A bell jingled as he pushed open the door to the bakery a moment later, guided by the smell of cinnamon rolls and coffee. His stomach growled. Thankfully the muffins were healthy; he suspected he’d be consuming more than one that morning. And caffeine was a necessity.
An older woman glanced up from behind the till, and a frown clouded her youthful eyes. Leigh’s grandmother. She could be Leigh years from now. The same deep brown eyes, slightly upturned nose and soft, round cheeks as her granddaughter, the woman had aged beautifully. Good genes clearly ran in the Norris family. He found himself wondering if Leigh’s mother bore the same striking resemblance. He could imagine a stunning family photo. Meeting the women’s stern expression, he sobered and straightened. Clearing his throat, he approached the counter. “Good morning.”
Ginger looked at the clock on the wall. “We don’t open until eight.”
Logan glanced at his watch: 7:56. “Sorry, the door was open and the open sign was lit up. I’m Logan Walters. I’m staying at—”
“I know who you are,” the older woman said curtly. She took a stack of bills from the register and slid them into a bank deposit bag.
Tough lady. He suspected rumors were circulating around town about the time he was spending with Leigh. Rumors the older woman wasn’t keen on.
A young girl approached from the back. “Ginger, I’ll take that over to the bank for you before we open,” she said.
“That’s okay, I got it.” She pushed through the swinging gate to join Logan on the other side of the counter. “Walk with me,” she said, jerking her head toward the door.
Logan’s mouth dropped and he pointed to his chest. “Me?”
“Yes.”
“Um...I just came in for coffee. Leigh also mentioned raspberry muffins...” he stammered. The small-town hospitality didn’t appear to extend inside Ginger Snaps. He suspected this Ginger could indeed snap. Apparently the similarities between generations ended on the outside.
“We’re out.”
“I just took a batch from the oven,” the girl behind the counter told Ginger in puzzlement.
“Those are for Leigh,” the shop owner interrupted, shooting Logan a sideways glance. She opened the front door and stepped outside, holding the door for him.
Sighing, Logan followed. So much for breakfast. He should have gone to Joey’s. They liked him there.
Outside, keeping up with the short woman’s quick strides proved surprisingly challenging. “Am I in trouble, Mrs. Norris?” he asked with a nervous laugh when she didn’t speak immediately.
Ginger paused, studying him. “Not yet, but I suspect you will be—left to your own devices.” She continued walking.
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“For falling in love with my granddaughter,” she said bluntly.
Logan stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk and fought to catch his balance. The accident-causing gene seemed to run in the family, as well, he thought. The Norris women were dangerous. And falling in love? Was Leigh falling in love? “I don’t think you understand my interest in Leigh.” That didn’t sound right. Probably because it was a lie. “I mean, my involvement.” That wasn’t much better. Come on, you’re a bestselling author. Words shouldn’t be this difficult. Words, no. Lies, yes. “Leigh is just helping me,” he said simply, holding up his cast. “I can’t do much with this.” That was true at least.
An image of her in the formfitting black evening gown the night before made his palms sweat.
They stopped in front of the bank. “Wait here,” she instructed, disappearing inside.
Logan sighed, watching her approach the tellers with her deposit. Wait here. The temptation to sprint in the opposite direction was overshadowed with the desire to set things right for Leigh’s sake. He raked his good hand through his hair as he watched Ginger complete her transaction and come out of the bank. She nodded in the direction of the bakery and began walking, but didn’t speak.
Was he supposed to say something? “Look, I know that we’ve been spending time together besides working—the party last night and the haunted hike last week...” Logan fell into step beside her.
“The haunted hike?”
“You hadn’t heard that one?” he asked.
“No.”
“Shoot.”
She picked up angry speed and Logan jogged a few paces ahead, then stopped in front of her.
“Please, just hear me out.” Never before had he felt the need to explain himself to a stranger, but somehow he felt he owed it to Leigh.
Ginger folded her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.
“You’re from here. You must know how rumors can spread, whether they’re accurate or not.” Logan raised an eyebrow.
“But you just admitted to taking my granddaughter to the Monroes’ haunted hike.”
“Yes, I did, but it was just for research.”
She took a step toward him and said sadly, “Maybe for you. Look, a half-hearted failed attempt is worse than no attempt at all...and if it’s true that you’re not in love with my granddaughter, then maybe you should do your research alone. Leigh can’t trust someone just passing through.”
Logan remained silent, suddenly unsure if lying about his growing feelings for Leigh only compounded the wrongs. Now the woman thought he was simply using her granddaughter, which was worse.
At the doorway, Ginger stopped and searched his face. “Come in, I’ll get you those muffins. I suspect, despite my warnings, you’ll see Leigh before I do.”
* * *
“LOGAN?” THE BLONDE nurse at the medical clinic stood in the waiting room with his file an hour later.
He’d arrived early for his checkup with the doctor who’d set his cast a few weeks before and he glanced up from the Men’s Health Magazine he was reading. “Yeah?” he said through a mouthful of raspberry muffin.
