Courtney nodded, deleting the wipe warmer from the app. It was so refreshing to have Maddie with her, telling her the truth. And according to Maddie, it was just as much fun for her. “I get to shop vicariously through you, and have a break from all my boys. It’s a win,” she told Courtney when she’d picked her up from the farm.
“I guess I’ll need a bathtub,” Courtney said. “I won’t have anybody to climb into the tub naked for me.” Let alone a hot Hartson man. Another little reminder of how different her life would be from the majority of moms she’d meet at prenatal classes.
“Yeah, I guess it’ll be hard for Logan to help when he’s in Boston.” Maddie bit her lip, her eyes soft as she looked at Courtney. “Sorry, would you rather we didn’t talk about him?”
“No, it’s okay,” Courtney reassured her, as the two of them wandered toward the registry desk. “And you’re right, it’ll be just me and the baby for the majority of the time.”
Maddie’s smile was sympathetic. “That will be hard on you.”
“Ah, I can shave a sheep single handed. And I’ve played midwife to more pigs than I can count. I’m pretty sure this little one will be simple in comparison.” She rubbed her stomach and grinned back. No point in admitting any fears, they grew if you acknowledged them. Better to be positive and think only good thoughts. That way they might come true.
“Can I ask you something?” Maddie said, her head tipped to the side.
“Sure.” Courtney nodded.
“Feel free to tell me to mind my own business, but I was wondering if you and Logan were a couple or not.” She grimaced. “Ugh, I sound like my nosey sister, but I don’t want to upset you in any way. Like addressing a congratulations card to both of you when I should send two separately.” She sighed. “Sorry, I am being nosey, aren’t I?”
Courtney softened at Maddie’s obvious discomfort. “It’s okay, honestly. I’d be wondering the same thing in your position. And the truth is, it’s complicated. I like Logan a lot, and obviously having a baby together means we’re connected forever. But his life is in Boston and mine is here.”
“What if he lived here?” Maddie asked her, picking up a blister pack of pacifiers. “By the way, you’ll need a heck of a lot of these. The baby will be half-Hartson and they’re loud as hell.”
Courtney grinned. “I guess if Logan lived here, and he was interested in something more, then I would be.”
Maddie looked up. “Have you told him that?”
“No. And I wasn’t planning to. It sounds an awful lot like asking too much. I’ve heard him talk about the restaurant business. It’s important to him.”
“It is. Sometimes too important. He works so damn much it’s crazy. Gray always complains about Logan’s schedule. Claims it’s worse than Cam’s, and his is bad.” Maddie sighed. “He’s always had something to prove. I guess that’s what losing his career did to him.”
“You mean his football injury?”
Maddie’s eyes widened. “He told you about that?”
“Yeah. Said he blew his knee when he was in high school.”
“He was such a good player. Better than Cam, if you can imagine that.” Maddie’s voice was soft. “I don’t remember a whole lot about it, because I’m younger than them. But Gray tells me it took a long, long time for Logan to recover both mentally and physically. Not so much from losing his planned career, but because it meant his life would be completely different from Cam’s. Up until then, they’d always been the twins who excelled at football, but suddenly Logan wasn’t part of it anymore.” She ran the tip of her tongue along her bottom lip. “That’s why Gray’s adamant that we make sure Presley and Marley have different interests. He never wants to watch them go through what Logan did.”
“It sounds like Logan always feels he has to prove himself.” Courtney frowned. That was crazy, because he was so damn successful.
Maddie looked pensive. “It’s as if he feels that he’s nothing unless he’s successful. And I don’t think it’s because he’s jealous of Cam. It’s just that he had to have this constant drive to succeed, otherwise he’d have succumbed to the depression he had after his injury. It was like a fight or flight thing, and he decided to fight.” Maddie pressed her lips together. “And the stupid thing is, he knows all this. Of all the brothers, Logan is the most emotionally intelligent. He’s gone through therapy, he believes in talking things out. And when one of his brothers is in trouble, he’s always the voice of reason.”
“Maybe he finds it easier to give advice than to take his own,” Courtney said. She knew how that felt. It was another thing that tied them together, as if there weren’t enough things already. Her brows knit together as she remembered the first time they met. He exuded confidence and success, the way she probably exuded small town farm girl. It had been one of the things that attracted her to him.
But he was more than that self-assured veneer. And it made her want to know him even more. He was real. Human. The one man who kept her awake at night even when they weren’t together.
And when they were? He was the flame to her firework.
“I think we’ve gathered enough items for today,” Maddie said, her warm eyes meeting Courtney’s. “Let’s go close out the registry, then we can head to this amazing coffee shop I know. They make these huge cupcakes and fill them with melted chocolate, and top them with whipped cream. Once you taste one you won’t want to stop.
Courtney grinned. “You’re a woman after my own heart.” Her smile widened as Maddie slid her arm through Courtney’s, and together they walked toward the registry desk.
Maddie nodded. “That’s why I knew we’d get along so well.”
“I can’t believe I have to fly back tomorrow,” Logan told Courtney later the following evening when she was laying in his arms. “It feels like I just got here.”
She turned to look at him, resting her chin on his bare chest. “I wish you didn’t have to go”
He breathed out heavily. “So do I. But we’ve got less than a month until the restaurant opens and nothing is ready. And we’re getting some exclusive coverage in Boston Life Magazine, which means it all has to be perfect.”