Finally, a Family--A Clean Romance

by Callie Endicott

  * * *

  LOGAN CAUGHT UP with Jessica again at the silent auction booth. An impressive collection of items were displayed—restaurant gift certificates, small appliances, antiques, pieces of art and everything in between. Ten items were being auctioned off each hour and people were engaging in friendly rivalry.

  “Your calendars are doing well,” Jessica told him. In addition to four professional photo shoots, he’d donated several copies of the calendars for the auction. Jessica had insisted he sign them, though it felt pretentious, especially since his name was already on the front.

  “That’s nice. Just to keep you in the loop, I’m moving as fast as I can to get the figures and information together for my partners.”

  A shadow crossed her face and Logan kicked himself. Today of all days, Jessica didn’t need to be reminded of the rental issue.

  “Thanks. I knew it would take a while.”

  Carl strode up to them. “Jessica, a television crew is here to interview you.”

  Her eyes widened and she tensed. “You’re the head of the event. You should talk to them.”

  “But you’re the committee chair. Besides, your pretty face is much more appealing than mine.” Carl gestured and a man hurried over, a cameraman following.

  “Are you Ms. Parrish?”

  “Yes.”

  “Mr. Sheffield tells us you’re responsible for getting the Flash Committee together. Can you tell us about it?”

  Logan watched as Jessica explained the need for a clinic with the same clear, passionate voice that must have gotten the project started in the first place.

  “We’ve had phenomenal people working on this,” she concluded. “Carl Sheffield has worked tirelessly as the guy in charge of the Flash Fair. I can’t thank our volunteers enough, or the members of the community who are raising money in the different booths.”

  The reporter thanked her and asked the cameraman to get general footage of the booths and games.

  “Great job, kid, you’re amazing.” Carl kissed her cheek and then checked his phone. “And you didn’t even miss your turn on the dunk tank. You have just enough time to change.”

  “Come on, Momma,” Cyndi urged, pulling on her mother’s hand.

  Logan’s father approached, and Logan had a feeling he’d been waiting until Jessica was gone.

  “That’s an incredible young woman,” Thomas said. “I’ve known ambassadors who couldn’t handle an interview so well.”

  It was the highest praise his father knew how to give.

  “Right,” Logan agreed. “Are you enjoying the fair?”

  “I haven’t gone to anything like this since I was a boy. The family warmth here is so... Let’s just say that it’s become increasingly important to me lately.”

  Logan was caught by the sheen in his father’s eyes. He’d never seen Thomas Kensington so emotional before. “Is something wrong, Dad?”

  “No, no, not now. But Regina made me promise to tell you that I needed surgery a few months ago. The tests were negative and I’m fine, but she thought you should know.”

  Adrenaline sent Logan’s heart racing. “Of course I should know. I should have known when it was happening. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You were busy, in Japan, I think. We didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily.”

  Logan tried to calm down, juggling both alarm and relief. And on its heels came another question—did his parents keep him in the dark because they hadn’t believed he’d be there for them, anyway?

  “I’m glad it turned out all right,” he finally said. “But don’t ever do that again. If something is wrong, call me. Please.”

  “You do the same. Now, let’s see what’s going on with this silent auction.”

  They examined the items currently being auctioned. Logan wrote down a bid on a good watercolor landscape by a local artist, but his father promptly outbid him by a generous amount.

  “I hope I win. It would be a fine souvenir of our visit,” Thomas said with a grin.

  Together they strolled through the bustling crowd. Before long they came to the dunk booth, where Jessica was perched over a deep tank of water.

  “You have to do better if you’re going to turn me into a mermaid,” she called to the man throwing balls at the release mechanism. She was laughing and her hair was wet, so she must have been dunked at least once. The red Flash Committee T-shirt was plastered to her slim body, but she’d changed from her jeans into a pair of nylon shorts.

  “Remarkable,” Thomas marveled. “I’ve never known anyone quite like her.”

  Logan had to agree.

  * * *

  WHEN JESSICA FINISHED her turn at the dunk tank she dashed into the changing tent clutching a towel. She shivered. Spring in the Pacific Northwest was unpredictable, but they’d gotten lucky for the street fair—it was sunny, if not that warm.

  Yikes. She dropped her wet clothes into a plastic bag and shimmied back into her jeans and a dry T-shirt.

  “Hi, Momma,” Cyndi squealed when she came out of the tent. “Is it okay that I throwed balls to dunk you? Grandma and Regina said you wouldn’t mind. They bought me tickets.”

  “You bet it’s okay.” Jessica hugged her daughter and smiled at the two women who seemed to be forming a friendship.

  Logan walked up between Grams and his mother and put an arm around each of their shoulders. “Dad is holding a table. I got pit barbecue plates for everyone from the Flash Committee’s booth. Jessica, since the booth isn’t in the competition, you won’t be showing favoritism to eat with us. Come on, you must be starving after getting dunked.”

  She couldn’t refuse, not with Grams nodding agreement and Cyndi jumping up and down with her usual excitement.

  Initially the elder Kensingtons regarded their plates with caution, but that didn’t last.

