He opened his eyes to look at her while he kissed her, something he rarely did. Her glasses were high on her nose, and her eyes remained closed, with dark lashes resting against her sparsely freckled cheek. Her expression was soft and serene, a far cry from her usual demeanor. Something clenched in Logan’s chest, and his breath caught in his throat like his air supply had been cut off. He slid his hands up along her back and cupped her face in his palms, his thumbs tracing her delicate cheekbones.
His eyelids drifted shut, and his tongue slid out for a taste. It wasn’t even intentional on his part. It just felt like the natural progression of a kiss. Of this kiss.
And damn, did he want to taste her.
When she touched his tongue with her own, the intensity went up a notch. She moved closer, her body flush against his, from their chests down to their thighs, not an inch of space between them. His back was against the hard metal of the truck. Heat spread through his body, and blood pulsed in his ears.
Logan had been around. He’d kissed a lot of women.
A lot.
But never in his entire life had a woman’s kiss made him feel like this.
Chapter Nine
Logan lifted his head, his lips an inch away from hers. A strangled sound escaped his throat, and it sounded like it might have been a question. Jeni couldn’t be sure.
How many beers had she had? Three? She couldn’t remember. All she knew was this kiss made her feel something she’d never felt before.
They stood there, separated by a mere inch, with halted breath and a spark hovering between them.
Why had she done that?
Oh, right. Because he’d said he didn’t want her and then used the excuse she wasn’t interested in him.
Which was true. Sort of. She was attracted to him, which wasn’t the same thing. Regardless, what he’d said pissed her off, so she’d acted on impulse.
And she wanted to do it again.
His lids were still low, his eyes on her mouth. She leaned forward again, pushing up on her toes and seeking contact. Just before their lips touched, he sucked in a breath, as if realizing what had just happened and would happen again.
He gently put his hands on her upper arms to still her movement.
“I, uh…” He cleared his throat and blinked several times. His gaze moved around her face, like he was drinking her in, before his eyes met hers. “I…no, I can’t.”
“You can’t kiss me?” She resisted the urge to back down. His lips had felt too good.
Logan closed his eyes. “You’re Andrew’s sister. It doesn’t feel right to do that.”
A small piece of her confidence slipped away. “I’ve seen you flirt with a dozen women.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“None of them were the sister of my best friend.”
Her jaw went tight, and she stepped back, leaving a cold sensation along the front of her body. Disappointment settled heavy on her chest. “Got it.”
He gripped the back of his neck, and a frown descended. “I can’t think of you that way. Out of respect for your brother—”
“Logan,” she cut in. “I just kissed you. I don’t want to talk about my brother.” Rejection washed through her, and she eyed the door behind him meaningfully. “If you don’t mind?”
“You didn’t let me finish. More importantly, I’m trying to respect you too.”
“Okay.” She avoided eye contact, trying to hide her embarrassment, and put her hand on the door handle next to his elbow.
With a sigh, he moved to the side and allowed her to get inside.
The drive back to her house was silent and awkward. Logan made a few attempts to start conversation, but she wasn’t in the mood. She gave him single-word answers, and he eventually gave up. He pulled into her driveway, and she went for the door handle.
Logan’s hand shot out to cover hers. “Wait.”
She craned her head around to look at him. “What?”
“Don’t be upset with me.”
“I’m not.” She was upset with herself.
“I’m glad you texted me tonight.”
Her eyes met his.
“I mean it,” he added.
She dropped her gaze and sighed. Before the sting of rejection, she’d had a great evening with him. She pulled out of his grasp, opened the door, and climbed out. She offered him a small smile before she closed the door.
“Me too.”
* * *
“What is that?”
“Is it what I think it is?”
“Oh, sweet mercy.” Jeni’s mother’s eyes went wide. “Someone is, um…oh my.”
Jeni shoveled eggs into her mouth, wishing she could slide under the table. Her mother must have opened the window near the kitchen table, letting in more than the sound of birds chirping. “It’s my neighbor. She likes to sleep with the window open.”
“That doesn’t sound like sleeping,” Rhonda quipped. “If it is, I’ll take some of whatever sleeping pill she’s got.”
“Rhonda!” their mother gasped.
“What?”
Jeni stood and walked to the window. “I’ll just close this.”
When she resumed her seat, the breakfast table was suddenly awkwardly silent, and her mother seemed unable to make eye contact.
“What time’s the appointment?” Jeni asked. It was at nine, but she needed to say something and wanted to move on from the subject of her neighbor.
Cassidy.
Usually, the woman brought Jeni nothing more than irritation. Today, she was reminded of the morning she’d first seen Logan, and her thoughts filled with him—his lips in particular. More than a week had passed since their kiss, but it felt like yesterday. She remembered how it felt to be in his arms that night, his open mouth hot against hers. She wasn’t sure what shocked her most, the fact that she’d kissed him in the first place or how much she’d enjoyed it.
