by Gina Wilkins
For an hour, Logan concentrated fiercely on work, though his restless mind tried occasionally to distract him with fleeting images of a pretty brunette in a red silk nightie. Saving a file, he stretched, checked his email, then impulsively did a search for photos of Seattle. Looked like a nice place, though he read a few comments about March being an iffy time to visit. He checked the five-day forecast for Seattle and noted that it didn’t look too bad. For Alexis’s sake, he hoped the weather cooperated for her there. She deserved a good time on the short vacation she was taking after her seminar ended, and he wasn’t sure how much fun she could have closed up in a hotel room by herself on a rainy day. Now if she had company in that room, a very good time could be had, indeed.
He shook his head impatiently and called up a website from which he ordered landscaping supplies. He could arrange a shipment for later this week—or maybe early next week, if he wanted to take a few days off beforehand. It was an ideal week to get away, giving him a break from routine. Besides, there was a reception scheduled this weekend that he’d rather have multiple root canals than attend. He could take a camping hike to avoid it, maybe. Or a fishing trip.
Or a flight across the country.
He told himself it was only idle curiosity that had him checking the price of airfare from Virginia to Washington. He choked a little in response to the numbers that popped up on his screen. Last-minute fares were expensive. If ever he decided to take a trip like that, he really should plan in advance. Of course, he didn’t spend a lot day to day. His needs were few, his tastes rather simple. He could justify an occasional splurge.
What would be the consequences if he decided to join Alexis in Seattle? Would they return refreshed and satisfied, ready to dive back into their jobs, content with the stolen time they’d spent together even if there was little spare time to see each other in coming months? Or would he find that he’d grown even more accustomed to being with her, that he would miss her when he wasn’t with her, would be less content in the solitude of his cozy cottage? Wasn’t that exactly what he’d tried to avoid from the beginning with her?
Would he be an idiot to spend time with her there and take the risk of future dissatisfaction? Or would it be foolish of him to give up a chance to experience one probably enjoyable private weekend with her before the start of busy season and perhaps the end of the affair? He was, after all, in charge of his own emotions. His scarred heart was well guarded. Still, he was a healthy, red-blooded man with needs and appetites and he’d never seen Seattle....
Ninja whined and rested his head on Logan’s knee, looking from the computer screen to Logan’s face and back again.
He looked down at his dog with a shake of his head. “Yes, I know what you would do. You do realize, of course, that I wouldn’t take you with me? You’d have to stay here, with Bonnie and Paul and the others.”
Ninja sighed heavily, but his tail wagged slowly against the floor. Logan gave a short laugh and rubbed the dog’s ears. “I’ve been listening to my sisters and Alexis too much. They’ve got me having conversations with you and thinking you’re answering me.”
The dog stood, wandered over to his water bowl and began to lap noisily. Logan turned back to his computer, rather wishing his canine friend could offer some sage advice.
* * *
The seminar was as useful and informative as Alexis had hoped it would be. She learned a lot, made some good connections, considered it an investment well spent. Busy with workshops and networking, she hardly left the hotel during the seminar, which ran from early Wednesday morning until noon on Thursday. She figured she had time to explore afterward, before her plane left Sunday.
What little she had seen from the cab and from the balcony of her room had looked intriguing, if rather gray. The locals had informed her that it had been a nice March thus far. Misty, of course, as was typical of Seattle before the beautiful summer weather set in, but temperatures had ranged from the mid-fifties to the low sixties and the sun peeked through the clouds occasionally. She looked forward to checking out some of the local attractions that had been recommended to her.
She would be exploring the city on her own. She didn’t mind eating or exploring alone, but it would have been nice to have a sightseeing companion. Not just any companion, of course. She probably could have found a friendly tour guide among the local wedding planners who’d presented talks during the seminar. A rather attractive videographer had hinted that he wouldn’t mind spending time with her outside of shop talk. Alexis had let the hints pass unanswered. She wasn’t interested in a seminar hookup. There was only one person she had wanted to join her in her very nice room, and he hadn’t been interested.
Okay, she thought, taking a lined, hooded rain jacket from the closet in her room Thursday afternoon, maybe that was overstating things a bit. Logan had been interested. She’d seen the flicker of heat in his eyes when she’d mentioned the chance to share a room for a couple of days—and nights. Wariness had overpowered temptation, a battle she understood, as she’d had her own hesitations about taking that potentially relationship-changing step. Still, it might have been nice. She thought they could have handled it without unpleasant repercussions, considering they’d both been very clear about what they wanted—and didn’t want—from each other.
Had Logan thought she’d been trying to change the rules by issuing the invitation to join her here? If that had been his concern, he must not know her as well as she’d thought he did.
Looping a cross-body bag over her right shoulder to hang at her left hip, she donned her rain jacket over her thin sweater and knit pants. Pike Place Market was only a few blocks from the hotel. She looked forward to seeing it.
The elevator doors opened to a big, airy lobby with reception desks at one end and a casual bar at the other. Maybe she’d been thinking too much about Logan, she thought wryly. The dark-haired man standing at the reception desk in jeans and a gray jacket looked very much like him. He stood with his back to her, a navy duffel bag clutched in one hand. And when a clerk motioned him toward the desk, he moved with a slight limp of his left leg.
