“It’s just…a lot,” she said.
“Do parents actually get tired of their kids?” he asked, his eyes flashing with emotion.
She frowned and shook her head. “That’s not what I mean. But yes, the activities and worry and schedules and…the stuff…can definitely get tiring.”
“All the more reason for you to like having me around.”
“Of course. And it’s very nice. I just…”
He squeezed her hand again and she realized she’d broken eye contact. She met his intense stare again. “You just what?” he asked.
“I don’t want to scare you off,” she told him honestly. “I do love having you around and I want it to last. So I don’t want to wear you out on all of this now.”
He leaned in. “The only way you need to worry about wearing me out is in the bedroom. And you’re going to even have to up your game there, Ms. Doucet. Though I look forward to you trying. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have something I need to do.”
He started to get up and for a stupid moment, Dana panicked that maybe he really was leaving. Suddenly she really didn’t want him to. “What are you doing?” she asked, not letting go of his hand.
Logan glanced toward the stage. “Chloe’s forgetting the steps in that part again.”
Dana looked in that direction. She could see that the girls had all stopped and their director was talking to them. Chloe looked like she wanted to cry. Dana frowned. “What’s going on?”
“There’s one spot where she and two other girls have a little solo,” Logan said. “Though is it really a solo if three people are doing it?” But he shook his head. “Anyway, she’s nervous because the other girls are older and do it right every time and she ends up stumbling because she’s thinking about them instead of the steps. She thinks they all think she’s an idiot who can’t get it right.” He slipped his hand from hers. “I’ll be right back.”
“What are you going to do?” Dana asked, watching him move down the row of seats to the aisle.
“Well, no one can look like a bigger idiot doing that dance than I will.”
Dana felt her eyebrows climb her forehead as Logan made his way to the front row and took a seat right on the end.
The director started the music again and the girls moved into their routine. About two minutes in, Logan got up and started doing the dance in front of the stage. He got every step right—further testament to just how many times he’d actually seen this rehearsed—and he got the girls smiling and laughing as they went through the steps. When they got to the part that had tripped Chloe up earlier, Logan moved through it perfectly…and Chloe followed him. She didn’t miss a step and when the routine ended, the director clapped. And Chloe beamed. At Logan.
Dana felt her eyes stinging and started blinking as she watched Logan pivot away from the stage with a grin on his face. She knew that he’d given Chloe a little wink at the end. She just knew. That was Logan. He’d make the moment right, covering it with a sweet layer of fun-frosting, and then he’d just wink about it. Like it was no big deal. When those few minutes might have been the biggest in Chloe’s whole week.
He said he wanted to be around for everything and wouldn’t get tired of the not-as-fun stuff, but he didn’t even realize how important what he did do was. She couldn’t lose that. Her girls couldn’t lose him.
He reclaimed his seat next to her and took her hand again.
“Come home with me after this,” she said.
“What for?” he said, a teasing glint in his eye.
“Yes. For that,” she said honestly. How could she not want this man?
“I’m starting to think you only want me for my body.”
And she was starting to fear—no, she was way past starting—that she wanted him for way more than that. “Well, we can watch TV or something boring like that,” she said with a little shrug. “But if I don’t give you a blow job for that”—she gestured toward the stage—“I could lose my woman card.”
“Yeah?” he asked. “That’s in the rule book?”
“Dancing with a woman’s daughter to help her get the routine right, in front of her classmates? Oh, yeah. Definite blow job stuff.”
He settled back in his chair with a smug look. “Okay, I’ll let you give me a blow job. But,” he said before she could respond to that, “we have to spend at least twenty minutes talking about a current news event first.”
Dana had no idea what to do with this guy. So she just nodded. She could do that. Probably.
“And I want something serious. And nothing that has anything to do with the girls,” he added.
“Wow, something serious in the news. We might have to really search, but we can probably find something,” she said dryly.
