Alone With You (Cabin Fever Series Book 1)

by Lisa Ann Verge

  His brow crumpled as he ducked his head. He frowned at his tasseled shoes. Her chest squeezed as she remembered running her fingers through all that thick, dark hair. If only she hadn’t been stung by a bee. If only she hadn’t gone into anaphylactic shock. But life wasn’t a sterilized test tube, into which she could try out a thousand different possibilities. She’d never wanted to be the trigger that revived all of Logan’s traumatizing memories, but she knew he couldn’t bear being with her now, when every glimpse of her scar would bring him pain.

  He said, “I don’t want your gratitude, Jenny.”

  She ran her fingers up her arms, rippling with goosebumps, crossing her forearms to shield her heart.

  “I did what I was trained to do.” A muscle flexed in his jaw. “The skills kicked in like a reflex—”

  “They’re epic skills, Logan.”

  “And yet it’s not gratitude I want from you.” He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “Gratitude fogs things up. It crosses emotional wires.”

  “I’m not confusing gratitude for anything else.” I loved you before you saved my life, can’t you see that? “Dr. Nguyen said you were the best possible hiking companion I could have had in this situation.”

  “That’s an exaggeration.” He balled his hands into fists. “Any resident could have done that field surgery.”

  Maybe so, but Jenny had heard the greetings in the hall before Logan had entered the room, and the whispers among the nurses, and Dr. Nguyen’s praise. Logan was too humble to brag.

  He sighed. “I would have told you everything eventually.”

  “I know. But we only had two weeks together. We didn’t really have a chance to get to know one another—”

  “That’s not true.” He looked up sharply. His green gaze pierced right to her back-collar tag. “I know you well enough, Jenny. I should have run to you when you asked.”

  Her heart turned over.

  “You were so drugged up that night. So vulnerable. I couldn’t say what I need to say, not when you were in such a state.”

  She flinched with every word. How had he slipped under her skin so quickly?

  “There was something I had to do before I saw you.” He rocked back on his heels. “It couldn’t wait, not another minute.”

  “Logan.” She licked her lips. “You don’t owe me any explanations.”

  “Like hell I don’t.” His jaw tightened. “I found a position today.”

  She shook her head, not understanding.

  “A job. In emergency medicine.” He gripped the rail at the end of the bed, his knuckles white. “Late last night, instead of coming here, I drove to see an old friend. Someone I used to work with at Doctors Without Borders.”

  Her pulse jumped. He was going back?

  “This friend runs a large emergency room.” He shifted his shoulders under the crisp cotton of the oxford shirt. “He offered me a permanent position before my butt hit the interview chair.”

  There were the larger implications here, but she could hardly get past the details. “That’s why you’re wearing a suit today.”

  He glanced down at himself, as if confused to find himself dressed for an office. “I drove back from the interview this morning. I didn’t have time to change.”

  Her head swam. “Things happen fast around you, Logan.”

  “Things sure happened fast between us, Jenny.”

  Lightning-bolt fast. Too fast to be real. Her head was spinning.

  “For six months,” he said, “I hadn’t made a single decision more important than what to eat for dinner.” He pushed away from the bed and took a step closer to her. “And then, out of the blue, you walked into my life.”

  “I walked out of the shower.” She hunched her shoulders as he approached, afraid of what was coming. “How could it not have been so hot, so physical?”

  “Is it? Just that?”

  “This is what happens when you mix proximity and attraction.” The bandage pulled at her throat, but it wasn’t tape that caused the constriction. “Eventually it all blows up. That’s why you’re here to say good-bye.”

  She couldn’t look at him. A rumble of voices sifted into the room from the hall. Someone rolled a gurney with a wonky wheel past the door. The clock on the wall ticked past the seconds. She couldn’t bear the odd silence, the ringing in her ears.

  “Logan.” She tilted her chin. “I’ve had conversations like this before—”

  “Like hell you have.”

