Page 92 of Kilt Trip

“Aye.” Logan’s hand cradled the back of her neck, and he pressed a hard kiss into her hair. “But after that... I want more than a holiday. I want a life with you.”

The words curled around her heart—but not softly. Sharp and pointed like thorns. It hurt to dream the way Logan did. They had reality to contend with.

“Are you ever in London?” Heathrow’s Terminal 5 was basically her vacation home.

“Never. It’s nearly six hours each way on the train. How often do you fly through Edinburgh?”

“It’s not exactly an international travel hub.”

Logan stood up, pushed past her, paced in front of his door.

This was exactly why Addie had wanted to keep it casual. So they both didn’t walk away broken.

Long-distance didn’t work indefinitely. Especially for two people with erratic work schedules. Addie didn’t even know what country she’d be in in a handful of weeks.

“What if I was in Boston?”

Addie scoffed. “Doing what? Running the Duck Boats? Logan, your entire life is here. I would never ask you to give that up for me.” Where Addie was a tumbleweed, he was an ancient oak tree, roots deep in the soil, bearing witness to the lives that took comfort from his protection. A tree like that couldn’t be transplanted.

He would wither and die.

No matter how much she wanted every available minute with him, she wasn’t that selfish.

“What if you worked from here, then?”

Addie’s heart lunged for that dream.

A home. Here. With Logan.

He leaned back against the door and the latch clicked into place. His stance was so much like the first time they were together—blocking her exit, asking for more than she was ready to give, wanting her.

She felt herself slipping past her boundaries, just like that night, willing to do anything for more of this feeling. To attach herself to him and never let go.

It was a dangerous illusion he presented her with—pixie dust meant to turn a fantasy into reality. But what happened when the magic wore off? When they couldn’t coordinate their schedules, when they never saw each other?

“You don’t have an office in Boston, so it’s an option, right?”

“At some point we will. Hopefully. I have no idea what the expectation would be. Or if it’s even a possibility.” She licked her dry lips.

“But you could find out.”

Addie’s stomach churned at the idea of asking for something so huge when the company was still so young and she was so wildly off-task with The Heart. “I’m already going way outside the bounds of what Marc wants with these tours. I don’t know how I can ask him that right now.”

Logan ran his hands through his hair, gripping the roots. “You don’t owe him a success story in exchange for a home. You said he cares about you, and if working here makes you happy, why would he have any problem with that?”

Because he might decide she was more trouble than she was worth. “You’re asking me to give up my life to fit in with yours.”

His hands dropped to his sides, his body going perfectly still. “I thought you’d be gaining some things, too.”

Addie shut her eyes against the pain in his voice. A reel played behind her eyelids of a life here. Birthday parties at the Sutherlands’. Bonfire Night and Beltane with Elyse. Tea and scarves and endless exploring in this city. In this beautiful country her mom had loved, that Addie had fallen for, too.

And Logan.

Devika and Marc were in Boston...when they were in town. Which was never. A handful of girlfriends who were less and less interested in drinks with no notice now that husbands and babies had entered the mix. Blackout curtains. No one asking her to make hard choices.

No one asking anything of her at all.

Logan crossed the room and sank down on the edge of his unmade bed, propping his elbows on his knees and catching his head in his open hands. The light from the lamp illuminated his profile and the curls that hung down from his bowed head.

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