“Why are you nervous?” Eva asks me, bringing me back to the present.
I take a sip of my coffee before answering. “What if he’s married, or a murder?”
Eva shrugs. “You can’t change who your parents are. If that’s what he is, then it’s on him, not you.”
“You make it seem easy.”
“It can be. Don’t let it disrupt your life. You’ve got it pretty good right now. You’ve got a business that’s going well, a nice place to live, a beautiful baby girl… and Logan seems like a really good guy,” Eva says changing the subject. “I’m a little envious. Does he have a brother?”
“Two. A cop and a lawyer. Take your pick.”
“I’ll go for the cop. More exciting and then there’s the cuff thing,” she says and licks her lower lip suggestively.
I laugh. “You’re crazy, Eva. That’s why I love you.”
We pay our bill and return to the office. I immerse myself in my admin work to stop looking at the time every few minutes. At a quarter to three, I’m too nervous to concentrate and I turn off my computer and tidy up the office. Not that it’s dirty. We have a cleaning company that comes in three times a week to clean but I need something to distract me from the evening ahead.
I can’t even share my worries with Lexi. I chose not to tell her until something concrete comes out of it. I don’t want to get her excited for nothing. It used to drive her crazy that Mom wouldn’t tell us anything about our father.
Three finds me standing outside our building waiting for Logan. My heart hammers as I try to anticipate what could go wrong. What if he didn’t get Jim’s late wife’s name? Highly unlikely. As a firefighter, he has access to records that the rest of us don’t and he was pretty confident that he would have the information.
What if we don’t find the grave? That’s a silly thought. Unless graves move, Jim’s wife will be resting at the same cemetery where he and my mother met.
Logan’s truck appears before I drive myself crazy with baseless worries. He brings it to a stop and gets out to open the door for me.
“Hi, beautiful,” he says.
I kiss him before I enter the truck. “Hello, handsome.”
He bangs the door shut after me and sprints around the truck to the driver’s side. “How are you feeling?” Logan says, fastening his seat belt.
“Scared. Excited. I’m a mess.”
He takes my hand and lifts it to kiss the back of it. “I’m right here with you. There’s nothing to be scared of. There are worse situations.”
“Oh yeah, like what?”
Logan coasts the car back onto the road. “Like telling your parents and siblings that you have a three-month-old daughter they know nothing about.”
“Is that what happened?” I ask him, visualizing the scenario.
He grins and nods. It strikes me anew how handsome Logan is. My chest pools with warmth. He’s wearing a t-shirt that molds his shoulders and chest, showing off his muscles.
“Yep,” he says. “My relationship with my mother is still strained. She feels cheated from her granddaughter, not having been there when she was born and missing out on the first few months of her life.”
“Understandably so but it wasn’t your fault. It must have been a hell of a shock. Bad news and shocking but good news.”
Logan glances at me. “I’ll be honest with you, Nessa.”
My heart skips a beat. I’ve never liked shortened versions of my name but coming from Logan, Nessa sounds cute and sexy.
“All of it was good news. I’d never had a relationship that lasted longer than two months and now I have a daughter.” Logan is so quiet I think he won’t continue for a moment. He clears his throat. “I was once in love with this girl. Her name was Lisa. Both our families knew we would be together for life. I bought a ring but just before I proposed, I found out that she was seeing other guys behind my back.”
My heart goes out to him at the tinge of pain in his voice. I try and wrap my mind around someone cheating on Logan and fail. Already, I’m thinking that the next man in my life won’t measure up to Logan. He has set the bar very high in all ways. I bet wherever Lisa is she regrets cheating on him, or maybe she’s one of those serial cheaters. A woman who is thrilled by juggling several men at the same time.
“She regrets it now.”
Logan flashes me a smile. “And how do you know that?”
“Easy. You’re almost perfect. No sane woman would cheat on you and not regret it. Now she knows the grass is definitely not greener on the other side.”
Logan laughs and it fills me with pleasure.
“Almost? Not a hundred percent perfect?” Logan says and I punch him lightly on his shoulder.