Second Chance at Love (The MacKenna Born & Bred Trilogy) (21 page)

Logan watched Brooke from across the elegantly decorated
living room. The evening was a special occasion, as they were celebrating
Raelyn and Paul's thirty-second wedding anniversary.

Brooke stood between her parents, with one arm around her
mother's waist. She was smiling at something Raelyn said, and for the first
time in weeks, she actually seemed happy. It wasn't a forced smile, but one
that was completely genuine. Logan wondered what Raelyn had said to her that
put such a smile on her face, and the light back in her eyes. And he wondered
why it couldn't have been him.

She was beautiful. Logan had thought so from the time he was
about twelve, and had really begun to think that girls weren't actually so
gross after all. She'd become more and more beautiful to him with each passing
day, and just when he thought she couldn't awe him any more, she'd prove him
wrong.

He would never forget their first real kiss. They were
fourteen and he'd finally gotten up the nerve to tell her he liked her. Of
course, Brooke already knew. Even at a young age, she was intuitive. Or so
she'd told him. It was Christmas Eve, and they were on break from school. He'd
been trying to work up the courage all day to kiss her.  And when he least
expected it, she shoved him into the doorway that led from the dining room into
the kitchen. “Oh, look, we're underneath the mistletoe,” she said, glancing up.

And then she kissed him. Logan kissed her back, in the
sexiest, steamiest kiss that a fourteen year old boy could execute. He kissed
her until they were both breathless. When he drew back, she had a dazed look on
her face. He assumed he'd done it right. They spent a lot of time after that
practicing, every chance they got.

Logan smiled at the memory. He had many memories of the
wonderful things they'd shared over the years because there had been so many
great moments. There had also been some not-so-great moments, specifically
during the time of their break-up. He didn't want to remember those, though.
He'd spent years trying to forget that time in his life. And although he could
never forget, he could at least try to push it out of his mind. Especially
tonight.

Logan needed to do something. He wasn't sure yet what that
something was, but he needed to come up with something, and fast. The fact that
mid-August had crept up on them had him worried. Actually, panicked was a
better way to describe it. When he and Brooke had begun this
thing
, he
called it that for lack of a better word because she refused to call it a
relationship, he figured he had time. Enough time to make her feel for him all
that she used to. To make her love him again.

He'd been waiting for the day when she would realize it and
tell him what he needed to hear. But that day hadn't come. He'd felt it like a
jolt of lightning. In his heart he didn't believe, not for a second, that
Brooke had no romantic feelings for him. She was a hopeless romantic, at least
she always had been. He couldn't imagine that she would spend the past two
months in his life, in his bed, and not feel
something.
That just wasn't
Brooke. She needed emotion with intimacy. That's how she was made. She knew he
loved her. Even if he hadn't said the words, she still would have known. It
showed in everything he said, everything he did. Every look. Every touch. Even
in the past, he always made sure she knew exactly how much he loved her,
because he never wanted her to wonder.

She was afraid. That was it, in a nut shell. It wasn't that
she
wasn't
in love with him, it was that she was afraid of getting hurt
again. He understood that. What he needed to do now was convince her that he
would never hurt her again. Not ever. He knew it wouldn't be easy, and he was
running out of time. The end of August was only a couple of weeks away. He
would be destroyed if she left him again, and he wasn't too proud to admit it.

He'd been lost in his thoughts and hadn't realized that
Brooke was standing next to him, calling his name.

“Wow, that must have been some fantasy,” she said, with a
gleam in her eye. You're all flushed and jittery. “Were you thinking about me?”
she asked, in a soft, sexy voice.

He couldn't stop the huge grin that spread across his face.
“I was, as a matter of fact.” He reached out to touch her face. Her skin was so
soft and warm against his hand. “We need to talk,” he said, “but later.”

He needed to find out what was going on inside her, the
reason behind her intermittent sadness and depression, so that he could help
her. He also needed to make her see that he was crazy in love with her, and to
convince her of the amazing life they could have together.

She looked serious now. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah.” She didn't seem convinced. “Or, it will be.” He
pulled her toward him and kissed her, a long, searing kiss that made her heart
tremble. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his
shoulder. Instinctively, he wrapped both arms around her waist and held her
tight. If felt so good, and so right.

Logan made his way through the first floor of Brooke's
parents' home searching for her. He'd been distracted by Mr. and Mrs.
Robertson, a middle-aged couple he'd known all of his life. They owned the
bakery in town, and had worked side by side for most of their lives making it a
respectable business. Mrs. Robertson baked the best banana bread he'd ever
tasted. It was nice to see that after all these years, they were still a happy,
loving couple. Their daughter, Sarah, had been running the bakery for the past
couple of years. Her banana bread was good, but not as good as Mrs.
Robertson's, and he whispered that little bit of information in her ear. She
laughed, and had a twinkle in her eye.

