I pull the door shut and go to Ivy’s room. She’s a heavy sleeper and has always been. She looks so peaceful and so sweet lying with her little mouth slightly open.
I hear Vanessa’s words about telling Gabriel that he has a daughter. The thought makes my chest constrict with pain. I remember his betrayal and everything in me rebels against telling him. What kind of a man dates a woman for months and hides the fact that he’s married? A shadow of dull pain comes over me at the memory. I still don’t understand how a person can lie about something so huge. He had to have known that I would find out someday.
Clearly, he didn’t care whether I found out or not judging by the speed at which he found a replacement.
All that is about me, not Ivy. Vanessa is right. I need to tell Gabriel about Ivy. It’s as if roles have been reversed. I harped on to my sister that she needed to tell Ace that he was a father. She had dated him the second time around for months while hinting that Luna was my daughter.
But now Vanessa is a bigger person than I am. She hasn’t once mentioned that I should do what I preached to her all those years ago. I hadn’t known one thing then. It’s complicated when you have a child. There’s so much to worry about. Like, what if Gabriel rejects Ivy? I know she’s a baby and therefore won’t know, but I’ll know, and it will kill me inside.
I leave Ivy’s room quietly and go to mine. I slip into bed and pull the covers up to my chin. I’ll tell Gabriel as soon as we move back into the cottage. It’s not that I’m delaying the inevitable. It’s being practical.
If—and this is a very big if—Gabriel wants to meet Ivy, he’ll have to come to my place to do so and I can’t have him coming here to Logan’s house. That would be super weird. It’ll have to wait until the cottage dries out and the repairs are done.
I manage to fall asleep for another hour before Ivy wakes up at seven sharp, her usual waking time. I check that I’m decently dressed before I leave the room to pick her up. She’s already stopped crying and is looking about the room with interest.
“Morning, sweetheart,” I tell her and lift her out of the crib. I cuddle her and plant noisy kisses on her cheeks. I love her giggles and shrieks of laughter. “Let’s get you changed and cleaned up.”
It takes us longer than it normally does to get ready for the day as our things are all over her room and mine. When we’re ready, we head down the hallway. Logan’s bedroom door is open. I can’t resist a quick peek. His bed is perfectly made and the windows open. A neat man. That earns him another point in my books.
Not that the points matter. All we had was one night and that’s over now. We’re back to real life.
Logan is not downstairs but when I’m washing Ivy's dirty breakfast dishes, I see him carrying stuff out of the cottage. That man never stops. It’s Sunday for goodness’s sake. He deserves a treat. I’d bought bacon during my grocery run and I hunt around Logan’s kitchen for a pan. Moments later, the kitchen is filled with the scent of frying bacon.
“Let’s go get Logan, shall we?” I lift Ivy from her highchair and we head out of the house.
I try not to look at the soggy rugs outside that I lovingly picked out over the last couple of years. I’m not going to cry. I shift my gaze away and blink away the tears.
“They might be okay after a wash,” Logan says coming out of the cottage carrying out another rug.
“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him. “They are replaceable. This one here is not.”
He shifts his gaze to Ivy and a soft expression comes over his face. It’s nice to see that he’s not baby-phobic. “How did she sleep?”
“Very well,” I say. “Thanks for letting us stay with you.” I’m trying not to remember last night and early this morning. “Hey, we’re making breakfast. Want to join us?”
He looks at me and flashes me that gorgeous smile of his that turns me into mush. “Sure, thanks.”
My face heats up when memories of last night refuse to be pushed away. I turn and lead the way back into the house. It doesn’t matter how awesome of a lover Logan is, that is now over. We had our night, my itch is gone, sort off, and we can go back to being friends.
Chapter 10
Logan
“Thank you, that was lovely,” I tell Vanessa as I place the dirty utensils into the dish washer.