The captain drove away, leaving the fire truck and his men to finish up. Logan watched as the firemen set up the positive pressure fan in the front door to help force the smoke out of all the open windows. Walking back to Tess, he tried to gauge the expression on her face. Gratitude for sure, but it was mixed with something else, and he wasn’t sure what. “You okay?”
“Fine,” she assured him. “You’re being very sweet. To me, and to Bubbles. Thank you for that.”
He shrugged and said, “Just doin’my job, Tess. Here . . .” He pulled his scarf from around his neck and handed it to her. “Put that over your nose and mouth when we go inside. Still smoky as hell; you don’t want to breathe that in.”
She nodded, thanked him again, and turned away to go into the house. As he followed her, he noticed for the first time that though she was still wrapped up in his blanket, she was in her pj’s. She wore fleece pajama bottoms, red with black dots on them. It was only as he reached her side in the living room that he realized the dots were little penguins. He couldn’t help but grin. That was cute. He hadn’t pegged her to own, much less wear, anything that hinted of cute. She was so aristocratic, he’d figured she probably wore expensive satin pajamas to bed.
“I’ll just go upstairs and grab what I need,” she said. “Could you do me a huge favor?”
“Of course,” he said.
“If you could just grab”—she pointed to the corner, toward Bubbles’s layout—“a few of those toys next to her bed, toss them on top, and bring the bed to your truck, that would be really great. I have a feeling a hotel might be more open to my having a dog in tow if they see she’s got her own bed.”
He did as she asked, and she went up the spiral wooden staircase to her room. In five minutes, he had the dog’s stuff together and she was back with a small suitcase.
“That was quick,” he said.
“I’m efficient, and I don’t want to keep breathing in this smoke,” she replied.
“I don’t blame you. C’mon.”
When they got outside, he locked the door behind her. “Don’t worry about someone breaking in because all the windows are open. After I take you to a hotel, I’ll come back here. Gonna camp out in the truck for a while, then I’ll go inside to check. You know, close all the windows, take care of everything. By the time I bring you back here tomorrow morning, it’ll all be just a memory, a fun story to tell your brothers.”
She stammered, then shook her head. “What? No. You can’t stay here in your truck all night, that’s not—”
“That’s me doing my job,” he said firmly.
“No, it’s beyond the parameters of what you should have to do. It’s too cold out. Can’t you stay inside?”
“It’ll be just as cold in there with all the windows open,” he pointed out.
She grimaced and grumbled, “Of course it would. Duh.” She threw up her hands in surrender. “You’re not going to budge on this?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Okay, then. If you insist.”
“I do.” He grinned and walked to the truck. “Get in,” he told her over his shoulder. “Door’s unlocked.” Bubbles barked like crazy while he put the doggie bed in the back, then Tess’s suitcase. By the time he slid into the driver’s seat, the warmth hit him like a wall. He glanced over at his beautiful passenger, who was buckling her seat belt with one arm while trying to hold her dog with the other.
“Um . . .” Logan said. “Which hotel am I taking you to? Any idea?”
“I called the Barrington Hotel while I was up in my room. They accept pets. So they’re expecting me.”
He blinked. “You were up there for maybe four minutes. You packed and did that at the same time?”
A spark entered her eyes as her sharp grin bloomed. “I know how to multitask.”
“Well, color me impressed, then.”
Her gaze narrowed as she assessed him. “Logan . . . I may have done an unbelievably stupid thing tonight, but I’m not a stupid woman. I run a company, you know. I’m usually pretty on top of my game.”
Nodding, he shifted the gears and pulled out of the driveway, ignoring the barking dog and the faint burn of being put in his place. She never did miss an opportunity to condescend to him, did she. “I wasn’t insulting you, Tess. I was just surprised that you did so much in under five minutes, that’s all. It’s respect, not pandering.” He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from saying more . . . something he might regret.
“Oh.” She stroked her dog’s fur with her now gloved fingers. “Look, I might be a little oversensitive right now. I’m tired, cold, and most of all, I’m really mad at myself for doing something so dumb. I could’ve burned the damn house down.”
