“So where are you staying? You’re more than welcome to stay here, your old room has been waiting for you?”
“Thanks.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I was staying at the hotel by the airport.
“Let me grab you a coffee,” she said getting up from the couch and heading into the kitchen. I looked around the room, “You’ve done great things in here, Mom.” I heard her banging in the kitchen, finally returning with a tray holding two mugs of hot coffee, and a piece of her chocolate cake for me.
“Here you go,” she said handing me my mug and the slice of cake. I dug the fork into the soft moist cake, it tasted like it always had. “Leah did all the work on the house, she’s an interior designer now.”
I looked around the room, everything flowed together well. I swallowed hard, “Wow, she did a great job.”
“You think you can get along for the weekend?”
“Who knows, depends on her.” I shrugged, my normal attitude when it came to her coming through.
“Logan, don’t be ridiculous, you are both adults now.”
I was dying to ask her where she was, if she still lived here, how she was doing, who she was dating or married to, but I couldn’t give myself away. If my mother thought for a second that I cared, she would wonder what was going on. I didn’t need her to be suspicious. I left the topic of Leah alone and soon we were wrapped up in conversation and we passed the afternoon away talking and getting reacquainted. It had been so long since I had seen my mom, and it was nice to just spend the time talking with her. I missed her a lot. I had been so wrong before I left, and I felt the need to apologize to her, Joe had looked after Mom just the way she had said he would. I had been foolish to think otherwise.
Shortly before dinner Mom had to run out to the store to grab a couple things for the dish she planned to make. She had offered to take me with her but with the time difference and all the travel I was tired, so I decided to just stay and hang out until she got back. I put the magazine down I had been reading and wandered into the kitchen. A sense of déjà vu came over me as I grabbed a glass and opened the fridge looking for juice. I poured the cold orange liquid into the glass and shut the door and that was when my eyes caught her beautiful red hair. I stared for a moment, taking her in, and then I let my eyes wash slowly over the rest of her, it was like I was on sensory overload. The outfit she wore accentuated her soft curves, I wanted to run my hands over them, and my mouth nearly watered at the sight of her lips. She stood leaning up against the door frame her arms crossed in front of her. “What are you doing here?” she asked, a smirk playing on the corner of her mouth.
I could barely take my eyes off her, she had grown up, and the way her green eyes danced over my body told me she was as happy to see me as I was her, or so I hoped. “Well, someone didn’t send me my usual Valentine’s Day letter, so I came to get it in person.”
“Don’t hold your breath, Logan, there is no letter.” She walked over and took the juice out of my hand and brought the glass to her lips. I stared at those perfect kissable lips, the ones I had dreamed of kissing for the past ten years. She never took her eyes from mine as she drank the cold liquid. “You know I never loved you.”
She placed the cold glass back in my hand. I watched her eyes do another quick sweep of my body, then she turned and looked over her shoulder at me, smiling, before heading upstairs. I firmly planted my eyes on her tight ass as she walked away from me. I wanted so bad to grab it and pin her against the wall and do things to her that I shouldn’t even be thinking about doing. Instead, I quickly averted my thoughts and my eyes when I heard the front door slam and my mother came into the kitchen carrying a bag full of groceries.
“Logan, what on earth is wrong?” she asked looking at me.
“What do you mean?” I asked as I took a sip of the orange juice, still imagining Leah’s kissable lips on mine.
“You look like you did when you were ten years old, as if you were doing something you shouldn’t be.” She laughed.
Just thinking of fucking my stepsister ten ways to Sunday, I thought to myself. I finished my juice and then helped Mom put the groceries away.
TWELVE
Leah
I stood in my room leaning up against the cold wooden door. Every part of my body was on fire after that encounter, with need and anger. How dare he show up. I had sent that invite weeks ago and suddenly here he was, in the kitchen. I hadn’t known how to react when I saw him. The first thing that had gone through my mind was how badly I wanted to feel his lips and hands on me, everywhere. I had never gotten the sight of naked Logan out of my mind after that night in the hallway. I wanted him then, and apparently still wanted him now. However, I had to hide those thoughts quickly, especially when he brought up that damn letter. I didn’t think he even bothered reading them, but apparently, I had been wrong.
I had finally calmed down and now I stood in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on the desert I had made, while Logan, Anna, and my father were talking in the other room. They were laughing and joking with Logan while he told them all about the projects he was working on. I listened from the kitchen; it sounded like he had become very successful, working for a large architectural firm in downtown Boston. I was happy for him, he deserved it. I had overheard him mention something about building his home in one of the more scenic areas of Boston.
“Are you seeing anyone?” I heard Dad ask him as I put a couple more strawberries on the top of the chocolate cake I had made. I listened harder than I should have, and I prayed that he was still single, “Will there be wedding bells anytime soon?” I held my breath as I waited for him to answer.
Logan cleared his throat. “No, sir, I’ll have the perfect house for the perfect family, but no one special to share it with.” As I heard his words, I released the breath, I was holding. A sense of peace came over me at hearing his answer. I shouldn’t care, but I did, I cared a lot.
“Oh, sweetie, you will? Look at how happy Joe and I are. It takes time. Honestly, I figured you would be settled down by now, maybe with a little one on the way.”
“Oh god, Mom. I’ve dated, but no one holds my attention long enough. I want the perfect picture, and I’m not willing to settle. So, until that time, I will have a beautiful home and my dream job. The rest will come when it comes. And nothing you’re going to say will make me hurry and change my mind.” He let out a laugh.
I heard my dad laugh too. “Logan, I won’t tell you the picture doesn’t exist, because look what I now have, but I will tell you it took me years to find it. Don’t waste your youth. Have fun.”
Logan let out a laugh. “Believe me, I’m not wasting my youth. I want the perfect family and I will not settle for anything less.”
My heart sunk a little at his response, “I’m not wasting.” I wondered what type of woman he dated, how many women he had slept with.
“Anna, your son is as stubborn as you.”
I giggled at what my father had said, Logan was stubborn, I was glad I wasn’t the only one who saw it. I grabbed the head of lettuce and was just about to prepare the salad when I felt a large warm hand on my waist and felt someone close behind me.