  “I understand what’s happening.” She absorbed the sharpness of his words without a twitch. “I’m happy that you’ve gone back to what you do best. I’m happy, after all that you’ve suffered, that you found your way—”

  “I’m not your asshole ex, Jenny.”

  His words choked her silent. Logan Macallister was definitely not her ex. Her ex wouldn’t have been so gentle. He wouldn’t have bothered to choose his words with such care. She recognized, now, that the relationship she’d had with her ex had been poisoned from the start. She’d made the mistake of sticking with the bastard too long, testing every variable in a vain effort to fix their faulty connection. She’d assumed the problem was with her. But Logan had taught her that love should be effortless, right from the start.

  “Jenny.”

  His shoes came into view where she stared at the linoleum floor. His warmth swept over her, along with that alluring, musky scent that rippled pleasure through her quicker than any drug.

  “You’ve got this all wrong, darling.” His touch was like a spark on her cheek.

  Why would she trembling?

  “I’m not here to say good-bye.” He urged her chin up with the softest of pressures, until she found herself captured by those green eyes. “I’m here to thank you.”

  She swayed a little, her chest hurting at the sudden lack of oxygen.

  “I thought I’d lost everything when I left South America. Something in me broke after that tragedy.” His jaw flexed but he didn’t look away. Instead, he leaned in. “When I saw you go limp in my arms, I was sure I’d lose you just like I’d lost that sweet girl. But it all came back to me in a rush. Everything I’ve ever been taught. Clear as if I’d never been away…as if I’d been given another chance. I’ve spent the last six months trying to figure out who the hell I am, and it turns out I’m the same guy I ever was. I just needed to meet a woman who could heal me.”

  Tears pricked at the back of her eyes. How could it be that she’d healed him, when he was the one who’d healed her? How many years had she thrown up walls against relationships? How much of life had she missed burrowing into her work? And yet she hadn’t thought about work once since she’d woken up in this hospital. She hadn’t turned her thoughts to crunching the data she’d already collected, or worrying about the delay in the distillations, or the papers she had to write before classes began at the end of the summer. All that had been swept away. Nothing had mattered but Logan, who she loved, even when she believed he was leaving her.

  Wasn’t he leaving her? “I heard you over the phone,” she said. “You zipped up your suitcase. You left the cabin.”

  “Only for a night, so I could make the trip there and back in time to fetch you out of this hospital.” He pulled a rueful smile. “All my things are still in the cabin, Jenny. Right next to yours.”

  “Even the birds?”

  “Even the birds.” He cupped her face. His palms barely touched her skin. “You really thought I was leaving you?”

  A hot tear slipped out of her eye. “Everything is so strange, Logan. Since I woke up in this hospital. Since Dr. Nguyen told me who you are, I feel like I hardly know you. Or myself.”

  “Let’s change that.”

  His heart beat against the hollow of her palms, though she hardly remembered raising her hands to his chest. Was this really happening? Was he drawing her close like a promise? She couldn’t stop shaking. Creases deepened at the edge of his eyes. She took in the love in his smile but couldn’t stop staring. He really
wasn’t saying good-bye?

  “I have one more surprise.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “About this job…it’s in Seattle.”

  She jolted a little, her heels rising. “I live in Seattle.”

  “I know. John told me.” He searched her face, his thumbs grazing her cheeks. “Would it scare the hell out of you if I followed you there?”

  A laugh lurched out of her before she could catch it back.

  She said, “Yes.”

  He pulled back, hesitant. “It’ll scare you?”

  “Yes. But I want you to live with me anyway.”

  He leaned down and planted his beautiful mouth on her lips. She ran her hands up his chest and locked them behind his neck, feeling another tear fall loose from her lashes.

  “I should warn you,” she said, rising breathless out of his kiss, “my bed is big, but my apartment is small.”

  “We’ll have to buy a place together, then.” He rocked her, swaying like a slow dance. “A little cabin of our own.”

  She could hardly see him through the blur of her gathering tears. “Why am I crying?”

