Page 90 of Forgiving Her First Love

“You’ll come back for dinner?” Emma’s voice edged toward shrill. “I’ve invited Cloe. Trystan will be here, too.”

“Sure. Thanks. Why don’t you see what’s left of those casseroles in your freezer. Keep things simple.” Sophie glanced around the stiff tableau.

Cloe was looking at her as though she was losing her only friend.

“Let me know if you need anything from the store,” Sophie added.

“Will do. And you’ll bring Biyen,” Emma said.

“Sure will. See you later.” Sophie lifted her hand in a wave. Logan made a grab for her before she walked away.

“What?” she asked with surprise.

He stepped closer and dropped a kiss on her lips. “I’ll see you later.”

“We do that now?” she asked, trying to sound amused, but her cheeks went pink with pleasure.

“We do. What time is Biyen back?”

“Usually around four.”

“I’ll meet him.”

“Thanks. I love you.” She threw that at him in a dare, laughter glinting in her eyes.

“I love you, too,” he said unhesitatingly, clear and firm and loud enough to be heard in the other room. Take that. I’m not a coward.

She bit back a smile and didn’t look back as she closed the door behind her.

When he returned to the kitchen, every pair of eyes was on him.

“You’re all going to pretend you were the last to know?” he asked blithely.

“I’m guessing I was,” Cloe said under her breath in what would have been a solid joke in this crowd, but they were all still trying to figure her out.

She wasn’t in a position to adopt Storm. That was good. Right?

She dropped her gaze from looking at Logan and stared into her cup.

Logan helped himself to a coffee mug and Reid moved out of his way so he could pour. “What did I miss?” Logan asked.

“Not much,” Reid said. “Cloe was going to explain why she couldn’t come sooner, but Storm got hungry. We decided we all wanted coffee, then you and Sophie came up to neck in the living room.”

“If he thinks that was necking, then I’m sorry, Em,” Logan said with mock concern. “I’ll have The Talk with him later and explain special hugs.”

“No need,” Em said firmly. “Reid has all the bases covered. All of them,” she added in a deliberately throaty voice.

“Thanks, babe. You too,” Reid said with a slow wink at his wife.

“Ugh. Okay, you win,” Logan groused. “It’s like thinking about my parents having sex.”

There was another snort of amusement from Cloe. A wistful smile played around her lips, but she kept her attention on her coffee.

“Seriously, Logan,” Reid said more gravely. “I had to leave because of my mom. You know that, right? I could have handled things better back then. We all could have. And I definitely could have come back for a visit before you left, but I didn’t have much choice about leaving when I did.”

“I know. Don’t worry about it.” He would rather pull his own teeth than admit he had missed that lunkhead after he had left for university, but at least Reid wasn’t mocking him for his outburst earlier.

“I kept trying to do an Everglades episode,” Trystan said. “Producers never went for it, but I could have pushed harder.”

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