The Billionaire's Kiss (Scandal, Inc)

by James, Avery

  If Logan’s disappearing act had anything to do with Veronica, Callie had to know. She did’t want to be jealous or overprotective, but it was her job to keep him away from trouble in general and Veronica in particular. It drove her crazy to think that he had ever slept with a woman like that. It drove her crazy to think that Logan had ever slept with any other woman. What the hell was happening to her? Everything had been light and fun, and now it was something else entirely. Callie crawled out of bed and found her laptop. This would be the last time she snooped on Logan. Once she knew everything was fine, she’d tell Rich to cut the cord and forget all about Logan’s laptop.

  She fired up the computer and waited for it to start. She still had time to go back. She still had time to do the right thing and respect his privacy, but she couldn’t. She had to know. Callie opened up her email and found the link from Rich, a spreadsheet listing the passwords to Logan’s accounts, and a link to access a backup of all the files on his computer. A few clicks later, she was staring at his calendar and combing through his emails for any hint of what he was doing. Her heart sank. His schedule for the next morning was blank. Either Logan was lying to her about having a meeting or the meeting was off the books. Either way, she couldn’t confront him about it without admitting what she had done.

  She closed out the window and composed a new message to Rich. “All set with L. Please close out.” In the morning, she wouldn’t let herself have access to Logan’s computer. She wouldn’t have access to his calendar or his emails or any of it. She’d have to trust him. She just hoped she was doing the right thing.

  Maybe this had nothing to do with Veronica, she thought. Maybe Logan was just freaked out by how fast everything was moving between them. Yeah, he was saying all the right things, but how quickly could a guy like Logan change? He had spent the past decade avoiding serious relationships, bailing on women after no time at all. Now Callie wanted him to go to the opposite extreme and never leave her side. Maybe she was putting too much pressure on him. What did she expect from him? A ring? A lifetime of comforting in-jokes and scorching kisses?

  Whatever Logan’s reasons for leaving, the safety and security she had felt with him had left as soon as he stepped foot outside the guesthouse. Callie tossed and turned as she tried to fall back to sleep. The bed seemed enormous, and the air in the room seemed stiflingly still. The moon was out over the water, and she opened a window to let the sound of the surf drown out some of her worries, but she couldn’t help herself. She didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know what she wanted from Logan. Yeah, she wanted something more than a fling, but what? How serious could she expect him to be?

  There were so many other questions: How much time did they really have left together? What would happen when the bill passed or Amy gave birth, and she had to go back to DC to take the reigns of the company? She couldn’t expect Logan to just pack up and follow her. Even if she wanted him to, it just didn’t seem fair. He’d hate DC. He’d hate all the dumb formality of it, the self-importance of everyone on every corner. The ego and the intensity. She couldn’t blame him. Those were the things that had driven her to ask for a vacation in the first place. That was settled. She couldn’t ask Logan to follow her, but a new question rose in her mind: Did she really want to go back?

  ***

  Callie sat down on the dock and dangled her legs over the edge. The morning sun hung just over the horizon. The tide was out, exposing the jagged contours of the coastline. The shadows of the rocks receded back along the shoreline as the sun slowly lifted itself higher. The humid morning air was thick with the smell of low tide, a heavy, salty smell. Callie had never liked that smell, but this morning couldn’t care less about it. She had tossed and turned in the night. When the first traces of dawn had brightened her room, she pulled on some clothes and decided to head outside. She made it as far as the dock before sitting down.

  The whole shoreline, as far as Callie could see, looked completely different than it had the night before. The low tide had opened up a new geography, a new and temporary place between the comfort of land and the freedom of the water, a place of constant flux, a landscape of sandbars and mudflats. In a few hours, it would be gone, reclaimed by the ocean, but for now, it was beautiful. Callie pulled herself up and walked back down the dock. She walked along the edge of the grass until reaching a large outcropping of rocks, and then she climbed down. She stopped for a moment and rolled her pants up to her knees, and then she stepped forward, sinking her feet into the mud and setting forward toward the water. She didn’t know exactly where she was headed, and that felt good. Maybe it was time to plan a little less and live a little more.

  She walked out around the bend of the property and pushed onward, occasionally stopping to chart a course along the rocky coast. As she walked, her mind wandered. She tried not to think about Logan and why he had left in the middle of the night, but she couldn’t help herself. Everything had felt so right with him, like the stars had clicked into place, and then he had left. She wanted to trust him, but she couldn’t. After all, her job was dealing with situations just like this. If Logan had been her client, would she have believed his excuse for leaving? Or would she have pressed him to reveal the truth? She knew the answer to that question. It was one of the prerequisites of the job. The client had to tell her the truth, the whole truth, or she wouldn’t take the job. So why was she letting it slip in her personal life? Why was she letting Logan lie about what he was doing? And, more importantly, why did she care so much?

  It wasn’t because she worried about a scandal. Hell, they were already in the middle of a minor scandal already, and she had barely spent any time thinking about it. No, she had to admit that she had feelings for Logan, true feelings, deep feelings, and now she didn’t know what to do about them. It had been so easy before. All she had to do was take care of the job. If she had a little fun with Logan, that was good too, but now, everything felt so important, like the rest of her life depended on her every choice.