  “Because you love me,” he said, against her lips. “And because I love you back.”

  EPILOGUE

  Jenny opened the oven door to a cloud of smoke. Waving it away with a pot holder, she pulled out a tray. The stuffed mushrooms clanked on the rim of the pan like lumps of coal. With a shrug, she walked the tray across the kitchen of their new home, tipped her toe on the hinge of the garbage can, and dumped the failed experiment into the trash. Ah well. She would do better next time.

  She reached for her cell phone, hoping it wasn’t too late to call the caterer and add another appetizer to the order for this afternoon’s housewarming gathering. While she chatted, she heard familiar footsteps coming up the basement stairs. Logan’s warm hands slip around her from behind just as she finished the call and laid the phone on the counter.

  “The mushroom experiment was a bust,” she said, as she turned into his strong, hard chest. “I’ll look for more chanterelles after the next rain.”

  A wicked grin split his face. “I’ll go with you.”

  She slung her arms around his neck and enjoyed a frisson of expectation. They’d bought this house, in part, because of the reservation land that abutted their backyard. In those deep woods, they’d already found some secluded places to enjoy a frolic or two in the open air, reliving their woodland pleasures without the emergency tracheostomy interfering. She couldn’t get enough of Logan and suspected she never would.

  She ran her fingers through his thick hair and a wood shaving fell into her palm. Lifting it up, she tilted her head in question. “You’ve been unpacking.”

  “Maybe.” His eyes were half-lidded as he stripped off her clothes with his gaze. “I was looking for the grill basket and tools, just like you asked me.”

  “You didn’t pack those tools in wood shavings, darling.” The wood shavings were a certain kind of packing, for a specific pile of goods that didn't weigh much but held a ton of meaning. “Any chance those birds will make a showing today?”

  Her heart squeezed as the expression on his face shifted. When they’d left John’s rented cabin months ago, Logan had packed up all his carving equipment as well as the flock of wooden birds. He put them in storage because there was no room for all that in her tiny apartment, and no work room, either. But now that they’d bought this house together, all those boxes had been stowed in the basement. Considering that today they were throwing a party, it was a strange time for Logan to dig through the past.

  “I’ve been thinking,” he said, taking her hand to rock her in a slow dance. “John is bringing his baby daughter Lily, and three of my younger nieces will be here this afternoon, too.”

  “That’s why you made the macaroni and cheese.” She tilted her chin toward to the foil-wrapped tins as they sashayed by

  “I thought they might like the birds.” He shrugged. “Maybe the kids could take a set home, one set for each of them.”

  She caught her lip against a gasp. The kids would love the carved birds. Their other guests would love, them, too. Everyone would marvel that Logan had carved and painted each one with his own hands in those terrible months when he’d avoided everyone, lost in his grief.

  “I adore that idea.” She ran her fingers across his smooth-shaven jaw. “But are you sure you’re good with it?”

  “It's time." His smile was soft. “I'll set them on the railing around the deck. The kids can pick their favorites.”

  “And then those birds,” she whispered, “will finally fly free.”

  A shadow fell over them as the back screen door suddenly squealed open with a bang.

  “Break it up, you two,” came a booming voice. “You want your mother to catch you like that, Logan?”

  Jenny stepped out of Logan’s embrace to glimpse a man striding across the kitchen like a marauding Viking. He planted a six-pack of beer on the center island just as Logan greeted him with a crash of chests. She winced, fearing for Logan’s recently-healed rib. But the two of them still went at it, some complicated manly ritual, trying to haul the other up off the floor.

  The Viking barked a laugh as they broke apart. “Dude, you look a hell of a lot better than the last time I saw you.” The Viking turned his clear blue gaze on her. “Is this the woman responsible for bringing you back to life?”

  Logan turned and looked at her like a man for whom the world was his oyster, and she the pearl. “Jenny, this is Dylan MacCabe. College friend. Rugby teammate. He’s a professor like you. He’s pissed at me now because he tagged me for a three-week canoeing trip, but I bailed on him for you.”

