Desi squatted down and Chester climbed onto her knees, rubbing his head against her and purring loudly.
“Hey, Henry,” she murmured, her focus entirely on the animal.
“Chester,” Allie corrected. “That’s so weird. I’ve never seen him take to anyone like that. Certainly not to me. Half the time, I’m not even sure he likes me.”
“He’s a perfect match, isn’t he?” Dulcie asked, smiling down at her sister, who now sat on the floor, the cat happily ensconced in her lap.
“I can’t believe it,” Desi said happily, snuggling the big cat. “It feels just like him. If I didn’t know better…”
“Desi had a cat who was a dead ringer for that one. His name was Henry. He disappeared a couple of years ago and she’s mourned him ever since,” Dulcie explained.
“I’ve missed him,” Desi corrected. “Not mourned. Missed. He was my best buddy and a regular bundle of love, just like this big guy.”
The cat’s purr sounded like a motor.
Allie had never seen Chester act the way he behaved with Desi. And she would never have described the cat as a bundle of love. All in all, her choice was clear.
“He really seems happy with you, Desi. Is there any chance you’d be willing to take him?”
Her cousin’s head popped up from where she was nuzzling the black-and-white ball of fur. “You can’t be serious. Are you?”
Allie nodded. “Totally serious. He’s never been that happy with me. Not even when I first found him as a starving kitten. And he definitely doesn’t like it here with Grainger. They hate each other with a passion. Maybe he was meant to be with you. If you’ll wait just a minute, I’ll go get all his food and stuff to send with you.”
“You know what this is, don’t you?” Desi stood, the cat cuddled to her shoulder. “It’s the hand of chance at work here. It’s like fate has brought Henry back to me. You can’t imagine how happy you’ve made me, Allie. This is like the best day ever. Best. Day. Ever.”
After gathering the cat’s things, Allie watched as her cousins drove away, Chester—no, Henry now, still happier than she’d ever seen him.
The whole visit had been so out-of-the-blue weird. Maybe fate had meant that cat to end up with Desi. And maybe fate intended her to end up with her cousins, too.
In spite of her doubts, she wasn’t ruling anything out yet. Not until she’d had a look at the coffee shop, just like she’d said she would.
After all, if there was even the tiniest chance she could end up as happy as Henry and Desi had looked when they left, she had no choice but to go for it.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Are you sure you’re okay with me just dropping you off like this? I can stay and wait, if you want. I don’t mind. I have a book in the car.”
Allie waited for her brother’s reply, her stomach churning with a mixture of emotions. She wanted to wait for him. Wanted an excuse to be here when Logan showed up. Wanted them to ask her to join them for the evening.
Of course, seeing Logan carried with it the risk of her becoming a tongue-tied fool again, just as she had been this morning at the dedication when he’d spoken to her. All things considered, staying here was not a wise thing for her to do. At least not until she managed to sort through all these ridiculous unresolved feelings she seemed to be carrying around.
Matt smiled as he got out of the car, leaning down to look in the window after he shut the door. “When do you not have a book with you?”
“Never, if I can help it.” Allie returned the smile. “So? You want me to wait?”
As if anticipating his positive answer, she turned off the engine and removed the key, flinching at the high whining noise the car had begun to make in the last few days. Money or no money, she was going to have to take her old baby in for a checkup one day soon.
“Don’t be a goof, Allie. We’re back in Chance now, remember? It’s only a mile or so back to the house. Even like this”—Matt lifted his cane and shook it at her—“I could walk home easy enough if I had to.”
“But you won’t, right? You’ll call me when you’re finished so I can come get you. Right?”
“Right,” Matt agreed. “I’ll call. Now quit mother-henning me and go home.”
“Okay,” she agreed, but her resolve wavered again when she saw Matt standing there all by himself, leaning on that damn cane, staring off into the distance, looking so… alone. “Maybe I should at least wait here with you until he shows up? Just in case.”
Only to make sure Matt wasn’t stranded. Definitely not as an excuse to see Logan again.
“Just in case what? You think I’m in danger of getting stood up by my best friend?”
“No,” she denied.
Probably not. Then again, whether or not Matt wanted to admit it, it had been a long time since he and Logan had been best friends.
“You’re a piss-poor liar, little sister. Always have been.” He shook his head and began his slow walk toward the entrance of the café. “See there? He’s pulling in now. You can quit your worrying. All that protective sisterly angst is for nothing.”
He had nailed that bit about her feeling angst. Only it wasn’t angst of the sisterly kind that was playing tug-of-war with her emotions.
“More like angst of the stupid kind,” she muttered, putting the key back in the ignition.
Disappointment warred with practicality as she watched the two men greet one another, both of their faces breaking into grins. For a moment there, they looked like little boys again.
It really was for the best this way.
With a sigh of resignation, she turned the key and pressed down on the gas pedal.
Nothing happened.
No whine, no sputter, no clicking. Nothing.
“Come on, baby girl,” she encouraged. “We can do this. Don’t you die on me yet.”
She just needed the car to hold on until she could get a job and a couple of paychecks under her belt.