He smiled. “That’s my girl.” Then he added, “But we can stop for ice cream on the way home, right?”
And there was her guy.
7
“He wasn’t just in the army. He was Special fucking Ops.” Logan looked around the corner from the kitchen into the dining room where Chloe was doing her homework at the table and Grace was coloring and realized he needed to keep his voice down.
It was three nights after the dance dress rehearsal and he was knee-deep in stories about Dana’s dead husband—her Special Ops soldier dead husband—for a report Chloe had to do about a family member who was a hero.
It had been Logan’s idea to call Chloe’s grandma, Chad’s mother, for information since Dana wasn’t around.
Now, two hours later, they had plenty of information about how amazing and heroic and badass and amazing Chad Doucet had been.
Gabe chuckled on the other end of the phone. “Probably a good thing he’s dead. You wouldn’t want to be messing with that guy’s wife if he was alive.”
“You’re hilarious,” Logan said. “Seriously. So glad I called you.”
“What do you want me to say? That you’re special in your own way and not to worry about the gorgeous, intelligent, independent woman who is too good for you, comparing you to her strong and brave soldier husband who died a hero?”
He had definitely called the wrong guy. Logan scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah, something like that.”
Gabe laughed. “You’re fine. Unless you told her you’re like a secret agent or that you moonlight as a brain surgeon or something.”
“Uh, no. I’ve actually been pretty up front about what I do.” Which wasn’t fucking much, really.
“Then you’re fine. Because she got into bed with you, more than once, brought you to meet her kids, and asked you to help out with them, knowing exactly who you are.”
Logan thought about that. Gabe had a point. “So um…why do you think she did all of that stuff?”
Gabe laughed again. “Because maybe you’re not so bad.”
“But really.”
“I mean it,” Gabe said. He sounded mildly amused but not like he was actually laughing now. “Look, Chad was a hero. Thank God for guys like him. But also…maybe there’s something to being here. Like you are. You know?”
“Being here. I’m making green slime, practicing doing hair—and by the way, French braids are way harder than they look—and helping Chloe write a report about her amazing dad. So, yeah, I’m here.”
“Yep. And Chad didn’t do any of those things.”
“Because he was protecting our asses in the middle of a fucking desert surrounded by people who wanted to kill him. While I was pouring beer and screwing a new woman every night, he was carrying seventy-pound packs of equipment around in one hundred degree weather so that…I could pour beer and screw women as a free man!”
There was a long pause on the other end and Logan peeked around the corner at the girls again.
“Are you okay?” Chloe asked.
“Yep. You?”
“Yep,” she said with a grin.
He gave her a wink. Then he lowered his voice and turned back into the kitchen. “Chad Doucet was amazing. What the hell is Dana doing with me?”<
br />
“Wow,” was Gabe’s reaction to that.
“Well, seriously. The guy led his unit. He wanted to be a soldier. He enlisted right out of high school, knew he wanted this to be his career. He saved two lives when he died.” Logan worked to lower his voice again. Of course, it wasn’t like Chloe didn’t know all of this. She was the one writing the report, after all, and she’d been on that speakerphone with her grandmother just like Logan had.
“How are you getting this information?” Gabe asked. “Dana’s never told us any of that.”
“From his mom,” Logan said. “Chloe needed info about her dad and I didn’t want to go digging through Dana’s stuff, so we called her grandma. I’m telling you, man, Chad was a badass. I can’t believe Dana hasn’t told you this stuff.”
Gabe was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, “So this is what you’re like when you’re in love.”
Logan pulled up straight. Love? “You think I’m in love with Dana?”
“I think you’re in love with Chad.”
“Fuck off.”
Gabe chuckled. “Seriously, you need to relax. Dana was just talking about you the other night at group. She thinks you’re awesome. She was all smiles and compliments.”
Logan frowned. “Really?”
“Yep, said that she likes you just the way you are.”
Logan frowned deepened. “What the hell does that mean?”