Ever since that night, she’d felt an unfamiliar sense of awareness and curiosity, and she had no idea where to go from here. She’d been operating under the assumption that avoiding relationships meant she probably wouldn’t be having sex either. She’d never had a one-night stand and wasn’t currently interested in going that route.
But what if there was a third option?
“Nine.” Rhonda interrupted her thoughts.
Jeni cleared her throat, grabbed her plate, and stood. “We’d better get moving.”
Forty-five minutes later, the four of them sat in the waiting room of the oncologist’s office. Andrew had met them there and sat beside her, his knee bouncing.
Jeni’s phone dinged, and she fished it from her purse.
Logan: You’ve been avoiding me.
Jeni: Have not.
Logan: Liar.
Jeni: …
Logan: I had a good time last week.
Jeni: Me too. You know, before you shot me down.
Logan: If it helps, stopping that kiss might be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Jeni: It helps a little.
Logan: I’ve thought about you a lot.
Jeni: Really?
Logan: Yeah. More than I probably should.
Her fingers paused over the screen. What was she supposed to do with that?
“Who are you texting?”
She jumped at the sound of Andrew’s voice, quickly flipping her phone over. Her brother raised an eyebrow.
“No one.”
“Jeni.” He was attempting to use a firm tone with her, and she almost laughed. “Is it a guy?”
“Shh,” she growled, glancing at her family sitting opposite them. “They’ll hear you.”
The waiting room was large, and thankfully none of them seemed to be paying attention. Rhonda was on her phone, and Valerie and her mother were animatedly conversing about something that Jeni would assuredly not be interested in.
It would be bad enough if they thought Jeni was talking to any guy. If they knew it had been Logan? God help
her. It had been barely more than a week since they first met him at the hospital, and he’d been around on a few additional occasions with Andrew since then. Logan was right—she’d avoided him each time, finding something else to do when he was there. Her mom and sisters couldn’t get enough of him, apparently having consumed whatever Kool-Aid he doled out to women. They didn’t even care that he worked for the Chiefs.
Well, Rhonda kind of did. She was the most hardcore of them all. And if Jeni’s dad were here instead of keeping their farm running, he’d have sided with Jeni and Rhonda on that. She was sure of it.
“Maybe if they do, you can distract them while I slip through that door unnoticed.” Andrew tilted his head to the door leading to the exam rooms. “Pretty sure I don’t need four of you with me.”
“I’m not giving up my spot, and I can guarantee not one of those women will either. This is your first appointment with an oncologist. We’re with you in this, Andrew.” Jeni put a hand on his forearm, taking the rare opportunity to tell him how much she cared. “We love you more than life itself.”
“I know.” He gave her a half-smile and patted her hand with his. “If only you’d love me from a distance.”
Jeni yanked her hand away and elbowed him in the ribs. “When I was the one in your shoes, there was no getting rid of you.”
Andrew leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes. “I was your saving grace.”
“That’s true.”
Still resting on the wood, his head tilted in her direction, and one eye opened. “Until I wasn’t. I’m sorry I left you there.”
“You went to college. It wasn’t like you had a choice.”
“I could have waited a year. Took classes online like you did. If I had, maybe you wouldn’t have—”
Jeni geared up to interrupt him, but a man in scrubs opening the door did it for her.
“Andrew Bishop?” the man called.
Five Bishops stood and followed the man into an exam room entirely too small for all of them. Jeni and their mother claimed chairs next to Andrew, while Rhonda and Valerie stood along the wall.
Dr. Patel, a thin, beautiful, dark-haired woman with a kind smile and intelligent eyes, entered soon after. If she was annoyed with how cramped the room was while she examined Andrew and spoke to him about his treatment plan, it didn’t show.
Jeni took notes while Dr. Patel outlined her recommended treatment—four months of chemotherapy. She said Andrew didn’t need radiation and reiterated the high possibility of cure for his early stage disease. She gave them ample time to ask questions and then explained that a pharmacist would come in to discuss the side effects of chemotherapy.
A short time later, a knock sounded at the door, and a red-headed woman entered. She looked young to be a pharmacist, but Jeni was still asked for her ID at bars so she didn’t have room to talk.
Then, the strangest thing happened.
The woman stopped short when her eyes alighted on Andrew. He sat up straight, his gaze fixed intently on her. Jeni looked between the two of them, feeling the urge to reach up and snap a finger between them.
Interesting.
Andrew broke the silence. “Hi.”
His voice seemed to break the pharmacist out of her trance, and she sat on a stool, introducing herself as Lauren. “You must be Andrew?”
“That’s me.” He introduced the rest of the family.
Lauren spent the next half-hour explaining what he could expect from the chemotherapy. Jeni didn’t miss the way Lauren’s cheeks flushed every time she glanced in his direction.
Again, interesting.
When Lauren finished and asked their family if they had any questions, everyone jumped right in. They asked several, from when he could expect his hair to fall out to whether he had to wear a mask in public, but it all went to hell when their mother asked if it was safe for him to have sex while he was on chemo.
