“Got it.”
The hair pulled free, and he tucked it gently behind her ear. She was still looking up at him, waiting with baited breath. Just as out of sorts as him.
Just do it. She wants you to. You sure as hell want to.
She started to take a step back, but he held her close—cupping the side of her face as he stared down into her eyes. His thumb grazed along the top of her cheek, marveling at the softness of her skin. His heart was pounding as he closed his eyes and leaned down...
“Spartacus!”
Lacy pulled back with a shriek and Logan cursed aloud as the dog crashed in between them. Panting, licking, and generally just thrilled to be alive.
“I’m so sorry,” Logan apologized, glaring daggers at the dog. “Don’t worry, I have great plans to drown him in the bath...”
Lacy only laughed, shaking it off with an easy smile. A smile that left Logan as baffled as he was relieved. She truly wasn’t like any other girl he’d ever dated. The prissy, vain narcissists that paraded along the Florida promenade in the skimpiest bikinis they could muster. She was able to find the humor in things. Able to see the fun. Able to have her own opinion.
Not that he wouldn’t mind seeing her in a skimpy bikini...
“He and I have a bet going,” she teased. “To see who can annoy you the most.”
Logan chuckled, unlocking the front door. “Who’s winning—” A blast of cold air hit him right in the face, catching him off guard. He stared inside with a frown, as Lacy came up behind him, wrapping her arms around her chest and shivering. “What the hell?”
Together, the two of them walked inside. Spartacus bounding happily by their side.
The house was freezing. Somehow, even colder than the outside. Logan’s breath billowed out in a frosty cloud, as he paced quickly down the hall to look at the thermostat. Maybe the dog had nudged it by mistake. He was certainly tall enough...
Logan looked down at the little box with a frown. The screen was completely black. Not some encouraging shade of it—just black. He tried hitting it a few times, but nothing happened.
“I think the heater broke,” he called.
Lacy stood in the kitchen, flipping on and off the light switch. Nothing happened.
“It’s not the heater,” she called back. “It’s the electricity. Maybe there’s an outage?”
Logan glanced outside to see the lights on in Paul and Susy’s house. Next door, Mitch was shutting his garage door on the way to work. Nope, not an outage. Which must mean—
“Did you forget to pay the bill this month?”
Logan’s head snapped up to see Lacy leaning against the doorway, eyeing him with concern. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but there wasn’t an ounce of judgement in her eyes. Just a sincere sort of sympathy. One she paired with an automatic smile.
“Come on,” she didn’t wait for him to answer, she merely held out her hand, “I’m taking you out to breakfast.”
Chapter 24
Logan stared across the table in awe, watching as Lacy scarfed down a stack of pancakes that probably weighed at least as much as she did. This was only after she’d made sure to douse them in about a gallon’s worth of maple syrup.
Nope. Not like any girl I’ve dated. The kind that avoided sugar, and carbs, and...pretty much all types of food. The kind that would have lost their shit if a giant dog even looked their way. The kind that would have run for the hills if a guy didn’t have the money to pay his bills.
“What?”
He snapped back to the present to see her staring at him, the fork frozen halfway to her mouth. He shook his head quickly, looking down at his plate.
“Nothing.”
She set down the fork, cocking her head with a curious grin.
“Tell me.”
Tell you what?