by Linda Wisdom
“What’s wrong?” he demanded, suddenly fearing the worst.
As always, the older man was concise as he related the plot he and Nick had concocted.
Logan stared at his father. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but there was no way the older man would make up a story as crazy as this one.
Nick and his father had come up with this incredible plot. Or was someone else in on it, too?
“Was Lucy in on this, too?” he demanded as he jumped to his feet. His earlier exhaustion from his run was now forgotten.
“She knew nothing about it until a little while ago when she overheard a phone conversation between Nick and me.” Frank paused. “Nick had called me because he wants to get you and his mother back together again.”
“Why would you do something like this?” Logan’s voice cracked with emotion. His dad wasn’t the type to hatch some crazy plot. That he’d done something like this, with a kid no less, was more than Nick could handle just then. “It doesn’t make any sense, Dad.”
“Nick presented what seemed like a sound plan. The more we talked about it, the more we realized you two would be good for each other.” The judge perched his hip on the edge of a counter. “Nick had a plan for the two of you to be thrown together for a while. It even seemed to work.”
Logan tipped his head back and looked up at the ceiling as he laughed. The sound was harsh to the ears.
Magnum looked at the two men, stood up and walked away. Jake sensed the tension and slunk off.
“Great, just great. First my dad tells me I need a woman in my life. Since I don’t do anything about it, he decides to take it into his own hands and team up with a kid. Do they set us up on a blind date? Oh no, that would be too difficult. Let’s do something easier, shall we?” He sneered. “Let’s fabricate some crime where the kid has to appear before the judge who has the right to order him to do community service. That’ll work! Brenda having the baby early just made it better for you two, didn’t it?” He spun around in a tight circle with his fingers dug deep into his scalp. “I just can’t believe the two of you cooked this up on your own. Are you sure she didn’t know about any of this?”
Frank nodded. “Positive. Nick said if his mother ever found out what he wanted to do she’d lock him in his room until he was a hundred years old.”
“Yeah, that sounds like her.” Logan rubbed his face with his hands. His brain felt as if it was on overload. He couldn’t take it all in.
“I still can’t believe that Nick is so desperate for a father he’d cook up this crazy scheme.” His covering hands muffled his words.
“Nick really likes you,” the judge said. “He told me he’d watched you two. He felt you would be a good match. I’d say he was right.”
“Except neither of us was looking for a long-term relationship,” Logan argued. “We both had bad marriages and didn’t want to repeat the experience.”
“Yes, Nick told me about his father.” Frank’s face twisted with distaste. “Did you ever stop to think that you and Mrs. Donner were with the wrong people before? That the two of you had to go through those bad marriages to reach the point you’re at now? Did you stop to think that maybe it’s time to go forward? To enrich your life with more?”
“My life is just fine.” Logan muttered his lie. He ignored the sharp pain shooting for the vicinity of his heart. He didn’t want to think just why he was experiencing this pain.
“We saw you and Mrs. Donner as two people who balance each other. The two halves that make a perfect whole.”
“Maybe you saw it like some greeting card, but I didn’t,” Logan said wearily.
Frank stared at his son.
“I didn’t realize that I’d raised a son who would do something so downright stupid,” his father said bluntly. “Anyone who watched you two from the beginning could see you were meant for each other.” He ignored his son’s snort of disbelief. “No matter what Nick and I did, we couldn’t force you two into something not meant to be. Why can’t you see that?”
Logan experienced a crushing sensation inside his chest. Most men would think they were having a heart attack. But he knew no doctor could help this particular ailment.
Frank straightened up and took one of the chairs. He turned it around and sat down, resting his arms on the back.
“Do you remember Melanie Reynolds?”
Logan was surprised by this abrupt question. He had to search his memory before the image of a soft-spoken brunette came to mind. “Wasn’t she that family-law attorney? You two started dating when I was ten. There was a time when I even thought she was going to be my stepmother.”
