Page 53 of Winter's End

Another surprise hit me as I walked through the parking lot; Logan’s Audi was parked beside my Corolla. He was sitting in the driver’s seat, talking into the air and gesturing, obviously on a phone call.

Fuck it. I was going to be three-for-three today.

I opened his passenger door and slid into the soft leather seat.

“What the f—” Logan sputtered angrily. “Beth, I’m going to have to call you back.”

He ended the call and glared at me, although it was lacking its usual venom.

“What do you want, Johnson?”

“To thank you, actually,” I replied smoothly. Used to Logan and his moodiness by now, I was seeing his pretty-rich-boy act as comical instead of annoying.

He stared at me blankly. “For?”

“Winter said her first panic attack session with you went really well. Thank you for taking care of her.”

His eyebrows rose in surprise and he was at a loss for words for a few seconds.

I had a feeling Logan wasn’t thanked often.

“It was Hillary’s idea,” he mumbled, reaching into the backseat to grab his briefcase before turning to stare at me again.

“Was there something else?” he prompted, in an attempt to get rid of me as quickly as possible.

“You here on Eccles business?” I ignored him and nodded towards the massive building looming in front of us, the huge WAQ sign taking up the whole top of the building’s real estate.

The man must have realized I was in no hurry to go anywhere. He huffed a breath of irritation and tucked his briefcase into his lap. He reached into the center console for a pack of gum and settled back into his own cushy seat.

“Yeah, I’m Stanley’s bitch-boy today.” He popped a stick of gum into his mouth and hesitated before handing the pack to me.

A peace-offering in the form of chewing gum. I’d take it.

“I know what that’s like, you know.” I grabbed my piece of gum and tossed him back the pack like we were old friends.

“Joe isn’t Stanley, but my dad’s shitty decisions fucked me over, too. Camden thought he was being a dick to fire me, but he was doing me a favor.”

“Difference being you have a father you like.” Logan’s gaze caught on something in the distance. “Stanley could die tomorrow and I’d dance on his grave.”

He said it so matter-of-factly, I knew it was true. Logan was his own sort of asshole, but his father had to be an evil son of a bitch to garner that sort of hatred from his only son.

He was right; I had a family I still loved and wanted to spend time with, and I’d inherited a new family, too. He could have that, too, if he could get over himself.

“When all this is over, he’ll get his. You’ll get out from underneath his bullshit, and you might even get the girl.”

It was a really weird day in the universe when I was comforting Logan Eccles, especially with the carrot of my girlfriend, but here we were.

I was Bold Drew today, and I kind of liked that guy.

Logan snorted and fixed me with a scrutinizing stare.

“You can’t really mean that. How are you justokaywith sharing her?”

I shrugged, finally having a genuine answer to this question. “She’s not mine to own. I haven’t lost any of her heart to Cam or Travis—I still get everything she has—and it’s worth it.”

I bit my lip as I considered my next few words.

“She cares about you, and she’s been willing to invite you into her world—that’s a huge deal, so don’t waste the opportunity. Regardless of you being the town’s biggest dick most of our lives, if she thinks you have some redeemable qualities, I’m going to believe you do, too.”

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