Page 167 of In Spades

I pawed around until I found the desk lamp, and pulled the chain to turn it on. I ignored the pile of crap on my desk, and instead, opened the thin middle drawer.

Ring box in hand, we walked back into the living room. Logan sat on one end of the couch, and I took the other, leaving some space between us. I opened the ring box and passed it over to him.

His eyes widened. “You were gonna ask her to marry you?”

“The night of the party at the inn,” I said, shaking my head. “In a weird way, I’m glad things blew up before I did. I shouldn’t have proposed without telling her everything—which I have, by the way. But I especially shouldn’t have proposed without talking to you about it first. It would’ve been a big change for y’all.”

“You don’t need my permission,” he said, staring blankly at the ring.

“You’re right, I don’t. But I respect you, Logan. I’m going to propose to Kristin, but I will give you time if you need it.”

He handed the box back. “She’s gonna really like that ring.”

“Does that mean you’re gonna help me plan a better proposal?”

“You should probably talk to Kylie about that. She’s into all that romance shit.”

I chuckled. “One day you’ll get what the big deal is.”

Logan cracked a slight smile. “I think it’d be pretty cool to have a billionaire as a brother-in-law.”

That made me throw my head back and laugh. “C’mon, I have something to show you.”

I put my house slippers on, offering Logan a pair and then ignoring the crack that he made about me being old. I led him out to the garage and padded into the chilly space.

He jumped when his bare feet hit the frozen concrete, and I smirked. Should have listened to his elders.

“Grab that side, will you?” I said, pointing to the far end of the tarp that covered a car.

Logan grabbed the elastic edge that tapered around the bottom and pulled it up. His eyes went wide. “Whoa…”

The cherry red ‘73 Corvette Stingray I found online was beautiful, but it didn’t run for shit. It was in good condition though, and I bought it from the guy at a steal.

I balled up the cover and set it in the corner. “What do you think?”

Logan let out a slow whistle as he ran his hand across the fender. “She’s sexy as hell.”

“It’s gonna need a lot of work,” I said as I reached inside and pulled the keys out from between the roof and the sun visor. “What do you think? You willing to help me get her running?”

“I don’t know much about cars,” he admitted.

“That’s okay,” I shrugged, bumping my foot against the tire rim. Truthfully, I didn’t know much about them either, even though I told Kristin I could tinker with hers the day it broke down at the inn. Cars were never really my thing, but you could learn anything on the internet.

This little project was Isaac’s brainchild. He mentioned that Logan wanted to get a job and have some independence, but Kristin shot down Isaac’s offer to buy the kid a car.

She would probably still have a conniption about it considering I didn’t run it by her first, but I was willing to take the risk.

Logan looked up at me, eyes filled with excitement. “When can we start?”

“We can start now.” I tossed him the keys. “Once it passes the state inspection, it’s yours.”

38

KRISTIN

Ienjoyed working the week after Christmas. There were a couple of special events, but reservations were lighter, so there weren’t as many rooms to clean. The guests who were here usually booked their stays from Christmas Eve until New Year’s Day. That meant fewer checkout rooms to turn over, and simply tidying up and changing linens for the stay-overs.

We were oddly well-staffed today. Usually, the crew was bare-bones since everyone traveled or spent time with their families for the holidays. Maybe it was just Karina, the assistant manager, trying to make nice after the hell Rich put me through.

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