The Posse (17 page)

Jude made to The Tide it in time for
opening the next morning, but she wasn’t alone.

“Driving here with you is so
much better than running down on the beach,” Logan observed. “Not
that you’re not worth it.”

Jude slid him a sideways
glance. “Aha. So this sudden passion for running in the early
mornings wasn’t about my coffee, was it?”

He moved his hand off the
steering wheel to squeeze hers. “I love your coffee, but it was
more about seeing you.”

She laughed and then had to
stifle a yawn. “You know, I’m going to be totally worthless today.
And what am I going to say when Sadie and Mack ask where my car
is?”

“Here’s a thought. Tell them
the truth.”

“Oh, okay. I can hear it
now. ‘Sadie, my car is still at home in my garage because I spent
last night with Logan, at his house, having the most mind-blowing
sex of my life. Over and over again. And then he insisted on
driving me to my house so I could get clothes for today, and while
we were there, he jumped my bones again.’ Yeah, that’s going to go
over well.”

They rolled to a stop sign,
and Logan turned toward her, eyebrows raised. “The most
mind-blowing sex of your life? Really?” The grin on his face
couldn’t have been any smugger.

Jude rolled her eyes. “That
would be the one part you heard.”

“You could just say I gave
you a ride this morning. Let her draw her own conclusions.”

“Her own conclusions
wouldn’t be much different than what I just said.” Jude leaned her
head back on the seat as Logan pulled into the parking lot. When he
took the keys from the ignition, she swiveled her eyes toward
him.

“You know it’s not that I’m
ashamed of anything we did, right? I’m not trying to hide it. It’s
just going to take some time for me to get used to the idea.”

Logan leaned across and
brushed his lips over her mouth. “I know. It’s going to be weird at
first, but we’ll get through it.”

“Part of me wants to keep it
quiet because...it feels good to have something that’s just ours.
But I know realistically that doesn’t work in the Cove, let alone
with...oh, my God, Logan! The posse. What are they going to
say?”

Logan glanced away. “They’ll
be fine. They want you to be happy, Jude. They’re our friends.”

“I know you’re right, but
still. Don’t you think they’ll be a little surprised? A little
shocked?”

Shrugging, Logan climbed out
of the car. “We’ll cross that bridge. Too early to think about it
this morning.”

It was oddly comfortable to
have Logan with her as she unlocked the door. She was used to
meeting him at the restaurant each morning, but walking in
together, having spent the night in his arms, offered a different
level of intimacy.

“This is nice.” Jude went
through her normal routine while Logan made coffee. “If I had known
how good you were at opening a restaurant, I might have hired you
years ago to take over for me.”

“About that.” Logan turned
and leaned against the counter. “I was thinking. Have you
considered hiring someone to open for you a few mornings a
week?”

Jude frowned. “No. Why would
I?”

He tugged her flush to his
body and kissed her. “Because I’m not as young as I used to be, and
after a night of mind-blowing sex, to quote you, I might not always
want to get up at the crack of dawn. And I’m damned sure not
staying in bed while you come in and do it, so get that thought
right out of your head.”

Jude pulled away and stuck
her tongue at him over her shoulder. “But this is my thing. I
always open the Tide.”

“Yep, I know. But things can
change, Jude. You and I are living examples. I’m not asking you to
turn your life upside for me, but wouldn’t it be nice to travel a
little? Spend a week in Napa? Or go to Italy?”

She took out the eggs and
tilted her head, considering. “I’ve wanted to do that. I always
thought eventually I would. Daniel and I--” She broke off and
turned her back to Logan.

“Hey.” He rubbed her
shoulder. “Don’t do that. You never worried about bringing up
Daniel in front of me before. Don’t do it now.”

“I feel...I don’t know. Kind
of funny. Not like I’m cheating on him, though I thought I might
feel that way. But like it would be easier for you if we pretended
I didn’t have a past.”

