Logan Kade (Fallen Crest #5.5) (17 page)

I wanted to be on the other side of whatever wall he kept between him and most people. I wanted it almost desperately.

I followed Sam as she waded through the crowd to the booze. Hers wasn’t exactly like Logan’s reception, but a lot of the same guys moved aside and greeted her. They called out hellos. A few offered to get drinks for her.

With her hands full of vodka, beer, and some other bottles, she smiled as she took in the look on my face. “It’s because of Logan.”

“I’m gathering that.”

“They like him.”

They respected him.

Sam glanced around as the guys took the drinks from her arms and headed downstairs. She ran a hand through her hair, a rueful expression on her face. “I’d forgotten what it’s like.”

“What what’s like?”

She grinned at me. “You. Your face.” She looked around the room. “Seeing all of this for the first time. It’s overwhelming. That’s how I remember it.”

“They act like he’s a god.”
That wasn’t normal, was it?

“Logan would have their backs in a heartbeat. That’s what he does. He’s actually a lot nicer now than he was in high school.”

“What?”

She laughed at my surprise. “He was meaner in high school, but I think he was just more protective of his brother.” She stopped, her lips pursed together. “Or maybe that was Mason bringing out the mean side of him?” She shrugged and patted my arm. “You’ll get used to it.”

What did she mean by that?

She read the question in my eyes. “Logan likes you. If he likes you, everyone else will, too.”

“Your friends didn’t.”

She waved that off. “They’ll come around.”

“How do you know?”

She started forward, turning back over her shoulder as she headed downstairs and said, so simply, “Because Logan said you’re a friend.”

#CHICKSHOWDOWN

TAYLOR

I was having fun. I was laughing. I was joking.

I was drunk.

Logan came back with another beer for me, and I stopped counting how many I’d had. It had been this way for the past two hours. Logan spent time with Nate and the guys, but he kept coming over to check on me. If I hadn’t been smart, I’d have let it go to my head. But nope. Logan and I were friends. Samantha had said it earlier. Logan had said it on a couple of occasions, and with a decisive bob of my head, I reminded myself of it, too.

Friends. Nothing else. But as I watched him line up a shot—his eyes narrowing so he could focus, ignoring the guys trying to distract him—there was a little pitter-patter in my heart. I wasn’t just in trouble. I was firmly in deep shit.

“I don’t want to be intrusive,” Sam said, leaning across the table. She cast a look over to her two friends, but both seemed oblivious.

She said they’d warm up to me, and they had. They were now past warming up and were drunk right along with me. Well, I still bordered between really tipsy and drunk. Both had glazed eyes and open mouths as they watched Logan. His ass was right in front of us as he bent over for a shot. I tore my gaze away and refocused on Sam.

She continued, “How did you and Logan get to know each other?”

I shrugged, shaking my head. “I was in a sociology class with him, and…” I frowned. There’d been something else. I snapped my fingers. “Jason.”

“Jason?’

Logan must have heard me, and when he finished his shot, and came over to stand next to the table. He leaned on his pool cue as Nate took the next shot. His eyes lingered on me.

“Delray,” he said to Sam, switching his gaze to her. “That little shit is one of her friends. He turned me down last year because of Sebastian, so I used Taylor to get a little revenge on him.”

“You used her?” Sam glanced at me, questioning.

I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Come to think of it…” Logan lifted a hand to scratch behind his ear. “I used
him
to get her phone number.” He winked at me. “Best move I’ve made in a long time, that is until she abandoned me in my quest to mindfuck entire groups.”

“She abandoned you?”

I touched my cheeks. I should’ve been blushing, but the alcohol had already given me perma-blush. “I had to switch sections.”

“She couldn’t handle me anymore, Sam. I must’ve broken her heart without even realizing it.”

“Logan!” The guys called him for the game again.

He gazed down at me as if we had our own private joke. “Actually she broke
my
heart. She left me all alone. I’ve got no one to plot evil schemes with now.”

I couldn’t keep from grinning. “I don’t think you have a shortage of people who’d love to do that with you.”

“Logan!”

He ignored them, leaning down to grab my beer. He took a drink, his eyes on me the entire time, before he put it back down and murmured so only I could hear, “But no one like you.”

“
Logan
!”

He gave me another wink before going back to the pool table. He rolled his shoulders and lifted his cue in the air. “Chill, fuckers. I’m going to win now or five minutes from now. Why do you need to hasten my victory?”

Nate started laughing, but the others grumbled. My eyes lingered on Logan a moment longer than they should’ve as he leaned over and sank one more ball. I turned back into the table, only to realize Samantha had been watching me the whole time. She had a knowing expression in her eyes.

I coughed and stood up. I didn’t want to see the pity that would come next. She didn’t know me, even though in that moment, she probably knew me on a level no one else did. She saw feelings I was still trying to lie to myself about.

“Excuse me,” I said. Her friends gazed up with similar, owl-like dazed looks. I kept my eyes averted from Samantha as I pointed over my shoulder. “I, uh, I have to go to the bathroom. Be back in a bit.”

“Taylor.” Logan came around the pool table as I was heading for the stairs. He caught my hand.

A tingle raced up my arm, burning all through my body. I looked down at our joined hands before I forced myself to pull mine free.