Gabe sighed. “She likes you. Jesus, are we in junior high? She likes you. You don’t have to be like Chad. She said things are going well.”
“So, I’m definitely not like Chad.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Gabe muttered. Then said, “She said that you’re great at the fun stuff and she’s realized that’s really important and so she’s totally fine with you being yourself and just having fun with the girls, making them laugh, that stuff. She’s not even going to make you do diapers.”
Logan ran a hand through his hair. “She doesn’t think I can do diapers? Fuck.”
It all made sense. The way she was surprised he’d been at the dress rehearsal. The way she’d been shocked he was doing everyone’s hair. The way she’d insisted that if she was there doing the routine, boring stuff, he didn’t need to be. The way she’d said she didn’t want him to burn out on all of this.
She didn’t think he could handle the serious stuff long-term.
And the hell of it? He wasn’t sure either. He’d never done a long-term committed thing. And he made everything into a game. Why would Dana think he could handle serious?
“I think she actually doesn’t want you to do diapers,” Gabe said. “And by the way, Addison does not share that feeling about me and diapers.”
But Gabe was going to be fine with diapers. And every other thing having to do with babies. He’d done it once before. And because Gabe was…Gabe. He just took things a little more seriously than Logan did. Fun came naturally to him. It seemed to him that if a six-year-old was curious about death and funerals and ghosts, then they should look into it and help her understand it as best she could. It seemed to him that if a girl was having trouble remembering the steps to a dance routine because all eyes were on her, or so she thought, then it made sense to take the eyes off of her and put them on someone else. It seemed to him that if you had a classroom full of kids expecting Rice Krispies treats but you only had four, then you had to figure something out.
But Dana’s reactions told him that these were a bigger deal than they seemed to him. And he’d been feeling pretty good about them all. And the blow jobs, he wouldn’t lie.
Now, though… He peeked back into the dining room. Now he got it. No one could be a bigger serious guy than a guy who not only took care of his own family, but took care of the entire country—hell, in some ways the fucking world—in his job, every damned day. Chad Doucet took care of business. Serious, big, global business.
Logan Trahan poured beer.
Yeah, he could kind of see why Dana wanted to be in charge of the serious stuff and let him handle the fun and games.
“I’m going to fucking do diapers,” Logan told Gabe.
Gabe laughed. “Okay, but you may want to rethink just how adamant you are about that.”
“I can do the serious stuff,” Logan said. “Dammit.”
“But she wants you to do the fun stuff. She’s got the other stuff handled. She doesn’t want you to—”
“Burn out,” Logan interrupted. “Yeah, I know. And the fact that she thinks I could burn out on taking care of my kid says a lot, don’t you think?”
“But you’re not taking care of your kid,” Gabe said after a moment.
Logan’s eyebrows slammed together. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Grace and Chloe aren’t your kids,” Gabe said. “That’s all.”
“But they’re Dana’s. And I’m here now. So…they are. Kind of.” Logan wasn’t their legal guardian or their step-dad or their adopted dad. But he was absolutely good with all of those ideas.
“That’s what I was hoping you’d say,” Gabe told him, his tone sincere. “If you’re going to do this right, then it means doing it right for those girls too. For good. Even after the baby comes.”
“Of course it does,” Logan said with a scowl.
“That’s the right answer.”
“Well, Jesus, the baby won’t even be able to talk for what, a year? It will take a couple for him or her to be interesting,” Logan said. “Grace and Chloe are already there. I’ll probably like them more than the baby for a long time.”
Gabe chuckled. “Don’t know about more, but there is room for all of them. Trust me.”
“I’m not worried.”
“Good.”
“Dana is.” Logan’s scowl was back.
Gabe sighed. “It’s okay for her to be worried, Logan. You don’t know each other very well yet and she’s been doing this a long time on her own. Single moms are…amazing. And special. Not like other women. They don’t need us. You know? So if they want us around, it’s just because they want us around. That’s pretty awesome.”
