Sweet Resolve (The Lucky #2) (6 page)

CHAPTER EIGHT

Amy stormed in her front door and felt a little better after slamming it behind her. Knowing no one was around to hear or see her tantrum didn’t stop her from feeling satisfied either.

Because of Logan, she’d spent her entire day off at the office, working. Now, not only was she annoyed, but she was tired and hungry as well.

Since the office only had a small vending machine filled with every sugary snack known to man, she had skipped lunch. Of course it had been hard to resist a quick treat, and at one point, she had stood in front of the machine and cursed herself for gaining five pounds last winter.

She always gained weight during the colder months of Colorado’s winters. She supposed it was her body’s way of trying to go into hibernation by telling her to eat all those holiday treats everyone always brought into the office. She struggled to lose the weight every spring no matter how many times she promised herself she’d cut out the sweets.

It had taken all her willpower to walk away from the snack machine and nibble on the granola bar she’d stocked in her desk drawer instead. But now, as she was mentally running through other food options, her doorbell rang.

Thinking it was Kristen, she called out, “Come in,” as she walked back into her kitchen to scrounge up a meal.

Her head was buried deep in her fridge when she heard a man clear his throat behind her. She jumped and her hand knocked against the top shelf, dislodging a large bottle of wine she’d half drunk the night before. The bottle twirled a few times before finally tipping over and falling off the shelf onto her foot.

She found herself hopping up and down on one foot and holding her hurt hand to her chest. She glared at Logan, who was standing less than a foot behind her. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Are you okay?” He looked down at her foot as she continued to hop on the other one. “Here.” He walked over and took her arm and led her to a kitchen stool. “Sit.” He pushed her shoulders lightly until she fell back. Then he shocked her by pulling her bare foot up and rubbing his hand over the red mark.

“Ouch!” She tried to tug her foot away.

“It doesn’t appear to be broken,” he said, still looking down at her bruised foot.

“Of course it’s not broken.” She pushed on him, until he moved back. “Are you going to answer me?”

He leaned back and smiled at her. “I’m here to collect.”

“Collect what?” She frowned down at him.

“Your debt.” He finally released her foot and she felt a chill run up her leg from losing the warmth of his hands.

“Debt?” She blinked a few times.

“Dinner.”

She felt all the anger from the day before rush into her again. “You’ve got to be . . .”

“Unless you want to go back on a bet?” He stood up and leaned a little closer to her. She could smell his aftershave and for a moment she lost her train of thought.

Shaking her head, she swallowed hard and tried not to let how sexy he looked in a pair of worn jeans and a button-up shirt affect her.

“Good.” He held out his hand for her to take. She looked at it. His eyebrows rose as he waited for her to move.

“How did you find out where I live?” she asked, putting her hands together.

“I’m not stalking you. It’s a small town still. Besides, my uncle told me.”

She thought about it, then took his hand and let him help her stand up off the stool.

“How does your foot feel?” He looked down at it.

“Fine.” She wiggled her toes and was happy that most of the pain was gone. He walked over and picked up the bottle of red wine that had rolled toward her dishwasher.

“Nice.” He smiled down at the label. “How about we grab a bottle of this at Bono’s?”

Her stomach growled loudly at the thought of a large cheese pizza at her favorite Italian restaurant.

“My thoughts exactly.” He nodded to her feet. “You’ll want some shoes on first.” Since it had been her day off, she’d worn cotton capris and a light cream shirt. She walked over to slip on a pair of practical, but stylish shoes.

She didn’t own a pair of old jeans like the ones he was wearing. They looked as comfortable as her pants did, but his fit him a lot better. Not to mention that when he faced away from her, her eyes zeroed in on his butt and she had a difficult time looking away.

Damn, it was going to be hard having dinner with him while she was still trying to hate him so much.

Logan couldn’t concentrate on the short drive to Bono’s. He didn’t know how she still looked so fresh when she’d spent the entire day at the office working. Even when she’d been hopping up and down on one foot in her kitchen, she’d looked perfect. Her hair had fallen across her face in the frenzy, but she had still looked beautiful, flushed and breathless.

Something tugged at him to see if he could make her come undone a little. To see what she would look like with her hair messed up from his fingers, or better yet, fanned out on his pillow after a night of making love.

He shook his head and growled when he almost drove past the turn to the popular restaurant. He’d missed Bono’s while living in Cherry Creek. The small strip mall was in an older part of town, and Bono’s had been a staple there for as long as he could remember.

The pizza was some of the best he’d ever had. Although it was the good times he’d spent hanging out with his junior high buddies near the back of the dark restaurant that he remembered the most.

He threw his new Audi into park and before Amy could get out, rushed around to open her door for her.

As he helped her out of the car, he added, “I haven’t been here in years.” He opened the front door of the restaurant and the smells hit him, flooding his mind with even more good memories.

“How long have you been back in Golden?” she asked as they sat at a table near the back.

“Just the month.” He looked down at the menu.

“You haven’t been back since you left?” she asked, pushing her menu aside and leaning on the table, watching him.

“Nope. I kept meaning to come, but . . .” he sighed, “. . . l
ife just got in the way.”

