“That sucks,” Andrew said.
“They were twins,” Jeni added. She and Andrew exchanged a look of sympathy and understanding.
Logan sat in silence. As an only child, he didn’t understand the bond between siblings, much less twins.
“Poor kids,” Andrew said. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Someone has to.” Jeni took a sip of her beer, once again averting her eyes.
“How long have you been in social work?” Logan asked.
“I finished my Master’s in May, but I did a lot of interning and shadowing during school. So, I guess you could say two years.”
She was pretty new to the gig then. How long would she last?
Knowing better than to voice that thought, Logan nodded tightly and looked away, lifting his own beer to his lips.
“What exactly do you do for the Chiefs?” Jeni asked.
He was thankful for the change in topic. “Mostly I manage the posts on the team’s social media pages, especially on game days during the season. I help analyze which posts bring in the most online traffic and try to figure out why then plan a strategy for the next game day.”
“Logan’s a social media guru,” Andrew put in. “Didn’t you do an internship with one of the big ones?”
“Twitter,” he said. “I almost stayed in San Francisco for a job there, but—” He almost mentioned his mom and quickly changed direction. “I decided to come back here.”
“I don’t understand Twitter,” Jeni said.
“I like how succinct it is,” Logan said. “Short, sweet, and to the point. Each social media outlet has their place though. I hit a different demographic with all of them.”
“What got you started with that anyway?” Andrew asked. “The social media stuff, I mean. I don’t think you’ve ever told me.”
“I guess I’ve always been interested in what connects people. Whether it be for a conversation, like Snapchat, a shared goal or interest like Instagram, or even things like friendship or relationships. I started studying communications with a dual major in Advertising and Public Relations and then got that internship. Even though social media and marketing is what I wanted to do, when I moved back to Kansas City the only job I could find was at an ad agency, so I did that for a few years.”
“How did you get stuck doing marketing for the second-worst football team in the league then?” Jeni asked.
“You do realize the Chiefs were ranked above the Broncos at the end of last season, right?”
“Irrelevant.”
He laughed and glanced at Andrew, who shook his head.
“I wouldn’t start with her, man,” Andrew warned.
Logan snorted. He could handle her. “Actually, official rankings are the one relevant way to measure a team’s talent and success—”
“Just answer the question, Logan,” Jeni said.
Logan blinked. Was her haughty attitude irritating or hot? “I work for the Chiefs because I want to, and I jumped at the chance when a position came up a few months ago. They’ve been my favorite team since I was thirteen, and my dad was their biggest fan.”
Her expression softened a little.
She probably wouldn’t ask about his dad, but just in case, he kept going before she could. “It was the first thing we really bonded over, and I’ve followed them religiously ever since. That won’t change, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree about football.”
The semi-gentle look on her face disappeared, and she pursed her lips. “We can disagree, but just so you know, I like to win.”
Yeah.
He’d gathered as much.
Chapter Three
Andrew: I’m hungry. How about that free lunch today?
Unknown: It’s only 9:15.
Jeni: I assume the third person on this text is Logan.
Unknown: The one and only.
Jeni snorted, the sound immediately lost in the chaotic office, and saved his number into her phone. She clicked over to her Outlook calendar and took stock of her day.
Jeni: I can get away for lunch, just have to be back at 1:30.
Logan: Same.
Andrew: Yessss
Logan suggested a ramen place downtown. Jeni didn’t have much experience with Asian cuisine, having grown up in a tiny farm town in Nebraska.
Potato salad and coleslaw? Expert.
Buttermilk biscuits from scratch? You betcha.
Ramen? She only knew of the square kind wrapped in plastic with a full day’s worth of sodium content. But she was all about trying new things.
That had kind of been the whole point of leaving Nebraska in the first place.
The morning went quickly, and at exactly noon, Jeni walked into the restaurant.
Logan waited just inside the door. He wore a pale blue dress shirt with fitted slacks, no tie. Two buttons were open at the neck, revealing a sliver of tanned skin underneath. His wavy blond hair was in perfect disarray, and his blue eyes pierced her like a knife.
A tremor ran through her, and she hated herself for it.
She did not like Logan Davis like that.
Yes, she’d agreed to start over with the guy. But that had really just been a show for Andrew. She didn’t intend to spend more time with Logan than she had to.
But shit if he wasn’t gorgeous.
A tiny, aggravating part of per brain suggested he might be useful in her quest to try new things, and she quickly cancelled the thought.
Nope.
“Hey,” he greeted.
“Hi.”
“Andrew’s not here yet. Should we get a table?”
“Sure.”
The restaurant was small, and Logan walked right past the hostess stand like he owned the place. One wall was lined with a long, wood-top counter with several black-shirted chefs just beyond, preparing food for the onlookers. Each barstool at the counter was full, and Logan went the other direction, where several leather booths lined the opposite wall. Muted conversation and the hiss of raw food hitting a hot grill filled the room.