“Well, you didn’t. No harm done, learned a lesson, all’s well in the end.” He kept his eyes on the road. The turns as they headed down Red Mountain were sharp and unlit; he maneuvered carefully in the dark. “I’ll have you at your hotel in no time.”
They drove in silence for the rest of the trip. When he pulled up in front of the grand luxury hotel, she gripped his forearm.
“You’ve been amazing tonight, Logan,” she said earnestly. “Thank you so much, for everything. Really.”
He nodded. “You’re welcome. Just glad you’re okay.” He got out of the truck and reached into the backseat for her suitcase, then grasped the doggie bed. “I’ll help you inside with this,” he said as he met her outside the truck, “then I’ll come back for you in the morning. Text me when you’re ready to leave, and I’ll be here to take you home.”
“Sounds good,” she said. “But can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
She hesitated, her pretty mouth twisting as she shifted the dog in her arms, then asked, “I hate that I had to call you late at night about all this. I know I’m supposed to, you told me that. I don’t think I’ve been a pest aside from this incident. But . . . sometimes you snap at me. Like before. I feel like you don’t like me very much. I was wondering if you could tell me why.”
His eyes flew wide and he huffed out a shocked breath. Well, that was direct. “I don’t dislike you, Tess.”
“Really?” Her gaze narrowed on him, her bright blue eyes as intense as lasers. He bet that look cut lesser people to shreds. “I’m pretty good at reading people. Your whole demeanor when you’re around me . . . you’re curt with me sometimes. Like you’re tolerating me. You didn’t used to be that way when we first met. I’ve noticed it.”
He scowled. Shit, she was right. But still. “Seriously?”
“Yes.” She stared at him evenly as her long hair danced around her shoulders, the spiral curls carried by a gust of icy wind. “You just think I’m some entitled, spoiled rich bitch, don’t you? Like most of the affluent people you work with here. Right?”
He shook his head no, but her words that had cut him last year echoed in his head. She was wrong that he didn’t like her, but she wasn’t wrong about his assessment of her after that chat, that things had shifted for him. It didn’t help that, on top of his conflicting opinions of her, he was crazy attracted to her. His thoughts about her, his . . . feelings . . . were tangled. He didn’t even totally understand them. So he was short with her sometimes. And her nailing that now made him feel like an ass.
He only said, “No.” But it had no conviction, and he knew it. He just couldn’t lie.
She nodded very slowly, gaze unwavering, her lips flattening into a hard line before she said, “Yeah, you do. You think I’m . . . well. Forget it. You don’t know me after all. That’s a shame.” She cradled her dog and started to walk away from him, toward the main entrance of the hotel. Without a look back, her head held high.
In a flash, he realized he had to clear the air once and for all. She’d opened the door, he had to man up and walk through. “Tess, wait.” His long legs had him at her side in just a few strides. He stepped in front of her, making her stop. “I didn’t think that, what you just said. Not at first. But you . . .” He huffed ou
t a breath, forming a quick white cloud in the frigid air. She looked prim and proper and totally pissed off. “You said something last year that insulted me, and yeah, I didn’t shake it off. It . . . changed how I saw you. Even though you apologized. So I guess that’s on me, not you.”
Her eyes, so blue, held his gaze as she clearly tried to recall what she might have said. Then they flew wide open and she almost sputtered. “I’m here defending myself because you think I’m some spoiled, hapless woman, and why you’re really pissed is because I said I didn’t know you had a master’s? Which, by the way, made me cringe for hours afterwards because it was one of the dumber things I’ve said in the last few years. I regretted it deeply.” Her chin lifted in defiant irritation, making her look every inch like his mental nickname for her, a princess. “Yes? Is that what we’re talking about?”
“Yes.” He didn’t move, just gazed down at her as he stood there holding her things. Jesus, he was an idiot. He was the judgmental one after all.
“I apologized for that!” she cried.