Her heart seemed to stop, then kick hard into rhythm again. She moved quickly in that direction. “Logan?”
He turned in response to her voice and held up the phone in his hand. “Hey. Nice timing. I was just about to send you a text.”
“You’re here,” she said blankly. Unnecessarily.
His eyes were shadowed, his smile just a little crooked. “Yeah. Still got a place for me to stay while I’m here?”
She swallowed hard, then smiled and nodded. “There’s a really big bed in my room.”
He shifted the bag in his hand. “Sounds good to me.”
Chapter Six
Logan dropped his bag onto the floor at the foot of the large bed in her room, his gaze taking in the two armchairs flanking a small round table, the flat-screen TV, the desk and chair in one corner, and the big glass door leading out onto a balcony overlooking Elliott Bay. “Nice room.”
“Total splurge,” she admitted. “I thought about moving to a less expensive place when the seminar ended, but it’s just so nice here, I decided to go for it. I’ll eat peanut butter and jelly for a couple months to make up for it.”
He chuckled. “I’ll pay for my part while I’m here. Maybe you’ll only have to eat the PBJ for a month.”
“I was so surprised to see you downstairs,” she admitted, shaking her head in lingering disbelief. She’d been so certain he wouldn’t come.
“I hope it was a good surprise. I know I should have let you know I was coming, but I sort of waited until the last minute to make up my mind.”
She suspected his mental debate had been a hard-fought one. “It was a very nice surprise.”
He pushed a hand through his hair. “You don’t have any plans with anyone else for the rest of your stay? New friend
s from the seminar, maybe?”
“I met some very nice people during the seminar, but I made no plans with any of them.”
He nodded. Did she see relief in his eyes? It was so hard to tell with him. “Have you done anything fun since you’ve been here?”
“It was a great seminar, but I’ve hardly left the hotel. I’m really looking forward to getting out and exploring.”
“Sounds good to me.” He moved to the window and looked out at the gray sky spread over the waterfront across the way. “Kind of cloudy.”
She laughed softly. “It’s Seattle. I’m told that as long as there isn’t an outright downpour, this is considered a nice day in March.”
“I looked up the weather before I packed. Sounds like the weekend is supposed to be decent.”
Rapidly recovering from her surprise at finding him in the lobby, she dropped onto the foot of the bed, leaning back to support herself on her arms. “Even if it rains buckets, I’m sure we can find some way to entertain ourselves.”
His mouth quirked into a half smile even as a spark ignited in his eyes. “You think?”
She patted the bed with one hand.
He looked tempted, but shook his head. “If you want to leave this room today, we’d better go now.”
She debated a moment, then stood again. “I really would like to see the market.”
“Besides,” he said, “I’m starving. I left Virginia at six a.m. and my stomach thinks it’s three hours later than that clock on the nightstand says it is.”
She held out her hand to him. “Then let’s go find you some food.”
Lacing his fingers with hers, he smiled down at her. “But I will definitely want to try out that bed later.”
Winking, she said, “You’re on.”
Even on a gray Thursday afternoon, the streets of downtown were packed with cars and buses and bicycles and Prius cabs. The longtime landmark Pike Place Market was crowded and noisy. They held hands to keep from being separated as they made their way past “Rachel,” the bronze piggy bank sculpture at the entrance of the market, and into the crowd, watching fishmongers shouting jokes and tossing big, shiny silver fish through the air. They passed rows of fresh produce and colorful flowers, and booths of handmade jewelry, bags, soaps, lotions, candles and decor items. There were shops of teas, baked goods, gourmet foods, souvenirs, clothing and too many other items for Alexis to identify on an initial pass-through, and several levels of shops below the ground floor she would love to explore, but she knew Logan wanted to eat first.
They decided to dine at a popular brewery restaurant located within the market. Because she’d already eaten a light lunch, she ordered a small crab chowder while Logan selected a heartier meal of fish and chips and a house ale. She was rather amused by how eagerly he tucked in to the food when it arrived. He really was hungry.
“It’s a long trip all the way across the country,” he said with a slight smile when he noticed her watching him.
“It is,” she agreed. “I was really tired by the time I got here Tuesday.”
“I’m not particularly tired, just needed refueling. This halibut is good. So’s the ale.”
She smiled across the table at him. Around them, servers bustled, diners chattered, a child whined from a far corner, but as far as she was concerned, they could have been the only ones in the place. It was nice to be able to share a meal in public, to walk openly hand in hand, to have just a few days to enjoy each other without outside distractions. “I’m glad you came. What made you change your mind?”
He shrugged. “Like you said, I needed a break. Besides, Bonnie and Kinley are hosting a luncheon Saturday for a group of travel agents. You know, one of those networking things. I didn’t want to be anywhere near it.”
“Yes, I know about networking things,” she murmured with a smile, thinking back over the past few days. “So...you have a travel-agent phobia or something?”
