Page 9 of Three Hearts Hideaway

“Fine. We’ll talk about this later.” Logan needed to decompress. He couldn’t do that with his stomach growling and Roman in his ear. His best friend always was the one to jump to the aid of others. He should know. A quality he normally admired, even if it annoyed him at times.

Logan preferred for people to learn how to take care of themselves, then do things the right way the next time. If this woman didn’t make proper plans, then that was on her. It shouldn’t be on them to make everything better. But that’s what Roman did. Really, he shouldn’t expect anything different.

“Fine, but we will talk about it.” Roman stared him right in the eyes, waiting for confirmation from him.

Logan nodded sharply and shifted his attention to the pepperoni pizza in front of him. Starving, he wasn’t going to wait any longer to dig in. Yes, they would talk about it later.

“Pizza’s here!” Roman called up the stairs.

Logan shook his head. If Roman had any sense, he’d go to Ava’s room and tell her in a normal fashion. Knock on her door, show her some respect. But Roman was impulsive and a bit like a puppy in the way he got so excited about things. Hollering up the stairs was a perfectly fine way to invite a guest to dinner.

“You don’t want to go get her?”

Roman shrugged. “She said I could just yell at her when the food arrived.”

“This should be good,” Logan said to himself, taking a seat on one of the bar stools tucked under the counter.

Light footsteps traipsed down the stairs and a head full of bouncy blonde curls appeared. Followed by long, lithe legs that led to a sinfully short pair of bottoms which perfectly accentuated her ass. A spray of freckles dotted her pink cheeks. And those thick, dark eyelashes…

Fuck.

Now he knew why Roman had jumped at the chance to give her a place to stay.

Ava was sexy as hell.

ROMAN

He watched as Ava’s gaze landed on Logan, taking in his closed off body language. She approached cautiously, but with a smile. “Hey, thank you so much for letting me stay here. I really appreciate it. I’m Ava,” she said, holding out a hand to Logan.

He accepted her outstretched palm and gave a curt shake. “Logan.”

Roman rolled his eyes. Always the charmer. He handed Ava a plate and gestured for her to dig in.

“Hawaiian! My favourite.” Ava’s eyes twinkled as she took in the sight of the extra-large pizza sitting on the counter.

Logan scoffed around a bite of pepperoni, and Roman couldn’t help but grin. He had a feeling Ava would be a fan of ham and pineapple, like him. Logan hated the flavour and maintained that it was the lowest of the low for pizza toppings. Not very Canadian of him, in Roman’s opinion. But Logan always bought it for him anyway.

Roman took the opportunity to touch her on the shoulder. “I knew you had good taste.”

She piled two slices on her plate and took a seat next to Logan at the counter.

“How long are you planning to stay here, exactly?” Logan asked, an icy bite in his tone.

Ava glanced nervously between the two of them, then down at her plate. Shit. He didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable.

“As long as she needs,” Roman interjected, crossing his arms.

“We have a lot of work to do to get this place up-and-running in the next three and a half months. Installing the plumbing, tiling the showers, painting the suites, buying more furniture, marketing, advertising, and…do I need to go on?”

“I promise I won’t be a bother. I’ll stay out of your way,” Ava said earnestly. No doubt trying to quell the palpable annoyance radiating off of Logan.

“You’re not a bother, Ava. Logan’s just very particular, like I said. It takes a special type of person to see past his bonehead exterior,” Roman joked, sending a look Logan’s way that said ‘lighten up.’

Logan scowled at him.

“I can eat in my room, if you’d like?” Ava offered, as if she didn’t want to rock Logan’s boat any further.

“That’s unnecessary, love. He’ll play nice. Won’t you, Logan?” Roman couldn’t have given a more pointed stare if he tried. His idiot best friend was going to ruin this for him.

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