“...oh.”
His head snapped up, and he peered back through the curtain for the first time. It still wasn’t that easy to make out her face, but she appeared to be as caught off guard as he was himself. She’d paused mid-step, and was staring with wide eyes at the shower.
When she saw him looking, she tried to play it off—sauntering up to the edge of the curtain with an air of fierce determination. “Did you ask me out hoping to get me into bed?”
Logan’s lips parted uncertainly, and he took a step back. Any way he considered, it felt like a trick question. And any way he answered, it felt like he would lose.
Whatever you say—say it fast. The room’s losing steam.
“...I asked you out because you make me smile.”
He didn’t know if that was the answer she was looking for, but to be honest, he didn’t really know the answer himself. That would have to do.
She was quiet for a moment, thinking it over, then she walked straight up and ripped back the curtain. Logan stepped back with a gasp, as she looked him up and down. His heart stopped beating and his body froze in absolute shock. A second later, it was over. She tossed him the towel—her eyes twinkling with a mischievous grin.
“Had to see if it lived up to the pictures...”
Chapter 21
After their little showdown in the bathroom, Logan and Lacy separated off to opposite ends of the house. He barricaded himself in the bedroom, dressing as quickly as he could, while she took Spartacus into the backyard to get a little sunshine.
When he walked out, a few minutes later, she was tossing him a tennis ball—clapping her hands in delight every time he galloped across the yard and brought it back. He cleared his throat softly, and she looked up with a start—her cheeks coloring with a guilty blush.
“Hey,” she pushed to her feet, smoothing down her dress, “you ready to go?”
He folded his arms across his chest, leaning against the side of the house with a caustic grin. “Actually, I was hoping you’d stand naked in the middle of the yard. I could shower you down with the hose—ask you personal questions. You wouldn’t mind, right?”
Her blush grew even brighter, but before she could answer, the doorbell rang.
Seriously? Saved by the bell?
It looked like she was thinking the same thing. A look of utter relief spread across her lovely features, before she gestured innocently towards the front door.
“You should probably get that.”
He stared her down for another moment, before walking away with a rueful grin. She called in the dog and flitted quickly in his shadow, that angelic smile still painted across her face.
The second he opened the door, he was cheerfully accosted all over again.
“Dylan!”
He took a step back as the name came at him from two sides. Once from a woman who was old enough to be his grandmother, and again from a man he could only assume was her husband. Their faces brightened in delight upon seeing him, then brightened all over again when they saw he had company.
“Uh...yes?”
Really, Dylan? You couldn’t give me any names?
The woman stepped forward at once, enclosing his hands in her own with a habitual fondness that said she’d done it many times before. “Oh honey—we’re so happy you came to the door. We were afraid you’d forgotten and gone out.”
Logan and Lacy shared a quick look, before he stared back out at his surprise visitors.
“...forgotten?”
“The neighborhood potluck?” That grandmotherly warmth cooled a few hundred degrees as her voice took on the hint of a warning. “The one I told you about a week ago, and the week before that?” She leaned dangerously close. “Th
e one you promised to attend.”
A massive internal dilemma sprang up in Logan’s mind, but before he could think of what to do, Lacy slipped her hand sweetly into his own. “He’s pulling your leg,” she said with a conspiratorial smile. “He didn’t forget—he actually invited me to go with him.”