The coffee soothed their egos and cooled their tempers with the first steaming gulp. A sudden sense of calm rushed through Logan’s system, and he looked up at her with a shy smile.
“Would you like to take a walk, get some fresh air?” He cocked his head towards the window. “It’s such a beautiful night.”
“It’s cold,” she corrected, but she gathered up her jacket with a grin. “Cleveland on the waterfront, man. Cold is understating it.”
“Nah—it’s perfect.” He lay some bills upon the table, and pushed open the door for her again as they headed outside. “It’s brisk—not humid. You feel like you can breathe over here.”
She cocked her head curiously, caught off guard by the wistful longing in his voice.
“As opposed to where?”
He paused guiltily, editing on the fly.
“...as opposed to where I live in the city.”
“Yeah,” she snorted, and pointed up the hill, “five blocks that way?”
There was another pause. Followed by a pointed change of conversation.
She laughed again, lacing her arm automatically through his as the two of them wandered slowly down the street. The stars were out, the moon was bright, and before long, they found themselves staring out over the water—leaning against the railing on the pier.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve done this,” she murmured, snuggling into her jacket with a contented smile. “Just stopped and looked out at the water.”
He gazed down at her curiously, resisting the urge to put his arm around her waist. She was cold—couldn’t he hold her? They’d been dancing a lot closer than this.
“What do you mean? You live right here, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but even when you live in a beautiful place, it’s easy not to see it.” She shivered again, and Logan folded his hands tightly together to keep them to himself. “This company I work for—I made it myself. Built it from the ground up. It’s a lot of work to keep it running, more work than you could possibly imagine. I forget, sometimes, to take a quiet moment for myself.”
And it’s official. You are absolutely perfect.
Logan’s eyes widened as he stared down at her. Bathed in the silver moonlight. Pensive as she gazed out over the water. Sending out frosty little clouds with each breath.
“I know exactly what you mean,” he said softly. “You start to forget there’s anything else out there. You start to think the world ends at the four walls of your office. Like if you didn’t come in every morning, life as you knew it would just stop.”
She nodded automatically, then shot him a strange look.
“You work construction, Dylan. You clock out. And from everything I’ve dug up on you, you spend your entire life in a series of not-so-quiet moments.”
Logan flinched like he’d been hit. Watching the perfect moment vanish before his eyes.
“You’re right,” he said briskly. “It’s not the same.” They stared for a while longer at the little waves lapping against the shore, before he glanced down at her. “Can I walk you home?”
She smiled. “Sure.”
Neither one of them said a word as they paced through the darkness. Hand in hand. It was a lengthy silence, but it wasn’t at all uncomfortable. Quite the contrary. It felt unbelievable good to be with a person that allowed him to simply think. That didn’t feel the need to fill up every second with nervous chatter the way most girls did.
Quicker than Logan would have liked, they reached Dylan’s house. She stood beside him quietly on the porch, as he found the key and opened up the front door—only then noticing the large suitcase that was sitting in the corner.
“Are you going somewhere?” she asked curiously.
He glanced down in surprise. With everything that had happened in the last few hours, he had completely forgotten that it was there. The automatic reply rose up in his throat—he was about to tell her he’d be taking some kind of vacation—but the words stuck when their eyes met.
A second later, they vanished completely. Morphing into something new. Twisting and changing on the fly into a new plan. A new possibility for what these two weeks might become.
“I was...but not anymore.”
Chapter 18