by Joanna Sims
Logan and Ian took their place at the front of the church, and then waited for the rest of the wedding party to join them. Logan locked eyes with Brice, who was sitting next to Luke, Josephine’s older brother, and his wife, Sophia, in the front pews reserved for the Brand family.
There was a challenge in Brice’s look. Logan recognized it and knew that he hadn’t abandoned the idea of reuniting with Josephine. The man was wealthy, privileged, entitled, and used to getting everything he wanted when he wanted it. He was definitely a problem.
The wedding procession started and Josephine, in a floor-length royal purple gown, started to walk slowly up the aisle toward them. He had never seen her look this lovely. She would, for the remainder of his life, be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Being separated from her like this since they returned from the divide felt like a third-degree burn all over his body that no one else could see. He was in pain, pure and simple, and he had sworn, after Alicia, that he was never going to put himself in a position to let it happen again. That pact he had made with himself was broken when he fell in love with Josephine Brand.
Josephine took her place at the front of the church. She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off of Logan in his tuxedo. So strong and handsome—and this time, when she compared him to Brice, it was her ex who came up short. When the wedding march started, all of Josephine’s attention was on her twin. Jordan, a statuesque and modern bride, stood next to their father. Hank looked more proud at that moment with her sister on his arm than she had ever seen him look before. As she walked down the aisle toward her waiting fiancé, her elegant twin sister seemed to be so much more mature since she met Ian Sterling. He was a good balance for her; he kept her grounded. Jordan had met her perfect match in Ian, and Josephine wondered, as the two of them began to exchange their vows, if she hadn’t met her own perfect match in Logan. Now, when she looked at him, as he stood just behind Ian, all she could think about was how his lips felt on her skin, on her mouth, when he kissed her.
After the ceremony, a limousine took Ian and his new bride to the reception. A family friend, who owned a multimillion dollar spread just outside of Helena, had offered to hold the reception at his ranch house. This wasn’t just any old ranch house; it was a Montana mansion in its own right. Tents had been erected outside and there was a large outdoor area, covered in twinkling lights and fragrant flowers, large enough for the band and for dancing. Tables were set up in the tent for dining and they all gathered there to eat before the dancing began. She was seated at a long table at the front of the tent that was reserved for the bride, groom, and wedding party. According to the seating arrangement, she was to sit next to Logan.
“Let me get that for you.” Logan moved behind her and pulled out her chair for her.
“Thank you.”
He took the seat next to her, and it occurred to her that this was the first time they were sitting down together since they returned from their camping trip. She couldn’t stop looking at his hands—those hands had touched all of her body. Even though they hadn’t made love since their return, she could still remember the feel of his lips on hers, and the weight of his body between her thighs, how amazing it felt to have his body completely fill hers.
“That’s quite a dress.” Logan’s statement brought her out of her own head and back into reality. That was more than he had said to her in several days.
She looked down at her gown. “I didn’t want to get it. I thought it might come close to upstaging the bride, it’s so beautiful. But Jordan insisted. She wanted me to look...beautiful.”
“She succeeded.”
“Thank you. You look handsome.” She returned the compliment. “I’ve never seen you like this before.”
“It’s far and few between, trust me,” he said. “I’m not normally a tuxedo kind of guy.”
After the meal, and after the toasts, most of the guests moved out to the open dance floor where there was a free liquor bar and a live band. Logan had already left the table, so she headed outside. Brice followed her.
“As always, you look incredible tonight, Josie.”
Josephine picked a spot away with an unimpeded view of the band. “Thank you.
Brice knew how to wear a tuxedo—that was his comfort zone, his realm of experience, and he presented a handsome, hard-to-resist exterior. But he was wearing the same tuxedo he was wearing in the picture when she first saw him with another woman. She couldn’t bring herself to return his compliment.
“Did I ever tell you that I’m not really fond of the nickname Josie?” She looked up into his face, a face she had admired thousands of times before.
“What? No. You never have. Why would you let me call you by a nickname for all these years that you didn’t like?”
“That...” Josephine responded, “...is a very good question.”
Brice repositioned himself so he was in front of her, blocking the view of the band.
“Josephine, I came all this way to prove to you that I’m sincere. I made a mistake, and I want to make it up to you. I want to make things right between us. You’re one of my best friends, Josie...Josephine...I don’t want to lose that.”
Logan returned from the men’s room to discover that Josephine had left the table. When he didn’t find her in the dining area, he looked for her outside. He spotted her, apparently in a deep conversation with Brice. Brice was standing very close to her with his head was bent down toward her. They weren’t touching, but their natural comfort from years of being a couple showed. Logan almost turned and walked away. He almost did. But then it dawned on him. Perhaps Josephine had been waiting for him to fight for her. Perhaps Josephine needed him to show up, be present, and claim her for his own. He went to the stage and put in a request for a song. Then he walked directly across the dance floor to Josephine.
“Excuse me...” he interrupted. “I’d like to have this dance, Josephine.”
