Page 33 of Ready or Knot

LOGAN

Nerves are something I’m accustomed to dealing with. The first time I came face to face with one of my favorite professional baseball players and had to tell him he couldn’t go back on the field for six weeks really forced me to figure out decent coping mechanisms.

Breathing. Calm walks. Visualizing. Counting backwards.

But hell if none of them are working right now.

Faedra sets her bag under the entry table, tucking her shoes next to it before looking down the hallway and gasping. Her hand tightens around mine, and I follow her as she crosses the condo, stopping in front of the wall of windows that look over the mountains. The sounds of the others moving behind us echo around the living space.

“Wow,” she whispers, her smile wide and her eyes bright. She glances at me and blushes. “This view is gorgeous.”

I don’t even think.

“Yeah, it is,” I murmur, keeping my eyes on her.

Her blush darkens. I only have a moment to enjoy it though because in the next heartbeat she’s kissing me, her lips soft against mine.

“The airport is still weird,” she says when she pulls away, turning back to the windows. “That horse is something else. If I see it again, it’ll be too soon.”

Jude laughs, the coarse sound filling the space.

Biting her lip, Faedra looks over her shoulder.

“Can I have a tour before dinner?” she asks.

Carter pauses, looking up from where he’s adjusting the bags from one of our favorite local restaurants left at our doorstep when we’d gotten home. I squeeze her hand as Jude agrees. He steps around the island and crosses the living room, his hands tucked into his pockets.

“Kitchen and living room, obviously,” he says, nodding behind him. “That side is for play.” He tips his head to the right. “And that side is for sleeping.” He tips his head the opposite direction. “Which would you like to see first?”

Faedra smiles, looking at both options. “Play,” she says. Carter joins us as we pass the kitchen, resting his hand on the small of her back. Jude opens the door in the corner.

“Logan’s office,” he explains.

Faedra gasps again before turning to me. “You didn’t tell me you had this kind of view!” she says, eyes wide.

“Most of the rooms have this kind of view,” I say with a shrug. Her eyes get wider, and she turns to Carter.

“Really? Even my room?” she asks.

He smiles as he nods.

She’s surprisingly quiet as we show her the rest of the condo.

“It’s more rooms than I expected,” she admits as we cross the space. “Aren’t most places like this open all the way?”

Carter nods.

“We had a designer add rooms to make it more usable for us. We can always have them come back and change something if we ever need to.”

She nods, her gaze thoughtful, though her eyes get wide when she realizes there’s two staircases. She turns around in a circle as we finally step onto the landing of the first one, the walls of the loft filled with Jude’s bookcases. Her eyes catch on the large leather chair in the corner, a small table next to it with two books currently open, bookmarks tucked into the spines.

“What’s through here?” she asks, crossing the loft and setting a palm on the door.

“Your nest,” Carter says. Her eyebrows furrow, and she hesitates to open the door. “If you’d like it here, at least. We had to designate a space for the Council to approve, and this was the room that made most sense. But there are a few others, too, if you want to decide between them.”

Faedra shakes her head, blowing out a breath before opening the door and taking a careful step inside. The room itself is basic, a large bed taking up the wall to the left and a small dresser nestled next to the door. The blackout curtains are pulled back, the sunset staining the room a warm orange. While there’s no closet, there’s a door on the right that leads to a moderately-sized ensuite with its own washer and dryer to help accommodate the linens that heats typically require. Faedra clasps her hands in front of her, turning once in the space, her eyes taking in small details of the room.

“It’s yours to do with as you want,” Jude explains. “Add anything you’d like.”

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