The bulb on the porch threw just enough light so that Logan saw Melody's reaction to Shane's comment.
Son of a bitch.
She thought he'd slept with Tiffany last night.
After what they'd shared in that cloak room?
What did she take him for?
Wait a minute. What did he take her for? Suppose she had an explanation for last night.
Nah.
No man in his right mind could spend the night with Melody without making love to her. But he had,
hadn't
he, after the fire? Damn. "What time did your company finally leave this morning?" he asked, ticked he was showing his colors.
Melody turned to Shane. "How about we go trick-or-treating around four-thirty tomorrow?"
Annoyed, she wasn't giving anything away, Logan shook his head. "How about we stop with the tricks and give with the treats," he said, miffed he was reduced to playing word games instead of coming out and asking her if she'd slept with Westmoreland. And why did he think she wouldn't have, after her reference to being primed?
"Four-thirty, it is," Melody said. "See you then." She went into her apartment, winked, and shut her door, while Logan stood there watching, expecting… something.
"Hey, Dad?"
Shane stood waiting at the top of the stairs for his dumbstruck father to unlock the apartment door.
IN a kilt, Logan
Kilgarven
fed every woman's erotic fantasy, times three. Melody moved her gaze from his splendid physique, cute knees, wide shoulders, and that lock of hair falling on his brow, and she shook her head. Just as well the world conspired to keep them apart. Maybe it was good karma, not bad, that kept them from consummating the kind of lust she'd never before experienced, a lust driving her to distraction.
Surely she was supposed to stay away from him, she thought, even as the scent of wintergreen and cloves surrounded her. He touched her back, and indicated that she should precede him up the steps.
Shane rang Jessie's doorbell as a few stray goblins joined them on the porch. Jess and her retired district attorney friend answered together, all smiles, as they handed out treats to the goblins and watched them leave. "I put some special Halloween goodies together for Shane," Jess said, handing Shane a huge plastic pumpkin filled with more than her treat basket beside the door held for the rest of the neighborhood.
"Cool," Shane said. "Hey, this has little wrapped presents in it.
Wicked cool."
He stood on his toes to kiss Jessie's cheek. "
Thanks,
Jess."
"Open them later," Jessie said. "And don't eat too much. And you two," she snapped, raking the Scotsman and the Witch with a disapproving once-over. "All I can say is, wise up, will you?
Sheesh
!"
She kissed Shane's head and Melody's cheek. Then she confiscated Mel's broom and smacked Logan's shoulder a good one.
"Idiot."
"Ouch! Hey!" He grabbed the broom in self-defense, teetered, and nearly fell off the porch. "What did you do that for?"
"To knock some sense into you," Jessie said, winking at Shane and shutting her door.
All the way to the next house, Logan complained about "judicial brutality," Shane riffled through his pumpkin, and Melody laughed.
After they trick-or-
rreated
through the immediate neighborhood, they got in Logan's car and drove to their parents' new house. Phyllis gave Shane a video game, instead of candy, and she gave Melody a kiss, and her son, a disgusted shake of her head.
"Why is everybody so pissed at me?" Logan asked as they drove away.
"Who knows?" Melody said, almost as puzzled, though way more entertained, pretty certain his mother and Jess had talked, and that both were annoyed because he'd taken Tiffany and not her to the ball. "Let's go to the Common and watch the witches form a circle. I want to see some of my own kind," Melody said, entertained by Logan's double take.
Chapter Nineteen
JESSIE had recently told Melody about Logan's early concern over the "witch" gossip, and since she was still annoyed with him for not coming home with her after the ball, she had decided to taunt him, just for fun.
On the drive to Salem Common, Melody realized that her actions on the night of the ball were not much better than his. She had used Brian to keep her company, at the least, to get back at Logan for not coming home with her, at the most. And though she'd enjoyed Brian's company, they would never be anything more than friends. Fortunately, Brian knew it, too.
