in front of me. “Tab?”
I thought about Logan and Sharon. “Yes, please.”
“Back to the subject at hand,” Chloe said. “I don’t want to stop you from falling for this guy. Personally, I think he’s good for you.”
“How can you possibly think that? You haven’t even met him.”
“I know that you have this fire about you that I’ve never seen before. You have these new people in your life. You have Maia, whom you clearly adore.”
I decided it was time to tell her about Sharon the American.
“Och, that’s nothing.” Chloe dismissed it with a wave of her hand as soon as I was finished telling her about the events of the evening.
I was affronted by the dismissal. “You’re clearly not listening. I am not Logan’s type. At all. And he’s not even my type. I don’t know how this happened. But I do know that he’s never going to see me as anything but a friend, and I’m going to end up getting my heart broken if I don’t do something quickly.”
Chloe raised an eyebrow. “Did you hear what you just said? He’s not your type. And yet here we are discussing how you have feelings for him. Who is to say that he hasn’t developed feelings for you?”
I shook my head, frustrated by her attempts at encouragement rather than discouragement. “He flirts with women he finds attractive. I’ve witnessed it. He has never flirted with me. Ever. Chloe, all of his women look the same. And they don’t look like me. If he’s not looking to get serious with his type, he is definitely not looking to get serious with me. He’s just going to have shady hookups on the side with women he doesn’t want to bring home to his daughter. I’m not going to be a shady hookup, and I wouldn’t want to be.”
Chloe scowled. “What the hell is it you want me to say?”
“I want you to help me get over him. Before all of this I’d been on one bad date after another. A few of those you sent me out on. I’m asking you to dig deep and search hard and find me the best bloody date you’ve ever found anyone. It’s time to remake the magic of Aidan and Juno.”
My friend did not look happy. “But —”
“But nothing. Logan is a dead end. Find me a through road!”
Her eyes widened with amusement. “Fine. I’ll find you the most perfect date ever.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” I clinked my glass against hers, feeling better already.
As Maia helped me load the dishwasher a few days later, she turned to Logan, who was sipping a beer at my counter. We’d just finished dinner together. Again. “Since it’s Friday, can we watch a movie tonight?”
“Have you done all your homework?”
“Most of it. I thought I’d finish the rest on Sunday. There’s not much to do. Ask Grace.”
I glanced over my shoulder to find him looking at me questioningly. “She speaks the truth.”
His lips curled up at the corners and his eyes slid to his daughter. “Then we can watch a movie.”
“You too, Grace. Dad bought a new armchair and it’s awesome, but I’ll let you have it.”
I chuckled at her generosity.
“No chick flicks, please,” Logan added. “Don’t need the two of you ganging up on me.”
“We’ll vote,” Maia said. “And I promise not to vote for a chick flick. They’re crap anyway. It’s always about two idiots who apparently don’t understand the art of communication.”
“There is nothing wrong with a good chick flick,” I argued, but I did it laughing at her assessment of the chick flick. “But unfortunately, I can’t vote because I can’t come over tonight.”
“Why?” Maia looked disappointed.
“I have plans.”
“Oh. Well, change them.”
I laughed, but Logan said her name with warning and shook his head at her. “Perhaps Grace is spending time with her other friends, Maia. Remember she has those.”
Maia snorted. “Oh yeah. I forgot she had a life before we took it over.”
The two of them smiled mischievously at each other.
“You two are so funny,” I said dryly. “And wrong.”
“About?”
“My plans. I’m not seeing my friends.” I felt a fluttering in my belly and I knew it was part nerves for the date tonight and part excitement that tonight might mean the end of my infatuation with Logan. “I have a date.”
My announcement was met with utter silence.
Maia was looking at me horrified, and Logan’s face had gone blank.
“A date?” Maia spat out as if it were a dirty word.
I gave a huff of laughter. “Yes, a date. I do go on those sometimes. I have to hide my horns and cloven feet to do it, but somehow I manage.”
“With who?” Logan practically barked from across the counter, his expression no longer blank. He was glowering. Hard.
I blinked rapidly in surprise at the bark. What was this? Was Logan daring to play protective big brother?
Oh God, could my life get any more pathetic? I’d been relegated to “familial” in his book.
“A colleague of Chloe. She set us up. S
he said he’s wonderful.”
Apparently, he was a divorced father of two, and he was looking for something serious again after a year in the dating pool. As soon as Chloe heard that she said she knew she had to set us up. She said he was just what I needed.
I felt another burst of butterflies at the thought of meeting him.
“A blind date?” Logan was still scowling.
“Yes.”
“Because you’ve had such great luck with those in the past.”
I made a face at his reminder that he’d saved me from the last one. “Witness one bad one and you think you know everything.”
Maia suddenly marched across the room toward the door. “I’m going to pick a film,” she threw over her shoulder before disappearing.
“Maia?” I called out, concerned by her reaction. In response I heard nothing but the slamming of my front door. I shot a confused look at Logan.
He shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’m still trying to figure out half of her moods.”
I chewed on my lip and slid onto a stool. “Maybe she feels like I’m abandoning her by not staying to watch the movie with you.”
“Maybe.”
“I hate disappointing her, but she has to appreciate that I have friendships outside of you two and that when I see other people it doesn’t mean I’m abandoning her.”
Logan nodded. “I’ll talk to her about it.”
“Thank you.”
He sighed and got up off his stool. “It’s like another language and there’s no one to teach it to me.”
“Teenage girl?” I smiled sympathetically.
“No. Women in general.”
“Well, that’s because we’re far more intelligent than men. It’s hard for you simple creatures to keep up.” I smiled beatifically.
He narrowed his eyes on me. “Very droll, Grace.” He turned to go and then seemed to think better of it. “So who is this guy you’re seeing tonight?”
“His name is Colin. He works at the estate agency with Chloe.”
“He sounds like a dick.”
I snorted. “How did you get that from those two pieces of information?”
“The only Colins I’ve ever met have turned out to be dicks, and estate agents are no better than smarmy salesmen.”