Page 103 of What Matters Most

After a frustrating hour in a shopping mall, Abby sat through a boring movie and immediately drove back to Logan’s. For the third time she saw that he hadn’t returned. She drove around again—for how long, she was unsure.

Abby couldn’t comprehend what had made him decide to do this. A hasty decision wasn’t like him. She wondered if this crazy mountain-climbing expedition was his way of punishing her; if so, he’d succeeded beyond his expectations. The only thing left to do was confront him.

Abby drove back to Logan’s building, telling herself that the sooner they got this settled, the better. Relief washed over her at the familiar sight of his car.

She pressed his apartment buzzer, but Logan didn’t respond. She tried again, keeping her finger on it for at least a minute. And still Logan didn’t answer.

Abby decided she could sit this out if he could. Logan wasn’t fooling her. He was there.

When he finally answered and let her into the building lobby, Abby ran in, rushing up to his third-floor apartment. He’d opened the door and she stumbled ungracefully across the threshold. Regaining her balance—and her breath—she turned to glare angrily at him.

“Abby.” Logan was holding a pair of headphones. “Were you waiting long?” He closed the door, placing the headset on a shelf. “I’m sorry I didn’t hear you, I was listening to a CD.”

Regaining her composure, Abby straightened. “Now, listen here, Logan Fletcher.” She punctuated her speech with a finger pointed at him. “I know why you’re doing this, and I won’t let you.”

“Abby, listen.” He murmured her name in the soft way she loved.

“No,” she cried. “I won’t listen!”

He held her away from him, one hand on each shoulder. Abby didn’t know if this was meant to comfort her or to keep her out of his arms. Desperately she wanted his arms around her, craved the comfort she knew was waiting for her there.

“You don’t need to prove anything to me,” she continued, her voice gaining in volume and intensity. “I love you just the way you are. Logan, you’re more of a hero than any man I know, and I can’t—no,” she corrected emotionally, “I won’t—let you do this.”

“Do what?”

She looked at him in stunned disbelief. “Climb that stupid mountain.”

“So you did hear.” He sighed. “I was hoping none of this would get back to you.”

“Logan,” she said and gasped. “You weren’t planning to let me know? You’re doing this to prove some egotistical point to me and you weren’t even going to let me know until it was too late? I can’t believe you’d do that. I simply can’t believe it. You’ve always been so logical and all of a sudden you’re falling off the deep end.”

Now it was his turn to look flabbergasted. “Abby, sit down. You’re becoming irrational.”

“I am not,” she denied hotly, but she did as he suggested. “Logan, please listen to me. You can’t go traipsing off to Washington on this wild scheme. The whole idea is ludicrous. Crazy!”

He knelt beside her and she framed his face with both hands, her eyes pleading with his.

“Don’t you understand?” she said. “You’ve never climbed before. You need experience, endurance, and sheer nerve to take on a mountain. You don’t have to prove anything to me. I love you just the way you are. Please don’t do this.”

“Abby,” Logan said sternly, and pulled her hand free, holding her fingers against his chest. “This decision is mine. You have nothing to do with it. I’m sorry this upsets you, but I’m doing something I’ve wanted to do for years.”

“Haven’t you listened to a word I’ve said?” She yanked her hands away and took in several deep breaths. “You could be killed!”

“You seem to be confusing the issues. My desire to make this climb with Dick and his friends has nothing to do with you.”

“Nothing to do with me?” she repeated frantically. Had Logan gone mad? “If you think for one instant that I’m going to let you do this, then you don’t know me, Logan Fletcher.”

He stood up and smoothed the side of his hair with one hand as he regarded her quizzically. “You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I’m doing this to prove something to you.”

“You may not have admitted it to yourself, but that’s exactly the reason you are.” She shook her head frantically. “You’re climbing this crazy mountain because you want to impress me.”

Logan’s short laugh was filled with amusement. “I’m doing this, Abby, because I want to. My reasons are as simple as that. You’re making it sound like I’m going in front of a firing squad. Dick’s an experienced climber. I expect to be perfectly safe,” he said matter-of-factly.

“I don’t believe you could be so naïve,” she told him flatly, “about the danger of mountain-climbing or about your own motivations.”

“Then that’s your problem.”

“But…you could end up dead!”

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