“Cute.” He took another sip of his ale, then said, “If I were there, I’d probably be expected to make an appearance and schmooze for business. That’s Kinley’s thing, not mine. Besides, I, uh—”
She raised her eyebrows in question. “Yes?”
Blowing out a breath, he shook his head curtly. “I went out a couple of times with one of the women who are going to be there, back when we first reopened the inn.”
“Oh.” She dipped her spoon into the remains of her chowder, letting the soup trickle back into the bowl. “Bad ending?”
He shrugged. “Turned out she was the kind who’s always looking for a makeover project. I’m not the type who enjoys being made over.”
“No, I wouldn’t think so,” she murmured into her coffee cup.
He jerked his chin in a short, dismissive gesture. “Mostly, I just wanted to get away for a couple days. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the sound of your offer.”
Perhaps it wasn’t the most flattering explanation, but it was so typically Logan. And because she liked him just the way he was, she had no desire to do a “makeover” on him.
“What did you tell your sisters?”
“That I was taking off for a few days. Didn’t tell them where, and they didn’t ask. They know they can reach me on my cell if they need me.”
She thought again that he had an interesting relationship with his sisters. “I suppose Bonnie is pleased that you took her advice about a vacation.”
“Said she was. To be honest, she probably thinks I’ve got someone with me, but she won’t ask who it is.”
That worked just fine for Alexis.
“So, did you save room for dessert?” their server asked as he approached to remove their dishes. “We’ve got a hazelnut brownie that will make you weep.”
Both Logan and Alexis declined the dessert. Alexis was eager to explore the waterfront, and now that he’d eaten, Logan was agreeable to sightseeing. They wandered through the market awhile longer, then down the wide concrete steps descending to the shops and attractions lining Elliott Bay. The Great Wheel, a giant Ferris wheel with forty-two dangling gondolas, towered 175 feet above them at the end of a pier, drawing their eyes up to the sky as they ambled along the waterfront sidewalk. They stopped to admire the variety of boats crowded into marinas, and to watch the ferries and water taxis chugging across the gray waters of Puget Sound toward the surrounding islands and beaches. They passed an aquarium, restaurants, curiosity shops and an arcade, but they stopped only a few times, mostly in the shops that drew Alexis’s interest. Logan seemed content just to stroll and take in the scenery.
The clouds had parted to reveal the snowcapped Olympic Mountains against the western sky. Turning her back to the water, Alexis gazed up at the business, retail and residential skyscrapers that made up the downtown Seattle skyline. Turning north, she saw the iconic Space Needle peeking through an opening between buildings. She pointed it out to Logan, adding that she wanted to visit there, too.
“Now?” he asked, sounding game.
She smiled. “Maybe tomorrow. Let’s just stay downtown this evening.”
They had the next two days to play tourist, she thought happily.
They paused in front of a sign that offered tours of the underground city beneath Pioneer Square—storefronts, sidewalks and roadways that had been abandoned when the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 had destroyed much of what had then been a muddy, flood-prone downtown. While planning her activities, Alexis had read about the tours during a lull in the seminar, and she related what she’d learned to Logan now. When the city rebuilt, the streets and sidewalks had been raised and second stories became ground level. The lower level had been completely abandoned by 1907. Tours through the subterranean passages were now quite popular with visitors, who were regaled with tall tales of Seattle’s sometimes seamy history along the way.
“Sounds interesti
ng,” Logan said. “I like unusual history stuff. I’m sort of a museum nerd.”
“Really?” She cocked her head to look up at him in interest. “I didn’t know that.”
Smiling indolently, he tapped a fingertip against the end of her nose. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
Though he spoke teasingly, she was all too aware of how true that was.
She looked at the sign again. “The last tour is at six. We should be able to make it, if you want to go.”
“Works for me.” He kept his tone casual, but she could tell he liked the idea.
“Let’s do it, then. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a ghost or two down in those creepy passages,” she said with a laugh, waving toward a poster advertising Seattle ghost walks.
She’d spoken without thinking of the old legend attached to Bride Mountain Inn, but his sudden grimace reminded her of his reluctance to acknowledge his own home’s spooky tale. “Or maybe not.”
He grunted. “No such thing as ghosts.”
“Of course not. But sometimes it’s sort of fun to pretend?”
His shuttered gaze tracing the path of a ferry chugging toward Bainbridge Island, he shrugged. “Generally, I find it best to stay grounded in reality. I believe in looking at life the way it is rather than the way you wish it was. Hoping to see something that isn’t there is only going to lead to disappointment.”
If he was trying to be subtle, he wasn’t doing it very well, she thought with a slight shake of her head. But then, Logan wasn’t known for his subtlety. Should she tell him outright he needn’t worry that she’d misinterpreted his last-minute decision to join her here in Seattle? That she still saw their relationship for what it was—what they both wanted it to be?
“I’ve never been one to mix up fiction with reality,” she replied instead. “I can enjoy happy-ever-after books and movies and whimsical ghost tours occasionally without deluding myself that they’re real.” And she could savor a stolen weekend without misconstruing it as a step toward the sort of “Great Romance” neither she nor Logan believed in, she almost added—but decided there was no need to oversell her point. Logan was a smart guy. He could read between the lines.