“I can take you in now,” she said.
Logan shoved the rest into his mouth and turned to look at the big, muscular guy sitting in the chair next to him. In his loose-fitting track pants and UFC T-shirt that barely fit around his expanding biceps, the guy had probably already read that month’s issue of Men’s Health—several times. “He was here first.”
Logan hadn’t made an appointment, as he didn’t think the medical clinic would be busy that time of day.
The nurse folded her arms across her chest as she shot the other man a wary look. “I’m making him wait. Your injury was from helping someone. This guy’s was from pure stupidity.”
The young man just laughed and nodded.
Obviously some personal history there. Setting the magazine aside, Logan stood. “Sorry, man,” he said.
“Don’t sweat it, buddy. I’m used to it.”
Logan followed the nurse down the hall. “Friend of yours?” he asked.
The nurse whose name tag read Lindsay scoffed. “Are you kidding me? No.” She opened the door to an exam room and ushered him inside. “That guy is trouble and that’s all he’ll ever be. He trains MMA at Extreme Athletics here in town and he’s in here every other week with an injury.”
“Not a fan of MMA?”
“Not a fan of self-inflicted injuries from overtraining or allowing yourself to be brutally beaten and passing it off as an athletic sport.”
He couldn’t say he disagreed with the brutality of the sport. The last pay-per-view he’d seen, the fighter had broken his leg in two different places. It certainly wasn’t his thing. “He looks pretty tough, though.”
“Ha. They all act tough, but if you’ve ever seen them slide into the confined, tight space of an MRI machine, you’d know better.”
She took his blood pressure and examined the cast.
“Dr. Harris will be in shortly to check your cast. Don’t get your hopes up, though. Adult b
ones don’t heal as quickly as children, so I would say you have another few weeks of wearing this yet.”
Normally the realization that his hand had to remain in a cast would be cause for annoyance, but today he found himself relieved. He didn’t need or want an excuse not to employ Leigh’s help to finish this book. The night before he’d been close to telling her how he felt about her. The only thing holding him back had been the uncertainty of her feelings for him or what they would do about it. He had decided to wait...until there was more clarity or indication from her of her own feelings. “That’s fine.”
Lindsay smiled. “I bet it is.”
* * *
“READY FOR THE last chapter?” Leigh asked, her hands poised over the keys of his laptop that evening.
Not at all. “Almost, but first, your grandmother gave me these to give to you.” Logan laid the bag of muffins on the table. “There’s a couple missing, I’m not sure what happened,” he said, desperate to keep what could potentially be their last evening together light, her grandmother’s warning echoing in his ears. The woman was mean, but she was right. Leigh deserved better than another failed attempt at a relationship.
Leigh whipped around to face him. “Grandma Norris? You saw her?”
Logan nodded, jamming his hands in his jean pockets. “We, uh, had a chat.”
Leigh groaned before pulling out a muffin. “What did she say? Did she yell at you?” She shook her head as she bit into the muffin.
“Don’t worry, it was nothing. She was just concerned about you.” He paused. “I assured her there was nothing to worry about. That there was nothing going on between us.”
She didn’t disagree. “Right, of course there isn’t. I’m just helping you finish your book, that’s all. Thank you for setting her straight.”
He cleared his throat as he said, “You look at lot like her.”
Leigh gave a small laugh. “I know. It’s a little odd knowing exactly what I’ll look like at seventy-four.”
“Still beautiful.”
They stared at each other for a long moment.
Leigh was the first to break eye contact. “Okay,” she said, “let’s get started.”
* * *
LEIGH FOUGHT TO keep her focus on the screen as she typed the words Logan dictated. He thought she was beautiful...yet he’d told her grandmother there was nothing going on between them. Then again, so had she. She’d been lying. Had he been lying, as well? With each word closer to the end, she prayed the computer would crash.
“A gunshot split the air....”
She stopped typing.
“Gunshot?” All other thoughts forgotten, she stared wide-eyed at him. “I thought you were changing the ending.”
Logan smiled. “Keep typing.”
Leigh typed the words and waited.
“The force of Piper’s body crashing into him as they fell to the warehouse floor...”
Leigh typed furiously. Piper took the bullet? Wait a minute...Logan wasn’t planning to kill her off instead? That defeated the whole purpose of not killing Van. Had he even been listening at all? “Logan...”
“Shh—type.”
Ten minutes later, Leigh released a sigh of relief as she let the blinking cursor linger at the end of the final paragraph. “She saved his life.”
“Yes. And then they lived happily ever after.” Logan sat on the bench next to her.
“Want to do the honors?” she asked, sliding the laptop toward him. She could only imagine how finishing this book must feel. Besides, there was no way she could be the one to end things.
“Not right now,” he said, turning to face her. “You know, I never actually typed the end on any of the other books. It always felt too definite, too final...and I knew there was more to come.” His gaze met hers and he touched her hand.
