“That I was taking off for a few days. Didn’t tell them where, and they didn’t ask. They know they can reach me on my cell if they need me.”
She thought again that he had an interesting relationship with his sisters. “I suppose Bonnie is pleased that you took her advice about a vacation.”
“Said she was. To be honest, she probably thinks I’ve got someone with me, but she won’t ask who it is.”
That worked just fine for Alexis.
“So, did you save room for dessert?” their server asked as he approached to remove their dishes. “We’ve got a hazelnut brownie that will make you weep.”
Both Logan and Alexis declined the dessert. Alexis was eager to explore the waterfront, and now that he’d eaten, Logan was agreeable to sightseeing. They wandered through the market awhile longer, then down the wide concrete steps descending to the shops and attractions lining Elliott Bay. The Great Wheel, a giant Ferris wheel with forty-two dangling gondolas, towered 175 feet above them at the end of a pier, drawing their eyes up to the sky as they ambled along the waterfront sidewalk. They stopped to admire the variety of boats crowded into marinas, and to watch the ferries and water taxis chugging across the gray waters of Puget Sound toward the surrounding islands and beaches. They passed an aquarium, restaurants, curiosity shops and an arcade, but they stopped only a few times, mostly in the shops that drew Alexis’s interest. Logan seemed content just to stroll and take in the scenery.
The clouds had parted to reveal the snowcapped Olympic Mountains against the western sky. Turning her back to the water, Alexis gazed up at the business, retail and residential skyscrapers that made up the downtown Seattle skyline. Turning north, she saw the iconic Space Needle peeking through an opening between buildings. She pointed it out to Logan, adding that she wanted to visit there, too.
“Now?” he asked, sounding game.
She smiled. “Maybe tomorrow. Let’s just stay downtown this evening.”
They had the next two days to play tourist, she thought happily.
They paused in front of a sign that offered tours of the underground city beneath Pioneer Square—storefronts, sidewalks and roadways that had been abandoned when the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 had destroyed much of what had then been a muddy, flood-prone downtown. While planning her activities, Alexis had read about the tours during a lull in the seminar, and she related what she’d learned to Logan now. When the city rebuilt, the streets and sidewalks had been raised and second stories became ground level. The lower level had been completely abandoned by 1907. Tours through the subterranean passages were now quite popular with visitors, who were regaled with tall tales of Seattle’s sometimes seamy history along the way.
“Sounds interesti
ng,” Logan said. “I like unusual history stuff. I’m sort of a museum nerd.”
“Really?” She cocked her head to look up at him in interest. “I didn’t know that.”
Smiling indolently, he tapped a fingertip against the end of her nose. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
Though he spoke teasingly, she was all too aware of how true that was.
She looked at the sign again. “The last tour is at six. We should be able to make it, if you want to go.”
“Works for me.” He kept his tone casual, but she could tell he liked the idea.
“Let’s do it, then. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a ghost or two down in those creepy passages,” she said with a laugh, waving toward a poster advertising Seattle ghost walks.
She’d spoken without thinking of the old legend attached to Bride Mountain Inn, but his sudden grimace reminded her of his reluctance to acknowledge his own home’s spooky tale. “Or maybe not.”
He grunted. “No such thing as ghosts.”
“Of course not. But sometimes it’s sort of fun to pretend?”
His shuttered gaze tracing the path of a ferry chugging toward Bainbridge Island, he shrugged. “Generally, I find it best to stay grounded in reality. I believe in looking at life the way it is rather than the way you wish it was. Hoping to see something that isn’t there is only going to lead to disappointment.”
If he was trying to be subtle, he wasn’t doing it very well, she thought with a slight shake of her head. But then, Logan wasn’t known for his subtlety. Should she tell him outright he needn’t worry that she’d misinterpreted his last-minute decision to join her here in Seattle? That she still saw their relationship for what it was—what they both wanted it to be?
“I’ve never been one to mix up fiction with reality,” she replied instead. “I can enjoy happy-ever-after books and movies and whimsical ghost tours occasionally without deluding myself that they’re real.” And she could savor a stolen weekend without misconstruing it as a step toward the sort of “Great Romance” neither she nor Logan believed in, she almost added—but decided there was no need to oversell her point. Logan was a smart guy. He could read between the lines.
His nod of satisfaction told her he’d heard her correctly. “Let’s go learn some history,” he said, his tone lighter again.
With a smile that felt a little forced, she turned with him toward the stairs leading up to the city streets.
* * *
It was only 9:00 p.m. by the time they returned to the hotel room. The bars, clubs and restaurants of downtown Seattle were still open and active, but they weren’t tempted to stay out later. For one thing, Logan was still operating on Eastern time. Besides which, as nice as it had been to be out in public without concern about running into people they knew, they were ready to be alone again.
Logan headed straight for the shower, saying he felt grubby after a day of travel and tourism. While she listened to the shower run, Alexis swapped her street clothes for the slinky red nightgown she’d packed and hadn’t yet worn. Had she hoped even as she’d folded it into her bag that Logan would join her? She hadn’t envisioned herself wearing it for anyone else.