  “Delicious,” Regina declared after taking a tentative bite. “I’ve never had pit barbecue before.”

  “Ed Schindler is famous for it in Regen Valley,” Jessica said. “He not only offered to take charge, he found his own volunteers and got a packing company to donate the meat.”

  “I admire the strong community spirit everyone seems to have.” Tom seemed to be enjoying the food as much as his wife. “Metropolitan areas have community pride, but this is special. We thought Regen Valley was an interesting choice for Logan, but we’re starting to understand.”

  “I already like it here,” Logan said.

  Jessica smiled faintly as their gazes met. She remained skeptical about his long-term residency but wouldn’t say so in front of his parents. Part of her still wished he’d decide Regen Valley wasn’t the place for him, but he was an undeniable asset to the community. News about the celebrities he’d invited had gone viral and he’d worked hard in every other way.

  It would be petty to deny Logan’s good qualities.

  And she shouldn’t keep prodding him about staying behind his camera. But he’d rejected love without having any idea of what he was missing...though considering how badly it had worked out for her, maybe he was the smart one.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  A WEEK LATER, Jessica glanced at the mirror as the doorbell rang, hoping she wasn’t over- or underdressed. Chelsea’s wedding invitation had said to be comfortable, so she’d chosen outfits for Cyndi and herself that she hoped would be nice enough to honor the occasion without looking too casual.

  Cyndi opened the door. “Hi, Logan. We’re all ready. Momma says it isn’t polite to keep people waiting.”

  “That’s very considerate, but before we leave, I want to give you something.” He carried a box to one of the Morris chairs and set it down.

  Cyndi looked inside and jumped up and down with excitement. “Momma, look!”

  Jessica came over. In the box were a large number of matted photographs. She flipped through them and
saw portraits of the kids from her daughter’s girl rangers troop. But they weren’t the kind you got from a photography studio—they were natural, unaffected, charming pictures.

  She looked questioningly at Logan. “How?”

  “With digital cameras you can take more photos than anyone realizes. Remember at one point I had the troop pose for a group picture? I used it to be sure I could get a portrait of each of them from the candid shots.”

  Cyndi hugged him. “Thank you bunches and bunches.”

  “You’re very welcome. I thought you could hand them out at your next troop meeting.”

  “I’m going to get extra points!”

  His grin made Jessica’s stomach flip.

  “That took a lot of time and effort,” she said. If they’d been dating, she might have thought he was trying to impress her through her daughter, but they weren’t. Besides, a man like Logan Kensington didn’t need to impress women; they probably flung themselves at his feet.

  He shrugged. “It wasn’t that much. I finished them after Mom and Dad flew home. Shall we go?”

  “Sure.” Jessica collected her daughter’s booster seat by the door, along with her purse and the sun hat she’d gotten for the occasion. “Cyndi is still small enough to require a child’s safety seat in the car,” she explained.

  His nonplussed expression almost made her laugh. He truly didn’t have a clue about parenting. “Uh, can I help?”

  “No need.” She positioned the booster in the back of the SUV and buckled Cyndi into it.

  “Has everyone recovered from the Flash Fair?” he said when they were on the road.

  “They seem to be. We hope to announce the final figures at the meeting next week. Preliminary counts are unbelievably good. Carl is our high school shop teacher and his students have made a ten-foot-tall ‘thermometer’ to put in the city square so the community can track our progress.”

  “Good idea.”

  Silence followed until Jessica couldn’t take it any longer. “I seem to remember that Chelsea is related to Nicole.”

  “They’re sisters-in-law. Chelsea is her husband’s younger sister. We hired her before Nicole and Jordan got serious, but Nicole knew both of them as kids.”

  “They were childhood sweethearts?”

  “Not exactly.” His dry tone suggested there was a story behind the story.

  “Amy Gonzales says she already knows who she wants to marry,” Cyndi said. “That’s silly. The only boys we know are yucko.”

  Logan coughed. “You, uh, might change your mind someday.”

  “No way. Timmy Stines eats crawfish. And Johnny Richards likes spiders. Not to eat, he just likes them. The other boys are worse. Totally yucko.”

  “I can see why you’d have a problem with marrying one of them,” Logan choked out.

  Jessica rubbed her mouth to keep from laughing. “Sweetheart, why don’t you tell Logan about your new kitten?”

  Cyndi didn’t need more encouragement. The doctor had ruled out an allergy to cats, always a concern with asthma, so a few days ago they’d adopted a twelve-week-old brown tuxedo tabby from the Regen Valley Shelter. Buster and Cyndi had quickly become inseparable. He slept on her bed and lay on her lap when she was reading, purring so loud it made her giggle. She was still talking about him when they reached their destination, where her attention was quickly diverted.

  “Look, Momma, more kids!”

  She immediately ran to join the group of children.

  Logan grinned. “Barton and Chelsea just met last year. It’s a good thing, or I’d spend the whole ceremony wondering how many times she’d called him yucko growing up.”

  “Did you have a yuck factor as a kid?”

  “Do you think I’d admit it?”

  “Probably not.”