She sat back when the waitress walked over and poured them each a glass of water. “Hey, Amy,” the teenager said.

“Hi, Rachelle.” She smiled up at the redhead.

“Do you guys know what you want?” she asked him.

“We’ll start with a bottle of red wine.” Logan watched Rachelle walk away to the bar to get their wine. “Not much in town has changed since I’ve been away.”

“Did you expect it to?”

He tilted his head and thought about it as his eyes ran over her slowly. When her face heated, he said in a low voice, “I had kind of hoped they’d fill in the pothole on Main.”

She took a drink of her water and he could see her color return to normal. “It’s been filled at least a dozen times in the same number of years. Each time we have a big snowfall, it sinks in again.”

“Go figure.”

“There’s the new statue along the Riverwalk.”

“I haven’t seen it yet.” He loved the Riverwalk in downtown Golden. It had been one of the best places he had escaped to as a child.

“I noticed it the last time I went canoeing.”

He couldn’t hide his interest. “You canoe?”

He wondered what other secrets she was hiding. It was hard to imagine her rushing down a Colorado river in a small boat. The wind and water spraying her face.

He leaned forward. “Maybe it’s about time I got back in the water myself.”

When the waitress walked up again, he looked over at Amy. “Large cheese okay with you?”

“As long as we start off with some cheesy bread. I’m starved.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Over the next few minutes, he asked her question after question about herself. Why she chose her career path. What schools she went to. More about the men she’d dated.

When he tried to get a little more out of her about her family, she closed up and started asking him questions.

All of which he answered willingly. She was playing the part of not knowing him well, so he figured he’d keep playing along with her game. He didn’t want to rock the boat too much, and chance spooking her so soon. He was amused when she started asking questions about his family and acting like she didn’t know that he had a younger sister or that his father had been away in the military for most of his childhood.

Just as he had always done as a child, he omitted the family secret: that his father would come home and beat him.

By the time their pizza was delivered, Amy was completely relaxed, enjoying their conversation. It was hard to imagine there was another side to Logan that she hadn’t seen before. She knew that she’d done a lot of growing up in the almost thirteen years since she’d seen him last, but she had never really thought about him changing as well. In her mind, Logan was still the bully with torn jeans from her childhood.

She could see how much he’d changed as she sat across from him in the small restaurant. His shoulders were broader than they had been in school. His face still looked the same, but he’d lost a lot of his childhood chubbiness. His chin was stronger looking, and the slight stubble he had on his face added a hint of danger. His arms were full of muscles that hadn’t been there before either. Not to mention that butt of his. She didn’t remember her mouth drooling at it before.

She watched him eat the pizza like it was the best thing on earth, and it was. She savored her slice just as much.

It surprised her to see that there was only one piece left by the time their bottle of wine was gone. She’d lost track of time while he joked about a few jobs he’d had in high school.

“So, that’s why I chose to be a Realtor.”

“Because you couldn’t flip burgers?” she joked.

“And, because I decided I couldn’t stand to know what happened to my food before it reached my table.”

She cringed. “Don’t remind me. I spent a summer waiting tables at the Mexican place down the street.”

“Something else we have in common.”

Her smile fell away and she frowned down at her empty wine glass. What was she doing? She’d let her guard down for a moment. This was Logan Miller. Her lifelong nemesis. The boy who had caused her more pain than all her ex-boyfriends combined.

For the remaining time in the restaurant, she sat back and listened to his stories, trying to figure out what his game was.

She thought of a few ways to test him, to see if he was pulling something but didn’t know if she had enough nerve to try any of them. That was until he brought up the Lufts. Then she had no problem testing the waters.

She listened to him explain how he’d sent the email out with her contact information, but it didn’t negate the fact that he’d gone behind her back.

Her opportunity arrived as they were walking out the door. Heather Kurtz happened to be walking into Bono’s on the arm of a man twice her age. Since graduating from college, Heather had been gold digging. Trying to find anyone who could keep her in her Versace and Valentino. So far, she’d gone through every man in town near her own age and had begun to move on to men twice her age. She was slowly making her way through the seniors and was currently wooing Mr. Wilkens, a local jewelry store owner, who for his part, seemed to be enjoying the extra attention he got by dating a younger woman.

“Heather.” Amy stopped just outside the doors. Normally, she wouldn’t have paused to hold the door open for the woman, but with Logan in tow, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see how he would react. She knew she would be outing herself, but at this point, the game was starting to get old. Heather glanced at her. No hint of recognition crossed the blonde’s eyes. “It’s me, Amy Wa—er, Amelia Craig.”

“Oh, yes.” She could still see the girl didn’t know who she was. Even after they had spent years together in the same school and even at one point played volleyball together. “How nice to see you again.”

“You remember Logan Miller?” Heather’s eyes traveled to Logan, who had just stepped out the door. Instantly, Amy regretted her actions when she saw Heather’s eyes heat and recognition spark.

“Logan!” The woman squealed before tossing herself into his arms. “When did you get back?”

Logan’s eyes moved over to Amy’s and Amy thought she saw fear behind the blueness.