The second they sat down, a man with a wide smile approached the table.
“Logan! Good to see you. You’ve got a date with you, I see.” The man spoke quickly and tossed a wink in Jeni’s direction.
Logan’s voice was even and smooth. “Sam, this is my friend, Jeni. We’ve got one more, so if a guy named Andrew comes in, send him back here.”
“Sure, you got it.” Sam handed Jeni a menu. “I’ll let you look, and I’ll be back.”
Sam hurried off, and Jeni arched an eyebrow. “Bring a lot of dates here?”
“I bring a lot of everyone here.” Logan leaned back and crossed his arms. “It’s the best.”
“Mmhmm.” She picked up the menu and realized the server hadn’t brought Logan one. “Do you know what you want?”
He nodded. “I get the same thing. Sam knows.”
“Oh. Well, what should I get? I’ve never had fancy ramen before.”
“They have an entire section of vegetarian bowls. That’s why I suggested we come here.” He leaned forward and reached over the top of the menu to point. “Are you vegan?”
He’d considered her dietary preferences when choosing the restaurant? Maybe he really was trying to make up for stealing her hummus. “No.”
“I recommend the garlic tofu, add black mushrooms.”
That sounded good, but she took her time reading the menu anyway, hoping to find something else on her own. Finally, she closed the menu, set it down, and said grudgingly, “I’ll try it.”
“Did Andrew say he was going to be late?” Logan asked at the exact moment both of their phones vibrated on the table.
Andrew: Sorry guys, I’ve got a killer headache and am heading home. Rain check.
Jeni looked up and met Logan’s eyes. He frowned, and she wondered how well he knew her brother. Andrew never got sick, even with something simple as a headache.
Jeni: You okay? Need anything?
Andrew: Just my bed and a
dark room. Call you later.
Logan: Take care, man.
“Guess it’s just you and me,” Logan said unnecessarily.
“We don’t have to stay.”
“Come on,” he said. “I’m not that bad, am I?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I should ask the last woman you brought here.”
He laughed and slid his phone across the table. “You can call her if you want. I didn’t, like, sleep with her and never call again. Despite what you might think, I’m not an asshole.”
“If you say so. I’m still undecided.”
“I haven’t made up my mind about you either, if we’re being honest. Good thing we’ve got an entire lunch hour to talk. Let’s call it a friendship date.”
“Are we friends?”
“I don’t think so. Not yet, at least. I don’t think you’ve ever even smiled at me.”
“I’ve smiled at you.”
“Not once. I’m kind of wondering if you know how to move the muscles in your face that way.”
Jeni glared at him.
“That expression I’m familiar with, thanks.”
She turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. This guy was going to drive her insane. She took a deep breath and returned to face him, revealing her teeth.
Logan choked and swallowed. “What is that?”
Her perpetual frown—perpetual when she was around him at least—returned. “A smile.”
“No way. It was…I don’t even know. A grimace? A grit? Can you think of nothing that makes you happy, or does your skepticism of me overshadow everything else?”
Jeni considered that. A lot of things made her happy—Broncos football. A foster child finding a forever home. The sound of a softball hitting the catcher’s glove when she threw a strike or three.
Damn, she missed playing and made a mental note to look for a rec league around here.
In the corner of her eye, Logan’s countenance changed. She lifted her gaze to his face and found him smiling. White, straight teeth and a dimple filled her vision, with a slight wrinkling of skin near his eyes. Her heart paused in its pumping duties, and she suddenly knew what all those women saw in him.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Her voice sounded a little breathless.
“You’re smiling at me.”
She took stock and immediately shut it down. “Was not.”
“Was too.” His smile widened.
Jeni snorted. “Whatever. One of your eyes is smaller than the other.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s like the left one is kind of squinting.”
Logan gaped at her, tilting his head a little to the side. Probably trying to hide his weird eye.
Jeni grinned.
“You’re smiling again. Are you laughing at me?”
She lifted one shoulder. “It’s nice to find something imperfect about your appearance.”
“It’s nice to…hold on. Are you saying you find me attractive?”
“I might have. Before,” she said. “And just for a second. Now I think I’ll start calling you Squinty.”
He grumbled something under his breath, just as Sam came by and took their orders.
Logan went back to the subject at hand. “Why do you have to make this so hard?”
“Come on, I was just teasing. Isn’t that what friends do?”
“I guess. Your brother makes being his friend the easiest thing in the world. So far, I can’t say the same for you.” He was right, Andrew was one of those guys who could befriend a brick wall.
“Andrew lets people in easily. He’s an open book. Just because I don’t lay all my cards out there when I first meet someone doesn’t mean I don’t want to be friends. I just…I don’t know. Things have been different, since…” She trailed off. She used to be good at friendship and meeting new people. In high school she’d been energetic and outgoing and could strike up a conversation with anybody. She knew exactly when and why that had changed, but she wasn’t going there. “I’m just more reserved than Andrew, I guess.”
