Paris blinked, the smile melting from her lips. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’m planning on spending more time there once the baby comes. Maybe before.” He met her confused gaze. “You mentioned before about us bringing on another partner. This might be a good time to do it.”
“What the hell are you going to do in bumbfuck Virginia?” Paris asked, incredulous. “You’ll go crazy in about five minutes. There’s a reason you left Hartson’s Creek. You’re too big for that place. You couldn’t run a restaurant like this there,” she said, pointing at the almost-finished furnishings.
“I know that. But I want to spend time with Courtney and our baby when she or he arrives. And I can’t do that from here.”
“She’s hardly into the second trimester,” Paris pointed out. “There’s plenty of time to think about the future.” Putting her glass down on the counter, she sighed. “Look, there’s no way we can find someone to buy into the business until this place is up and running. They’ll want to see the accounts, a profit, all of that stuff. And besides, neither of us has time to look for the right person right now.” She tipped her head to the side, her eyes scanning Logan’s face. “How about we revisit this after the restaurant is open. If you still want to do it, then we’ll start looking.” She shrugged. “Though I think you’re crazy.”
Everything she said made sense. Apart from the crazy part. “Okay, we’ll revisit then,” he agreed, though he knew he wouldn’t change his mind. He was already counting down the time until he could hold Courtney in his arms again. Next weekend. That’s all the time he had to wait until he could bury his face in her fragrant curls. Until he could press his body against hers until everything in his life made sense again.
“Good.” Paris finished her wine. “Now come on. We’ve got work to do.”
The last time Courtney had been on an airplane was when she was eighteen, right after graduating from high school. She’d flown to upstate New York to be a camp counselor. She could still remember the feeling of intense excitement, peppered with anxiety as she walked through the terminal. She’d been almost surprised to see her case going around the carousel. She was certain it would be lost somewhere along the way. She was even more surprised to see an older man waiting for her once she’d walked through the gates, holding a sign with five names written on it, including her own.
She felt a similar feeling when she saw Logan waiting for her on the other side of the doors. He was wearing a dark blue suit and lighter striped shirt, his phone in one hand as he scanned the incoming arrivals.
As soon as he saw her, his lips lifted into a grin. He shoved his phone into his pocket and raised his hand, and she found herself smiling back at him.
“Hey,” he said when she reached him. He kissed her cheek, his lips soft. “How was your flight?”
“It went quick,” she told him as he took the handle of her suitcase. “It felt like I barely sat down before we landed. I didn’t even get a chance to finish my book.” She patted her purse, where she’d put the paperback when the pilot announced their descent. “Hopefully I will on the way back.”
He hooked his arm around her waist, leading her toward the exit. “I thought we’d drop your things off at my apartment first. Then we can head somewhere for dinner.” God, he smelled good. Warm and woodsy and so very Logan. She loved the way she could feel his warm skin through his thin shirt when she slid her hand beneath his jacket.
“My car’s in the lot,” he said, as they walked through the glass doors. “And you probably shouldn’t move your hand any more, or I’ll end up taking you against the terminal wall.”
She laughed. “Is it wrong that I want you to?”
He moved his hand up, his deft fingers feathering her neck. “Not wrong, no. But potentially illegal.”
“I guess we should avoid jail for the weekend.”
“I’m thinking so.” He tipped his head until his eyes met hers. “My place is only twenty minutes away. I think we can manage.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “What is this magic? Every time I see you it’s like there’s this magnet inside me. Is that normal?”
He shook his head. “I’ve never felt it before.”
Her gaze locked with his. “Me either.”
Surprise washed over his features, and this time she was the one doing the mind reading. “Never,” she repeated. Not with Shaun or anybody who came before him. It reminded her of those metal snake eggs she’d won as a kid at the annual fair. She used to pull them apart and they’d rush together again, hitting with a clang. She’d walk around with them in her hand, moving them in her palm. But even as they moved, they didn’t part.
That’s how she felt whenever she was near him. Like there was something deeper than either of them could conceive, pulling them together. As though their meeting on the road last September wasn’t an a
ccident. It was the magnets finally getting tired of staying apart.
An inevitable clash that would change both of their lives.
Logan swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing beneath the taut skin of his throat. There was a dark shadow of beard growth there. She wanted to run her lips along it, let the roughness scrape against her.
She blushed as she thought about his face between her legs.
“Are you thinking about what I’m thinking about?” he asked her, his voice thick.
She exhaled softly, her lips slightly parted. “Yeah,” she breathed. “I think I am.”
He lifted her luggage, as though he didn’t have time to pull it along the blacktop any more. “Come on,” he said, pressing his palm into the small of her back. “Let’s get you back to my place.”