Frank nodded. “She thought that, too, but I told myself that I didn’t want to commit myself. I wasn’t looking for someone to replace your mother. Plus, you and I were doing fine on our own. Then the night came when Melanie gave me an ultimatum: either I assure her we had a future together or I tell her good-bye.”
Logan didn’t have to ask him what happened next. “So you told her good-bye.”
Frank sighed and shook his head. “I told her that I never thought of marrying again. I said we had a good thing. I’ll never forget the look on her face when I said that.” His expression portrayed the regret that must have been in his heart all these years. “She said she wanted to look forward, not stay the same. She felt we would have a wonderful life together. I didn’t give her the answer she wanted. She wouldn’t take my calls after that night.”
Logan felt sick at his stomach. “I didn’t even tell Lucy why,” he murmured. “I think, deep down, I was afraid I’d lock myself into something I didn’t want.”
“And that way she didn’t have a chance to tell you she didn’t want a commitment,” Frank said. “Maybe because you knew she wouldn’t say that. I’ve seen her face when she’s around you, Logan. Maybe she didn’t know it, but she truly cared for you. And you had that same expression.”
The more the older man talked, the sicker Logan got.
So this is what love feels like.
Had he ever bought another woman a special piece of jewelry so a special night could be remembered?
He remembered so much of their time together.
Lucy smiling her wicked-woman smile as she wore his suit coat and gave him the silent invitation to take it off.
Lucy with all her crazy night-lights throughout her house.
Lucy’s smile as she offered him Irish coffee in her gazebo.
A naked Lucy, seductive in the hot tub.
But there was so much more. How she treated Magnum like a big ol’ regular guy who just happened to wear a fur coat. Her pure female squeals when a snake got too close to her. Her delighted laughter the first time she saw Beau groom his kitty. The way she stood back and allowed Nick to make his own mistakes because she knew it was the only way he’d learn.
Not once had she ever lamented her life as a single mother or hinted that her son needed a father. She’d never said that Logan would make a wonderful father.
She and Nick were doing just fine.
Just as Logan’s dad had thought he and Logan were.
“Damn,” he muttered, feeling the pain rip through him with the ferocity of a razor-sharp scalpel.
“Exactly,” Frank said quietly, recognizing the look on his son’s face.
“I just walked away without a word. With Brenda returning, I saw it as a sign in my favor.”
“You mean you used it as a prime excuse.”
Logan winced at his dad’s candid observation.
“You need to sit down and talk with Mrs. Donner.”
“Her name is Lucy.” He drew a deep breath. “And I don’t think she’d be all that eager to talk to me.”
“I can’t imagine that would stop you. Maybe Nick could say something on your behalf.”
“After what’s already happened, I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“Tell me what you want, Logan,” Frank said.
He lifted his head. “I want Lucy.�
�
LUCY NEVER SUFFERED from headaches, but she’d had more than her share lately.
Just as she thought, Nick had ridden his bicycle over to the Walker house. The moment Cathy had heard her tears she’d told Lucy to hang on, that she would be right over. Cathy made tea and coaxed the story out of her.
Lucy started to relax when Cathy began muttering threats on Frank Kincaid’s head for going along with Nick’s plan. Then she started crying again.
“Lucy, you and Logan need to talk about this,” Cathy urged her. “He’s running scared, dear. We’ve all seen you two together. You make a perfect match.”
“That doesn’t mean we want to be a perfect match in that way,” Lucy said. “We’re not looking for marriage.”
“Just because you’re not looking for it doesn’t mean it’s not looking for you.” Cathy stirred a spoonful of sugar into her tea. “I remember Logan’s father once going through something like this years ago and in the process, he lost a lovely woman. I think he’s regretted that mistake since. Don’t go through life with those same regrets.”
“I don’t want any regrets, Cathy,” Lucy said softly. Her eyes stung with tears. “I just want Logan.”
Chapter Sixteen
Nothing was the same.