Allie wiped her sweaty palm on her knee and reached for the ignition again. For a second time, she turned the key.
And for a second time, only silence greeted her effort.
“Oh, for piss’ sake,” she breathed, her grandmother’s favorite curse popping out as she rested her forehead against the steering wheel.
Okay. She could deal with this. It was nothing more than a minor glitch in the big picture. Nothing she couldn’t find a way around. She could walk to Mama Odie’s and borrow her grandparents’ pickup to come get Matt when he called. No big deal. She’d figure out some way to get the car towed later.
Lost in planning what to do next, she didn’t notice the movement beside her car. A knock on the glass next to her almost sent her jumping out of her seat.
“Need some help?”
Allie’s breath caught somewhere between her lungs and her throat as her eyes connected with Logan’s melted-chocolate gaze. She couldn’t have turned away even if she’d wanted to. And she definitely didn’t want to.
Logan waited for her response, a slow, sexy grin lifting one corner of his mouth.
How could one look, one small half-excuse for a smile make her feel so… much?
Exactly like when she’d seen him earlier today, heat rose up her neck to her cheeks until she felt as if she must be radiating waves like the high desert on a summer day.
“It won’t start,” she managed to mumble at last, her tongue too thick for her mouth.
“Let me take a look. Pop the hood for me,” he said, already walking toward the front of her car.
Her mind a blank, Allie fumbled for the release, more than grateful when her fingers finally closed over it. Only when the metal covering rose, blocking Logan from her view, was she able to breathe like a normal human being again.
To think only minutes ago she’d wanted them to ask her to join them for dinner. What a mistake that would have been. She’d likely have choked her fool self on the first bite she took sitting at a table with that man.
A couple of clunks and
a bang later, the hood slammed down. Logan walked back toward her door, wiping his hands down the side of his jeans.
“Give it a try now.”
Ignoring her shaking hands, Allie reached for the key and turned it in the ignition as she pressed on the gas pedal.
The car roared to life as if it had never had a problem.
Relief pushed away the more uncomfortable emotions battering at her, and she did her best to smile up at him. “What kept it from starting?”
Logan shrugged, his fingers absently stroking over his stubbled cheek. “I’m going to say you need to get this car in to Hugo at the garage. We’ve pretty much reached the limit of my auto-mechanical abilities here tonight.”
Again he flashed the grin that all but stopped her heart, and she briefly considered whether it would be appropriate to give him a small token of her gratitude for fixing her car. A kiss, perhaps? That was exactly what would have happened in one of her fantasies.
But this wasn’t a fantasy. This was the real thing with the real Logan leaning against the open window of her car, watching her, waiting for her to say something. Anything.
Under his scrutiny, her face heated another several degrees, something she would have sworn was impossible before now. She quickly discarded the entire thread of her prior thoughts and settled on a simple acknowledgment of what he’d done for her.
“Thank you. I really appreciate your help.”
“No problem.” He backed away from the car, his eyes still fixed on her. “And don’t worry about picking up Matt. I’ll bring him home when we’re done here tonight.”
“You don’t have to do—”
“But I want to,” he interrupted, turning to step up on the sidewalk and join Matt. “Don’t wait up for us!”
Allie watched them walk toward the entrance, Logan obviously slowing his stride to match Matt’s. When they disappeared inside, she backed out of the parking space and headed toward home.
Only a few blocks down Main Street, she spotted The Hand of Chance Coffee Emporium. Even if she hadn’t remembered which old, dilapidated building on the corner belonged to her grandparents, she wouldn’t have been able to mistake the twins’ shop. A big sign hung over the front of the building, sporting their logo, a woman’s hand, next to the name of their business.
Since the OPEN sign in the window was still lit, she decided to stop and have a look, just as she’d promised. With Logan’s offer to see that Matt got home safely, her whole evening had just opened up.
With nothing better to do than remember how Logan’s black T-shirt had stretched over those broad shoulders as if it were painted on, an evening going through dusty furniture and knickknacks might be exactly the distraction she needed.
* * *
If Logan were here for any other reason tonight, he might be tempted to do something outrageously impulsive.
Hell, who was he kidding? He was tempted as it was; he just wasn’t going to act on that temptation.
Logan stepped back from the car and away from the most intriguing woman he’d encountered in years. Another backward step and his heel banged against the curb, forcing him to break the visual connection he had with Allie.
She piqued his interest in a way no one had for a long time and his mind brimmed with questions. Chief among them: Was there a significant someone waiting back in Texas for her to return to, or had she come back home to Chance to stay?
He pushed away that line of thought to face his old friend. Gaining information about Allie was not the reason he’d come here tonight. His curiosity would have to wait.
Physically turning away from Allie, he stepped onto the sidewalk beside Matt to confront his real reason for being here. If he could find a way, he was determined to put at least one of his demons to rest tonight.
“How did you get it going?” Matt asked, slowly moving forward, his wooden cane thumping against the concrete walk.
Logan considered trying to dazzle his old friend with bullshit but settled instead for the truth.