“Oh, you sweet talker. You MacKenna boys always did know how
to charm the pants off a girl,” she said, smiling.

She had no idea.

He smiled back. “Have you, by chance, seen Brooke somewhere
around here?” he asked.

“As a matter of fact, I saw her a few minutes ago, out back
with her sister. The two of them as pretty as a picture, sitting on the swing,”
she told him. “Why don't you just go on out and work some of that charm on her.
She looked like she could use it, my sweet boy,” she said, as she was called
away by someone in the adjoining room.

“Yeah, I'll do that,” he said, wondering what she meant by
that last comment.

It was half an hour later before Logan stepped out into the
refreshing night air. He'd spent most of the evening inside, and it had become
stifling with so many people occupying the same space. The last of Raelyn and
Paul's guests, with the exception of his family, had left, and he couldn't have
been more relieved. Everywhere he turned, he'd run into someone who wanted to talk
his ear off. Most of the time it wouldn't have bothered him, but all he wanted
was to get out of there with Brooke.

He stepped off of the deck and began making his way across
the wide expanse of lawn toward the massive maple that towered over the swing.
It was dark, the only light coming from the lamp posts that were placed
strategically throughout Raelyn's flower garden, which was on the opposite side
of the old tree. The lamp posts provided enough light to illuminate the swing
area, and he could see them, sitting side by side. They were deep in
conversation, and didn't hear him approaching. Brooke turned her head to look
at Karissa, giving him a good look at her side profile. The sorrow he saw on
her face, and the barely contained emotion in her voice, ripped at his heart.

“How can I even think about having a relationship with Logan
without first being completely honest with him?” Brooke looked at Karissa,
knowing how her sister felt about this, how she'd always felt.

“The two of you have a long history,” Karissa said
quietly.”  A complicated history.”

“Yeah, with as much sorrow as joy. With heartache and anger
and resentment. And distrust,” she added.

“That may be, but you've also shared much more than that.”

“I know. But I'm afraid that if I tell him, I'll lose him.”
Her voice broke a little. “We just found each other again.”

“Logan loves you, Brooke. You know that.”

“I do know that,” Brooke replied. “And I love him.” There,
she said it. She was surprised that she'd let the words slip, and thanked God
that Logan hadn't been the one to hear them. Somehow she imagined something
more when she finally told him, something romantic, something dramatic.

She thought she could control these feelings, just cut them
down, but she was wrong. Instead of spending the summer enjoying the no-strings
arrangement she'd claimed to want, she'd gone ahead and fallen head over heels
for the same man she'd closed out of her life, the man she vowed to forget at
any cost. And now, she couldn't imagine being without him, or living her life
without him for another minute. “I just hope that his love for me is strong
enough for us to make it through this.”

He knew it! At least he was pretty damn sure he did. But
hearing the words come from Brooke's lips made them real, and it gave him hope.

“So what are you going to do?” Karissa asked softly.

“The only thing I can do,” Brooke said. “I'm going to tell
him about the baby.”

Baby?
Logan's mind was trying to process what he had
just heard.
Brooke is pregnant?
The thought of Brooke being pregnant, of
her carrying his child, made his senses reel. They'd always talked about having
children. Well, before their relationship had fallen apart. He took a minute to
consider all of it. And what he came up with was absolute.

Because Brooke had been so stubborn and had been convinced
that this was only a temporary arrangement, they hadn't made plans for a future
together. But now that Logan knew of her true feelings for him, it changed
things. Given that they'd just recently found their way back to each other and
that their relationship was still delicate, having a child so soon would
probably not be ideal. But Logan didn't give a rat's ass about what was ideal.
If Brooke was pregnant then she was pregnant, period. They'd handle it. And he
had to admit that the thought of Brooke carrying his child appealed to him in a
way that he couldn't even explain.

But why would she not want to tell me about the baby?
he wondered.
 How could she think I'd leave her if I knew?
That made
absolutely no sense to him. It was crazy. He was about to make his presence
known, but what he heard next stopped him dead in his tracks.

It was Karissa who spoke. “You have to know, honey, that
he's probably going to need some time to process it. I mean, it's not every day
that the woman you love tells you that she gave birth to your child years ago
and never told you,” she said, soothingly. “It's not going to be easy for him
to hear, or to accept.”

Brooke sighed deeply. “I know it isn't, and the last thing I
want to do is hurt him, but he has a right to know,” she said. “I have to tell
him, tonight.”