by Joanna Sims
When he finished singing, everyone clapped. But the women near the stage clapped the loudest. One woman in particular, a pretty brunette wearing skin-tight jeans and tank top, approached Logan when he came off the stage. Josephine watched Logan bend down his head to talk to the petite woman. The uncomfortable, almost painful, sensation that shot through her body could only be described as good, old-fashioned jealousy.
Logan and the brunette actually looked good together as they walked together through the crowd toward the table. And she didn’t like it. She didn’t like how the woman reached out and touched Logan’s arm now and again. She didn’t like how overly friendly Logan was being.
“Everyone—this is Brandy. Brandy—everyone.”
“Hi, y’all.” Brandy gave a cute little wave. “Are you sure you don’t want a shot? I’m buyin’.”
“Thank you, Brandy. Maybe another time.”
Maybe another time?
Logan should have given this Brandy chick the full-on boot.
“Okay, if you’re sure.” Brandy was staring up at Logan with open admiration. “I think you’re an incredible singer. Are you coming back next weekend?”
“No,” Josephine said this without thinking about it. “We’re not.”
Brandy looked at her as if she were noticing her for the first time. “Oh. Okay. Well...” Another cutesy wave. “See you around.”
Logan said goodbye to his new fan and then moved his chair just a little closer to Josephine’s chair before he sat down.
“Holy crap, Logan! You’re frickin’ amazing!” Jordy exclaimed.
“Thank you,” he said humbly. “What did you think, Jo?”
When Josephine ran Brandy off, she gave him reason to hope. He had thought that this attraction was a one-sided affair. But now he was thinking that Josephine had started to think of him as more than just a friend.
“I think you’re amazing,” she told him. “I’d like to hear you sing again.”
Logan signed up for another slot, but when his name was called a second time, Josephine heard her name called, too.
Logan stood up and held out his hand to her. “Come on, Jo. We’re up.”
“What?” Josephine asked, horrified. “No! I’m not going up there!”
Logan wouldn’t take her “no” for an answer. He grabbed her hand, tugged her out of her seat, and led her up to the stage.
The lights hurt her eyes, but at least she couldn’t see past the first row of women huddled near the front of the stage. Right before the music started, she tried to exit the stage, but Logan held on to her hand.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered harshly.
“Sure you can,” he whispered back. “I picked our song.”
In the next moment, Josephine heard the music for her favorite Judds song begin to play.
“Come on, Jo.” Logan squeezed her fingers. “Sing a duet with me.”
Josephine looked into Logan’s rich, black eyes and what she saw in his eyes made her want to never look away. No man in her life had ever looked at her the way Logan was looking at her right now. And that was when she decided to stay on the stage with him.
“Okay...” she finally agreed. “But I’m Wynonna.”
Chapter Eleven
It was a quiet trip back to the ranch. Josephine couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed so hard or had so much fun. The last several years of her life hadn’t been about having fun. They’d been about getting her education and becoming the type of attorney who could make a difference in people’s lives. She had literally let her hair down tonight. She’d put on her boots, drank more than a few beers, danced, and even sung karaoke with Logan three times. The first, Logan had basically pushed her onstage. The second and third time, she didn’t need any pushing.
Josephine hugged her sister and her brother-in-law-to-be and then she was alone with Logan. It was after midnight and the ranch was asleep. For weeks, as her friendship deepened with Logan, she had always felt comfortable whenever she was with him. But standing with him now, she felt something shift inside of her body. Tonight, and truly for the first time, Logan seemed much more like a man who had captured a piece of her heart than a man who was only a friend.
Logan was grateful that Ian and Jordan had given him a chance to be alone with Josephine. Standing beside her, with the dark Montana mountains in the background, and bright yellow stars splashed across the blue-black sky, he wanted to kiss her. To his eyes, she was more beautiful tonight than any woman he’d ever seen. The gentle night air was blowing the loose, long strands of her hair around her face and shoulders. This woman was so pretty, so soft and sweet. He knew now that he wanted more from this woman than he had ever wanted from another woman.
“Well, good night.” Josephine turned away from him, arms now crossed protectively in front of her body.
“I’ll walk you back.” Logan had almost built up the nerve to kiss her when she turned away from him.
Josephine started to walk quickly toward the porch. “You don’t have to...”
“Yes, I do.” He fell in beside her.
Josephine had been giving him green lights all night, but now, her body language was throwing up a giant stop sign. It wasn’t the right time for a first kiss.
She flew up the stairs and it made him think that, like him, she had felt something change between them tonight. Up until tonight, Josephine had always treated him like a good friend. But when she chased Brandy away at the bar...that gave him hope—hope that a new spot had opened in her heart. A spot that he’d like to fill.
“Jo...”
At the top of the steps, Josephine stopped. The soft moonlight made the long strands of her hair look like threads of gold blowing gently around her beautiful face. It was a face that he had grown to love.
“Look, I don’t know where you are in your recovery, but do you want to go out on a date...with me?”