Logan took a deep breath and blew it out. “That’s a good point.”
“So, just look at what you can do for Dana. Just be there with her. Remember you’re lucky. And just roll with it.”
Logan felt his shoulders relax a little. He could do that. Rolling with it was one of his specialties. “Okay. Thanks.”
“No! Stop it!” Grace suddenly yelled from the other room.
“I can say that!” Chloe yelled back.
Wide-eyed, Logan started for the dining room. “Uh, gotta go.”
“Yeah.” Gabe chuckled, having clearly heard the yelling. “You got this, Logan,” Gabe assured him. “All of it.”
Yeah, well, if he didn’t now, he would.
They disconnected and Logan shoved his phone into his pocket as he stepped into the dining room to find Grace standing on her chair, her face red, glaring at her sister. Chloe was frowning right back from her seat across the table.
“You can’t say that! You don’t know!” Grace told her sister.
“You don’t know either!” Chloe said. “You don’t know everything!”
“Whoa! It’s not MMA time, girlies,” Logan said.
That distracted Grace for a moment. “What’s MMA time?”
“MMA is fighting,” Logan said. “And there’s no MMA in this dining room.”
“Tell Chloe to not say stuff about Daddy!” Grace said, remembering the cause of her ire and glaring at her sister again.
“I can say stuff about him!” Chloe shouted. “He’s my dad too! This is my report!”
Logan raised his voice slightly. “Girls! Someone tell me what you’re talking about.”
“Chloe says Daddy’s favorite color was red!” Grace said.
Logan could see the tears in her eyes. He looked at Chloe. “True?” he asked.
“I said that because Grandma said so!” Chloe said.
Logan frowned. He’d gone into t
he kitchen to get snacks partway through the conversation with Chad’s mom, so it was possible that she’d said that when he hadn’t been there to hear. He looked at Grace. “Honey—”
“His favorite color is black,” Grace said. She stomped her foot on the seat of the chair.
“Grandma said red,” Chloe told her.
Logan scrubbed a hand over his face. “Maybe he liked both.”
Chloe shook her head. “People don’t wear black at funerals because the person liked it. Everyone wears black at all funerals.” She looked at her sister. “My teacher said so.”
Grace’s face scrunched up and—shit—the tears started to roll. “No!”
“Grace—” Logan started.
“What is going on?”
They all turned as one to face the doorway that led to the front of the house. The doorway where Dana was now standing.
Damn, he really liked her in those dresses she wore to work. And the heels… He shook his head. “Little disagreement.”
Dana took in the details, including Grace’s tears and the papers spread all over the table in front of Chloe. She crossed to her youngest and plucked her off the chair. “No standing on the chairs,” she said. She sat in the chair, putting Grace on her lap. “Okay, what’s going on?”
“Chloe said Daddy’s favorite color is red, not black,” Grace said.
Dana looked at Chloe. “Why did you say that?”
“Because Grandma told me.” Chloe pointed at the papers in front of her. “I’m doing my report on Daddy and Logan said we should call Grandma for some stories and so we did and she told me lots of stuff and one thing was that his favorite color is red.”
“Is not!” Grace shouted at her sister.
Dana smoothed her hand over Grace’s hair. “Okay, we don’t have to yell.” She looked up at Logan. “Sorry.”
He gave her a quick shake of his head. “Nothing to be sorry for.”
“Chloe said that people always wear black to funeral parties,” Grace said. “And that’s not true.”
“It is too!” Chloe exclaimed. “My teacher told me! It was in a story we read in school! Right, Logan?”
Oh boy. He looked from Chloe to Dana. What the hell did he say? His instinct was to go with the truth, of course, but Grace was clinging pretty hard to that favorite color thing and who was he to mess with that? He took a deep breath. He knew who he wanted to be—the guy who knew what the fuck to do and say in these situations.
Taking It Easy: Boys of the Big Easy book two Page 12