“I have to go to the bathroom, and I should call my dad, let him know I’m safe. You know, just in case.” My lie sounded stupid, even to me. I needed to compose myself.

“You okay?”

I nodded, not meeting his gaze. I could feel the weight of his eyes. “Yeah,” I mumbled. “I’ll be back.”

“I’ll win this game, and then we can go,” he told me. “Nate talked about heading back to the house and doing a bonfire. Sam will probably go to bed, but he and I don’t have an early class tomorrow. We were going to stay up and have a few more beers. I thought maybe if you wanted, you could come, but if you need to get home—”

“No.” I looked up to meet his eyes. “I want to do that.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded. A bonfire with him and Nate and no one else? I couldn’t pass that up. After tonight, I’d stay away from Logan, I promised myself. Hell, I’d even go on a date with Jeremy Fuller if I needed to—anything to erase Logan Kade from my mind. But first, one night.

One
more
night.

“I should still call my dad.” I held up my hand. I thought my phone was there, but it was a beer instead.

Logan grinned. “I’ll be up in a bit.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

I made no phone call, but I did use the bathroom. Then I sat outside on a picnic table that had been carried to the front of the house. It was almost in the same place I’d been the first time I was here with Jason and Claire. Only this time I was sitting alone, and it wasn’t Jason I was waiting for, it was Logan.

“Logan’s coming in a minute,” said a voice behind me. “He said you were up here waiting for us.”

I closed my eyes and didn’t look at Samantha as she slid onto the bench a few feet away. There were no other sounds so I knew she’d come alone. I sensed she wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t know me. She didn’t know anything about me. She hadn’t earned the right to tell me what to do, or warn me away from Logan, or whatever she felt the need to share. I had this under control… Mostly… But I didn’t need a thing from her, no matter how nice she seemed.

“You know…” she started. Her voice faded, and when I looked over, she stared down at the table. “Logan’s hurt a lot of gir—”

“How many times have we met?” I interrupted her.

She looked up, slightly surprised. “Logan told me you were here the last time Blaze had a party.”

So she’d been asking about me. I could tell she was full of wisdom about Logan. Maybe I should hear what she had to say. She didn’t strike me as someone malicious, but she was too much for me right now.

“We’ve only officially met tonight.” I held her gaze, making sure she couldn’t look away. “When you meet people for the first time, do you usually force a heart-to-heart with them?”

I didn’t want to be confrontational, but I needed to push her back, get some breathing room.

Her mouth opened. She had a response, but she held it. No sound came from her until a rueful laugh slipped out. She hung her head, her eyes closing for a beat before she looked back up at me. Her cheeks were pink now. “You’re right. I’m out of line. But just so you know, it’s not because of you. I don’t know you. You’re right about that, too, and I have no place telling you what to do. It’s just…” She trailed off, shifting to look out at the street. The moonlight lit up her face, and I was reminded once more how beautiful she was. An ache dug its way inside my chest, making a hole there. Logan cared for her in a way that I wanted him to care for me.

I had feelings for Logan. There it was. I admitted it to myself.

“You’re different,” Sam said quietly. “Logan’s never acted this way around a girl, and I’m sorry, but that’s why I’m acting like a pushy mother, or a pushy big sister.” She swung her dark eyes over to me and I was surprised to find a haunting quality in them.

My irritation with her melted. Whatever haunted her, my own pain responded. I was looking at myself, then she blinked, and it was gone. The connection we’d had broke.

“I told Logan I’d be a friend to you,” she continued. “So I’d like to do that, and I’d like to do it the way I’d want it done for me: No opinions. No judgments. Just an easy acceptance.”

That sounded wonderful.

She ducked her head and gave me a half-smile. “If you’d like that?”

“I would.” A rueful laugh followed my words. “Being friends with people is work. You have to give, and you have to be okay with not getting back. I’ve been friends with Claire and Jason since seventh grade, and we’ve all had times when we haven’t been the best. The last nine months have been my selfish time. I only took from them. I didn’t give back because I didn’t have it in me
to
give back, but since starting school…”

I shrugged and looked down. We sat side by side, both turned toward the street. “I was going to
only
be friends with them and make a point of giving them whatever they needed. But all that went out the door when Logan sat next to me in sociology. Somehow, and I truly have no idea how, he’s become my friend.” I gazed over at her. “And having said all of that, yes; I’d love to have one more friend this year.”

People didn’t usually proclaim that they were going to be friends. But this felt like the most natural thing in the world.

“That’s great.” Sam smiled so warmly at me, then said, “And if you hurt him, I’ll become your worst enemy.”

My grin faltered. “Oh.”

Her smile grew and she never looked away, and just then, Logan came around the house. He lifted his arms in the air. “There you are. Let’s go get our bonfire going.”

Nate was behind him, and Sam stood up to meet them. Logan’s arm came down around her shoulders. He paused, waiting for me to stand. I still sat at the table, blinking for a moment. Sam’s threat wasn’t a threat. It was a promise, and as I looked up at her, an eerie shiver went down my spine.

“Come on, Sam,” Nate said. He touched her arm, pointing to the street. She broke away to go with him. “We’ll meet you guys back at the house,” Nate called as they left.

Logan nodded before turning back to me. “You okay?”