Lucy prided herself on being the mistress of her life. Of keeping control over what went on in her universe even as it expanded.
And now, thanks to one incredibly stubborn man, her life, as she knew it, was a mess.
It hadn’t been easy for her to talk to Nick after she’d discovered what he and Logan’s father had done.
Cathy had urged Lucy to allow them to keep Nick that first night. Lucy, feeling raw from her realizations, had packed up a clean set of clothing that Cathy took with her. Lucy had spent the night ranting, raving and crying. By morning, she was red-eyed, her voice was hoarse and she was convinced she’d frightened every coyote in a fifty-mile radius. Nick had returned home quieter than she’d ever seen him. He’d again apologized for what he’d done and promised he would never do anything like that again. Lucy had accepted his apology and grounded him for the next six months. For the remainder of Nick’s community service, Lou or Cathy had dropped him off and picked him up at the clinic.
Lucy tagged along when Ginna and Nora looked for space for their hair salon. Logan’s name wasn’t mentioned once. She was surprised Ginna didn’t call him anything other than “bastard scum.” She was grateful nothing else was said that day.
She prided herself on knowing none of it was her fault. Logan was the one who’d walked away. She hated that now she knew what she wanted and she couldn’t have it.
Then there were days like today when she wanted to stay in bed all day. Maybe she would. Nick was old enough to get his own breakfast. She could shuffle out to the kitchen, fill her big insulated carafe with coffee and shuffle back to the bedroom. Curl up in bed with Domino and Luther, read and take a nap or two.
Seemed like a plan.
Domino had crawled under the covers and now lay like a furry lump against her stomach while Luther had curled up against her back. She thought she heard the doorbell and ignored it.
“Uh, Mom.”
“Mom is out at the moment. Please leave a message and she’ll get back to you next year,” Lucy muttered under the warm comfort of the covers.
“I don’t think so.” The covers were thrown back, exposing Lucy to the morning chill.
“Don’t do that!” She sat up, glaring at Ginna who glared back.
Ginna glanced at Nick. “Sweetie, my parents are picking you up in ten minutes if you’re willing to help them keep track of the rest of the kids at Sea World.”
Nick looked at Lucy who didn’t say a thing then back at Ginna. “I’m gone.” Which he was two seconds later.
“He’s grounded,” Lucy said.
“Trust me, spending the day with five energetic little kids and one baby will be plenty of punishment for him.” Ginna opened Lucy’s closet door. “It’s intervention time for you.”
Lucy flopped back and pulled the covers back over herself. “Thank you, good-bye.”
Ginna deliberately dropped clothing on Lucy’s face. “Get dressed.”
“I planned to stay home today,” she muttered.
“No man is worth this.” Ginna walked around the room, opening the mini blinds to let in the morning light.
“I am not depressed.” Lucy reluctantly climbed out of bed and started changing her clothing. She knew Ginna well enough that if Lucy didn’t dress herself, Ginna would drag her out of here in her pajamas. “If you all are going for your rah-rah session at the park you can just leave me out of it. I don’t need to go out there and whoop and holler at men in running shorts no matter how good they look.”
“No, we have something much better planned.” Ginna walked over and grabbed a length of Lucy’s hair, holding it straight out. She clucked under her tongue. “Very sad. Have you used conditioner at all this week? One more thing to add to the list.”
“What list?” Lucy had a bad feeling about this.
Ginna picked up Domino. “Let’s give the kid some time outside then we’re outta here.”
Lucy knew something was definitely up when they walked outside to Abby’s SUV and she saw Nora and Gail seated inside. She stopped in her tracks and spun around to confront Ginna.
“Please don’t do this,” she whispered. She thought she was all cried out, but it looked as if that wasn’t true.
Ginna put her arm around her shoulders and guided her to the SUV. “Trust me,” she said quietly. “This is exactly what you need.”
“And what is that?” She feared she was in for one of those touchy-feely days.