In the center of the city, with street parking banned, traffic moved at a snail's pace while everybody looked for a spot to park. Logan used his pass to get them into the WHCH parking garage, and they walked the few blocks to the Common, but the spectacle in progress made the trek worthwhile.
Though most Salem witches would form their circles in private, closer to
, there were often one or more groups who enjoyed forming circles in the Common earlier Halloween night for the benefit of the tourists. A black-robed figure swaying and chanting in one of the circles recognized Melody right away and invited her to join them.
Melody thanked her for the invitation and remained with Logan and Shane, but the woman had drawn the attention of the WHCH news crew filming the circles, and they came over for a quick interview.
At first they focused on their own Kitchen Witch, dressed appropriately for the occasion, which would give the show a nice boost, but then they turned their cameras on the small bespectacled wizard they knew Melody kept in day care.
"Are you going to eat all that candy tonight?" the reporter asked Shane, who was, at that moment, selecting a monster chocolate bar from Jessie's pumpkin.
Shane shook his head and looked up at Logan. "Dad won't let me. Will you, Dad?"
The reporter about swallowed his tongue before he continued, but the
videographer
kept shooting, and wasn't that the spot they aired the following noon?—Melody
Seabright
, their own Kitchen Witch, with the wizard she kept in day care calling the WHCH TV producer "Dad."
At about seven minutes past
, Tiffany came shrieking into their office. Since half the station had been gossiping, making jokes, and asking questions since dawn, Melody figured Tiffany must just be getting into work.
Melody picked up her coffee cup. "Must have missed the break room gossip-fest," she said to Logan before she chose a ringside seat for the "Tiffany in a Temper Show."
Logan poured himself a bracing glass of scotch.
Tiffany's tirade ended with a flat: "I can't believe you married that woman."
"Oh goody, I've graduated. I'm 'that woman' now. I'm so proud."
"Can it, Mel." Logan turned to Tiffany.
"Melody.
Her name is Melody, and no, Tiff, I didn't marry her."
Tiffany gasped. "Then your son is illegitimate?"
Logan took a furious step in Tiffany's direction, making Daddy's girl step back, way back, until she stood safe behind a desk.
And well she should
, Mel thought.
Logan reined in his temper, more or less. "Don't you ever label my son
again.
"
"Here, here," Melody said, lifting her coffee cup.
Tears filled Tiffany's eyes.
"Weeping crocodile, stage left," Melody warned.
Logan gave her a look, while Tiffany bristled and made a show of ignoring her. "I'm sorry, Logan. I… realize how bad that sounded.
Truly.
I'm just so shocked, and… hurt, that you didn't tell me."
"Get real," Melody said.
"Mel," Logan warned.
"Don't you know a flaming case of crocodile tears when you see one?"
Logan took Tiffany's arm and led her toward the door. "This is no place to talk. Let me take you somewhere later.
Somewhere private where we can discuss this… over dinner?"
"Where?"
Melody heard the victory behind the pout in Tiffany's question, and suspected Logan did, too.
"Your choice," Logan said.
"How about
Liberty
Station?"
Melody mentally rolled her eyes at Tiffany's pricey choice.
"Okay, sure.
Tonight at seven?"
Tiffany sniffed and smiled. "I'd like that."
When Logan came back into the office, Melody shook her head. "Being nice to that woman is like feeding a baby shark so it can grow big enough to eat you."
"She's Max's daughter."
"Who you should never have dated in the first place.
Jessie's right, you know."
"About what, precisely?"
Melody regarded the ceiling, aware that sooner or later Logan would remember Jess calling him an idiot as she whacked him with her broom the night before.
"Gee, thanks," Logan said, two beats later.
AS Logan left Shane with Melody that night, he planned to end this thing, whatever it was, with Tiffany. Perhaps if he explained his initial interest in her as a misplaced search for a mother for his son—which was true—she'd see that he'd never really wanted her for
himself
, anyway. Women wanted to be wanted for themselves, not for their maternal instincts.