Josephine had felt in her gut that this question was coming. She had known, for a while, that Logan found her attractive—that he was interested—but until tonight, she had never encouraged him. She had always kept him a safe arm’s length away. Her possessiveness at the bar, when she told Brandy to shove off, had surprised her. Yes, Logan was a nice-looking man. That was undeniable. But in most ways, he wasn’t really her type. He was laid-back about life; he wasn’t as driven to succeed in a career as she was. There were fundamental differences. Should she start something with a man that seemed destined to end? Or was a summer fling with a hot cop exactly what she needed?
“Okay.” She agreed to the date. “When?”
“We’re moving the chapel tomorrow, but I was planning on heading up to Flathead Lake for some snorkeling the day after next. Are you up for a little road trip?”
“Actually...” she said after a moment of hesitation, “I am up for it. Thank you.”
“Then...it’s a date?” Logan asked.
Standing on the porch stairs of her childhood home, with a full moon and the majestic mountains off in the distance, the romance of the moment didn’t escape Josephine.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “It is a date.”
* * *
The day they moved the chapel down from the mountain was a crazy day at the ranch. Josephine’s dress for the wedding, which should have arrived the week before, finally came. It seemed to be a day for arrivals, because her mom’s horse, Rising Star, decided it was a good day to give birth to her foal. There was so much activity, with the extra men and equipment for the chapel move, and Josephine wanted to be out in the mix. Instead, she was inside of the house trying on the dress for the wedding. Normally, trying on a pretty dress would be a top priority, but today wasn’t a normal day.
“It’s too loose around the waist.” Her mom clucked her tongue. “I told you that you looked like you were losing we
ight, Josephine. You’re getting too thin.”
“I’m not trying to lose weight.” She spun around and looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror.
Her maid of honor dress was to-die-for. It was a floor-length gown with a straight silhouette and a completely sheer back. The fabric was dark purple, silk chiffon that made her look like she was floating when she walked.
“We’re going to have to get it altered right away.” Her mom pulled the fabric tighter around her waist to make it fit perfectly.
“What do you think, Jordy?” Josephine asked her sister.
“I think it’s the perfect dress for you, Jo.” Her twin nodded her approval. “You look like you just walked right off the catwalk.”
Josephine twirled around in a small circle with a smile. She had intended to pass on this dress because it was so striking that she didn’t want it to seem like she was trying to compete with the bride. But Jordan had insisted that this was the gown she would wear for the wedding.
“Why don’t we plan on...” Her mom started to speak, but a loud booming sound outside startled her and interrupted her sentence.
Barbara shook her head, her expression tense and irritated. “I am so annoyed with your father about this chapel business. That chapel has been sitting there for a hundred years, and this is the time to move it?”
“This is Dad’s wedding present to me, Mom.” Jordan looked up from her phone. “You should really give Dad a break.”
“Jordan?” their mom asked. “Don’t you have a painting to finish?”
“So, that’s my cue to buzz off.” Her twin laughed easily. “By the way, sis, I posted the pics from last night on Instagram.”
Josephine shrugged her shoulders and made a face. “I’ve broken up with social media.”
“Well, most people haven’t, if you catch my drift. Chances are, the dingle-berry will see them.”
“I doubt he’ll care one way or the other,” she said.
“Jordan, really,” Barbara piped up. “Do you have to be so crass? You’re about to become the wife of a very well-known man.”
Jordan kissed her mom quickly on the cheek. “Trust me, Ian knows how I am and he loves me anyway.”
“Go!” Barbara pointed to the door, half playful, half serious. “Paint!”
“Fine, I’m going. Ian and I are going up to check out how far along they are with the chapel.”
After Jordy left, Josephine got out of the gown as quickly as she could. She agreed to eat a few more carbs before the wedding and her mom agreed to hold off on calling the seamstress. Once she was back in her boots and jeans, Josephine ran out the front door and walked quickly up the driveway. Her father had decided to relocate the chapel on top of a small hill that overlooked the farmhouse. Like a crown jewel, there would a bird’s-eye view of Bent Tree Ranch from the chapel.
She could hear the voices of the men yelling back and forth, shouting instructions and words of caution as they moved the chapel up the hill to the new foundation. Josephine climbed up to the top of the hill and joined the crowd of people gathered there.
“Oh, my goodness...” She said to no one in particular. The sight of the chapel, now on the back of an enormous, specialized semitruck, was remarkable. She had thought it was an impossible task and would likely be the end of the chapel. But she was wrong. The truck with the intact chapel was creeping up the hill toward the spot where a foundation had been built.
“Pretty frickin’ amazing, isn’t it?” Jordan asked her.
“It’s really something,” she agreed.
Everyone was there. Tyler, Jordan, Ian, her dad. It didn’t seem right that her mom wasn’t here to witness this historic family event. But just as she was having that thought, her mom appeared from the other side of the hill. Josephine scanned all of the men who were working to find Logan. She didn’t see him at first, but she heard his voice. When he appeared from the other side of the truck that was carrying the chapel, she smiled. That was her immediate, spontaneous reaction to seeing Logan again. A smile.
