Page 71 of Forgiving Her First Love

“Home before dark or we’ll send a posse,” Logan said.

“Copy that.” Trystan steered the stroller toward the boatyard where a backroad would take them to the trailhead.

“And then there were two,” Logan said as they fell into step toward the marina office.

An air of expectation seemed to condense between them. When they came in the door at the bottom of the stairs, they could hear Randy machining something in the shop.

They climbed the stairs. At the top, Sophie stepped out of her Skechers and into her coveralls and boots. She tied the sleeves around her waist and walked in to sit at her desk while she tied her boots.

“Oh, look at your desk.” She craned to see through the window. “That looks good.”

“Thanks.” He hovered in the new doorway between her space and his.

She tensed, really not ready for the conversation he seemed to want.

Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by a knock on the door into the main office. Umi poked her head in.

“Is Reid coming in? I thought I saw him down at the wharf.”

“He had to run home for something. He’ll be in later.”

“Do you want to sign these?” She held up a folder.

“Sure.” He nodded at his desk and she left it there, then closed the door behind herself.

“We should talk,” Logan said.

“I don’t know what to say, Logan.” She bent to double-knot her second boot. “I know that if you guys need to sell, it would go a lot more smoothly if you had an experienced manager-slash-marine mechanic in place here. I can’t give you that commitment right now.”

“That—I mean, you’re right, yes. But selling is our problem, not yours. We need to talk about us.”

Her heart tipped over in her chest. She scratched her forehead.

“I don’t know what to say about that, either,” she admitted. “Stay with us at the house if you prefer to give the honeymooners their space, but once Biyen’s back, I don’t want him seeing anything that might create expectations in him.”

“Expectations.” His blink was a small flinch. “Biyen’s not the only one who might have some of those. You realize that?” His mouth was tense, his voice tight.

“What do you want me to say? That I think you and I have a future? Do you see one?” she challenged gently. “Are you going to stay here forever? Here.” She pointed at the floor. “Or even in Canada?”

He was leaning on the other side of the doorway, scowling toward the dirty window behind her.

“Even if you said you did want to stay here, I don’t know that I do,” she said, quiet, but fervent.

“I have to stay here right now. You know that, right?” He snapped his gaze down to hers. “But we want to sell. Once that happens, I would go anywhere with you.” His cheek ticked. “If you asked me to. I want to see where this goes.” He motioned between them.

An urge to weep rose in her. Not hard tears, but quiet wistful ones because this was the thing she had longed for back when she’d been mooning after him as a teen. She swallowed past the ache in her throat.

“But you don’t,” he said with understated devastation.

“It’s not just me,” she said in an equally soft voice. “This isn’t some sort of retaliation for what happened in the past. If I was making decisions just for me, I could take all sorts of risks. I could let you break my heart again. I already know I can survive it, but I can’t do that to Biyen.”

That hurt him. She saw him wince again. She read the tightness in his nod of acknowledgment and bit back saying she was sorry. She was only telling him the truth.

He opened his mouth, but there was another knock on the inner door. This time it was Tamara, the receptionist from the lodge.

“Is Reid coming in?” she asked.

“He’ll be late,” Logan said, leaving the doorway and stepping fully into his office. “What do you need?”

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