Page 30 of Yo Ho Ho
The kitchen was quiet. The guys were watching hockey or playing pool. Charlotte looked deep in thought, like she was wondering what she could do to help Max. Logan looked down at his food. Dammit, how could a woman make him think that a pile of nachos was unfulfilling?
"Hey, can I ask you a question?"
Charlotte looked a bit surprised, but to her credit, she was trying hard to hide it. "Yeah, go ahead."
"Has Jordan ever offended you with something he said? Not like, 'Those pants make you look fat.' Like really offended you."
She started fiddling with her glass again. "Remember that whole thing with Declan Reed?"
"I would rather forget it."
Charlotte gave him a tight smile. "Me too."
She stared down quietly at her glass trying to compose herself, and Logan couldn't blame her. Declan Reed was the biggest pest in the league and also her ex-boyfriend. It haunted Jordan when he found out, leading to the Pirates seeing their captain broken and bruised. The situation was bad for everyone and was made worse when Jordan decided to break things off with Charlotte over it. Logan was so thankful that whole thing was over — for Jordan, for Charlotte, and for all of them.
Charlotte took a deep breath and sighed. "There were some things that Jordan said that really made me think I would never see him again, and to be fair, there were some things I said that probably drove him away," she said. "The true test is if you're willing to admit that you shouldn't have said them like that."
"Admit I was wrong."
"No." Charlotte gave him a little smile, her eyes gleaming a bit under the kitchen lights. "You may have been right or she may have been right. That doesn't matter. What I suspect is that you thought you were right and, whether you were or not, it came out horrible and harsh."
Logan gave her a small bitter laugh. "You need to be a shrink or something."
"I'm a writer, it's close enough." She smiled and put her hand on his. "You need to apologize for what you said but still be honest about how you really feel."
Logan's shoulders slumped as he took in the weight of her words. "This is going to suck."
"Yep, but if you care that much about someone, it's worth it." Charlotte squeezed his hand and grabbed her glass from the table, raising it to take a sip. "So who is this woman that has you all flustered?"
He rolled his eyes. "She doesn't have me all flustered."
"Sure," she responded sarcastically.
"She's just a woman I know."
Charlotte put her glass down and leaned over to look Logan in the eye. "You're not the only one on this team who has asked me for relationship advice, you know. And if you're desperate enough to ask your captain's girlfriend a question about a woman, she's notjusta woman to you."
Logan looked down at the shiny rock on her finger. "You're not the captain's girlfriend anymore."
Charlotte's smile was immediate and huge, taking up her whole face with happiness. "No, I'm not." She stood up and grabbed her empty glass from the table. Then she walked behind Logan and put her arm around his neck. "She's not just a woman you know, is she?"
"No," he murmured.
"Then stop worrying about what you did and just fix it." She gave him a peck on the top of his head. "You've got this, Moore."
"Yeah, right."
Her arm squeezed tighter before she let go. "Don't 'yeah, right' me. I know you've got this."
Charlotte put her empty glass in the kitchen sink, turned to give him one last encouraging smile, and walked away, leaving him to stew quietly at the kitchen table. She was right. He knew she was right. He knew he had to fix this somehow. But Charlotte seemed to have a lot more faith in him than he had in himself. Logan felt like he was walking a thin line here, any deviation one way or another and he could lose Max forever. But he was going to lose Max if he didn't try anything — and he couldn't lose her.
Chapter 12
"Maxine! Just in time!"
Max rolled her suitcase over to Charlie and some of the other media guys, who had assembled in the waiting area before heading onto the team's chartered flight to Florida. Players were filtering through, some looking better than others, but the media guys were hanging back. Max knew exactly what was going on and she was prepared.
"How much are we throwing in the pool this year?" she asked.