“I know you did. But it still bothered me,” he admitted. “Your assumption that a man working a physical job like I do would only do it because he wasn’t educated enough, or smart enough, to do something else . . . got under my skin. But yeah . . .” He shook his head again and admitted, “I’ve been holding that against you. I’m sorry.”
“You know,” she said, “it was uncharacteristically stupid of me to say something like that. I don’t consider myself to be a judgmental person . . . but then I suppose most judgmental people don’t, do they.” She sighed and Bubbles barked in her arms. Her hand shot out to stroke her dog’s head. “Regardless, that was a major gaffe on my part. I’m sorry it bothered you so much.” She stared up at him, her gorgeous eyes filled with remorse. “I respect you, Logan, and I like you. I always have. Especially after all you’ve done tonight, more than ever. So please forgive me for insulting you so deeply.”
Something washed through him . . . something like shame. He had to let this go already. “Tess . . . just forget it. All of it, okay? I’m sorry too, for being a stubborn ass.”
After a pause, she nodded, her curls bouncing softly. She shifted the dog so she could extend her hand. “Let’s leave it behind us. For real this time. Truce?”
Exhaling a breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding, he set down her suitcase to shake her gloved hand. “Yes, ma’am.”
“All right, then.” She waited for him to pick up her bag again, and they walked into the hotel together. Between the lush grandeur of the lobby and his own embarrassment burning in his chest, Logan couldn’t wait to get out of there. Tess had called him out. He didn’t like how it felt, but he respected the hell out of her for doing it. Now he just had to swallow his chastened pride and let his residual irritation go—and like she’d said, for real this time. He was glad he’d have a long, cold night alone to work that out.
* * *
The next morning, even from behind dark sunglasses, Logan squinted from the brightness of the sun reflecting off the snow as he drove into downtown Aspen. The sky was a crystalline blue, the mountain views behind the shops and restaurants as picturesque as always. He’d missed the mountains and the clear, crisper air when he’d lived in New Orleans, and never tired of the landscape even though he’d been back for several years now.
It’d been a long night, sitting in front of the Harrison house out in his truck, but not terrible. The heat in his truck worked, and his legs almost fit across the backseat. It wasn’t the inability to get comfortable in his backseat that kept him from sleeping, but his churning brain. All night, he’d thought about Tess Harrison. She intrigued and interested him. The resentment he felt was based on his own lingering insecurities; when she’d said her piece last night, he knew that her perceived slights weren’t deliberate. He believed that now.
And he felt like he wanted to make that up to her somehow. If his damn ego would let him.
He’d finally fallen asleep sometime around midnight, and his phone’s alarm woke him at six a.m. Going into the house, he found it frigid, but no traces of smoke lingered. The rooms smelled like the fresh, clear, mountaintop air. He’d taken care of the house, raised the thermostat some, got things in order. He took pride in his job, and he was sure going to do right by Tess on this easy task. By the time she texted him at nine, asking him to come get her, he’d already gone back home, showered, eaten breakfast, and watched some morning news.
Twenty minutes later, as he pulled up and around the long, winding entry to the hotel, he wondered what to say to Tess to express his remorse for how he’d been acting. Or if he even should. He scratched restlessly at his beard. Maybe he should say nothing at all. That usually worked for him too. Hell, they’d called a truce, right? No need to bring it up again, then. He’d just be nicer from now on, not such a surly bastard. Which wouldn’t be hard to do at all, because the truth was he did like her.
He parked the truck and popped a mint into his mouth. Feeling calm and centered, he strode with lazy grace across the parking lot and into the hotel. But as soon as he entered the wide lobby, a loud barking set his nerves jangling. Bubbles came storming across the marble floor, skidding to a stop at his feet.
“Hey now.” Logan frowned as he bent to pet the dog, who was yipping away. “Where’s your mama?” He looked up to see a small group gathered in the middle of the lobby, all looking down. From his low crouch, Logan could see Tess there, apparently sprawled out on the cold, hard floor.