When Logan saw her, standing on the hill next to her parents, he smiled, broadly and freely. It was a brief, shared moment between them before he refocused his attention on the chapel. The move took all day, from sunup to sundown. And when the crew finally achieved its goal of relocating the chapel to its new foundation at the top of the rolling hill that overlooked the farmhouse and barns, everyone present felt like cheering. Once the chapel safely in place, Logan walked over to her father. The two men shook hands.
“That was an amazing thing to watch,” Hank said to Logan. “I can’t believe what you pulled off here, Logan. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
“It just took the right resources, sir,” Logan said humbly.
“It was more than that,” her father replied.
Her father admired Logan. He respected him. And it made her view Logan with a fresh perspective. She always dated tall. She was tall, her father was tall—everyone in her family was tall. So she gravitated toward tall men to date. She had always equated tall with masculinity and strength. But now, watching Logan with her father—even though he was shorter than Hank, he wasn’t any less strong or masculine. Quite the opposite.
Her family had surrounded Logan like he was a rock star, thanking him and congratulating him. She hung back, feeling an unusual sense of shyness at the thought of coming face-to-face with him. And she knew that she hadn’t felt this way for a man in a long, long time. She had only felt this way one time before in her life, and that was when she first met Brice.
And then he was in front of her, looking directly into her eyes. He was dirty and hot and his shirt was soaked with perspiration. And it didn’t bother her.
“What do you think?” he asked her. He seemed to want her approval.
The truth was that she was close to tears—happy tears. In a sense, Logan had rescued the chapel. Without planning and without thinking, Josephine hugged him. And then she kissed him on the cheek.
“Thank you.” She let go of him.
He stood there, silently staring at her, as if he had forgotten what he wanted to say. Finally, he asked, “Do you want to get a closer look at her?”
“Yes.”
The whole family walked over to the chapel with them, and Logan explained what the next steps would be to make sure the structure was sound. Logan estimated that they would be able to begin remodeling the chapel within the next couple of days, and the exterior of the chapel, at least, would be ready for Jordan and Ian’s pre-wedding session with the photographer. Slowly, after the initial excitement dissipated and evening chores called, the crowd of people dwindled. Josephine lingered. She wanted more time with the chapel. And she wanted more time with Logan.
She found a spot of ground and sat down. While she watched the hired crew gather their tools and load them onto their trucks, she pulled blades of grass free from the earth around her. When she found two rather long pieces of grass, she wrapped them around her finger and then started to tie them into a knot. Her eyes followed Logan as he went about his business. And, she noticed, when he was working, the man was all business. Much like the day she first met him, when he threw the book at her and gave her three tickets. Maybe he wasn’t ambitious in the same way she was, but he was a hard worker. That was undeniable.
The last of the workers piled into their trucks and left. Logan walked over to where she was sitting and offered her his hand.
“Were you waiting for me?”
She nodded, wiped off the dirt and grass from the seat of her jeans.
“Thank you. You’re a sweetheart.”
It was dusk now and the full moon was rising over the mountain range in the distance. They were standing together, alone on the hilltop next to the chapel. And that was when she had an impulse. Perhaps it had been there for a while. Perhaps i
t was something entirely new. But one minute she was standing next to Logan, and then next minute she was in his arms, kissing him.
Logan had been up late the night before and up early in the morning. He was hot and hungry, covered in dirt and mud. He was exhausted. But when Josephine started to kiss him, all of that was forgotten. Her lips were soft, her skin was soft, and she felt so good in his arms. Their first kiss, a kiss he had been worrying about, was gentle and tentative and more meaningful than he had imagined. He held her face in his hands and kissed her lips lightly; she rested her hands lightly on his chest.
When the kiss ended, neither of them spoke. Neither of them moved. They stood facing each other, in the dusk, quiet with their own whirling, private thoughts.
She couldn’t believe that she had done something so out of character as kissing Logan. But she had kissed him and she had liked it. It was exciting to kiss him. And it was exciting to have him kiss her back. His lips were strong, like the rest of him, but he was a surprisingly gentle kisser. And for the moment at least, she didn’t regret stepping right over that friendship line. In fact, she was pretty certain that she intended to cross that line again.
Josephine heard the sound of the dinner bell and the silence between them, the spell, was broken.
“If we don’t go down there, she’ll just send up a posse to get us,” she told him. “Are you hungry?”
“I’m pretty much always hungry.”
As they started the trek down the hill together, Logan reached for her hand. His hand, so warm and strong and calloused, was starting to feel like a new normal. Holding Logan’s hand was starting to feel like coming home.
“So...we’re still on for tomorrow. Right? Snorkeling at Flathead Lake?”
“We’re still on.” Josephine didn’t bother to hide her natural enthusiasm. She knew that she could be herself around Logan, without any pretense. “Actually, I can’t wait.”