“Says the girl who marched up to a stranger on the sidewalk and demanded he give her his lunch.”
“I can be reserved and get hangry. They aren’t mutually exclusive. I wanted that hummus.”
Logan lifted one corner of his lips and let out a small sound of pleasure that sent a zing straight to her core. “One of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth.”
“That’s what she said.”
He threw back his head and laughed, and Jeni found herself smiling for the third time. Maybe she could do this. She smoothed a hand down her hair, pulling her long ponytail over one shoulder. He watched her, and for a second, she met his striking blue eyes before looking away.
“What do you think of Kansas City?” Logan asked.
“I like it so far. It’s completely different from the town I grew up in, but I lived in Omaha during my Master’s program and it feels a lot like that. You’re from here, right?”
“Yep.”
Jeni waited for him to expand on that.
He didn’t. “What made you want to work in child welfare?”
“That’s a story.”
Logan shrugged. “We’ve got time, and I want to hear it. From what Andrew’s told me about your family, it doesn’t seem like it could be from personal experience.”
“You’re right. I was lucky with the family I was born into. Until my senior year in high school I wanted to be a teacher. But that changed halfway through the year when Andrew and I were in a car accident. I needed surgery so I was in the hospital for a while, and because I was seventeen, I was in the pediatric ward. There was this little six-year-old girl named Ella in the room next to me. I overheard the nurses talking, and based on her injuries, they suspected they were inflicted by her parents.”
He shifted in the booth, the leather creaking, and nodded for her to continue.
Jeni had rolled her own wheelchair into Ella’s room several times a day to play or watch TV with her and had felt an overwhelming desire to protect her. Along with an even more overwhelming feeling of helplessness. She’d been a kid herself and couldn’t do anything for the girl other than befriend her. “Sometimes I could hear her crying through the wall at night. I always had someone from my family with me, but I rarely heard anyone other than nurses in there with her.”
Logan was quiet, but she knew he was listening. His face lost some color, and she felt bad for turning the conversation down such a dismal road. But he’d asked how she chose her career path, and this was part of it. She nudged his foot under the table.
“The story is about to get better,” she said with a small smile.
He took a deep breath. “Is it?”
Jeni nodded. “The orthopedic surgeon who performed two of my surgeries was also one of Ella’s doctors. He and Ella formed a unique bond, and he and his wife were registered foster parents. They fostered her after she was discharged for several months and ended up adopting her.” She smiled, thinking of the happy girl Ella was now. Jeni’s dad and the surgeon were old college buddies and kept in touch, so Jeni had received updates about her over the years. Ella’s happy ending pushed Jeni to keep doing what she did. It was hard, challenging, and didn’t pay nearly enough, but it was her calling.
For better or worse.
“That is a happy ending,” Logan said, though his voice sounded strained. His eyes were on the table. “But she’ll never forget the darkness of the first years of her life.”
“I’m sure that’s true,” Jeni agreed. His reaction made her wonder what darkness lurked in his past. “But her future is brighter because of the intervention of some caring people. That’s why I wanted to do the same and make a difference in as many children’s lives as possible. Sometimes that just means getting them out of a bad situation temporarily while their parents get their shit together. Other times it means getting ugly to keep them from ever going back where they came from.”
“I bet you’re effec
tive at the second one.”
Her spine stiffened. “Meaning?”
Logan gave her a bland look. “You’re intimidating as hell. Surely you know that.”
She paused. Was that true? The way he said it, it sounded strangely complimentary. “I don’t mean to be. I’m competitive, that’s for sure. Assertive, maybe, and straightforward.”
“Intimidating,” he repeated.
Her mind conjured up an image of two people facing off for dominance. “I don’t see you running in the other direction.”
“I like a challenge.”
What the hell did that mean? Before she could ask, Sam walked up and delivered two steaming bowls of noodles. The scent of salty broth was immediately comforting, as if her mother had just delivered chicken soup to her bedside when she had a cold. Noodles were arranged with colorful vegetables and a soft-boiled egg on top, creating one of the most visually appealing meals she’d ever seen.
“Wow,” she said. “Thank you, this looks delicious.”
“Enjoy,” Sam said with a grin and departed.
Jeni skipped the chopsticks and picked up a fork, winding several noodles around the tines.
“Tastes delicious too,” she said after the first bite.
“I’m glad you like it.”
They ate in silence for a moment, and Jeni wracked her brain to think of something to say. She didn’t usually mind silence, but for some reason with Logan, it felt awkward. “I wanted to tell you that, terrible employer aside, I think your job sounds cool. When you put it like you did—wanting to connect people over shared interests like the camaraderie of football—it puts it in a new perspective.”
“It’s fun, which is more than I can say for the advertising job I had before. My accounts were a funeral home and an automotive group that owned several car dealerships. Football’s so much better.”
“Do you have access to game tickets?”
“Sometimes. I bet I could swing it when the Broncos are here in a few weeks, if you wanted to go.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
“Sure.”
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