In a lot of ways, the excuse was lame, he knew, but it was the best he could come up with, without turning Tiffany's powerful ire toward Melody.
Liberty Station, an old art deco train station, now a landmark Victorian restaurant, overlooked
"I adore this place," Tiffany said as the waiter left them with menus.
"I'm glad," Logan
said,
loathe to point out that she should, since it was clearly the most expensive restaurant this side of Boston.
"Wrong answer," Tiffany said, attempting to charm him with a pout. "You're supposed to say that you adore me."
Ah. She expected him to follow like a lapdog wherever she led. But he'd failed obedience school. "You might have noticed, Tiffany, that I'm not very good at saying or doing the right things. Right, according to you, that is."
"We all have our flaws," she said. "We can work on yours."
Logan
smiled,
grateful she'd helped strengthen his resolve to break it off. "Before we order," he said, "let me settle a few issues for you and get us on the same… wavelength."
"Go ahead, darling. I've been… tuned in all along."
Logan ignored the endearment and told her about his struggle for Shane's custody and his concern about station day care ruffling administrative feathers on the new job. He explained how Melody got Shane in without a ruffle.
Tiffany made a sound of pure pleasure, as if he'd given her one of those gaudy diamonds she liked so much. "So Shane isn't Melody's at all? I've never been so glad of anything in—" She bit her lip, her relief short lived. "Wait, why would Melody get him into day care? Why spend Halloween together?"
"Because my son adores her."
"How does he even know her?"
Logan took a sip of water, the words, "none of your damned business" teetering at the tip of his tongue. He placed his glass on the linen tablecloth. "Melody is our downstairs neighbor. Shane loves to spend time with her."
"Oh… but that can be fixed."
Whether she referred to the location of his home or the time Shane spent with Mel, Tiffany's statement bothered Logan a great deal. He could see the selfish wheels of manipulation turning. "Before you start trying to fix things, Tiff, hear me out."
"Sure, but order us some champagne first, will you."
Logan sighed, shook his head, and signaled for the waiter.
When the champagne arrived, Tiffany offered a toast, "to us," but Logan purposely left his glass untouched, while he proceeded to reveal a future in which, he pointed out, Tiffany did not figure. "I want to stay in Salem," he said, "buy a house, mow my own lawn, have more children, and work hard to give them a good education. I want to share my life with someone who shares my interests and who doesn't care that I hate to shave on weekends. In other words, Tiffany, I'm not looking for a member of the country club set." There, that about said it all. She might even break up with him.
Tiffany became serious. Twice she began to say something, and twice she stopped, before bracing herself to speak. "You're not saying Melody is that woman?"
"No, of course not.
I want someone who sticks to something for longer than a month. You do understand where I'm going with this, don't you? You and I simply don—"
"Yes! Oh, Logan," she said. "Yes! Oh, yes!"
While Logan tried to make sense of Tiffany's skewed reaction, she pulled out her cell phone and hit speed dial.
"Daddy!
I'm getting married! But I'm quitting the country club."
Shit!
"Logan. I know.
Me, too.
Sure, here." Tiffany handed him the phone.
Like a fish out of water, Logan kept trying to speak but Max didn't give him a chance. Nevertheless, Logan heard the bottom line: Make my daughter happy, and you win; hurt her, and you lose. As Peabody hung up, Logan saw Shane's, and Melody's secure futures passing before his eyes.
Where had he gone wrong? Shit! "Tiffany," Logan said, avoiding her kiss to finish his drink.
"Tiff."
He grabbed her hands as she tried to place her arms around his neck. "You don't understand. I didn't mean to propose. I meant to—"
"I know this is not the most romantic place for a proposal," Tiffany said, "but it doesn't matter; I accept."
"You hear only what you want to hear, don't you, Tiff?"
Tiffany grinned. "It's called optimism, and right now, I'm hearing wedding bells."
Logan swore beneath his breath. "It's called stubborn. I'm not ready to get married," he said baldly.