by Elena Aitken
“I totally think so. And it’s so great that Ben could be here, too.”
Drew’s face changed and she smiled. “He’s been so great. I know they weren’t as close after high school as Eric would have liked, but it’s so incredible to see Ben step in and give Austin that male influence he’s going to need.”
“We’ve all got your back.” Amber gave her a quick hug. “We’re here for you. For both of you. No matter what.”
“About that.” Drew took a step back and her face grew serious beneath her Incredibles mask. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about—”
“I hear this is where the superheroes are hanging out.”
Amber spun around at the familiar voice and her stomach flipped when she saw Logan standing behind them, wearing an official Timber Creek firefighters jacket.
“Is that your costume?” Amber sounded ruder than she’d meant to. “I mean, I believe that firefighters are absolutely real-life heroes. But if you’re going to go for it, shouldn’t you have the full coat and hat and—”
“It’s not my costume,” Logan interrupted. “I’m on duty tonight, volunteering for the Timber Creek fire department.”
Amber’s face flared with embarrassment and she was glad for the darkness of the night. “I didn’t realize,” she said. “A cowboy and a firefighter. That’s quite the combination.” She didn’t add that they were her two favorite tropes to read about in her romance novels. Somehow that didn’t seem appropriate, but her brain absolutely went to that place.
“I’m a man of many surprises.” He winked at her and turned to Drew. “But I’m not on duty anymore. I took the early set-up shift, so now I’m all about the festivities. Where’s the little man?”
Right on cue, Ben and Austin appeared to offload their latest candy haul.
“Hey, man,” Ben greeted him. “Glad you could join us.”
Austin waved shyly. “My dad said firefighters and police officers were the real superheroes. So you’re just like my dad,” he said in a strong, clear voice.
Amber didn’t have to look to see that Drew would likely be fighting back tears.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be as brave as your dad.” Logan had crouched down to look Austin in the eyes. “But he was right. Firefighters and police officers are real-life heroes. But you know what?” He stood and winked at Austin, who was watching intently as he unzipped his jacket. “Sometimes there’s a little bit of a superhero hiding in all of us.” Logan gripped both ends of his jacket and pulled them apart, revealing what was underneath.
Austin squealed and laughed as the giant S came into view, revealing the Superman costume Logan wore beneath his coat.
“You’re a real-life hero and a superhero?” Ben joked. “There’s no hope for the rest of us normal superheroes, then, is there?”
“Hey.” Logan shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.”
Ben gave him a friendly punch in the arm and looked back at Austin. “Are you ready to hit more houses?”
“Duh.”
“Austin,” Drew chastised him, but she was laughing, too.
“Logan?”
He shook his head. “This superhero needs to rest for a few minutes,” he said. “I think I’ll keep the ladies company and join you guys in a bit.”
“Suit yourself.” Austin and Ben took off running, headed to the next house at full speed.
“I think I’m going to find Christy and Cam,” Drew announced. “Cam just texted and said they were in front of Daisy’s. I could really use a coffee. Are you good to hold down the fort here for a few minutes?”
“For sure,” Amber said.
“I’ll see if I can bring back something a little stronger than coffee to get us through the rest of the night. You want anything, Logan?”
“I’m good. Thanks. I loaded up on caffeine earlier.”
As soon as Drew left, Amber felt the shift in the air between her and Logan. Charged somehow. “I don’t really drink,” she said to him, feeling the need to explain herself. After all, he did know all her secrets. Would he judge her for having an occasional drink because she was recovering from an addiction?
Did it matter?
Somehow it did.
“Hey.” He held up his hands. “I’m not judging you. You’re a big girl.”
“I am.”
He winked at her and she laughed, the tension broken. “Aren’t we supposed to walk along with them?” Logan gestured to Ben and Austin, who’d gotten ahead of them.
“Right.” They walked a few steps in silence. “I really like your Superman. That was clever.”
“I like that it complements your Wonder Woman,” he said in response and heat rushed through her body all the way to her fingertips. “You look great, by the way.”
“Thanks. I didn’t mean to—”
“I’ve missed you at—”
They spoke at the same time, but it was Logan who recovered first.
“Sorry.” He waved his hand in her direction. “Go ahead.”
“I was just going to say that…” She had been just about to tell him why she hadn’t been back out to the ranch. But now, standing next to him, she knew he’d see it for what it was. An excuse. She swallowed hard. “I was just going to apologize to you,” she said instead.
“What for?” He stopped walking and turned to look at her. “You don’t owe me an apology for anything.”
“Don’t I?” Looking at him, standing so close to him, made her feel vulnerable in a way she’d never experienced before. Was it because he knew everything? Or was it more than that?
“Not at all, Amber,” he said. “I was just about to tell you that I’ve missed you out at the ranch. I was really hoping you’d come back.”
“You were?”
He laughed then. “Of course I was.” When he took her hand in his, it wasn’t entirely unexpected, but the thrill of his touch on her cool skin heated her through. “I get that it’s hard for you.” He spoke softly, although no one around them was listening. “But I don’t think it has to be as hard as you’re making it.”
