Page 91 of What It Means To Be Found

They paused their channel surfing to look at me for a solid moment before saying, “Well, that was cheesy as hell.”

I shoved them away from me, and they laughed before settling back in while we waited for our friends.

26

ELOISE

“I have something to tell you and I am super nervous about it because I have definitely waited too long to do so,” I spat the words out in a rush, sinking back into my seat as the airplane finally reached its altitude and flight attendants started serving snacks and drinks.

Logan just turned to look at me, his grip on my thigh tightening a little as he visibly tried not to look too concerned from my sudden build up to a confession he clearly wasn’t anticipating.

The rest of the team flew back to Orange County early this morning, but Logan and I slept in and took a later flight out. I didn’t want to rush getting up and packing for the airport, and neither did he. Thankfully, neither did Taylor or Courtney, who sat in the two seats in front of us.

“Are you ready to hear it?” I asked, sucking in a breath, and tucking my lips in between my teeth in clear nervous anticipation. His brows scrunched at my expression, and he shifted in his seat to face me as he kept one hand on my thigh, almost like it comforted him more than me.

I inhaled a deep, dramatic breath before holding it for a few moments. The way Logan leaned into me was almost comical, his eyes were wide and he was clearly struggling to keep calm about this. I just needed to get it out.

“The voice memos I sent all those months ago weren’t about you.”

Logan was frozen, except for one slow blink as he stared at me.

I sat there in silence, waiting for him to say something.

After a few very painful seconds, he finally lifted his hands, What do you mean?

“I mean the voice memos that I sent you in the middle of the night,” I inhaled another nervous breath, but I was also smiling because the whole thing was just so ridiculous to me now, “The ones where I was clearly tipsy and rambling about attractive men.”

Logan nodded, I asked you if you meant what you said, he even shifted his hip to pull his phone out to set on his thigh, like he was getting ready to show me the text messages as proof, and you said yes.

“Um, no,” I giggled, giving his leg an encouraging squeeze, “You asked me if I meant what I said in the voice messages, and I said that I didn’t mean to send those to you. But that I did want you. I never specifically said those messages were referring to you at all.”

Logan was staring at my face, seeing the smile there and noticing the intimate touches I was giving him on his arm and leg, a little bit of relief touching his features when he realized that I was still very much into him. If they weren’t about me…who were they about?

“I was reading some pretty explicit alien erotica that Josh and Beck had told me about during your game.” Logan’s eyes widened a little, and he huffed a laugh before he reached a hand up and rubbed the side of his neck that had the scars. He sat back in his seat a little bit as he thought about my words, the face of a man who was probably reevaluating every conversation we had about the whole ordeal. This was proven when he sat straight again and turned to me to sign his next question.

At the gym, when you said you read alien erotica…Logan let his sentence trail off as I laughed.

“I almost told you then, but the thought of you making fun of me for what I chose to read for fun didn’t seem worth it. I was still a little sensitive and bitter about your teasing then.” I shrugged, pulling his arm closer to me so that I could snuggle into his side some more, “But I’m not so easily offended now.”

Something flickered across Logan’s expression, before a small pinch formed in his eyebrows as he stared at me intently.

“What?” I asked, lifting my head up from his shoulder to look at him. That was the face of guilt. I hadn’t seen Logan looking guilty before, so this was both new and mildly concerning. Sure, I kept a secret for a while, but it wasn’t a harmful one. It was mostly nonsense at this point.

I… Logan paused, before lifting his phone from his lap and thumbing through it. I expected to find another message from him on his note app, but when he handed his phone to me, I was looking at something else.

It was his ereader library, which was unexpected.

Mostly because it was filled with romance novels.

I knew that they were romance novels, because I had personally read every single one.

“What am I looking at right now?” I asked him as I scrolled. He had dozens of e-books downloaded. And I could see that he had either read some of the books entirely, or he was at least eighty percent of the way through the others.

I pulled back from my grip on his arm so that Logan could sign to me, I took the book.

I stared at him before finally signing back, What book?

Courtney’s book, Logan explained, his eyes flicking to the seats in front of us where she sat, The one you bought at the bookstore with Beck. I have it.

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