Page 57 of Seven of Hearts

“It was fine.”

“Just fine?” she asked as she pulled a small box out of the fridge and shut the door with her foot.

“Let me get that for you,” I said as I took the box out of her hands. “Ready to go?”

“Lead the way.”

I kept one hand on the small of her back as we walked down the stairs to the parking lot. It struck me that, as her pregnancy progressed, stairs would get harder and harder.

Her building had an elevator, but it was on the other side of the complex. And, according to Leah, it was aFinal Destinationplot waiting to happen.

I wasn’t sure how to solve that problem yet.

“I don’t know how you had time to bake a whole cake,” I said as I opened the passenger door to my car and waited as she eased in, then took the box from me.

“Oh, I just did cupcakes, so it didn’t take long,” Leah said when I slid behind the wheel and pulled away. “And it’s nothing fancy. Just a box mix and some canned frosting. Gio was horrified that I didn’t make them from scratch, but he and Ellie helped.”

There was still a little bit of blue frosting on the corner of her mouth. I came to a stop at a red light, reached over, and cupped her jaw so I could wipe it off with my finger.

But instead of finding a fast food napkin to clean my hand, I sucked it off the pad of my thumb.

Leah’s mouth popped open.

“Now I really want a cupcake,” I said as I pulled onto the road.I also wanted to lick that frosting off of her body.But I put that thought out of my mind.

If there was something I tried not to let myself stew on, it was how much her body had changed, and how much I craved it. The further she progressed in her pregnancy, the more self-control it took for me to keep my hands off of her.

But that urge went away the moment we set foot into Revanche and were confronted with the two sour faces of Dr. Laura and John Holloway.

“Mom, Dad, you remember Logan, right?” Leah said as she clutched the cake box like a life preserver.

Unfortunately, life preservers didn’t do much good in hurricanes.

“Logan,” Mr. Holloway said in place of a friendly greeting. My name was laced with an icy chill and disdain.

“Nice to see you, Mr. Holloway.” I turned and tipped my chin toward Leah’s mom while keeping a hand securely on Leah’s back. “Dr. Holloway. It’s nice to see you as well.”

Thankfully, we were saved by the hostess, leading us to a neatly set table with far too many forks in front of each place setting.

The four of us avoided conversation as the sommelier went back and forth with Leah’s parents about their wine selections, while Leah and I opted for water.

“What do you do for work, Logan?” Mr. Holloway asked as he fluffed his cloth napkin like he was waving a battle flag.

“I work in tech,” I said as I draped my arm across the back of Leah’s chair.

Dr. Holloway huffed. “Tech? Like that...Nerd Herd service where you bring in your computer to get it fixed?”

Under the table, Leah tightened her hand on my thigh. Above the table, she sighed. “It’s the “Geek Squad,” Mom. And no?—”

“I should have clarified. I’m a VP for SolomonTech. We specialize in cybersecurity and advanced systems solutions and integrations,” I said as I took a sip of water. “But that’s a mouthful, so I usually just say I work in tech.”

Leah stifled a smile.

Mr. Holloway scoffed. “No need to get defensive.”

The sommelier brought the bottle they had ordered and went through the song and dance of making sure it was to their liking.

“I’ve never even heard of SolomonTech,” Dr. Holloway sniffed over her wine glass.

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