Chapter Five
“Tess!” Logan’s heart pounded as anxious worry shot through his veins. He reached her in a few seconds. Bubbles followed, barking loudly. The circle of murmuring, staring people cleared for him as he placed a hand on her shoulder.
She looked up at him and grinned.
He stared and stammered, “What the—?”
“Hi,” she said. She was totally alert, seemed okay, just . . . lying on the floor. Next to an older man in a ski sweater and jeans. “Please don’t look so worried, I’m fine.”
“Jesus, you scared the hell out of me.” Logan looked her over quickly, then to the man beside her. Gray-haired, likely in his late sixties, he seemed a little dazed. What was going on? “Why are you on the floor, then?”
“I’m keeping Terrence here company until the medics arrive,” Tess said calmly. “Which should be any minute now.”
“I’m so damn embarrassed,” Terrence muttered, looking from Tess to Logan and back to her again. “Friend of yours?”
“Yes,” she said. “And strong as an ox. I’d let him lift you up, but I think it’s best for you to not move yet.” She rolled from her side onto her stomach and pillowed her forearms under her cheek.
“Could you all please back up?” Logan asked in a sharp tone, swiveling his head around at the human canopy of nosy bystanders.
“Seriously,” Terrence grumbled.
“Folks, let’s give them some room, all right?” came a voice. An employee tried to make the small crowd of about a dozen leave.
“What’s going on?” Logan whispered in Tess’s ear as he sat up.
“I was at the front desk checking out,” Tess explained, “and I heard something behind me. Terrence here tripped and hit his head on the floor. Pretty hard.” Logan caught the glimmer of concern in her eyes. “He was unconscious for a minute. Pam and I”—Tess motioned to the employee trying to clear the lobby—“we rushed to help. Pam called the EMTs, and they should be here soon.”
“I told her,” Terrence said, “that she didn’t have to lie on the floor here with me, but she insisted. Said if I’d cooperate and not move, she’d stay down here with me. She keeps talking to me to make sure I’m alert. She thinks I might have a concussion.” He looked at Tess and said pointedly, “I don’t, you know.”
“I hope I’m wrong, believe me!” Tess grinned. “But just in case, I thought I’d keep you proper company in the meantime.”
Logan glanced at Tess, admiration and res
pect coursing through him. He looked down at Terrence and said, “You know, I can think of worse things than having a kind, beautiful woman lying on the floor with you.”
Terrence chuckled at that. “You know what, you’re right.”
Noise filled the lobby, echoing off the walls and marble as the EMTs rushed into the lobby, wheeling a stretcher.
Terrence reached out and grasped Tess’s hand. “You were so kind to stay with me. Thank you for that, and for your concern. I’ll be fine.”
“Good to know.” She reached for her bag, which was on the floor a few feet away. Logan grabbed it and handed it to her as one of the EMTs crouched down to survey the scene. Tess took out a business card and pressed it into Terrence’s hand. “My cell phone number is on there. Call me if you need anything. And please text me later to tell me what the actual prognosis is, instead of your own. All right?”
Terrence laughed wryly. “You’re a pushy young woman.”
“I am. Now promise me.”
“I promise, I’ll let you know how I’m doing.” He let the EMT shine a light in his eyes. As Tess rose from the floor, he thanked her again.
Logan watched as she scooped up her dog, then went to talk to the other two EMTs, likely to describe what had happened. He took her suitcase and moved aside to let them do their job. Within a few minutes, they’d gotten Terrence onto the stretcher and wheeled him out to the waiting ambulance.
“I’m sorry about the holdup,” Tess said to Logan. “Let me just talk to Pam once more, and we’ll be on our way.”
“No worries,” he told her. “Take your time.” As he folded himself into a cushy chair, he watched her chat with the employees behind the main desk, who looked grateful and slightly in awe of her. They should be, he thought.
Tess Harrison wasn’t the stuck-up, condescending snob he’d convinced himself she was. How many of his other clients, much less the wealthy, powerful people of Aspen, would lie down in the middle of a hotel floor to keep someone calm and still when they were hurt? Not many, he bet.
Between You and Me Page 5