Josephine glanced quickly between Brice and Logan, two men whom she loved, and two men who loved her. She was standing at an unspoken crossroad, and all three of them knew it.
“I’d like that. Thank you.” Josephine didn’t look at Brice when she took Logan’s offered hand.
“We’ll talk later,” she told Brice.
Logan took her into his arms, and they began to sway together to Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight.”
“I love this song.”
“I requested it for you,” he told her.
Josephine smiled at him. With her heels on, she was a little bit taller than he was. She thought it would bother her, but it didn’t. He was such a masculine gentleman that his lack of height seemed insignificant.
When Logan heard a certain part of the song, he pulled her closer to him so he could sing a line or two in her ear.
When he sang to her, all of the moments she had shared with him flashed through her mind. His voice, so rich and sexy, made her want to more than just dance with him. And she knew that he felt exactly the same way. Their bodies, whenever they were close, were a perfect fit.
Logan felt a tap on his shoulder.
“I’d like to cut in...” Brice had left the side of the dance floor and was standing directly next to them.
Logan slowed a bit, but didn’t stop dancing, and he didn’t let go of her. Her heart seized for a second, because there was something definitely brewing between these two alpha males.
“Not this time,” Logan told him and then spun her away from Brice.
Brice turned red in the face and he grabbed Logan’s arm. In an instant, Logan’s officer training kicked in and the next thing she knew, Brice was taken down to the ground in his custom tuxedo.
Logan stepped back, prepared for a next attack. Brice was quickly on his feet; he’d boxed in college and she could see his stance. He was going to punch Logan.
“Brice! D
on’t! He’s a cop!” she tried to warn her ex. Assault on a law enforcement officer could derail Brice’s career.
Brice ignored her warning, balled up his fist, and lunged at Logan. Logan ducked to the side, deflected the punch, grabbed Brice’s wrist and twisted it around so his arm was behind his back and Logan had complete control of him. Logan took him down again, quickly lowered him to the ground, but this time, he wasn’t gentle. He slammed Brice down, so he would stay down.
Instinctively, after years of being with Brice, she ran to his side and knelt down beside him to make sure he wasn’t seriously hurt.
Logan stared at her with a look that could only be described as wounded and betrayed.
“Stay down,” he told Brice, before he turned around and disappeared into the crowd that had gathered around them.
After she made sure Brice was okay, she searched for Logan, only to find out that he had decided to leave the reception early and return to the ranch. She wouldn’t leave her twin’s wedding reception to chase after him, but she did do the one thing that she should have done right from the start: she told Brice to leave.
* * *
The morning after the wedding, the ranch seemed so quiet compared to the pre-wedding chaos. Ian and Jordan had already taken off to start their honeymoon in the Caribbean island of Curaçao, where they had first fallen in love. And even her brother Luke and his wife, Sophia, had left for the airport because they both needed to get back to Boston for work and to take care of their three kids. Josephine had awakened with one thing on her mind: Logan. She skipped her usual stop, the kitchen, and headed straight to Tyler’s cabin.
At the same time she was opening the front door, Tyler was coming out of his bedroom. They met in the kitchen and Tyler poured a cup of coffee for himself.
“He’s up at the chapel,” her brother said. “Coffee?”
“No, thanks.” Josephine noticed several packed bags piled up just outside of the guest bedroom. She stared at them for several seconds, feeling sick to her stomach.
“Are those Logan’s?”
Tyler nodded before he took a sip of his coffee.
Logan was leaving. She swallowed hard several times before she asked, “Did he say where he’s going?”
“No. And I didn’t think to ask,” her brother said. “I take it you didn’t know he was leaving.”
Josephine shook her head. “I really screwed up with him, Tyler,” she admitted.
“I doubt it’s anything fatal. I think he’s a really good guy. I’d go talk to him if I were you,” her brother advised.
“Yeah...” She slid off the bench. “I guess I will.”
Before she dealt with her own relationship issues, she knew she needed to talk to Tyler about his. “I’ve been so caught up with my own drama that I almost forgot to ask you...what exactly did you do to her?”
Tyler put his coffee cup down on the counter. “Who are you talking about?”
“London.”
She saw it, the flash of pain on his face when she mentioned the intern’s name. “She looked like she was crying the other day.”
“She was?” Tyler seemed caught off-guard by her comment. “Did she tell you why?”
“No, but I do know you’re involved with her, Tyler. Don’t ask me how I know—I just do, okay? So what did you do?”
Tyler looked away from her, shook his head in thought, before he turned his face back toward her.
“She’s pregnant.”
“Oh...” Josephine stared at him, shocked. “Tyler, that’s not good.”
Tyler’s face took on a stony appearance. “London would agree with you on that point.”
“And you don’t?” she asked him. Out of all of the siblings, Tyler had always been the slowest to want to grow up. He had always been serious about ranching, but he’d always sworn that he’d never settle down, get married, and have a family.
