Page 81 of Because of Logan

“I’ll be man enough to own up that watching your sister make out with Logan five feet away from me gave me a chubby. Holy shit, I wish I’d thought to get my phone and video that kiss.”

And now I’m blushing again. Heck, I wish he had it on video too. I want to see if it looked as hot as it felt.

“What?” River asks.

“Oh, it was just Logan marking his territory. I thought he was going to whip it out and piss a circle around Skye.”

“No, he wasn’t.”

The need to defend Logan is greater than my embarrassment.

“Yes, he was. I bet you the only reason he stopped by was to check on us and make sure there’s no funny business going on.”

“Logan trusts me. And that’s kind of hurtful and untrue. He stops by nearly every day.”

“I’m sure he does, but it does not change the fact he’s jealous and wanted to check in and make sure there was nothing going on that shouldn’t be going on.”

I look at River, trying to gauge her opinion on this, but she’s leaning against the counter still, the last bite of pizza disappearing into her mouth. She grabs for a cookie next. She’s watching the exchange with keen eyes, and I know she has an opinion on it and I also know she won’t say anything in front of Bruno. Whatever she has to say is for my ears only. I never told either one of them what Logan said about his ex and his father. I can’t help but think that maybe Bruno is right. That Logan’s reason to visit had more to do with Bruno being here than stopping to see me. And it bothers me more than I can say. All the joy from seeing him evaporates. River’s watching me closer now.

“I have another pizza in the fridge. We can put it in the oven for you.”

“No, save it for tomorrow. They had snacks and I’m not that hungry.”

“Why the nine degrees on my ass then?”

Bruno asks, still annoyed by River’s dig on his pizza-eating habits.

“Because you should know better. You couldn’t know if I ate before or not. I could be starving.”

“We have a whole other pie!”

Bruno’s voice is indignant.

“Besides the point.”

River waves him off and walks to the bathroom. A minute later, we can hear the shower.

Bruno looks at me, his eyes narrow. He’s always been good at reading me.

“I hurt your feelings. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say the only reason Logan stopped by was to check on me. It’s obvious he’s very much into you and he feels threatened by my presence here with you alone.”

“Maybe if I told him—”

“No. You promised me,” he whispers and looks over his shoulder toward the hall. We can still hear the shower. There’s no way River can hear this conversation.

“And I’ve never broken that promise. But don’t you think it—”

“No. I have a plan and I’m sticking to it. I don’t want to talk about it, Skye.”

He stands up abruptly, gathering our paper plates and napkins.

“I should get going.”

Bruno carries our dinner mess to the kitchen and tosses everything in the trash.

I’m standing in the same spot, hugging myself like I used to when I was a little kid whenever I was upset and my parents were busy at work and not around to cuddle me.Hold it together, Skye.

His eyes do not meet mine when he walks by, but he stops to kiss me on the cheek and squeeze my arm. This is a silent apology, I know. He grabs his jacket and is gone a moment later.

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