Page 35 of A Summer Mismatch
“No.” Logan wasn’t going to rush from the room and hide like a coward. Someone like Horace would never respect a man who would do that. Logan couldn’t even respect himself if he did that.
More than ever, Logan wanted to see where a relationship with Julia would go, and as impossible as it sounded, that meant winning over her grandfather.
Logan was liked by most people, so this was a new experience for him. He was a hard worker. He was loyal. He loved his family. He was great with animals. But none of that would matter to Horace, not with his hatred for all things related to the Byrd family.
No, he’d have to win him over some other way. Too bad he only had about three seconds to think of something.
Out of the corner of his eye, Logan saw two men rushing over to them, and they intercepted Horace right before he made it to Logan. It was Don, the muscular man who’d helped him carry the clock, and another older man wearing a NASA baseball cap.
“Horace, we need to talk to you,” NASA said urgently.
For a moment, it looked like Horace was going to push right past them, but Don stepped in his path, his biceps flexing in such a way that Logan wasn’t sure if he was doing it on purpose or not, but it worked. Horace drooped like a disappointed elephant’s ears, and with one last backward glance at Logan to let him know that this wasn’t finished yet, he followed the two men from the room.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately.” Miss Winnie sighed heavily. “I don’t think he would have punched you. Not with all the kids in here.”
Logan wasn’t so confident.
All around them, chaos continued as Julia tried to deal with Toothfairy-gate. Cameron stood beside Miss Winnie, his eyes wide and his mouth open. Suddenly, he started spinning in circles, with his arms out wide, and hit a glass vase filled with flowers. It flew off the table and crashed to the ground with a loud shattering noise that stunned all the children into silence.
Then Cameron laughed, and one kid screamed, which set off a few other kids, and Julia looked like she was about lose her mind.
“I’ve got Cameron,” he called to her, and she gave him a thumbs up. “Nonna, can you grab Leo and Amelia? Miss Winnie—”
“I’ll keep the kids away from the glass until it gets cleaned up,” Miss Winnie said. Looking determined, Miss Winnie blew out a shrill whistle he didn’t expect to come from her. While all the kids looked at her in shock, Logan offered his hand to Cameron, and was relieved when he took it.
“Let’s go outside,” Logan said.
Cameron kept laughing in an uncontrollable way, almost as if he didn’t know what he was even laughing about anymore. It sounded stressed instead of happy. Cameron’s eyes were wide and he knocked down a stack of books on a table on their way out of the library.
“Everything is okay,” Logan said soothingly. “We’re going to come outside and hang out.” They walked over the bridge to sit on a bench near the community center. Logan wasn’t quite sure what to do, but he remembered his mom taking deep breaths when he was stressed as a kid, so he started to do it as well.
Cameron’s laughing quieted, and he mimicked Logan’s breathing after a moment, until both were at ease.
“What are we going to do, Cameron?”
Cameron still held his hand, and he rested his head on Logan’s shoulder, filling Logan with all the warm-fuzzies. And with hope. Cameron loved Logan. Julia seemed to think he wasn’t so bad. Miss Winnie seemed to like him too.
All that left was Horace Rees. But if Logan had managed to win over the rest of the family, maybe he could get Horace to his side somehow.
Aaron had unleashed Sweetie from Bear while he measured her, and Bear stood off to the side, his tail wagging at the sight of them, a colorful blanket hanging from his mouth. Though Logan didn’t want Cameron playing with an alligator under any circumstances, he had no problems with a Lab. This one looked a lot like Gatsby, only a little skinnier, calmer, and older.
And better trained.
Logan called him over, and he came right to them. Cameron sat on the ground, and Bear nuzzled right up to Cameron’s face while Cameron petted his head and back.
Bear then took his blanket and put it in Cameron’s lap. He nudged Cameron’s hand until he picked up one end of the blanket. Bear took the other end and played tug-of-war with it until Cameron, caught in a belly-laugh, let go and Bear stumbled back a step, then came racing forward to do it again, his tail wagging so hard it shook his entire body.
Logan believed deeply in the power of animals and healing. He could visibly see the remaining stress release from Cameron as he continued to play with Bear. Logan got in on the action, and Bear flopped on his back, his blanket abandoned, so Logan and Cameron could rub his belly.
A tingle on the back of Logan’s neck made him look up, and he thought he saw a movement on the bridge, but no one was there. He went back to giving Bear a thorough scrub of his ears.
Perhaps with Horace, it was a long game. Helping him see that Logan wasn’t going anywhere, and that he could trust him with the people he loved most. If that’s what it would take, that’s what Logan would do. He had a feeling that Julia was worth it.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Winnie
DonandWaltwerethe last to arrive to the emergency meeting of the Secret Seven at the Palms community center.
