Just One Night (Black Alcove #2) (16 page)

“And why not?”

“Are we really having
this conversation?”

“You spend more time
with him, and he has a solid head on his shoulders.”

“He lives here. I
didn’t plan to be around him more. It’s just the way it happened.
He’s the assistant in a bar, Dad. Let’s not go giving out awards
just yet.”

“All I’m saying is
that you spend more time with him than you do Logan, and I think
there is a reason for that.”

“Yeah, because you
always schedule for Liam to go to Wind Valley and not me. You have it
planned perfectly to keep us apart. If anyone is to blame right now,
it’s you for keeping us apart.”

“I’ve done no such
thing. If Logan wants to be with you, he wouldn’t care what I tell
him to do.”

I sigh into the phone,
hoping the noise alone will the get the point across that I am done
with this conversation.

“Dad, I have to go
now.”

I hang up the phone
before he can reply and dial Logan’s number immediately. The only
way we are going to fix this is if we talk about it. It’s already
been two days and, as unpleasant as this conversation is going to be,
we need to have it.

“Hello?” a female’s
voice answers Logan’s phone.

“Um, hi, is Logan
around?”

Who’s
answering his phone?

“Uh, he’s busy
right now,” she says, and when she giggles, the noise going right
through my ear and crunching my heart, I know exactly who it is.

Abby.

That
bitch.

I end the call,
storming out of my apartment. I need a distraction and leaving my
phone—the one I had to buy because I couldn’t find my old one—on
the couch is a perfect one. For someone who thinks responsibility is
important, I can’t seem to keep a cell phone longer than a couple
of months.

I head out the door and
straight for The Silver Tap, because really, where else am I going to
go?

Throwing the door open,
I’m shocked to find Liam there. He’s behind the counter and has
almost the entire back wall marked with labels of where everything
should go. I stand there, frozen. He glances behind him, giving me a
sad smile.

“Another idea of
Logan’s,” he says quietly and shrugs.

I sigh, completely
defeated by my life right now. I’m too young for this. Knowing your
future should be easier than this.

“So, hey, I know
what’s going on by the look on your face, and I think I should tell
you something. If you hate me when I’m done and want to fire me,
I’ll fully understand.”

I raise one eyebrow as
he piques my interest. I wait, but he doesn’t say anything right
away.

“Well?” I ask. Why
can’t anyone I know communicate like a normal, person anymore?

“When I was in Wind
Valley last weekend, your father invited me over for dinner.”

I roll my eyes.
Of
course he did.

“During dinner he
made a comment about how he’s extremely proud of you and everything
you’ve done down here, but he is worried about you.” Liam takes a
cautious step toward me. His eyes don’t leave mine. “He suggested
that I invite you out because no one visits and all your friends back
home are still having fun. He was afraid he was taking that away from
you. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”

I sniffle and blink
back the tears. I know exactly what happened.

“I swear I thought it
was innocent. Even when he made the comment about how disappointed he
was that certain people weren’t making the effort to see you. I
never put two and two together. Not until you did come out and Logan
showed up, and now you’re—I don’t even know what you are.”

“We’re on a break,
you could say,” I whisper.

“I never realized how
much your dad was pushing this.”

“I did,” I say.
Liam looks at me with confusion.

“You knew?”

I nod. A tear slips and
I wipe it away. I should have never let go of that hunch so easily.

“Well, that’s
great!” Liam says with excitement. “Then it was all your dad and
had nothing to do with you and Logan. You can end your break now.”

“No, we can’t.”
Another sniffle. “Knowing this makes it worse. It means I didn’t
trust Logan. It means that my father knew how to play us against each
other and we weren’t strong enough to get through it. We should be
strong. I should have known. Now everything is a mess, and I don’t
know how to fix it.”

My shoulders shake as I
cry. Liam steps around the bar, hugging me awkwardly.

“It’s going to be
okay. Breakups suck, but eventually you move on.”

I take a breath,
releasing it slowly when he says “breakup.”