“No. Actually, I don’t.” Tyler dumped the rest of his coffee into the sink. “I’m in love with her, Jo. I want to marry her and raise our child here on the ranch. But until we’ve figured this out, I’d appreciate it if you’d keep this to yourself.”
Josephine hugged her brother and promised to keep the secret.
“I’m having a hard enough time trying to fix my own life,” she said. “Trust me, I don’t think I’m in a good position to give relationship advice.”
Chapter Sixteen
Josephine rehearsed what she wanted to say to Logan on her way up the hill to the chapel. She knew that there were so many things that she needed to say...wanted to say...that they were all jumbled together. Even though her thoughts were jumbled, the main purpose of this encounter with Logan was perfectly clear: she owed him an apology. A big one.
Once she reached the chapel’s door, she paused to collect her thoughts. Josephine put her hand on her churning stomach as she reached for the door handle. She felt nervous and upset mixed with a gnawing sense of foreboding. What if Logan didn’t accept her apology? What then?
Josephine slowly pushed the heavy wooden door open. The inside of the chapel still needed a lot of TLC, but Logan and the rest of the crew had done a remarkable job getting the outside of the chapel picture-perfect for the wedding.
She closed the door quietly behind her and walked down the aisle. Logan, her Logan, was leaning against the podium, writing.
“Hi...” She stopped just on the other side of the podium.
“Hey,” Logan said before he clenched the pencil between his teeth, grabbed a measuring tape, and walked to the other side of the chapel.
“I stopped by Tyler’s. You’re leaving.”
Logan measured one of the thick stained-glass windows, before he returned to the podium to write down the window’s dimensions into a notebook.
“That’s right.” Logan moved on to the next window and started to measure it.
Josephine crossed her arms defensively in front of her body. He couldn’t...wouldn’t...even look at her.
“Were you even planning on saying goodbye?” she asked caustically. “Or were you just going to up and leave?”
Logan let the measuring tape snap back into place. He turned around and met her eyes for the first time. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“No, I know.” She contemplated the ground. “That’s not your style.”
This wasn’t going at all like she had rehearsed. Instead of cleaning up the mess as she had intended, she was making it bigger.
“Could you just...stop...for a minute.” Josephine put her hand on Logan’s arm.
Logan looked at her hand on his arm. “I’m leaving today, Josephine. Let me finish what I started here.”
“But that’s what I’m trying to do...finish what we started.”
With a frustrated sigh, Logan finally looked up at her.
“Look...I’m not up for any more drama, okay? I knew that you were fresh off a breakup, Jo. And I knew you needed more time, but I fell in love with you and I didn’t want to wait. That was my mistake, not yours. I knew better. ”
“I fell in love with you, too,” Josephine told him quickly.
“Maybe you did. Maybe you didn’t. Either way, I think we need to step back and give each other some space to think.”
Josephine shook her head. “No. We don’t need space. Quit giving me so much space! Why won’t you fight for me?”
She saw a rare flash of anger in Logan’s black, enigmatic eyes. She’d take the anger—it was better than the cold shoulder he’d been giving her ever since she had arrived.
“Fight for you?” he asked incredulously.
“Yes.” She held his gaze. “If you want me, I’m right here. Fight for me.”
Instead of talking, he acted. Logan grabbed her, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her hard on the mouth. When h
e kissed her this time, he was laying claim to her. His fingers, such strong, rough, calloused fingers, held her face while he deepened the kiss.
Logan broke the kiss, tilted his head back, and studied her through narrowed eyes.
“Where’s the pretty boy?” he asked.
Josephine leaned into Logan’s body, wanting more of his kisses. “I sent him packing...”
“About damn time,” he said before he kissed her again.
Standing inside the rustic chapel, in the arms of the man she loved, Josephine truly knew, for the first time, exactly what she wanted.
“Logan?”
“Hmm?” Logan was nibbling on the side of her neck, breathing in the scent of her freshly washed skin.
“Will you marry me?”
The nibbling stopped. Logan leaned back, surprised, and stared at her.
“What did you just say?”
Josephine wiggled out of his arms. “You heard me. Will you?”
Logan rubbed his forehead and gave a little shake of his head.
“You’re proposing to me?”
Her arms were crossed again. She gave a quick, silent nod.
“I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say here.”
Her face felt hot—it had to be red and splotchy from the rush of embarrassment she was feeling.
“And now I feel really stupid...”
Josephine tried to escape, but Logan caught her hand and kept her from walking away from him.
“Wait a minute, you can’t just spring a question like that on me and then walk away. Jesus, Jo, you gotta give a guy a chance to process...”
“No. I waited for five years while Brice processed. I love you and I want to be your wife. What do you want?”
“I want to be your husband.” Plain, simple, truthful.
“Then it’s a yes,” she said with a smile.
Logan kissed her in that slow, gentle way of his. “It’s a yes. But...I get to propose.”
“But I just proposed.”