Just One Night (Black Alcove #2) (17 page)

“Yeah, you knew
single my-career-is-my-life Sara Connelly.” His voice gets lower.
“This is I-found-love-in-a-relationship Sara Connelly. New woman.
Now go resolve this mess you’re in.”

Just hearing her name
puts a smile on my lips. I don’t think twice. I turn and head
straight for Sara. Unfortunately for me, she isn’t in the same spot
she was a moment ago. Now, she’s in front of the drink table with
Beth and she’s standing next to Abby.

I walk a little faster,
hoping Abby doesn’t make things worse.

Sara

“Logan is such an
amazing guy.”

I’m about ready to
vomit right here in front of everyone. I can’t even tell if Abby is
talking in a, I-love-him way or in a
you-need-to-know-what-you’re-missing way.

“He’s funny and
cute and smart and—”

“She knows,” Beth
interrupts her, and I hold back the cheer that is dying to slip from
my lips. Thank god she said something, because if it had been me, it
wouldn’t have come out so polite.

“Does she, Beth?”
Abby snaps. “Because if you ask me, she’s being selfish and
acting like a child.”

What the—?

“Oh, she’s acting
like a child? This coming from you? Really, Abby.”

“I’m not perfect, I
know this. But come on, what Sara’s putting Logan through is just
bullshit, and she needs to get her shit together before he leaves her
for someone else.”

Beth narrows her eyes
at Abby and steps forward. It’s like I’m not even here.

“Oh, and who
is
he supposed to end up with, huh? Who’s he going to pick—someone
like you?” Beth’s voice is quiet but still full of attitude. At
this point, I’d be less afraid if she were yelling.

“Well, I’m paying
more attention to him these days than her, so yeah, someone who
treats him better, like me, would be a great choice.”

This time, I speak up
before Beth can defend me again.

“Living with him has
only allowed you to see one side of the story, Abby. So unless you
play a bigger role in the fact we aren’t speaking, I think it’s
best if you just stop talking about it,” I say. I sound way more
calm than how I’d planned for that to come out.

“I’m just trying to
make you see—”

“I see just fine,
Abby. And what I see between the two of you doesn’t look good.” I
turn to leave because Kelsey and Ethan don’t deserve a scene like
this today. But I just can’t resist a peek over my shoulder. “And
if you really are trying to help him, you should probably stop
touching him so much. It isn’t helping him or you at all.”

I start to walk away
before I’ve fully turned back around and I smack right into a
chest— Logan’s chest. My breathing picks up immediately and I
swallow, pushing my lips together before I say something I don’t
mean. And maybe also because I miss him and from the way he’s
looking at me right now, smiling is what I really want to do.

I watch as his throat
bobs while he looks me over. We haven’t been this close to each
other in more than a week, not counting the night he showed up at
Liam’s apartment. We were too busy fighting then to enjoy the fact
we were together.

When neither of us
makes the motion to leave, Logan pins his eyes on mine.

“Would you two mind
giving us a minute?” he says.

Beth and Abby walk past
us without even a word or a glance. I break our eye contact, hoping
to find someone who will call my attention, giving me an excuse to
walk away right now. I could just do it—leave. But deep down I miss
Logan and I want to be near him. That’s the exact reason this whole
situation hurts so badly. I want him more than I could ever imagine,
but I don’t know if our being together is right for me anymore.

“Can we go somewhere
to talk?” My body absorbs his deep, smooth voice, and before I know
it, my head is bobbing and he’s taking my hand in his. I hear a few
whispers as we walk through the crowd, but I keep my head down so I
don’t have to see their faces. Logan leads us to a patio outside.
The warm summer air hits my skin, relaxing me.

“I’m so sorry. For
everything,” he says quickly, taking my hand. “For not trusting
you, for not giving Liam a chance, for driving down there and acting
like a total jackass. I was scared of losing you and because of that,
I’ve done nothing but push you away. The last thing I want is for
us to be where we are now. I want to make this work.” He kisses my
forehead and steps back to look me in the eyes. The pain I see in his
makes me look away and take a deep breath.

