Me too, Iz thought. She didn’t want to get into all her worries right now, though.
“Thank you for making sure I got the hug I needed,” she said.
“I will always do my best on that front,” her mother said. “And now I’ll have eminently capable assistance, I’m sure.”
“I wish you had met—”
Her mother stopped her with a gesture. “I did love your father, even if we weren’t mates, and even if he proved ... very imperfect. And he gave me you, which is the most important thing. I had plenty of happiness, even if I want you to have even more. Now go start working on a beautiful future with your very heroic and handsome mate.”
Iz squared her shoulders. “I can do that,” she said, injecting confidence into her voice. If her mother could go through everything she’d been through and still hold onto hope and composure, Iz could do the same.
She could even try to enjoy herself.
She said good night to her mom and then embraced the future.
Well, she walked over to Logan’s room and knocked.
The door flew open almost immediately, and it took shifter reflexes to keep herself from jumping back with surprise.
“Sorry,” Logan said sheepishly. “It’s just ... been a while since I had a date. Or dinner with a knife and fork.” His eyes flickered up and down her body, and Iz felt her skin heat up beneath his gaze. “You look incredible.”
“So do you.” She meant it. Logan had discovered Theo’s Gucci this time, a fine black suit with a deep ruby red shirt underneath that set off the warm tones of his skin.
Never mind dinner, Logan looked likedessert. (And one that certainly didn’t need a knife and fork.)
She had her own clothes on now. Unlike Evie’s pajamas, she could sacrifice them for a good cause, and Logan ripping them off her clearly qualified.
Some part of her—a very large, very turned-on part of her—wanted to gently push him back into his motel room and trade their dinner plans for more vending machine food eaten in bed.
But she took another look at Logan’s carefully chosen outfit and wide eyes and reconsidered. Another go-around of tumultuous, incredible sex would have its advantages, but it wouldn’t reassure Logan about whathewas worrying about. He had survived those months without her by losing himself in his hellhound, and he was still worried that he hadn’t found himself again. Not completely. He needed this kind of reassuringly human, upscale date night with fancy clothes and wine menus. He needed to believe that he could still do it.
Iz knew he could, and she wanted him to have the chance to see that. But she also wished she could somehow show him that it was okay. Forgetting the occasional word or getting overwhelmed in last night’s hubbub didn’t mean that he wasn’t human, and it didn’t mean he wasn’t whole. It was just normal.
But while she wanted to convince him that it wasn’t necessary to test himself, she wasn’t going to deny him a win that he clearly really needed. If tonight went well—and she would make sure it did—then he would have a little more proof that she was right about how wonderful he was.
So Iz shoved her desire to the back of her mind and smiled. “Ready to go?”
“Yes. Yeah. Absolutely.”
*
THE MOTEL HAD HAD IZ’Scar towed away back when she’d first disappeared, which she thought was a tad rude: as far as she could tell, they weren’t exactly running short on parking spaces. Still, it gave her an excuse to borrow Theo’s vintage Rolls Royce, which was even more luxurious than her own car.
Logan seemed to appreciate it—at least enough to keep stroking the dashboard in a way that made Iz feel some very irrational envy.
“Do you like cars?”
He paused to think about it, and Iz was glad that he didn’t seem as self-conscious this time about mulling over his scattershot memories.
“I do,” he said finally. “Not enough that you’d call me a car guy, where I read automotive magazines and have some classic in the garage that I’m restoring, but I appreciate one like this. I guess I know enough about them to know that your cousin has good taste, if that makes sense. But I ... I think I rode more than I drove, when I had a choice about it.”
Iz blinked. The idea of Logan on a horse was incredibly appealing, but it also didn’t completelyfit. She knew he liked the outdoors, and he had a rough-and-tumble cowboy vibe that implied he would be right at home on a ranch, but marshals tended to work out of courthouses. It was hard to imagine past Logan saddling up for his daily commute and then leaving his faithful steed tied to a parking meter all day.
“You have a horse?”
He laughed, and somehow she fell a little more in love with him. It was like he made her heart bottomless, and she was just going to go on loving him more and more deeply.
That’s why I have to make this work. I never want to have to walk away from him.