“Jude, if it weren’t for
Daniel, you and I wouldn’t have each other. I’m grateful to him.
He’s still my best friend, and he’s still your first love. Nothing
is going to take him away, and it shouldn’t.”

Tears filled Jude’s eyes,
and she smiled through them. “Thanks. I needed to hear that.”

“I want us to talk about
him. Hell, if I know Daniel, he’s grinning now. At the very least,
I think given everything else, he’d give us his blessing.”

“I hope so. I know he wanted
me to be happy. He told me that. But I told him there wasn’t ever
going to be another love for me.” She twisted to look up at Logan
again. “Do you think that makes me a liar?”

He kissed the tip of her
nose. “No, I think that makes you human. What else would you say?
And when your husband is dying, I would think the last thing you
want to think about is starting over.”

“True.” Jude wiped off the
counter next to the range. “You know what I said a little bit ago?
About the most mind-blowing sex of my life? That wasn’t just to
inflate your ego, you know.” She bit her lip and leaned a hip
against the fridge.

“Daniel and I had a
wonderful life. And things in that area were really terrific.” She
met Logan’s eyes. “We’d been together for so long, so many years.
There were rough times, sure, but in the last few years, with the
kids grown and so many pressures off, it was really good.”

He nodded.

“But last night was
incredible, Logan. Feeling wanted again was amazing. Feeling
desirable. And feeling that way with someone who has been like a
best friend to me for so long, too—it was icing on the cake.”

Logan grinned. “Don’t you
mean whipped cream on my--”

“Stop!” She swatted his arm
as the blush crept up her face. He caught her hand and pulled her
close again, pausing for just a moment to look into her eyes before
he kissed her thoroughly.

They were lost in the kiss,
in each other, when Jude heard a loud throat clearing, and Sadie’s
voice rang out from across the room.

“What’s that you’re doing in
my kitchen?”

They jerked apart, more out
of surprise than anything else. Mack stood back, his face pink and
embarrassed humor in his eyes. Sadie, on the other hand, looked
from Jude to Logan expectantly.

“Well? Which of you is going
to tell me what’s happening here?”

Logan leaned down to drop
one more kiss on Jude’s lips. “As much as I’d love to stay and fill
you in, I need to get to work. I missed a lot of time yesterday.”
He rounded the bar and kissed Sadie’s cheek as he passed her, and
then clapped Mack on the shoulder.

“Good luck, man.”

Jude busied herself whipping
eggs in the large bowl. “Everything is ready. I think the coffee’s
done. You want me to make you up a cup?” She couldn’t quite meet
Sadie’s eyes.

“Mack, take this rag and go
wipe down the deck tables.” The older woman snagged a towel from
the hook.

“But I thought I’d have some
coffee.”

“Get going. I’ll make it up
and bring some out to you.”

Grumbling all the way, Mack
took the rag and went outside.

“Now you.” Sadie came into
the kitchen and crossed her arms over her chest. “You have
something you need to tell me?”

“Hmm?” Jude wondered if
playing dumb would buy her any time at all. Good God, where were
her normal early bird diners? Anyone who might distract this old
woman, who had been a second mother to her and had fixed her with
beady eyes.

“How long has it been going
on?”

Jude gave up. “Not long.
Just—the night before last. He came in right after Joseph left, to
make sure I was okay. And I had a little limoncello, and then. .
well, you know what they say. One thing led to another...”

“Is it serious? Or are you
two—what do they call it now? Friends with benefits?”

“Sadie!” Jude shook her head
in shock. “Where do you pick up this stuff? No. Well, not really. I
mean, we’re still friends, but it’s more than benefits.” She
twisted the edge of her shirt between her fingers. “Sadie, he says
he loves me. That he’s in love with me.”

For the second time in two
days, Sadie’s eyes filled with tears. She pressed her lips together
and nodded. For a moment, neither of them spoke, and then Sadie
patted Jude’s arm.

