The room quieted into a charged silence, but neither one of them had the strength or energy to break it. Not today. Instead, they curled even deeper beneath the blankets and fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon. Not to wake again until morning.
Chapter 31
When Lacy woke up the next morning, Logan was nowhere to be seen. There was evidence of him, of course. The house had been straightened. The mouthwatering scent of coffee was drifting up from the kitchen. Spartacus was barking happily in the backyard. But Logan himself was gone. And that wasn’t even the worst part.
His bags were missing too.
A wave of panic stole through Lacy’s heart as she started pacing from room to room. Throwing open the doors, only to see an immaculate but empty space in front of her. Looking for any evidence that the man she loved hadn’t gotten spooked and jumped on the nearest plane.
She couldn’t find any. His cell phone went straight to voicemail, his wallet was gone, and despite the fact that he’d been living in the house, not one of his belongings had been left behind.
Finally forced to admit the truth, Lacy threw open the front door and marched down the steps. She stopped on the last one, burying her head in her arms as she started to quietly cry.
I can’t believe it. I can’t believe he’s actually gone.
“Lacy?”
Her head snapped up with a gasp, and she whirled around to see Logan staring at her with a look of wide-eyed concern. He was perched in the center of the swinging bench. The same bench they’d fallen asleep on together one of his first nights there. A slew of papers was scattered around him, an open laptop was humming on the armrest, and there was not one, but two phones glued to each ear.
“Hang on gentlemen,” he ended every conversation at once, “I’ll have to call you back.”
The next second, he dropped the phones—shoving everything aside to make room as he pushed to his feet and rushed to join her on the steps. The crying had yet to stop and he sank down slowly—eyeing her with a worried sort of caution, afraid to set her off.
“Sweetie, what is it? What’s wrong?”
For her part, Lacy had yet to speak. Not only was she still reeling from the shock of seeing that he hadn’t fled the state, but there was something different about the man in front of her. No longer was he the carefree vacationer she’d grown accustom to, there was a fiery sort of passion about him instead. An instinctual sort of confidence in the way he’d handled the people on the phone. A strange kind of determination that she didn’t understand.
“I thought...” She could hardly bring herself to say the words. Looking at him now, staring into those beautiful eyes, it was almost too absurd to imagine. “I thought you’d left.”
Logan nodded slowly, not understanding himself.
“...like to get breakfast?”
“Like the state.” She pulled in a shaky breath, more relieved than she would have thought was even possible. “After what you said yesterday, about Florida...I thought you’d gone back to Miami. That you didn’t want to be here anymore. Or have anything to do with Cleveland...or me.”
She couldn’t help but tag on that last part, even though she was suddenly having trouble meeting his eyes. When she finally did dare to look, he looked as surprised as she’d ever seen him. For whatever reason, his eyes flickered back to the mess of papers littering the porch, before returning to hers with a rather guilty expression.
“It’s actually...quite the opposite.” She looked at him curiously and he ran his hands back through his hair, taking a deep breath before laying it all out in the open. “I called up my CFO today and started making preliminary plans to open a resort in Cleveland. I also called up my personal business manager and had him start transferring funds to a local branch.”
He grew suddenly quiet, shooting her nervous glances all the while, but for her part, Lacy had no idea what to say. She simply stared at him—her mind going completely blank.
“A local branch?” she repeated in a daze, not understanding. “What do you mean?”
His eyes tightened anxiously as he studied her every micro-expression, trying to interpret them as best he could. “Local to here. To Cleveland. So that I could live here permanently.”
There was a lengthy pause. Followed by another blank look.
“...I’m sorry?”
This time, the tension on his face melted away into a tender smile. He reached over and pulled her gently onto his lap—kissing the tip of her nose before he explained.
“I’d like to move here, Lacy. To move my business headquarters from Florida to Ohio. To maybe buy a house here. Somewhere that I could live...with you.”
...oh.
It was starting to click. Starting to make sense. But Lacy still couldn’t believe that it could possibly be true. After everything that had happened yesterday morning? After the stalker, and the pictures, and the visit to the police station? He still wanted to move?
“Are you serious?”