“But this is the end,” she whispered.
“It doesn’t have to be,” he said, and she knew they were no longer talking about the book.
She swallowed hard. “Logan—”
“Just hear me out before you say anything. Moving from one foster home to another as a kid and then running away, well, home is a powerful word for me. I thought I had finally found my home with Kendra, and look how that turned out. But here, it’s different—”
“Brookhollow does have that feeling of home,” she said.
“You’re interrupting,” he chided, touching her cheek. “It’s not Brookhollow, Leigh, it’s you.”
“Logan, I—”
“You really don’t know how to not speak, do you? Maybe this will work,” he said, closing the gap between them and kissing her. His lips were soft as they met hers.
Shocked, Leigh sat frozen, arms at her sides, unable—though not unwilling—to return the kiss. What was he doing? She was only weeks from adopting a child, something he didn’t know anything about.
She couldn’t deny that she had feelings for Logan, and only her sensibility prevented her from wrapping her arms around his neck and returning the kiss that moment and every moment from then on.
Logan tensed as he moved away, his eyes searching her face. “Leigh.”
Just the sound of her name on his lips, his voice drenched in unconcealed emotion, was enough to make her want to alter all of her plans and take a chance on a relationship with him. Move to L.A. if that’s where he took her.
But an image of the ultrasound of the baby—Ava—brought her back to reality.
Removing his hands from her face, she stood, struggling to force a deep breath. Turning her back to him, she failed to find the words to explain. Words she should have said a long time ago.
He was the one to break the silence. “I’m sorry, I guess I’m not as good at reading people as I thought.”
Behind her she could hear him shut the laptop with a snap, and unzip the case. She couldn’t let him leave without saying something...telling him he was right to have kissed her—only not really, because this connection between them couldn’t go anywhere for more reasons than just his.
Turning back, she said, “No, you read the situation perfectly and I’m sorry I let my feelings for you show.”
The man of her dreams had kissed her only seconds before, and there wasn’t a thing she could do but let him go.
“I’m not...” Logan paused but kept his distance. “Leigh, if you’re worried about me, don’t be. I’m a writer. I can live anywhere...and as I was trying to explain, Brookhollow is only the second place I’ve ever found that I hadn’t wanted to escape. Here, life is so different. You are different.”
He was making this hard. The worst part was that he was right—he could stay...if everything went well with the custody hearing.
Still unsure how to tell him about the adoption, she stalled, “What about Amelia? You said yourself, if the judge awards Kendra full custody, you’ll be on the first plane to California.” He had said as much. She’d almost felt better knowing that they’d both had reasons why this couldn’t work. Now he was acting as though there was nothing standing in their way of a relationship.
He moved toward her then, a sad longing in his dark eyes, illuminated only by the gazebo lights. “That’s really a question for you. I was hoping that if you feel even half as much about me as I’ve come to feel for you over these last three weeks, then if I have to go, you would come with me. I mean, not right away, of course...but we could see how things progressed, and then eventually...”
There it was—the sacrifice. One so much bigger than he could imagine he was asking her to make. If she wanted to be with him, there was the chance that she would have to give up her home, her business, Brookhollow, and in a few short weeks, it wouldn’t be just her life a decision like that would impact.
It was a sacrifice she wasn’t willing to make. Couldn’t make if she went ahead with the
open adoption—it wouldn’t be fair to Ava or Lise. For the first time in her life, she was about to get the family she’d been waiting for.
“Brookhollow is home for me, Logan.”
“You won’t even consider this? Won’t even consider us? Look, I know what I’m asking is huge. Asking you to give up everything if that’s what the court decides. But think about what you’d be gaining—a family, me, a stepdaughter. And we don’t even know if it’s even necessary yet. Things might go my way.”
The desperate hope in his voice brought tears to her eyes. She would have moved in a heartbeat a year ago, if he’d asked; she would have. But now, despite her growing love for this man, she refused to abandon everything she’d worked hard to achieve.
“Wow, I really did read us wrong,” Logan said, in a voice devoid of emotion.
He packed up his notebooks, throwing them into the case and zipping it quickly. He tossed it over his shoulder and bounded down the stairs of the gazebo.
Leigh watched him go, fighting every instinct to stop him. This was the way this was always supposed to go. He was always leaving. She was always letting him.
“No, I refuse to accept this,” he said, and turned to face her.
His confusion and hurt were too much, and she lowered herself down to the bench, not trusting her knees.
“You can’t honestly be letting me walk away like this. We can figure this out,” he said in exasperation.
“I’m adopting a baby, Logan.” There, she’d said it. The words were out. At least she thought she’d said them out loud. When she raised her gaze to his, there was no doubt that he’d heard them.
“You’re adopting a child?”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“Since before we met.”
“I’m... What... Why?” He shook his head and, dropping his laptop case to the grass, he looked off into the distance. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t tell anyone, other than Grandma and Rachel.”
Falling for Leigh Page 15