  If she had learned one thing from being with Logan, it was that she still had a few things to learn about herself. She still didn’t know how she could trust him or herself. She needed advice. She needed someone to talk to, but she only really wanted to talk with Logan. She pulled out her phone and dialed.

  “Is this my long lost niece?” Vi asked. Upon hearing her voice, Callie remembered how much she missed home. She felt a little tickle in the back of her throat and her eyes welled up.

  “Hi Vi,” Callie said, “I was just calling to see how everyone is.”

  “I’m sure everyone’s fine. Amy has taken your absence as an excuse to take on even more work before the baby gets here. Ethan’s convinced that she’ll end up giving birth in some board room somewhere. The two of them are so good for each other.”

  “And how are you?” Callie asked.

  “I’m lovely. I’ve missed my little Calliebug. How is Newport? Has Logan behaved himself?”

  “I think so,” Callie said. She smiled as she tried to think of a diplomatic way to explain what was going on between them.

  “That’s too bad,” Vi said. “Men like him are always more fun when they misbehave.”

  Callie laughed. “He’s not how everyone made him out to be.”

  “Sounds like the two of you are getting along. I think you’d make a beautiful couple.”

  “We’re not like that,” Callie protested. She didn’t want Vi mentioning any of this to Amy.

  “Ah, to be young and in love,” Vi said. Her voice swelled as if she was about to begin a long story of dubious authenticity. Such stories were Vi’s forte. She seemed to have one for every occasion. If Callie had scraped her knee, Vi would have had some story about injuring her leg in the Pyrenees and healing the wound by drinking a bottle of wine and eating a wedge of brie.

  “I never said I was in love,” Callie said, a little too eagerly. She wondered if Vi had caught her slip. What was the use? Vi was going to think whatever she wanted to think. “
I don’t know what to do,” Callie admitted.

  “Don’t worry,” Vi said. “Your secret is safe with me. Did your mother ever tell you the story of how she met your father?”

  “I don’t know,” Callie said. “I was only eight when she died.”

  “Well, let me tell you the story. Maybe it will help you. The day your mother met your father, we were at the beach. I must have been twenty years old. Oh, it was a terribly hot day, and I still remember the terrible pink bathing suit your mother was wearing. I, of course, was wearing a bikini. I insisted on jumping into the water first thing on account of how hot it was. Your mother treated me the same way your sister treats you. She followed me in and yelled at me about riptide. Somehow, she got caught up in the current, and the water started pulling her out. I was so frightened, but she was calm. In my mind. I can still see her floating farther out. She was so calm about it. She was always the level-headed one of us. Anyway, before I knew what had happened, a lifeguard pushed past my and swam out to save her.”

  “Dad was a lifeguard?” Callie asked.

  “Heavens no,” Vi replied. “You father could barely swim. I snatched up the lifeguard as soon as he brought your mother back to shore, but she met your father that night.”

  Callie laughed. “I’m not sure what this has to do with my situation.”

  “Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. If you’re afraid, don’t be. Maybe you’ve been overthinking things. “So you didn’t think you’d end up liking Logan, or you thought he’d be someone else. Forget about all of that. Go with the flow. See where it takes you. Now I have to run. I’m sure we’ll talk soon. After all, your sister is due next week.”

  “Bye, Vi. Send Amy and Ethan my love,” Callie said.

  “Send Logan mine,” Vi said.

  Callie laughed. “I’ll make sure to do that.” She walked along the water’s edge for a little while longer. Maybe she should go with the flow. She just doubted that the flow would ever bring her back to DC. This would all be so much easier if she even had an idea where Logan was or what he was doing.

  Nineteen

  Congressman Jack Coburn stood up behind his broad mahogany desk and held his hand out. Even when they were in college, he always looked like he was posing for a photo-op. Now, wearing a striped tie and a blue blazer, he looked even more so. With his neat side part, every hair on his head was perfectly in place. His smile filled the room with warmth. Like Logan, he had this way of looking right at you like you were the only person in the world.

  Jack had been born to run for office. Logan used to joke that when Jack was born his parents wrapped him in an American flag instead of a blanket. And, as Logan looked at him, he knew there was a reason that Jack, despite being the youngest son in his family, was the one given the nod to run for the Congressional seat his father once held. The desk, which he stepped out from behind, had belonged to his father, and his father's father. It was enormous and ornate, and it took up nearly a quarter of his tiny office across the street from the Capitol Building. Behind it was a whole array of pictures of Jack's family over the years. There photos of his father shaking hands with LBJ, his grandfather standing next to Truman, and family shots from their compound on the Cape.

  "With all your family's influence, I thought you'd be able to swing a better office than this," Logan said as he took Jack's extended hand. "Is this a converted closet or something?"

  Jack tightened his grip on Logan's hand and held it as a signal of his seriousness. "It's all seniority. I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. If I can last a few years, I'll have one of the good offices, but you didn't come all the way down here to talk architecture." He let go of Logan's hand. "What's up?"