Returning to his spot
behind the bar, Liam watches me with concern.

“I don’t know what
to say, but I think everything will work out. Just give it time.”

Biting my bottom lip, I
nod and get up. I thought being away from my apartment would help,
but anything is better than having to talk about it. Being alone is
exactly what I need.

Logan

Clara looks up at me
with her big, brown eyes and another bubble of spit forms on her
lips. Her legs twitch, landing stick straight before she curls back
up and a smile appears. Then she spits up all over me. It’s nasty,
but I laugh anyway.

“Here, take this.”
Ethan hands me the spit-up towel from Clara’s baby bag. Kelsey
laughs and Abby joins her. A flash in her hand reminds me that I
asked her to answer my phone because I was too busy playing with
Clara.

“Who was it?” I
ask. Kelsey pulls Clara out of my arms and the spit starts to run
down my shirt.
Gross.

Abby’s smile drops,
she shrugs, and looks away. “I think it was Sara, but I didn’t
recognize the number.”

My head jerks up and I
push off the couch toward her.

“Why didn’t you get
me?” I grab my phone off the counter and look up in time to find
Ethan whispering something to Kelsey. They both freeze when they
catch me looking.

“What number is she
calling from?”

They shrug in unison.
Right, they have no idea.

I hit redial and head
down the hall to my bedroom. I don’t want to have this conversation
in front of anyone. There’s going to be a lot of groveling on my
side, and they don’t need to witness it. The ringing ends and her
voicemail picks up.

“It’s Sara, leave a
message.”

“Hey, it’s me. Call
me.”

I sit on the edge of my
bed and wait. The memory of when I broke up with her high school
comes to mind. I’d left her house and went straight to the field
looking for a fight. I found one, took out some stress, and went home
to call Sara and tell her I was wrong. I left her a voicemail then,
too, asking her to call me back. She never did.

Twenty minutes later, I
call her again. Abby answering my phone was a bad idea. I seem to be
having a lot of those lately, and I need to get it together. The call
goes to voicemail again. This time I don’t leave a message. I just
hang up and pray things are different and this time, she will call me
back.

Sara

Four hours is how long
it takes me to drive back to Wind Valley. I don’t want to be here
right now. One week isn’t long enough and I need more time to
think, but I want more than anything to be in town with Kelsey on her
repeated biggest day ever. Facing Logan at the reception is a small
price to pay. My fear now is that I’ll see him before I’ve
completely thought out what I’m going to say. I’ve thought about
it all day every day and more on the drive, but I still got nothing.

The bathroom door to
the hotel suite where Kelsey and I are getting ready opens slowly as
she steps out. A smile takes over her face as she holds out her arms.

“You look freaking
amazing,” I say, touching a strand of her hair. She colored it a
shade darker today, got a spray tan, and is now ready to go in a
white and gold sheath dress with sparkling gold heels.

“You don’t think
it’s too much?” she asks, glancing at herself in the mirror.

We make eye contact
through our reflections, and even though my heart is breaking inside
for Logan and me, it has room to be happy for Kelsey and Ethan.

“I think you look
perfect. Ethan has no clue how good he has it.” I force a smile and
start to fidget with my hair. Everyone is waiting for Kelsey and
Ethan to show up downstairs. Which means for me, I’ll need to head
down before her, and even though I’ll be in a room full of people
I’ve known for years, I don’t want to have to make small talk
with any of them.

I’m only
twenty-three. I still have my whole life ahead of me. A whole life to
make bad choices, make mistakes, and get to know people outside of
Wind Valley. Yeah, so I’ve been to more countries than most people
my age, but that was all luck and a lot of me being spoiled by my
father’s money.

“I still have you and
Logan sitting next to each other. Is that okay?” Kelsey asks, and
there’s no mistaking the concern etched in her voice. I look away
and grab some gloss.

“I honestly thought
you two would be talking again by now.” She frowns.

Me
too.

“Yeah, of course.
It’s completely okay.” I pop my lips together. I don’t want to
think about Logan just yet. “Are we ready to go?”