  Tall and handsome, his eyes crinkling with humor, Logan wasn’t yucko anymore, if he’d ever been. Any woman in her right mind would be thrilled to have him as her escort to a wedding. But he wasn’t escorting her, Jessica reminded herself. He had merely offered them a ride. It was important to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground.

  * * *

  KEVIN WAS UNCOMFORTABLE on one of the little white chairs that people rented for weddings, but he was happy to be sitting next to Penny. They were quite early, so they’d gotten seats in the back and were enjoying the fresh country air.

  “What a beautiful place for a wedding,” Penny murmured. “It’s nice that Chelsea’s in-laws-to-be have such a large garden.”

  “Yeah, it’s great.”

  She turned toward him. “Listen, there’s something I’ve been wanting to discuss. We...well, we’ve been friends a long time, and I hope we can be honest with each other.”

  Fear clutched Kevin’s stomach. Was Penny sick? “Of course. What is it?”

  “Lately it seems as if our friendship is changing.”

  “I think so, too,” he said, his anxiety easing. He hadn’t consciously thought about what those changes meant, but Penny was becoming important to him in a way that extended beyond friendship.

  She put her hand on his arm. “But we need to consider whether there’s a real bond growing between us, or is it mostly loneliness and wanting to be with someone comfortable?”

  A laugh rumbled from his belly and Penny frowned.

  “This isn’t a joke, Kevin.”

  “I realize that. It’s just funny how you’ve always challenged me to go deeper. You challenged all of us. Eric might have been the anthropologist, but you understand people.”

  “Okay, then what do you think?”

  He gazed at Penny, evaluating what she’d said. She was so much like Allison, and yet so different. Yes, he was lonely. His wife had shared everything with him—they’d been companions, best friends and lovers, the finest foundation he could imagine for a marriage. But he didn’t believe loneliness explained his growing feelings for Penny.

  “It’s more than loneliness,” he said finally.

  She inclined her head. “Okay. But you should also know that I’m not ready.”

  “That’s all right, I’m not going anywhere. Time will tell whether we stay friends or become something else.”

  He curled his fingers around hers.

  * * *

  PENNY SMILED.

  It was nice to just sit and hold hands with someone. Kevin would be an easy man to love. He was honest and dependable, caring and thoughtful. And he had a sense of humor, an essential quality in her opinion.

  But it was too soon for her. It wasn’t because Eric would have objected. She knew he’d tell her to get on with life, the same way she knew he was patiently waiting for the time they’d be together again.

  As Kevin had said, time would tell.

  Across the yard she saw Jessica with Logan. Her granddaughter had stressed it wasn’t a date—they were only driving together to save parking. But date or not, he seemed to be hovering nearby. From a distance it was hard to read his expression, but a stranger would assume they were a couple.

  “You’re wondering about Jessica and Logan, aren’t you?” Kevin guessed.

  She turned around. “How did you know?”

  “Because I keep wondering the same thing. There’s an energy that happens when they’re together. Logan seems more aware and Jessica seems more yearning.”

  “It would break my heart if she got hurt again.”

  “We can’t protect her, no matter how much we both want to. I’m afraid we have to just wait and be patient.”

  Penny squeezed Kevin’s hand, thinking it would be polite to get up and meet some of the other guests.

  But maybe she’d wait another few minutes.

  * * *

  LOGAN HAD EXPECTED to circulate and take pictures, not stay at Jessica’s side, but he knew she wasn’t acquainted with many of the guests. It was mostly an excuse;
he didn’t know that many of them, either. Now, seeing her against the background of flowers and wedding decor, he wondered if she’d had a real wedding. She would make a beautiful bride.

  “Weddings are nice,” she said.

  “Was yours?” Logan winced. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

  Her smile was shaded with sadness. “I’m not sensitive about it. Essentially we eloped, so there weren’t any picture albums or wedding garters to throw away after the divorce.”

  “You didn’t want a more formal event?”

  “I didn’t care. I thought getting married would make everything okay and we’d be magically healed of anything that had ever hurt us. It was almost laughable. I wanted to play house and Aaron wanted to be beer pong champion of his college fraternity. We were two immature kids who didn’t understand anything about marriage or how to make it work. My neediness scared him.”

  “Shouldn’t a husband and wife be able to rely on each other? Marriage isn’t just about raising kids and having someone to eat dinner with every day.”

  Jessica focused on the group of children where Cyndi was playing. “I agree. A couple should learn and grow and be better people because they’re together. But in a healthy way, with both of them working on it.”

  Since Logan had never seriously contemplated the wedded state, talking about it seemed bizarre. But Jessica’s regrets were forcing him to think. “Maybe part of the answer is loving someone else as much as you love yourself.”

  “You’re right. No one should always be giving, and the other always taking. Over the long haul it should balance.”

  Logan chuckled. “For two people determined to stay single, we’re waxing philosophical about marriage.”

  “It’s in the standard wedding handbook—rule 263. ‘Guests are to consider the significance of two people making vows.’”

  “You’re making that up.”

  “You think?” Her laugh made the day seem even brighter.

  “Logan, Jessica, come sign the book,” Nicole called to them. “We’re asking everyone to write a short message to the bride and groom.”