“Logan, I accept your
apology, but things are different now. I don’t know if it’s me or
if we rushed into this—”

“Rushed it?
Officially dating or not, we’ve been Sara and Logan for years.
There’s definitely no rushing.”

“And right when
things were great, we made a choice that we didn’t think through.”
All hope falls from his face. That wasn’t how I intended for that
to come out.

“You regret being in
a relationship with me?”

“No, I don’t.” I
shake my head and press my lips together to keep the bottom one from
shaking.
Don’t cry, Sara, not
yet.

“Yes, you do. Have
you heard what you just said? You think we rushed it and that we
didn’t make the right choice.”

I take a few choked
breaths before I answer.

“I never said it was
the wrong choice, Logan. I just—”

“Well, if it’s not
the right one, then what is it?” His voice cracks. I wish he were
mad right now. I could handle mad Logan, but heartbroken Logan eats
me to pieces.

I sigh and drop into
the wooden chair nearby. I’m not making any sense. If I don’t
even know what I want, how can I explain it to him?

“I’m sorry, Logan.
I really am. But I need more time to think about everything. A lot is
going on, and I thought the idea of you and me was going to be the
easiest thing in my life, but it’s not even close.”

“I’ll quit the
bar.”

“What?” My head
snaps up. Logan’s hands are on his hips as he stands in front of me
nodding. He kneels and takes my hands in his.

“We’re never going
to make this work if we’re in separate states. I’m quitting and
moving to Colorado. One of us needs to make a choice, because if
neither of us is willing to make sacrifices, then this is going to
blow up in our face.”

“So then, I’m the
selfish one for not coming back? I don’t want to be in a
relationship where it looks like I’m putting in half the effort,
just as I don’t want to be in a relationship where I’m not even
talking to my boyfriend.”

Tears sting in the back
of my eyes. I stand quickly and head for the doors before Logan sees
them.

“That’s it then?
Just like that, you don’t want to be together?”

“Jesus, Logan, is
that what I said?”

“Sure as fuck sounded
like it,” he growls.

“I just need more
time.” I have a full on waterworks display going now. “I’ll
call you when I’m ready. I promise.”

I let out a breath as I
finally grab the door knob.

“Sara, wait,” Logan
whispers behind me. “I love you.”

My heart crumbles.

“I love you, too,”
I say before stepping through the door and leaving without saying
goodbye to anyone.

* * *

“So, how’s life
treating you?” Liam asks when I enter the bar the next Wednesday
morning. Concern is written all over his face as he crosses his arms
over his chest.

Dandy.

“Great,” I tell him
instead and walk right past him. I have been avoiding him all morning
because every day when I get to work, he plays twenty questions,
trying to get me to talk about Logan. I won’t do it. I don’t want
to.

“Yeah, by the
sarcastic tone in your voice, I don’t believe you.”

“Believe whatever you
want, Liam. I’m the best I can be right now. My only focus now is
on preparing this bar for the opening. Who knows? If everything goes
well, I’ll even stay here, in Colorado—permanently,” I say more
for dramatic effect than anything. The chances of my actually moving
here are zero.

Andi, too, watches me
with worried eyes as I move calmly to the office. Her lips twitch
like she wants to say something, but instead, she looks away. Why
does everyone want to talk about this? I can’t even make up my own
mind, and yet I’m supposed to know what to say when anyone asks
about it.

I close the door and
drop onto the sofa, resting my head against the back. Why don’t I
have one of these in Wyoming? I really need a couch in my office at
the BA. I’m about five seconds into debating whether or not I want
to make the call and order one when Liam bursts through the door.

“We need to talk.”
He walks right in and stands over me. All hints of concern are gone.
He actually looks mad.

I groan. “Why does
everyone keep saying this to me? I don’t feel like talking to
anyone. I just want to be me and live my life right now. I don’t
want to worry about what’s going to happen between Logan and me. We
didn’t find a way to trust each other. Why is everyone missing
this?”

“Stop, stop—I get
it.” He holds up his hand.

“You do?”

“Yeah, but I was just
going to tell you that the tables and chairs finally arrived and,
well, they aren’t exactly what we ordered.”