“I have no earthly idea. I wiggled some wires and banged a rock on the engine. I asked her to try to start it again because I was out of all my usual tricks of the trade. She needs to have someone who knows what they’re doing have a look at that thing, though. I doubt my rock magic will last for long.”
Matt chuckled, offering a smile to the girl who greeted them from behind the counter when they entered. Even leaning on a cane, Matt Flynn was still the one who caught all the women’s attention. He nodded at the waitress who seated them, a woman at least as old as his mother, and her cheeks turned pink.
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?” Matt asked innocently.
“Some things never change.” Logan shook his head in disbelief. As it had always been, Matt seemed to have no idea of his effect on the fairer sex.
“Speaking of things changing, you had me thinking you must have taken up auto repair since I’d seen you last,” Matt said as they slid into their booth. “You looked pretty slick with the way you handled Allie’s car.”
“Not me. I was just lucky. You know I’ve never been the car guy,” Logan responded, biting back the words that felt natural to say next.
From the time they were old enough to dig through a toolbox, Danny had been their car guy. Logan and Matt locked gazes for an instant and Logan knew his friend shared the thought that neither wanted to voice aloud.
A ripe silence settled over them as they studied their menus. Matt broke it first.
“I made Allie stop at Fort Logan on our way up here yesterday. Danny’s not buried there.” Although Matt’s eyes remained fixed on the menu he held, his grip tightened until his fingers shook. “I’d like to know who decided against laying him to rest where he belongs. I’d like to know, because I can’t imagine anyone who ever took the time to talk to Danny even for a few minutes wouldn’t have known that was what he wanted.”
Logan nodded slowly, pausing to choose his words carefully. The Reillys’ decision to bury Danny up on Chance Mountain had surprised everyone at the time. But in a convoluted sort of way, he understood their choice. In that same way, he believed Danny would understand, too.
“It was his family’s call to make. They had to do what was best for them.”
“What about what was best for Danny?” Matt closed his menu and laid it purposefully on the table in front of him, brushing his fingers across the shiny plastic before clasping his hands together in front of him. “I guess they won, then, didn’t they? In spite of everything that was important to Danny, when all was said and done, no matter what he’d always wanted, his family had their way.”
Their waitress returned with two beers, her smile directed at Matt as she took his order first. Logan held his thoughts until she’d left.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with winning or losing. Talk around town said that Danny’s mom is having a real hard time coping with what happened to him. In the end, I guess she wanted him up on the mountain with her, not down in Denver.”
It had been the conversation he’d had with his own mother that had helped him to accept that.
“Danny earned his place of honor in the national cemetery. It was what he wanted. It was the last thing he said to me before…” Matt paused, his lips drawn together in a tight line as if he was fighting for some inner control. “It was what he wanted,” he repeated at last.
“Well, it’s done now,” Logan reasoned. Danny’s family made the choice that was best for them, and that was that.
“I let him down,” Matt said quietly. “He expected me to make sure it happened the way he wanted, but I failed him. I should have been here for him.”
A perfect opening if ever Logan had heard one.
“Like I should have been there for both of you when the shit went down?”
If he’d gone with his friends when they’d enlisted, if he’d been at their sides when they’d rolled up on that firefight, maybe things would have turned out differently. Maybe Danny wo
uld be here with them right now. It was one of the big if's that haunted Logan’s life.
“What did you say?” Matt looked up at him like a man surfacing from a deep dive. “You think you should have been with us? There in Afghanistan, you mean? No way, man. That was the last place on the planet for you to be. Two of us in that hellhole was two too many.”
Matt drained his glass and held it up to attract their server’s attention. When their refills arrived, he lifted the full glass and clinked it against Logan’s.
“This one’s for Danny,” Matt said, a finality in his voice that seemed to indicate he’d brought the conversation to a close.
“For Danny,” Logan agreed.
The moment they’d shared earlier had passed. It no longer felt as if Logan could pursue his friend’s true feelings about him remaining behind while they’d gone off to risk everything for their country. In spite of his best intentions, his demons would have to remain unappeased tonight.
Their food arrived and Logan bit into his burger, waiting for Matt to lead the conversation. He considered asking about Allie, but any questions he could think of all seemed designed to encourage Matt to ask why he’d want to know. And since even he wasn’t completely sure why he wanted to know more about Matt’s sister, he steered clear of that discussion, determined to avoid any mention of her. Instead, their conversation turned to resurrecting old memories of school days and comparing employment ambitions for the future.
The evening slipped away, and by the time they paid their check and headed out, it was as if they’d almost recaptured the familiar rhythm of their old relationship.
Maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe he could retire a demon or two after all.
“Hey, isn’t that Allie’s car?” Matt twisted in his seat as they passed The Hand of Chance Coffee Emporium. “I’m sure it is. I wonder if that beat-up POS of hers stopped on her again?”
That would be Logan’s guess, considering the vehicle sat all alone in the empty lot next to the darkened shop.
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” he answered, turning down the road toward the old house where Matt’s family lived.
TAKE A CHANCE (Chance Colorado Series) Page 5