She thought about that for a moment but finally shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Will you come out to the ranch again? Soon? I think that might be a better place to talk about this.”
She wanted to go back. She also wanted to stay as far away as possible. They were conflicting emotions that had warred within her from the moment she’d driven away the last time. After spilling her secrets to first the horse and then Logan, Amber had felt a weight lift from her. A weight she didn’t even know she was carrying. But also something else.
A crippling, overwhelming fear.
She never intended for anyone to know her shame. After all, what would they think? How could her friends and family possibly look at her the same way after they knew the truth about who she was?
They wouldn’t.
The relief and the fear had paralyzed her into not doing anything but hiding.
But here was a chance…maybe she should—
“Okay,” she said before she realized she’d made her decision. “I’ll come back.”
He wasn’t sure she’d say yes. In fact, if Logan were a betting man, he might have bet against the fact that Amber would take him up on his offer to come out to the ranch again.
More than anything, though, he wanted her to. He hadn’t even realized how much he wanted her to come back, visit with the horses and heal herself, until he’d seen her on the street with the others, dressed as the sexiest, strongest-looking Wonder Woman he’d ever seen.
It was the perfect costume for her, even if it wasn’t entirely weather appropriate, and the more that Logan got to know about Amber, the more he realized how perfect it was for her. Even if she didn’t know it herself yet.
“Okay?” he clarified. “You’ll come out?”
She nodded and he pulled her into a spontaneous hug. Her body stiffened in response, but a second later, softened a little as she let him hug her. �
�I’m glad,” he said into her ear and she shivered in response.
Or maybe it was just because she was freezing. Because she was.
“Why don’t we go find one of those fires and warm you up?” He reluctantly released her from the embrace. “I think the snow will hold off for the trick or treaters, but you can absolutely feel it in the air.” She only stood a foot away, but he already missed the spicy scent of her hair. Cinnamon, maybe? With something sweeter mixed in that he couldn’t quite place. “You are freezing.”
She laughed. “I am freezing.” Amber pulled her cape around her. “I guess I didn’t really think the costume thing through. I don’t know what I was thinking. Halloween in the mountains is definitely cooler than in San Francisco.”
“Well, I don’t know,” he said. “I think it’s pretty perfect. But you’re right…probably not very warm. Come on.” He took her hand again and began to lead her down the street.
A moment later, Ben and Austin joined them. “Where are you guys headed?”
“Somewhere so Wonder Woman can warm up,” Logan told Ben. “Are you guys ready for a break?”
“No way!” They all laughed because Austin didn’t show any signs of slowing down at all. “Come on, Uncle Ben, let’s go.”
“Hold your horses, buddy. How about we go warm up for a minute? Amber’s cold.”
The little boy looked to Amber and appeared to think for a moment. “I know what will warm you up, Auntie.”
“What’s that?”
“Come run with me to get some candy. It’s really fun. I promise.”
Logan was about to protest so he could take Amber to the fire she so clearly needed, but Amber spoke up before he could.
“Definitely,” she answered the boy, who jumped up and down in response. “That sounds like fun.”
“It is!”
Ben laughed. “It is pretty fun.” He turned to his nephew. “But go easy on Auntie Amber. She’s not as conditioned to trick or treating as I am.”
“Hey.” She playfully smacked Ben’s arm. “It’s true I’m a bit more of a grown up than your Uncle Ben,” she told Austin. “But I’m an equally awesome trick or treater.” She winked at Logan, took the bag from Ben’s hand and a second later, she and Austin were running down the road, hand-in-hand, to the next house.
Logan watched her red boots flash in the streetlights, her cape flapping behind her, affording him glimpses of her long, lean legs.
“She’s been so fantastic,” Ben said.
“She certainly is.” Logan hadn’t even realized he’d spoken until Ben laughed. “I mean, yes. Amber’s been fantastic with Austin and being there for Drew.”
“And she’s pretty fantastic on her own, too.”
Ben was setting him up and he knew it. Logan shot him a look.
“Something going on with you two?” he asked after a moment. They’d started walking in an effort to keep up with the trick or treaters. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me anything,” Ben added. “I just thought maybe…”
“No, it’s okay,” Logan said. “And…I don’t really know,” he answered truthfully. “Amber’s kind of a mystery.”
Ben laughed again. “Isn’t that the truth? I remember when we were kids, she was always hard to nail down. I don’t think she ever dated anyone, but there were always a few who tried.”
“Oh yeah?” Logan was a few years younger than them, and enough grades behind that he barely knew Amber and Ben when they were in school. Of course because he knew Eric, he knew Ben, but not the same way. Eric had become more than a babysitter to Logan over the years. Even after they didn’t need a babysitter anymore, Eric always kind of looked out for Logan and mentored him a little bit. Logan credited Eric for the fact that he’d finally stopped screwing around so much in the ninth grade and actually started earning the marks he’d need to make something out of his life. He wondered, not for the first time, if Eric ever knew before he died what an impact he’d had on Logan. “So she never had a…I probably shouldn’t be asking you this stuff.” He let the question trail off.