Ginna opened the passenger door and none too gently pushed Lucy inside.
“Call it a cleansing ritual,” Abby said, starting up the engine while Nora handed out containers of coffee.
Her fears were coming true. “Please tell me we’re not going to go to one of those places where women sit together and expose their inner selves.”
“Hell, no!” Abby laughed as she sped down the road. “Honey, we’re going to treat our outer selves.”
Lucy felt as if she’d been swept up in the same tornado that took Dorothy out of Kansas.
Abby had said it was for their outer selves and that’s what it turned out to be.
Elysium Day Spa didn’t believe in stinting on pampering. With Ginna and Nora in charge, Lucy was dunked in the warm bubbling mineral pool, massaged until her muscles felt like overcooked spaghetti then had her skin slathered with a red clay substance. She was wrapped in a warming blanket while a bright-blue cream was painted on her face and her hair was covered with a pink color goo and wrapped in another towel.
She would have protested that this was torture at its extreme, except it felt too good.
“Shopping doesn’t do for a woman’s soul what a day at the spa does,” Abby said, reclining in a spa chair while a seaweed mask was applied to her body. “You go home after a manic shopping trip and ask yourself why you bought something so ugly. While after a day at the spa, you tell yourself you’re beautiful. No one can feel down after a series of beauty treatments.”
“I could easily do this on a regular basis,” Gail murmured as a green clay mask covered her face.
“Maybe we should,” Nora suggested as she opted for a mineral body mask. “The men go off to the sports games. Why shouldn’t we do this?”
“I’m in,” Ginna said.
Lucy was ready to snuggle down in the blanket and doze, but before that could happen, she was urged off the table so she could rinse off the mask.
“I feel like some little girl’s Barbie doll,” she said as she was wrapped in a pale-blue terry spa robe and shuffled off for a pedicure and manicure. Next she was herded to the station that had been Ginna’s when she’d worked at the Steppin’ Out Hair Salon that was part of the Elysium Day Spa.
“No matter how bad you feel, you don’t neglect your hair,” Ginna
instructed, after Lucy’s hair was washed and conditioned again. She picked up scissors. “We’re doing a whole new look. Don’t worry, nothing radical. Just a feel-good style.”
Lucy had to admit that as the day wore on, her spirits did lift to where she felt almost human again. Abby was right. There was nothing like having your entire body worked on to make you feel better.
After the salon makeup artist finished her magic, Lucy looked in the mirror and felt she saw a brand-new woman.
She was surprised when Abby walked out with her trademark shoulder-length hair cut short.
“It was time for a change,” Abby said. “Let’s eat.”
As they sat on the restaurant’s patio, Lucy looked at the four women seated with her. They declared calorie and fat-gram counters as the enemy and ate to their hearts’ content then went to work on the dessert tray.
After they’d eaten their fill, they sat back to enjoy the evening. Lucy held up her glass of wine.
“When I was little I hated having a brother,” she said. “I wanted a sister who’d play dolls with me and learn all that girl stuff with me as we grew older. But now—” She had to stop as she felt her throat close up. “Now I feel as if I have four sisters. The best kind of sisters a woman could have because they’re sisters by choice, not by birth. Thank you for everything.”
The other four smiled and held up their glasses.
“Sisters by choice,” Abby echoed. “Gail’s right. We need to do this on a regular basis. Recharge our batteries, so to speak.” She sipped her wine.
“Let’s share the good with the bad, shall we?” Lucy suggested. “Each of you tell me what makes the man in your life so special.”
“You want to wallow in your misery, don’t you?” Ginna asked.
Lucy shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe just remember the good parts.” She smiled faintly. She looked at Gail.
“I was one of those quiet, anal types,” Gail said softly. She wrinkled her nose at Ginna when she laughed. “And that’s an understatement. Brian showed me a whole new world, a whole new me. He completed me in a way I never imagined.”
“Mark makes life brighter,” Nora admitted.