Two Times as Hot

by Cat Johnson

  “That’s what neighbors are for.” Tuck glanced around the shop. “You keeping the store open by yourself?”

  “Not really. It’s been closed since . . .” Logan hesitated. He couldn’t bring himself to say since his father had collapsed and become an invalid, so instead he said, “Since your wedding. I only came in today to handle a few things.”

  Logan could see the question on Tuck’s face as he glanced around the shop. He figured he might as well answer before his friend had to ask. “No, I don’t know what I’m doing with it yet. Layne and Mom have left the decision up to me.”

  Tuck’s brows rose. “That doesn’t seem fair to lay it all on you.”

  Logan let out a short laugh. “Tell me about it.”

  “You could get somebody to run it for you for a while.” Tuck’s gaze met Logan’s. “Just until you know more.”

  Such as whether his father would ever recover enough to be able to walk and talk and resume a normal life? “I thought about hiring a few high school kids who are off on summer break, but I don’t know if they’d be responsible enough to work without supervision. If I’d have to be here to watch them, I might as well work here myself.”

  “Work here yourself? As in retire from the military?”

  “No. Of course not. Just temporarily.” Logan blew out a breath. “Hell, I don’t know.”

  “You know, I bet some of the old guys from the veterans’ association would love to play shopkeeper a few days a week. They run that VFW like a tight ship. I’d trust them with the store. And your dad’s a member. They’d want to help a fellow vet, I’m sure.”

  “Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe I’ll stop by there later.” It was a good suggestion, and one Logan never would have come up with himself. It could buy them enough time to make the right decision.

  A few pounds lifted from the weight that had settled on his shoulders that day almost a month ago when his father was taken to the hospital.

  “Uh, there’s something else I wanted to just mention.”

  Logan raised a brow. “Yeah?”

  “Right before I left the house to come here, I walked in on Becca while she was on the cell phone with Emma.”

  “Oh?” Logan’s heart rate sped just hearing Emma’s name again.

  “They were talking about you.”

  “Oh.” Logan swallowed hard. Jeez, that had sounded guilty.

  “Know of any reason why Becca and her sister would be discussing you long distance when they haven’t spoken to each other about anything at all for weeks?”

  “Uh, maybe.” Logan met Tuck’s gaze. He was torn between being thrilled Emma had been talking about him, and feeling like a crappy friend for having had sex with Tuck’s new sister-in-law hours after the man’s wedding.

  “Oh, really? I’m listening.” Tuck leaned back against the table, displaying cowboy boots and folded arms.

  “You’re going to be mad at me.” Logan ran his hand over the stubble on his chin and glanced back at Tuck.

  “Madder than I was at Jace for disappearing with Jacqueline after he’d asked Emma to be his date?”

  “Uh, no. Probably not. Who knows?” Logan leaned back against the counter by the cash register, settling in. This might be a long conversation. “You sure you want to hear this?”

  Tuck shook his head. “I don’t know. Do I?”

  “I’m thinking probably not.” Logan wasn’t one to brag about conquests, but he owed Tuck some sort of explanation.

  “All right, then. Let me say this, whatever happened or didn’t happen, I would hope you treated her the way I’d expect you to.”

  A wave of guilt hit him. They hadn’t discussed contacting each other. In fact, they’d both gone into that night knowing it was just that, one night. Then she’d fly away. But it had been a really good night, and he should have called. He would have if she’d given him her number. “To be honest, she and I haven’t talked since she left. I’ve been so consumed with Dad. And I don’t have her phone number.”

  Tuck hoisted himself away from the table and ambled toward Logan. As Logan prepared himself for pretty much anything, including a punch in the face, Tuck reached past him and grabbed a sales slip and a pen off the register. He pulled out his phone, scrolled through a few screens, and then scribbled a number on the paper. “Here. Now you have it.”

  “Thank you.” Logan took the paper and glanced down at the number that would lead to his hearing Emma’s sweet voice.

  “You have any idea what you’re going to do with that?” Tuck nodded toward the paper in Logan’s hand.

  “Yup.” Logan nodded. “I’m going to call her the minute you leave.”

  “Because you think that’s what I want?” Tuck eyed Logan from beneath the brim of his hat.

  “No. Because I like her and want to talk to her again. Not because I’m afraid of you, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”

  Tuck snorted out a laugh. “If Jace isn’t afraid of me, you sure as hell ain’t gonna be.”

  Logan felt the scowl settle on his face just at the mention of Emma’s would-be date. “Jace always has been a fool.”

  “Agreed.” Tuck dipped his head. “So, you need me to do anything here to help out?”

  Logan laughed. “Not unless you have any experience shaping a cowboy hat.”

  A frown knit Tuck’s brow beneath his own well-worn hat. “Can’t say I do. Though I could sure use some. This old thing is starting to get a little out of shape.”

  “Give it here. I’ve got the steamer running. I can have that fixed up in a few minutes.” Logan reached out one hand.

  “Really? Hmm, I never knew you were so handy.” Tuck lifted the hat off his head by the crown, then handed it to Logan.

  “That’s because you and Layne were busy playing while I was here slaving away on the steamer after school every day.”

  “We were only seven.”

  “No excuse.” Logan took a closer look at Tuck’s hat. “Jeez, man. Don’t you have a brush for this thing?”

  “Yeah, I had one. I can’t find it.”

  Logan shook his head. “They’re over there on the shelf. Go grab one.”

  Tuck glanced at the brush display. “You sure are good to have around. Maybe I’ll have Becca talk Emma into marrying you—that way my hats will always look good.”

  “I can keep your hats looking good, but I don’t need to be married to do it. Jeez, just ’cause you’re married, we all have to be?” Logan joked, but being married didn’t sound so bad to him.

  “You should try it. You might like it.”

  “Yeah, yeah. And misery also loves company.” Logan turned for the back room, Tuck’s hat in his hand. “Come on back here and bring your big head with you. What the hell size is this hat anyway? Seven and three-quarters?”

  The tinkling of the bell above the door announced another arrival. Logan turned in time to see Tyler coming into the store.

  “I thought that I recognized those two trucks out front.” Tyler glanced around him. “Jeez, this feels like the old days when we were kids. Remember how we’d all come in here after school and look at the new hats we wanted but couldn’t afford on our allowance?”

  “What allowance?” Tuck screwed up his face. “You and Tara may have gotten an allowance, but the minute I was old enough to work for other people, that shit stopped for me.”

  “Aw, it’s good to have you home, bro. I missed your bubbly personality for that month you disappeared after the wedding. Which reminds me.” Tyler handed a small white card to Logan. “The rental place checked the pockets when I returned the tuxes after the brunch. That was in the pocket of yours. With all the stuff happening with your dad and all, I kept forgetting to give it to you. I’ve had it stuck in the console of my truck all this time.”

  The smug look Tyler delivered along with the card had Logan wondering what the hell it was. Then he glanced down and saw Emma’s name and contact information on it.

  Emma had given him her number. S
he’d slipped her card into the pocket of his tux and he’d totally missed it. It could have been lost and he might never have known. Yet here it was, in his hand, by way of the bridal rental shop and Tyler.

  If this wasn’t fate telling Logan to call Emma, he didn’t know what the hell it was.

  “Thanks for this.” He pocketed the card, and hoped Tyler wasn’t in the mood to interrogate him about Emma, especially since Tuck was here.

  Logan eyed Tuck and saw he was so busy checking out one of the hats on display, he hadn’t taken much notice of the exchange. Good. It was another stroke of good luck working in Logan’s favor. He decided to move the Jenkins brothers’ attention elsewhere and avoid any talk of him and Emma or what might have happened between them.

  Still holding Tuck’s hat, Logan glanced at Tyler’s. “Give me your hat, Ty. I’m fixing Tuck’s. I might as well do yours while the steamer’s hot.”

  “Who am I to argue with an offer like that?” Tyler surrendered the brown hat.

  Logan spun it in his hand. “The brim’s all fucked up. What the hell did you do to it?”

  “A bull may or may not have stepped on it a little bit.” Tyler grinned.

  “I thought you were gonna start wearing a helmet to ride.” Tuck shook his head at his brother.

  “You don’t.” Tyler frowned.

  “That’s not the point.” Tucker raised one brow. “You should.”

  “Do as I say, not as I do? Real nice, bro.” Tyler scowled.

  Leaving the two brothers to argue, Logan headed to the workroom. This was good. Distraction was just what he needed right now. Then, when the distractions who were two of his closest friends left, there was a woman he was long overdue in calling.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Much as a watched pot never boiled, a watched clock didn’t move. At least that’s how it seemed to Emma as she stood in the bathroom holding in one hand the stick she’d just peed on, and her cell phone in the other, waiting for three eternally long minutes to tick by on the cell’s time display.

  The phone vibrated and she jumped, nearly losing her hold on both.

  “Oh my God.” Emma tried to calm her racing heart as she shoved the stick onto the edge of the sink—better hold the phone in both hands before she ended up dropping it from her shaking fingers into the toilet.

  She needed to calm down. Flipping the seat lid shut, Emma sat and drew in a deep breath. With the cell safe from the threat of death by toilet, she looked at the caller ID as the phone continued to vibrate.

  It was a call from a Stillwater, Oklahoma, phone. She’d dialed Becca’s apartment phone enough to recognize the area code, but she didn’t know this particular number. Maybe Becca was calling from someone else’s phone.

  She hit the button and said, “Hello.”

  “Emma?” A very deep, very male voice stopped her just as she’d drawn in a breath to lay into Becca for not being able to wait for Emma to call her back.

  It wasn’t Tuck. She’d spoken to him on the phone enough to recognize his voice. Could it be . . . “Logan?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  She shot a sideways glance at the white plastic stick on the edge of the sink. A hell of a coincidence he’d be calling now. “Hi. I, uh, heard about your dad. Becca told me. I’m so sorry.”

  “Thanks. That’s why I wanted to call. I’ve wanted to talk to you, but with the whole thing with my father, that’s why I haven’t contacted you since . . . you know.”

  “The wedding?” Memories of their time together, both at the wedding and after, had Emma’s pulse pounding.

  He let out a short laugh. “Yeah, since the wedding.”

  “I know you couldn’t call. You had to be there for your family, Logan.”

  “I’m glad you understand.” He sighed into the phone. “It’s good to hear your voice.”

  “It’s good to hear yours, too.” Emma couldn’t begin to tell him how much.

  She glanced at the stick again. Nothing yet. No plus or minus. Or pink or blue, or whatever the hell it was supposed to show. Maybe she had better fish the box out of the garbage and see what she should be looking for. Later.

  Now what she’d hoped for had happened. Logan was on the phone. She forced her gaze away from the little white plastic stick that would decide her fate.

  “So how have you been?” he asked.

  “Oh, you know. Busy at work.” Possibly pregnant. “The usual. Tucker and Becca are finally home from their honeymoon.”

  “Yeah, I know. Tuck just stopped by. It’s pretty funny, actually. Tuck had just given me your number when Tyler walked in and handed me your business card. The bridal shop had found it in the pocket of my tux.”

  “That is funny. I’m glad you have my number now, and that you called. I’ve been thinking about you.”

  “You have?”

  “Yes. Are you surprised?”

  “Yeah, I guess I am.” He laughed.

  Emma’s brows drew down in a frown. “You shouldn’t be. I had a great time at the wedding . . . and after.”

  “I did, too. A really great time.” He drew in a deep breath and blew it out. “Emma, if things ever get back to normal again, I’m hoping we can keep in touch, you and I.”

  “I’d like that. And even if things don’t get back to normal for a while, Logan, I want you to know you can call me anytime. Just to talk. To vent. To escape from reality for a little while. Whatever. I’m here.” Emma hadn’t meant that last part to come out sounding like an invitation for phone sex but she feared it had.

  Oh well, she wouldn’t be opposed to that, either. Logan had the best voice. All deep and gruff . . . She eyed the pee stick again and reality crept back in. Would she ever enjoy sex with Logan again, phone or other, if it was positive?

  “I’ll take you up on that.” His voice dropped low now, all deep and sexy. It made her chest tighten.

  Damn, she needed to know what was happening with this test.

  “Crap. Emma, I’ve got a customer.”

  “A customer? Uh, what?” Emma wasn’t exactly on top of things in the midst of all that was happening in her life right now, but still, there was no scenario she could come up with as to why Logan would be servicing customers.

  He chuckled. “Sorry. I’m at my father’s shop. I should have locked the door after Tuck left but I forgot and now someone’s come in. Can I call you again sometime?”

  “Of course. Go do what you have to. Call anytime. I’ll be here.” Waiting.

  “Great. Thanks. We’ll talk again soon.” The low promise in his voice had her cradling the phone closer.

  “All right. Bye.” Emma disconnected the call and was about to exchange the cell phone for the pee stick in her sweaty grasp when the phone rang again.

  Jeez, why was she so popular all of a sudden? She looked at the caller ID and punched the button to answer. “Becca, I told you I’d call you when I was done with my errands.”

  “I know, but I have something to tell you. Tucker just got back from seeing Logan and apparently things are tough for the family right now.”

  “I imagine they would be.” Emma kept the fact she’d just hung up with Logan to herself.

  “Logan’s brother is leaving to go back to Okinawa tomorrow and Logan’s got his dad and his dad’s store to worry about, so Tucker and I decided we’re going to help him out. Even Tyler is on board.”

  “That’s nice. He’ll appreciate it, I’m sure.”

  “He’d do the same for Tuck if the situation were reversed. So anyway, we’re staying here for at least a few more weeks instead of going back to Stillwater.”

  “Really. Can you do that?”

  “Sure. As long as we’re both back in time for the start of the new semester. I already called my boss and he said it’s fine. He’s a friend of Logan’s so he understands. And Tucker doesn’t mind using the rest of his leave to help out a friend.”

  Of course he wouldn’t mind, because Becca had found herself the perfect man. Emma mig
ht have, too, in Logan if he weren’t the quintessential bachelor. She’d like to explore the possibility of changing Logan’s mind on his bachelor status. She could only hope there wasn’t a big old complication on the horizon that would get in the way.

  Three minutes must be up by now, but she was afraid to look at the stick and find out what it said. Emma swallowed hard and avoided it for just a moment more, long enough to make some plans. Once she looked at the results, Emma had a suspicion she wouldn’t be able to think.

  “You know what, Becs? I have a bunch of vacation time stored up myself. Would it be okay if I flew out for a visit?”

  “Oh my God, could you do that? We didn’t get any time together, just the two of us, over the wedding weekend.”

  Wasn’t that the truth. And all that free time might have gotten Emma into a whole heap of trouble. “Would Tuck’s parents mind if I stayed there at the house with you?”

  “I’ll ask but I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Tuck and I are sleeping in his old bedroom. You can stay in the room with the sleeper sofa.”

  “Is Tara still there?” Emma cringed and waited for the answer.

  “No. She went back to take some summer classes at her college, so there’s one less person in the house. I’m sure Tuck’s parents won’t mind if you stay here with us.”

  One more obstacle gone. “Great. I’ll take a look at flights. Just please double check with them and make sure it’s okay?”

  “I will. I’m so excited. It’ll be so nice to have you here. I miss having you near me. Believe it or not, even if I am married now, I still need my big sister.”

  Emma glanced at the stick and saw a symbol had formed. She drew in a deep breath. “I need you, too, Becs.”

  “Hey there, cowboy. I’m looking for Logan Hunt. Any idea where I might be able to find him?”

  The sexy feminine voice had Logan’s hand slipping. The brush skipped across the brim of the hat, slipped out of his hand and skittered to the floor. He looked up and had trouble believing who he saw.