  “I need help with something," Logan said, "and you're the only one who can help me."

  Jack furrowed his brow and quickly looked him over. "What'd you do this time?"

  "Nothing," Logan said. "This one isn't for me." Logan wondered how much he should tell Jack about Callie and the bill and Veronica Jones. He wondered if he should mention his father or any of what had happened, but instead he just waited for some kind of response from Jack.

  "Logan Harris asking for a favor for someone else? I never thought I'd see the day."

  "It's the environmental bill you co-sponsored, the one my father's been pushing for since he left the oil business, I need you to bring it up for a vote. I don't know much about it, but I know you've been holding it up, and if I have anything do to with that, I apologize."

  Jack laughed. "You're here to lobby me?"

  "Is that a problem?"

  Jack shook his head. He was grinning like Logan had just told him the funniest joke in the world. "No, I just never thought I'd see the day."

  "Well, I'm here, and I'm serious. Bring it to a vote. It's a good bill, and it will be good politics for you."

  "Logan, I don't want to sound crass, but what the hell do you know about good politics? We go way back, and you're like a brother to me, but you've never cared about anyone's public perception."

  "Just put it through," Logan said. He didn't know why he had thought this whole thing would be easy. This had been a dumb idea from the start.

  "Logan, I wish I could help with this one, but I'm fighting my own battle. You of all people should know what I have to deal with." Jack sighed and let out a half-hearted laugh.

  Logan raked through his mind to think of what Jack could have meant. You of all people. What the hell did Jack mean by that? There was no way that Logan had anything to do with this. For once, he was trying to solve a problem that wasn't his own doing, and now Jack was laying the blame at his feet? No, there must be something more to it than that. "I know I haven't exactly been a model citizen, but you have to believe me when I say this is your best interest too.”

  Jack stood up and walked over to the window. “For years, I envied you, your freedom. While I was in law school, you were off partying, or finding yourself or whatever you want to call it. When I had to wake up early and shake hands and stick to the playbook my handlers laid out for me, you just got to do whatever you wished." Jack started to pace back and forth, his voice rising as he continued like he was venting years of built up frustration. "I'm not mad about it. It was a brilliant move on your part. You never gave a damn what anyone else wanted. And now, your father calls on you to bring me on board, and you just jump to? Did he find a way to cut you off?"

  Logan jumped out of his seat. His head and his fists throbbed. He glared at Jack. He wanted to leap across the room and knock him to the ground. "You have no right to judge me or to tell me why I'm here. My father doesn't even know, and he's not going to."

  Jack took a step back. He held his hands up and softened his tone. "I didn't mean it like that. You know I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Logan said. “At least tell me why you shelved the bill.”

  “Let’s just say that a few items on the list hit close to home, and some of my constituents have voiced concerns.” Jack spoke slowly and chose his words carefully.

  What isn’t he saying? Logan wondered. Constituents. You of all people. Then it clicked. “Christ, this is about the windmills, isn’t it? Do you have wealthy donors who don’t want a couple of windmills ruining their water views?”

  “I wouldn’t reduce them to simply ‘donors,’ but yeah, I’m getting some blowback about trying to push through something that would have an impact on the Cape. And it’s not a few, it’s over a hundred of them.”

  “It’s your family, isn’t it?” Logan asked. He could picture Jack’s mother shaking her fist, threatening violence upon anyone who spoiled her pristine ocean view.

  Jack shook his head. “You know I couldn’t admit it if it were.”

  It was his family, his mother and his uncles who didn’t want their view spoiled.

  “What if I could get concessions on that?”

  “What are you proposing?” Jack asked.

  “What if I could reduce
the number and the size of the windmills?” Logan said.

  “Logan, you can’t do that. You’re not involved in the process in any way. This is congress, not summer camp. I can’t take the windmills out. It would reek of self-interest.”

  “Ok, what if I could give you political cover?” Logan asked.

  “You’re asking me to pass a bill while only making the concessions that would help my family and the other millionaires who own houses with that view? I’m not seeing much political cover there. In fact, I’m seeing the basis of the next campaign against me. I can’t run as the guy who helped the environment if I can’t make a few sacrifices myself.”

  “So make some sacrifices,” Logan said.

  “I’m going to, but this takes time.”

  “I don’t have time,” Logan said.

  “Maybe it’s time you learned that the world doesn’t revolve around you, Logan.” Jack shook his head and rolled up his sleeves. “I’m trying to do good here, and it’s going to take months and months to win everyone over to the idea of wind power in Nantucket Sound.”

  “What if my father’s nonprofit came back into the process and asked that the windmills be taken out of this law. The rest would still be there right? It would still have a positive impact.”

  “That was a big part of the law. I don’t know if it’s worth passing without them.”

  “So they can request that the windmill plan undergo further review,” Logan said. “They can do something like state their desire to mitigate any possible concerns about adverse environmental impact. Would that work?”

  “Trust me when I say it was difficult for me to do this.” Jack still hadn’t said no. That was a positive sign. “What if you brought that idea back to your district? Could you spin it?”