Page 97 of The Opposite of Romance
“Your advice worked,” she tells him. “But I’m wearing pants next time.”
He chuckles, his face transforming into a blinding smile. “Good idea. Wow, a new haircut! It looks great on you.”
She beams at him before giving him a high five and running off to talk to Kayla. My chest constricts. Asher is the next one to run up to him, and he lifts him over his head while my son giggles. I’m still stuck in place when Asher leaves to find his sister and Logan looks up, his eyes sticking to the place where David’s hand is touching my shoulder. His jaw clenches almost imperceptibly.
“Who’s that?” David asks. He’s not mad or worried that his kids are hugging a stranger. No, he’s David, blissfully ignorant of everyone around him.
Logan walks toward us while I answer, “My contractor. He did work on the deck for a few months, with Ash and Liv at his heels and they’ve grown quite used to him.”
“Hmm.” is all he says, but Logan’s nostrils flare. He obviously doesn’t like what I said.
“Sadie,” Logan dips his head to me. “I hope it’s ok I came; I promised Liv I would, and I had no way to let her know otherwise.”
“Erm, yeah. It’s fine. She’s glad you came.”
“Logan.” He turns to David, reaching his hand out.
David responds with a smile, one that turns downward when Logan squeezes his hand. By the look on his face, I’d say it’s not a friendly handshake.
Finally, Logan lets him go and David releases a quick breath. Logan then turns to me. “I get it. You spent a lifetime together. You have two kids together.” He glares at David. “But he doesn’t deserve you. He had you and took you for granted. You deserve better. And maybe that’s not me, but it sure as fuck ain’t him.” His eyes are pleading, but I’m frozen in place.
It takes him turning around to walk away for my fight-or-flight response to kick in, and I choosefight.
“Logan, wait!”
He turns around, his hands in his pockets.
“Can we talk?” I ask, a lump forming in my throat.
He thinks for a second before responding, “Ok.”
“I need to say goodbye to the kids. Can you give me five minutes?” I plead, hoping he’ll give me a chance to explain.
He nods and I rush back to find Ash and Liv.
“What the hell was that?” David asks.
“I don’t have time for this. You lost your right to know about my life the moment you decided to pretend I didn’t exist.” He looks like I slapped him. And I have half of mind to do exactly that.
“Honey, I need to go now, but you were amazing.” I land a kiss on Liv’s forehead, and she actually lets me. Asher gives me a giant hug and I breathe him in. I want to celebrate this with them. I want to take Liv to High Steaks and make a new tradition. But I ruined our family. I ruined our family to be happy and now I’m running away from it.
My kids don’t have a broken home. They have two perfectly suitable homes, with parents who love them. And no, we’re not perfect parents. But we do love them.
I can celebrate with them on Monday.
Now I have something else to do.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
LOGAN
She mutterssomething to David before passing by him and rushing to me.
“I’m here!” she announces her presence, panting.
I swallow around the lump in my throat. “What did you want to talk about?”
“This…” I motion back to where David and I were standing. “We’re not together or anything like that.”
