Page 5 of Knockin' on Heaven’s Noir

Phoebe

I barely get the whole word out before his mouth is on mine. The delicious pressure of his lips causing waves of heat through my body. I know this is a bad idea, but it feels so good.

He tilts my head with his big hands to get a better angle and I sigh, giving him a chance to break past my lips and explore with his tongue. We stand there wrapped in each other until I hear a door slam and one of his sisters call my name.

I quickly jump out of his arms and try to straighten my clothes, “The girls are coming.”

“It’s okay,” he says, holding his arms out to me.

I want so badly to be back in his arms, but it would be a bad idea to let his sisters see us like that. First, it would give them the wrong impression. They might think something was happening between Logan and me. As much as I wished that could be in our future, it wasn’t realistic. Second, I don’t want to set a bad example for young girls.

I shake my head as they round the corner of the building and Logan drops his arms. The crease in his brow and stormy expression let everyone know he’s unhappy.

“Hi, girls,” I say cheerfully.

“Hi!” June exclaims. Neither girl has a low-volume setting. I’m pretty sure my sisters and I were the same way at that age.

“I know it’s not time for us to find you yet, but Maggie is looking for you and we offered to help,” Ruby explains. “I didn’t want you to think we weren’t respecting your space.” This is added with a look at her brother.

“Thank you for letting me know about Maggie. I’ll go see what she needs.” I start to walk into the building but stop and look at Logan. “Thank you for your help. Will you call the photographer you know, or do you want to give me their information?”

“I’ll call them for you, Phoebe,” he says. “I’ll come see you when I’ve talked to them.” The words sound more like a threat than just a normal conversation between a guest and the owner.

Logan isn’t going to let me run away from whatever is happening between us.

I’m barely back inside when I run into Maggie. She’s ready for the day in full hair and make-up.

“Whoa, Phoebe, are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “I need to get dressed. I’m sorry I’m running late. We can rehearse the song while I’m doing my hair.”

Maggie and I are singing a special song at the wedding. It’s one we wrote for Alex and Rosie when they first fell in love. It was amazing to see our big sister, who had always been the level-headed, practical sister fall head over heels for her sexy, silver fox.

“We know the song. I want to know what’s going on with you,” Maggie insists as she follows me to my room. “You’re barely dressed. You look like you’ve been crying, but you also have a kiss face.”

“Kiss face?”

“You know, bee-stung lips, flushed cheeks,” she says rolling her eyes. “I might be the only virgin left in this trio, but I know the signs of a good make-out session.”

I look both ways to make sure there are no identical twin eavesdroppers and hurry Maggie into my room. I quickly shut the door and turn leaning my back against the hardwood.

“I kissed Logan.”

“Go, Pheobe.” Maggie laughs at the shock on my face. “He’s hot. Why shouldn’t you kiss him? It was obvious from the second we got here that he was into you. He didn’t even look at me.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed him because nothing can come of it and I’m going to get my heart broken. Plus, there are others to think about if it got out that something happened between him and me.”

“The girls?” Maggie asks.

I nod. I already love those two. They are so sweet and respectful. It makes me like Logan even more that he raised them into the young ladies they are. It couldn’t have been easy trying to raise two little girls and get this winery off the ground at the same time.

“I don’t want to do anything that could hurt them,” I tell Maggie. “They are the sweetest.”

“They remind me of us when we were that age. They do not have a quiet setting.” We both laugh. “Do you know where their parents are? It seems like they live here with Logan.”

“I don’t know the whole story, but he has custody and has since they were five. He was only twenty-three and raised them by himself.”

“Wow. I’m twenty-four and can’t imagine having that kind of responsibility,” Maggie says.

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