I spring from my spot
on the sofa and push past him. Everything was going so smoothly. How
can I be running into a mess right now? If things get held up now,
I’ll have to push the opening back and then I’ll have to wait
even longer to see Logan.

Ugh!

If I even want to. I
have no idea what I’m doing. I should be mad about the furniture
and fix this, but everything makes me think of Logan. That’s the
only thing I really want to fix.

I mentally shake any
thought of him from my head. If he really wanted to fix things, he
wouldn’t wait for me to call him. The Logan I know would come right
out and tell me I’m being stubborn. But he hasn’t. I don’t know
who he is now or who I want to be. I can’t think about this right
now.

“Is the delivery guy
still here?” I head for the door.

“He went to call his
manager to find out what went wrong.” Liam follows me out of the
office. Andi and Brit—the other bartender slash waitress I
hired—are sitting at the bar watching me, but the chairs aren’t
anywhere in this room. I jump when the office door slams behind me
and turn around in time to see Liam locking the door.

“What are you doing?”

“We can’t let you
keep hiding yourself away, Sara. You need to talk about this, get it
out there, vent, or whatever it is girls do to de-stress. Andi and
Brittany are here to listen. I’m sticking around to make sure you
don’t try to bolt.”

“Bolt?” I huff.
“Yes, I’m a bolter, so you better stick around.” I throw my
hands up. “This is insane—there isn’t anything wrong with me.”

“You’re wearing two
different flip-flops,” Brittany speaks up.

“And you hair is
frizzy, like maybe you didn’t brush it today,” Andi adds.

“I—” They can’t
be serious. Yeah, so I’ve been a little sluggish; this is normal
twenty- something behavior. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.
Logan is—”

“Don’t start with
me,” I interrupt Andi and take a deep breath and swallow. Just
hearing his name shreds my heart into pieces. “I can’t, okay.
Please. Just don’t.” My chin drops to my chest as I silently pray
they won’t go on.

“You have to talk
about him. If you don’t, you’ll never be able to fix this.”
Liam says from behind me. His hand gently touches my shoulder and I
shrug away from him.

“If any of you knew
me, actually knew me, you would know that this is what Logan and I
do. We love and we fight. Over and over. Not once have we been able
to make it work.” Tears sting as my eyes and my lip quivers. “Being
apart is what’s best for us right now, and who knows, it might be
the only thing that can salvage at least a friendship for us.” The
first tear flows down my cheek and the rest quickly follow. “I’m
going to take the afternoon off. If the tables and chairs really do
come in, I trust you can handle it.”

Liam unlocks the office
door and I step inside to grab my purse. I keep my head down as I
pass the girls. I don’t want people to see me cry. Especially those
who should be acting more like my employees than my friends. I can’t
let them see me weak, but it’s too late.

They just watched as my
heart broke for Logan.

Logan

“Stop playing like
such a jackass!” Ethan passes the ball to me with as much force as
he can. It hits my chest and I grunt. Conner and Ethan stop to take a
breath.

“Dude, what the
fuck?” I shout at him. I tuck the ball under my arm and step toward
him. Conner reaches out to stop me from taking another step.

“Serves you right,
man,” he says and pushes me back.

“You’ve be acting
like a prick all afternoon, and you’re taking it out on us and the
game,” Ethan pipes up from across the court.

I roll my eyes and move
the ball to rest under my other arm. “You guys are acting like a
bunch of babies because I can play basketball better than you. That’s
all this is.”

“No, man, it’s not
just today.” Ethan stares hard at me.

“Yeah, you’ve been
in a mood since you and Sara split up. Don’t you think it’s time
to call her and work this out? I can’t stand watching you mope
around the apartment and then go to work just to act like a dick
there, too.” This from Conner, who can’t even have a civil
conversation with his son’s mother long enough to get an hour visit
with him.

“She’ll call when
she’s ready, and we didn’t split up. It doesn’t work like
that,” I snap back, throwing the ball at Ethan. I’m not in the
mood to play anymore, and with the attitude they just brought out in
me, it’s probably best I stay away from people right now. I walk
off the court and into the men’s locker room. I stuff everything in
my bag, sling it over my shoulder, and don’t look back as I exit
the gym. I toss my bag into the back of my truck.