Right as Kelsey opens
her lips to answer, a crazy concocted knock at the door stops her. We
smile. That’s the knock she told Ethan to use. I give her a quick
hug and head for the door, laughing at the disappointment Ethan’s
face takes on when I step out of the room.

“She’s coming,
lover boy. Hold your pants,” I say, patting him on the shoulder and
continuing on my way.

The reception room is
huge with white, red, and gold all over. People are everywhere,
sitting, eating, and drinking. The music hasn’t started, but the
chatter in the room fills the silence in my head. I glance around,
searching for my parents or anyone else I may want to avoid. I don’t
need any surprises. If I spot Logan first, then I will always know
where he’s at, and from there, I can successfully avoid him at all
points during the night. If I time it right, I can get through dinner
putting up with a maximum of only ten minutes of awkward talking
time.

Abby’s annoying
laughter catches my attention from across the room. I glare at her
and then immediately feel guilty. Technically, there’s no proof she
and Logan are anything more than friends. Just because she answered
his phone and is still living in his apartment doesn’t mean
anything
. I hope.

Abby’s my friend and
she has been since we were kids, but she was also Kelsey’s friend
back when she fooled around with Tyler, Kelsey’s ex-boyfriend. The
woman has got to know that even though we’re friends, a part of me
doesn’t trust her with Logan. Yet she’s still always around him
and I’m always questioning why I’m still friends with her.

My eyes remain focused
on her as she talks to a group of people I recognize but can’t
quite name when Logan walks up behind her. Abby smiles at him and
then pops her hip out, giving him a pouty face. She adjusts his tie,
he smiles at her, and then she straightens his coat before winking at
him and walking away.

That sure looks like
some damn couple behavior to me.

Logan

“Logan, seriously,
Sara isn’t going to fall head over heels for you all over again if
you walk in there with a crooked tie and a wrinkled jacket,” Abby
says, straightening my tie. “And would it kill you put a freaking
smile on your face? We all know you’re sad, but nobody died and
it’s time you start to act normal again.”

She does a poor attempt
to remove the wrinkles on my coat. I flash her my best smile, maybe a
bit of an exaggerated one, to show her I’m trying.

“Ugh, whatever. That
will have to do. Now get out of here and go find her before she
catches you standing here and assumes the worst.”

“No shit,” I say,
my eyes widening when I realize I said it out load.

Abby winks at me. “Just
don’t mess it up this time.”

Trust me, no one wants
to make this work out more than I do. The group Abby had been talking
to slowly moves away from me. I stuff my hands into my pants pockets
and my gut practically lunges into my throat when I see Sara watching
me from across the room. Her eyes are big and beautiful but filled
with sadness. There’s no doubt in my mind that I put that glazed
expression on her face just now.

Never taking my eyes
off of her, I take a step in her direction. She shakes her head and I
stop. Then she walks away.

“Well, I’d say
you’re off to fabulous start. Don’t you think?”

I groan, rubbing the
back of my neck at Conner’s words.

“Yeah, man, real
winner right here.”

“I’m just going to
toss this out here, but I’m starting to pick up on the fact you and
Sara have communication issues. It looks like you two can’t even
make it through ‘a look’ without getting the wrong impression.
And just now, you did exactly what she wanted. You stopped after she
told you ‘no.’ We both know she assumes something is going on
between you and Abby. We both
also
know that’s not the case, but instead of talking
about it, you two just let the situation get worse.”

Who’d have expected
that much wisdom from Conner? It’s so deep, I have to pause and let
it soak in, especially the part about how I’m making this worse.
Nah, I’m not doing that. It’s no secret Sara and I have never
mastered this communication thing. He takes a swing of the beer in
his hand.

“That’s your
fucking cue, man. Follow her and don’t take no for an answer until
she talks to you. Either that or end it.” His raises his left brow
as he pushes me forward.

“Fuck, okay. I know
what I need to do, but I also know Sara.”