Jeni covered her mouth to hide her laugh. Andrew’s face was suddenly a shade of dark red. He made several attempts to move the conversation along, but their mother wouldn’t be deterred, insisting it was important to him to know.
“Caroline and I broke up, okay?” he finally announced, tone laced with frustration.
An echo of gasps reverberated throughout the small room, and Jeni’s head snapped up. Now that she thought about it, he hadn’t mentioned Caroline since his diagnosis. She was pleased by the news, but she’d be damned if she would allow a woman to get away with dumping her brother because he’d gotten sick.
“If she dumped you because of this, I’m gonna punch her in the ovaries,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Can we talk about this later?” Andrew bit out.
Jeni and the rest of the family grudgingly kept quiet while Lauren finished up, and they left the oncologist’s office. Jeni somehow wormed her way into Andrew’s car, sending the other three back to her house in hers.
“Is Mom’s car almost fixed?” he asked as he approached the parking garage exit.
“Supposed to be ready tomorrow.”
“Thank God.”
“You know they won’t leave until after you start chemo.”
“I know. I’ll take the first appointment they offer me.” He rolled down his window to hand the parking attendant his validated ticket and thanked her when the gate lifted.
Jeni waited several minutes to give him the opportunity to bring up Caroline, but he didn’t. “So, what happened?”
Andrew sighed. “We broke up.”
“I got that part. When?”
“Does it matter?”
She ground her teeth. “I’m gonna key her car.”
He laughed. “No, you won’t. It was a mutual decision. We weren’t right for each other, and you know it.”
“Well. I’m glad you finally came to your senses.” She glanced over at him. “But I’m sorry, all the same. Break-ups suck, no matter what.”
“They do,” he agreed but didn’t look too torn up about it. “Do you ever miss Jackson?”
She put her elbow on the narrow ledge by the window and rested her palm against her hair. “I don’t miss him. I kind of miss the companionship sometimes.”
“I know you were texting a guy earlier. Are you considering going out with someone again?”
“I told you before. I’m never dating again.”
He looked at her with wide eyes. “I didn’t think you were serious.”
“As a heart attack.”
“Jeni, you’re twenty-six. You can’t throw in the towel after one bad relationship.”
“It wasn’t just a relationship. It was a failed marriage. One that crashed and burned in such spectacular fashion that I’ll never do it again.” She looked out the window as she spoke. “What’s the point?”
“I just worry you’ll wake up at fifty and regret never trying again.”
Jeni turned her head and gave her brother a sad smile. “I won’t.”
The only thing she regretted was getting married in the first place.
Chapter Ten
After his text exchange with Jeni, Logan tried to throw himself into work to calm his wandering thoughts. He’d received a text from Andrew that morning, saying his lymphoma was stage two and “greater than 80% cure rate” but that he’d need chemotherapy. Logan was relieved the prognosis was good, but the downside was that the good news meant the other concern weighing on his mind moved to the forefront.
Jeni.
She plagued his thoughts all day. He tried to focus on diagnostic reports from the social media platforms the past week, but he kept going back to her and the night they had dinner together.
Logan had really enjoyed himself. She was witty and interesting, and he’d actually started to enjoy her jabs about the Chiefs. When his team ended up Super Bowl champions this season, which appeared to be a real possibility, he’d enjoy rubbing that in her face even more. He admired her dedication to her job and couldn’t think of a better person to stand up for children who needed so
meone on their side.
He thought about all the other things he’d learned about her too. At Mateo’s, they’d discovered several things they had in common—both loved action movies. Favorite cuisine was Mexican. Both had a desire to travel. Best of all, he’d finally met a woman who shared his interest in home brewing.
And then, of course, there was that powerful thing called attraction.
Damn, but he was drawn to her. He’d had to physically restrain himself more than once to keep from touching her. The first time he had the urge was back when they had lunch at the ramen place and she’d told him about her accident. Her pull on him had only increased with time.
And that kiss. Shit. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d experienced a kiss like that. He’d felt something deep inside during those few minutes, something electric and soothing yet almost painful, all at the same time. It had been more than simply a physical response, of that much he was certain.
What did that mean? Did he want to date her?
He considered her a friend of sorts, and the thought of doing something to ruin that rubbed him the wrong way. He’d seen enough of people’s backs as they walked away from him to last a lifetime and didn’t like the idea of Jeni joining the crowd.
But she’d said she was starting to like him and, even following the awkwardness after the kiss, admitted she was glad she’d texted him. What if she saw something in him? What if she was different from the others?
By the time he got home that evening, his thoughts were all over the place. But one thing was sure: he wanted to see her again and soon.
He considered several options, but nothing felt right. Ask her to dinner? Too date-ish. Just drop by to say hi? Too stalker-ish. Then he realized he hadn’t given her the Chiefs tickets yet, and the game was that weekend.
A grin spread across his face as he sent her a text.
Logan: Can I bring the game tickets over tonight?
Jeni: Actually, do you mind if I come get them? I’m dying for an excuse to get out of here.
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