“Honey, no one deserves it
more. And I hope he knows it. I’ve known both of you since you were
gangly young things. I love you both. So I hope you make each other
happy.”

She sniffled and yanked a
paper towel from the rack to blow her nose loudly. “Now look what
you’ve done. You’ve got me bawling again, like a crazy old woman.
We’ve got no time for this. Give me those eggs, and you take that
dotty old man outside a mug of coffee before he drops.”

Jude felt all day as though
she were floating. Sadie and Mack seemed to have called some kind
of truce, either in deference to Jude or maybe even inspired by
romance in the air. Jude hid a smile when she spied Mack pinch his
wife’s backside as he passed her. Love, young, old or somewhere
in-between, was a beautiful thing.

They had a steady flow of
customers, but nothing so challenging that it distracted Jude from
her memories of the night before. A few of her regulars commented
that they were glad she seemed to be feeling better.

“You’ve been looking a
little peaked, honey,” remarked one of the crusty old fishermen who
stopped for beer in the early afternoon, after being up and out on
the water since before dawn. “But today you looked all perked up.
Got you a nice little glow.”

Jude smiled and patted his
shoulder. “Thanks, Ernie. Aren’t you a sweet one?”

The cell phone she always
kept in her back pocket buzzed, and she smiled when she pulled it
out, seeing Logan’s name on the screen.

“Do you miss me?” she asked,
slipping out onto the deck, where it was quiet and empty.

“You know it.” His voice was
husky. “How is your day so far?”

“Good.” She stepped into the
sunshine and tipped back her face to feel the warmth. “How about
you?”

“Excellent. How could a day
that began like mine did be anything but?”

Jude laughed. “Okay. So
what’s up? Or was this—what would Sadie call it, a booty call?”

“I wish. No, I forgot to
tell you that I got word from the contractor, the B and B is ready
for a walk-thru. If everything’s a go, we can begin having the
furniture brought in this weekend. Right on schedule for opening in
two weeks.”

“Oh, that’s great, Logan.”
She turned in the direction of the sunny yellow house  as
though she could see it through the Tide. “When do you want to do
it?

“I thought we could meet
there after work and go through it then. I’ll make you dinner
after, if you want. Either at my house or yours.”

The idea of having someone
to plan with, to be accountable to again, made Jude smile.

“That would be perfect. What
time?”

“Will five-thirty work? I
can be there by then, and Emmy takes over at five tonight,
right?”

“Yup, sounds good.” Jude
turned to lean against the railing of the deck. “I’ll see you
then.”

“Okay. I love you.”

He hung up before Jude could
reply. Standing above the beach, feeling the salt air and hearing
the roar of the sea, she was once again a teenager, hugging a phone
to her chest and dreaming of the boy she loved.

Because she did love Logan.
She had been sure of it, almost from the first time he kissed her
only two nights before, but it hadn’t sunk in until this morning in
the kitchen, when he had spoken of Daniel, of him always being part
of their lives. It struck her then that she could never love
someone who didn’t accept that Daniel would always be in her heart.
They had shared decades, a marriage, children, a life and a death.
Nothing could destroy that, and ignoring it would be somehow
cheapening what they had.

Thinking of her children,
Jude realized that she and Logan still had a few hurdles to jump.
They had to break the news not only to Meghan and Joseph but to
their own friends, as well. They had to tell the posse before
someone else did.

Joseph called later that
afternoon to check in, tell her more about Lindsay and what a
terrific mother she was, and how smart and beautiful their baby
was. Jude listened and put in a word here and there, but she didn’t
say anything about Logan. There would be time, and it was something
she would prefer to do in person, after Joseph had recovered a
little from his last big shock. These few days had been an
emotional ride. Though she could see the blessings now, her heart
was still a little tender.

After he hung up, Joseph
texted her pictures. When Jude saw the one of her son holding his
son, she couldn’t help it. She sat down and burst into tears.

***