Ben waved away his protest. “Don’t worry about it. And no, I don’t think she ever dated anyone at all. Maybe not even in college. I mean, we weren’t as close as she was with the girls, obviously. But I don’t remember ever hearing of anyone. But then again, I’m not really surprised.”
Logan stared at him. “You’re not?”
“Nope.” Ben shook his head. “Amber was always way too driven. She’s a force. Whatever she wants, she gets. I’ve never seen anything like it. She’s pretty incredible.”
“She is.” Logan nodded. He watched her as she ran with Austin, collecting even more candy. Amber absolutely was incredible. Even now that he knew the truth about how she managed to accomplish all of the things she had that impressed her friends so much, his opinion hadn’t changed.
At least not for the worse. If anything, Logan felt nothing but admiration for her. It couldn’t have been easy to have so much pressure on you that you felt like the only way to succeed was to use drugs.
She’d done what she thought she had to do. Even at the expense of her own well-being.
And now…the drugs were gone, but she was still harming herself. Only it seemed that the mental way she was beating herself up about the secrets she hung onto was worse than anything she could have put in her body.
Amber must have sensed him watching her because at that moment, she turned. Her long, dark hair flipped around her face and when she brushed it away, Logan could see her smile. In that moment, she looked so carefree, so happy, and so completely unencumbered by everything that had been weighing her down.
She was gorgeous.
He offered her a little wave before she turned around again to chase after Austin with a laugh.
Amber was incredible. Now if only he could make her believe that, too.
Chapter Eleven
“Wait until you see these.” A few days later, Cam danced into Daisy’s Diner, holding her laptop against her chest, and slipped into the seat next to Christy. “They are absolute perfection.” She flipped open the top of her computer. “You’re going to die.”
Christy laughed. “I’m sure I’m not going to die. Unless you don’t show me the pictures already.” She gave her friend a look. “It’s been torture waiting so long.”
Cam immediately looked apologetic. “I really am sorry, Christy. It’s been crazy busy lately and I could really use this morning sickness to go away. Seriously. I can’t remember it ever being so bad when I was pregnant with Morgan. Do you think that means it’s a boy?”
Her friend’s eyes lit up and as much as Christy would have loved to sit there and guess on the sex of her unborn baby, she was going to lose her mind if she didn’t get to see the product of the photo session they’d had weeks ago.
She waved her hand in the air and jabbed her finger at the laptop, which only made Cam laugh.
“Right,” she said. “I’m sorry. Here.” She tapped a few buttons and turned the computer to face Christy, who immediately put her hand to her mouth.
“Oh my God.” She blinked and shook her head slightly before pushing Cam’s hand away so she could scroll through the pictures on her own.
With each image that flashed across the screen, Christy’s eyes grew blurry. Cam had somehow managed to capture all of the innocence and pure beauty that was her little girl in every single shot.
“Are you okay?” Cam looked over to her friend who, despite her question, didn’t look concerned at all but instead wore a huge smile. “Because you look like you don’t like them.”
“Stop it.” Christy smacked Cam’s arm lovingly. “It’s not nice to make fun.”
Cam laughed openly. “Sure it is. And you have every right to be caught up in the emotion. I can’t even imagine what this means…I mean, I know what it means to you. But it’s different for you guys. I get that.”
It was different for them. But only in the way that every new parent felt. There were no two situa
tions the same, and that was true for her and Mark, too. She shook her head. “It’s just…I never actually thought this moment would ever really come.”
She let the tears flow freely down her cheeks. There’d been a time, not all that long ago, where Christy had given up hope completely that they’d ever be parents and here she was, looking at her daughter’s newborn pictures. It was still very surreal.
“I’m glad you like them,” Cam said after a moment.
“I love all of them.” Christy laughed and wiped at her tears. “But now I have a whole new problem.”
“What’s that?”
“Which ones am I going to choose to frame?” They laughed together. “Every bit of my walls is going to be covered in baby pictures.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. Especially when the subject is so gorgeous.”
Christy gazed at the screen again. “She really is, isn’t she?”
Cam smiled. “Where is the little princess today? Getting some quality daddy time?”
“She is.” Christy was more than willing to bring Mya to her coffee date with Cam, but Mark had insisted that they wanted to have a daddy/daughter day. Every single day, it melted her heart a little bit more to watch him with Mya. Mark had slipped so easily into the role of a dad that there was no doubt he’d been born for the job.
“You look so happy.” Cam was watching her and Christy hadn’t even realized she’d drifted off into her own thoughts for a moment. “I mean, in a different way than before. You just look so…content.”
“I really am. Life is so good.”
“I hear ya, sister!” Cam raised the mug of tea Christy had ordered her and they toasted with their drinks. “Now if only all of us could be so happy.”
Christy knew exactly what she was talking about. It seemed that she and Cam both had everything they’d ever wanted while their two other best friends were suffering. It hurt her heart to see her friends unhappy.
“What do you think is going on with Amber?” Christy got right to the point. Obviously they knew what was happening with Drew, but so far, Amber had still been hard to pin down. “I mean, besides not working. I spoke with her about doing up a will for us and she seemed to be receptive to the idea, but I still feel like there’s something she’s not telling us.”