  “I absolve you of that sin, now that I see the reason why.” Dylan engulfed her hand in his and nodded. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jenny.”

  She blinked at the impact of Dylan’s blue, blue eyes. “Logan has told me all about you, Dylan.”

  “Not everything,” he winked, “I hope.”

  “I really am sorry for stealing Logan away from your expedition.” She knew that Dylan, like Logan, had experienced a devastating loss in the past year. Each of the men had been making efforts to honor those they grieved. It pained her to think she might be responsible for making a difficult process even more complicated for Logan's friend. “If it weren’t for us buying a house so quickly and—”

  “No worries.” Dylan waved a dismissive hand. “I only invited this guy on the canoeing trip because I thought it would pull him out of his funk. You did that, Jenny. Garrick and I are much obliged.”

  Logan slipped his arm around her waist. “So Garrick’s taking my place in the canoe?”

  “He is. Have you seen him lately?” Dylan shook his head in wonder. “He took up rock-climbing. He's ripped to shreds. With his arms, we’ll be making fifty miles a day—”

  “Are you talking about me?”

  The door squealed open and banged shut again. The ripped-to-shreds guy who barreled in could only be Garrick. With a roar that made her flinch, then men merged into a kind of rugby scrum right there in the kitchen, bumping into the island and breaking out into some shouting sports song. She veered out of the way, laughing.

  They were all arriving today. Her parents were flying in from New York. Logan’s parents were driving in from Montana. A few colleagues had promised to join them, as well as Logan’s siblings, nieces, and nephews. Normally she’d be curled up with paroxysms of terror at such a huge gathering, but she was genuinely excited. She couldn’t wait to meet the people who raised Logan, all the friends who’d helped form the man she loved.

  “I hear another car.” Logan popped out of the scrum, his hair sticking up. “Let’s bring this outside, guys, before I fracture another rib.”

  Logan threw out a hand for her, an invite to join them. Her heart swelled so full she couldn’t move from the spot, from the sight, from the moment.

  “Go on ahead,” she said around the soft lump in her throat. “I’ll follow you in a
minute.”

  She watched as Logan strode after his friends. The screen door flung open, then closed behind him with a squeal and a bang, a sound that was music to her ears. The rear door of the cabin she and Logan had shared had sounded the same—as had the back door of her grandmother’s country house, too. The squeal and bang riffled up memories of her grandmother stepping into the old kitchen, baskets of herbs propped against her hip, happy summers filled with love. Sometimes—like right now—Jenny felt her grandmother’s presence in the room, a gentle haze of affection.

  I found it, grandma. All the love you held for me, all the love you promised I would have.

  Just like you said I would.

  With a satisfied smile, she grabbed a dishtowel, wiped her hands clean, and headed out the door to meet her new family.

  THE END

  Thank you for joining Jenny and Logan on their journey to love in ALONE WITH YOU!

  With every novel, I try to deliver a sense of being swept away on a passionate adventure with a sexy, strong man. I hope ALONE WITH YOU gifted you hours of lovely, joyful distraction.

  Are you in the mood for another steamy trapped-together romance? Check out an exclusive excerpt from the next book in the Cabin Fever Series, LOST WITH YOU, just ahead.

  Don’t miss Lisa Ann Verge's other passionate romances

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  WILD HIGHLAND MAGIC

  THE CELTIC LEGENDS SERIES: Box Set

  THE O'MADDEN: A NOVELLA

  ROMANTIC JOURNEYS COLLECTION: Three Sweeping Historical Romances for Lovers of Passion And Adventure

  HEAVEN IN HIS ARMS

  SING ME HOME

  HER PIRATE HEART

  THE CAPTIVE KNIGHT

  Also available—the Novels of Lisa Verge Higgins

  THE PROPER CARE AND MAINTENANCE OF FRIENDSHIP

  ONE GOOD FRIEND DESERVES ANOTHER

  FRIENDSHIP MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER

  RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS