by Cat Johnson
“Logan, please be sure you want this. Want me.” At the look of uncertainty in her eyes, he squeezed her tighter to him.
“There is no doubt in my mind. I think I started to fall for you the moment I met you.” Logan laughed, remembering. “Way back when Jace kept getting in the way.”
“Jace. I forgot all about him. We’re going to have to tell not only Jace, but your parents, and my parents, and Tuck’s parents . . .”
“Please, please let me be the one to tell Jace we’re getting married and you’re having my baby.” It was petty. Logan knew that, and he didn’t care.
Emma rolled her eyes. “Fine, but you can also be the one to tell Tara. I’m afraid she’s going to want to scratch my eyes out when she hears.”
“Maybe now she’ll get on with her life and find someone who makes her as happy as you make me.” Logan watched Emma smile at that and couldn’t help but smile himself.
“I hope she does. I truly do want her to be happy.” A scowl twisted Emma’s beautiful face. “Just someplace nowhere near you.”
His little wife-to-be was jealous. Sick man that he was, Logan liked that. Hell of a pair they made. “I can say the same thing about Jace. I truly hope the man finds the woman of his dreams—somewhere far away from you and me and our new life together.”
“I like the sound of that. Our life together. But, you should thank Jace, you know. If he wasn’t such a jerk, we might not have ended up together.”
“I’ll try to remember that.” Logan remembered something else. “Tuck, Tyler, and Becca—they all know?”
“Yeah.” She cringed. “I’m so sorry they knew before you. I didn’t tell any of them, I swear. They found out by accident.”
“It’s okay, baby. It does explain a lot of the strange behavior around here, though.” He hugged her to him, resting his head on top of hers.
“So I guess we should go tell your sister you’ll be planning another wedding. And soon.” Logan stepped back and pressed one palm to Emma’s belly, knowing it was much too soon to feel anything. He still couldn’t help himself. He had a feeling he’d have his hands on her so much she’d have to tell him to go away.
“Will your brother be able to fly home from Japan for the wedding?”
“I doubt it. Not so soon after he’s just been home. That’s okay. Layne will meet both of you the next time he’s home.” Emotions swam through Logan. He wanted to lay Emma down and make love to her, even as he wanted to coddle and protect her and their unborn child. It was a strange mix of feelings. The good news was he had a lifetime to get used to them.
“Can we hide in here for a little while longer?” Emma covered his hand with hers. “I kind of feel like I want to have you all to myself for a bit.”
“That sounds very good to me.” Logan dipped his head, intent on kissing Emma, when whispers in the hallway had him halting in his path to her lips. “It seems we have an audience.“
“I know. I hear it. Ignore them.” Emma reached up and reeled him in the rest of the way.
Logan had no problem taking full advantage of their last bit of privacy, real or imagined. Soon they’d have to face the rest of the world. At least they’d face it together. He kissed her, and realized it felt different from before. Better. Deeper. Like it was a promise for the future, not just a pleasure for the present.
Cupping her face with his hand, Logan kissed her thoroughly. His promise to her that he’d love her and cherish her for the rest of their lives. He pressed one palm to her belly again, marveling that there was a life growing inside her. A baby he’d put there. The purely male part of Logan reacted, wanting to take her right then and there. Stake a claim to her body.
He broke the kiss, leaning his forehead against hers. “We can’t have sex in Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins’ den. I’m sorry, but I can’t do it. I practically grew up in this house. They’re like my second parents.”
“I know. I agree.” She leaned back and blew out a breath. “But that means you have to stop kissing me like that or I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
They’d have to work something out. Somewhere to be alone, because there was no way he’d be able to keep his hands off her until they were married, no matter how soon that might be. Maybe the hunting cabin . . .
As he considered that option, Logan’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw Mark Ross on the readout. He glanced at Emma, about to shove the phone back in his pocket and call Mark back later. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have even looked. I know you hate cell phones.”
“No. Go ahead. I think we could both use the distraction.” She laughed, sounding a little breathless and as eager as he to find privacy.
“Okay.” Smiling, he dropped a quick kiss on his future wife before he hit the button to answer the call. “Hey, Mark.”
“Logan. Hi. We’ve missed you around here. Are you ever coming back to Stillwater?” Behind the joking tone, there was a bit of underlying concern in Mark’s question.
“Yes. Don’t worry. By the start of the semester I’ll be there, but before that—how do you feel about driving back out here for another wedding?”
“Another wedding? Wait. You?”
“Yes, sir.” Logan smiled. It felt good to tell his friend the news. Real good. He pulled Emma into a one armed hug. She wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed.
“Well, I’ll be. Let me guess. Becca’s sister?”
Surprised, Logan let out a short laugh. “How the hell did you know that?”
“Logan, we play cards together. You’ve never had a poker face and you never will. I knew the moment you pulled her into the bushes at the wedding that you liked her.” So much for Logan thinking he was being so slick and low-key. Mark continued, “My last remaining single friend, finally married. I have to admit, I didn’t see that one coming.”
“Me, either. What can I say? Love makes a man do things he never thought he would.” Logan glanced down at the woman in his arms as she beamed up at him.
Meeting Emma had changed Logan, no doubt about it. As had his father’s stroke. Both made him realize he’d been living half a life. He wanted more. Love. A partner. Everything his parents had.
The baby, and Logan’s becoming a father himself, was the icing on the cake. It was another piece of his future falling into place.
“I’m happy for you, Logan.”
“Thanks, Mark. Me, too.” Logan knew for a fact he’d never been happier.
Epilogue
“Logan, it’s getting late.” Tuck popped his head around the doorframe. “We gotta go.”
“I know. I know.” Logan blew out a breath and stared at the blank piece of paper on the kitchen table.
“What the hell are you doing?” Tuck took a few steps into the room, the shoes of his military dress uniform clicking against the tile of the floor.
“Trying to write my vows.”
“Are you freaking crazy?” Tuck’s eyes widened. “I married an English professor, and we didn’t even write our own vows. Whose idea was this?”
“Mine.” Logan groaned at what he’d thought was a good idea at the time.
“What’s wrong with the regular old traditional ones? They’ve been good enough for people for years.”
“I wanted something special for Emma.”
“Then you should have written them a week ago.” The judgment was clear in Tuck’s raised eyebrows. “This thing is supposed to start in like half an hour.”
“I know, and you’re not helping by reminding me.” Logan had hoped something would come to him, but it hadn’t. Maybe he should call Mark Ross and ask for help. If an English professor couldn’t help him, no one could.
Tuck glanced at the paper in front of Logan. “Come on. Write them in the truck while I drive.”
“Logan? We’re leaving. Are you driving with us?” Logan’s mother called to him from the front of the house.
“No, Mom. I’m not ready yet.” Logan blew out a loud breath, frustrated. He wouldn’t be abl
e to write if he was in the car with his parents or in the truck with Tuck. A stress-free environment would be too much to ask for today, but Logan needed to at least be alone and somewhere quiet if he had any hope of getting this done. “Tuck, would you mind following my mother and father over? Mom is going to try to get the wheelchair out of the car by herself instead of asking for help. Stubborn as a bull, that woman.”
Tuck laughed. “So that’s where you get it from.”
Logan let out a snort. “Nah, Dad beats Mom in the stubborn department. Hands down. Between the two of them, I never had a chance.”
“All right. I’ll go and follow your parents over. You finish up. But make it quick.” Tuck took one final glance at the blank page.
“I’ll try.” No pressure there.
Logan heard the front door close behind Tuck, but words didn’t magically pop into his head once he was alone. Logan was just considering getting on his parents’ computer and searching original wedding vows when there was a knock on the back door. Tossing the pen down, Logan strode to open it.
“Tara. What are you doing here?”
“Why? Aren’t I invited to the wedding?” Tara’s voice rose high, tinged with a bit of hysteria.
Logan frowned. “Of course, you are. But I didn’t think you could make it home from school for the weekend.”
“I had to come. I had to talk to you before you do this.” She moved forward. “You can’t marry her, Logan. Not before I tell you . . . Logan, I love you. I’ve always loved you.”
“Tara—”
“No, listen to me. I know you kept your distance from me all these years out of respect for my family, but I’m an adult now. You don’t have to do that anymore. I want to be with you.” She pressed her hands to his chest. “We can be together.”
Logan grabbed and held her hands. “Tara. Stop. I’m getting married today to Emma.”
“Emma.” Tara let out a snort. “It’s all her fault. Everything would have been fine if she’d never come to town. You and I would have hooked up at the wedding. You would have realized I’m the one you want.”
The last thing Logan wanted to do was hurt this girl, but he couldn’t let her go on believing that. “No, sweetie. That’s not true. You can’t blame Emma for us not being together. It never would have happened for you and me.”
“How do you know that? You never even gave us a chance.” She tried to step closer, tears in her eyes. “Just look at me. I’m all grown up, Logan. Don’t you see that? You don’t have to be my older brother anymore. I’m a woman now. You can act like a man with me.”
She leaned closer, trying to press against him even as he held her away. Horrified, Logan took a step back. When she moved to follow him, he planted a hand on each of her shoulders and locked his elbows to keep her at arm’s length. “Tara. I’m getting married today.”
“Why are you getting married? You barely know her. What’s the rush?”
Tara didn’t know Emma was having Logan’s baby, but that didn’t matter, because the baby wasn’t the reason Logan wanted to marry Emma. “I love her, Tara. It took me too long to find her as it is. I’m not wasting any more time apart when we can be together.”
“You only think you love her because you didn’t know that I’m in love with you.” The sincerity and pain were clear in Tara’s tear filled eyes.
“I know you think you are, but you’re not. Not really. You’ll find someone worthy of all the love you have to give. One day. I swear to you, you will.” Logan continued as tears streamed down her face. “Tara, I’ll always love you like a sister, just as I love Tuck and Tyler like brothers, but the man who’s meant for you is not me. Never was. Never will be.”
She shook her head, and drew in a trembling breath. “No.”
He dropped his hold on her. It was getting late. Emma and over two dozen of their friends and relatives were waiting for him. “I have to go. I’m sorry, Tara. I really am. I’d like you to be there for the ceremony, but if you’re not, I’ll understand.”
Logan grabbed the hat for his dress blues from the table, abandoned the blank paper there and turned toward the door. He’d clear his head on the drive over and then he’d wing it on the vows. Speak from the heart. That’s where his love for Emma lay. The words would come.
“Hmm. I seem to remember someone, not very long ago, commenting how Tuck’s backyard wasn’t the Plaza wedding I’d always planned and dreamed of.” Becca glanced around them and then at Emma. “But never in my wildest dreams did I picture you getting married at a hunting cabin.”
Never in Emma’s wildest dreams had she thought she’d be pregnant, marrying an Oklahoma-born army officer, either, but here she was.
They hadn’t had a lot of time to pull this thing together, so they’d planned a small wedding lakeside at Logan’s family cabin. Just family and very close friends. It was a good place. There was history. It felt right to start their new life together here.
The empire-waist cut of the off-white wedding dress, and the fact they’d planned the wedding in a month, meant she wasn’t really showing. Even though her breasts felt huge, Logan didn’t seem to mind the changes in her body at all, so Emma wasn’t going to worry.
“That’s what surprises you most? That I’m getting married outside by a lake? Not that I’m quitting my job in New York and moving to Oklahoma?”
Becca laughed. “Yes. That, too. But no more than Logan’s plan to retire next year from both the army and OSU and move here to work at his father’s store. With you by his side, to boot. Or that Tyler is going to help run it with some old guys from the veterans’ association in the meantime.”
Emma smiled. “It has been a kind of surreal summer, hasn’t it?”
“You can say that again.” Becca glanced past Emma. “Here comes Jace. There’s one more surprise, that you invited him.”
“He’s kind of the reason Logan and I are together.” Emma lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
“One day, you’re going to tell me that whole story.” Becca narrowed her eyes.
Emma laughed. “Don’t count on it.”
“Hmm. Just wait until you can drink again. A bottle of wine, a girl’s night out, you and me alone and we’ll see.”
“That we will.” Emma dismissed Becca’s threats and watched as Jace made his way across the grass to meet them where they waited for the ceremony to start.
True to gentlemanly form, Jace tipped his hat. “Becca. Emma. You both look beautiful.”
Emma smiled. “Thank you, sir.”
“Thanks, Jace. Em, I’m going to go check on some last minute things. You okay here?” Becca asked.
“I’m fine.”
When Becca had left them, heading toward where the preacher was talking with their parents, Jace eyed Emma. “So . . . Logan, huh?”
Emma laughed. “Yeah. Logan.”
“All that time when I’d hoped and dreamed of me being the one for you, you had your eye on good old Logan.” Jace’s grin told Emma he was only teasing.
“Well, not the whole time. I met you the year before I met him. Remember? At a certain rodeo?”
Jace hung his head and let out a sigh. “I messed up pretty big that night, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.” Emma could laugh about it now. She was even grateful. Everything that had happened had led her to being with Logan, so how could she be upset with Jace now? Then, though? Then she’d been pissed as hell. “You know, to be perfectly honest, I could have forgiven you that one time if it had been just a friend helping out a friend. But really, Jace, come on. You did it again to me at the wedding.”
“I know.” He hung his head until the shadow of his cowboy hat hid most of his face.
“I do want you to be happy, Jace. And if it’s with Jacqueline, that’s great. I guess I’m saying I think you have to commit one way or the other. Either be with her, or make a clean break, because as long as you two are tethered to each other, you’ll never be free to find someone else.” Emma let out a laugh. �
�And I’m so not the person to be giving anyone advice on their love life, so just ignore me.”
He lifted his head and met her gaze. “No, you’re right. I guess I have some thinking to do. And she and I have some talking to do, too, I suppose.” A frown drew his sandy brows down. “Hey, isn’t it getting kind of late? What time was this shindig supposed to start?”
“One. What time is it?”
Jace glanced down at his cell phone. “Quarter to.”
“Is Logan not here yet?” Emma’s heart gave a little lurch.
“I didn’t see him when I pulled up.”
Oh God. After her long speech to Jace about relationships, was Logan ditching her at the altar? Had he changed his mind? Emma swallowed hard. No, he wouldn’t do that. Yet he’d lived forty years unmarried. Maybe the idea was too much for him.
Were his parents here yet? Was Tuck? Emma needed answers. She needed Becca. She needed her damn cell phone. “Excuse me. I’m, uh, feeling a little bit warm. I’m going to go find some water.”
“You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Or she would be as soon as she found Logan.
Jace nodded. “A’ight. See you after.”
Emma escaped him and strode around the corner of the cabin, feeling ill. This time it wasn’t from the pregnancy. Her heart beat so fast and furious, she got lightheaded and was afraid she might pass out.
Logan’s truck pulled into the already crowded drive and stopped her in her path. Emma held one shaky hand to her chest. He was here. She should never have doubted him.
She knew the moment Logan saw her. He smiled wide enough for her to see it from a distance, then slammed the truck door and made a beeline toward where she stood. He looked so good in his dress blues it made her heart flutter. She’d had to work hard to convince him to wear the uniform for the ceremony, but it had been well worth the effort.
“Emma. You’re perfect. So beautiful.” As he reached for her hands, Logan seemed as overcome by the moment as she felt. “How am I so lucky?”