The Real Thing (15 page)

“The tears are a nice touch,”
he said in her ear as she and her father made her way to the chapel. “There won’t be a dry eye in the house after your performance today.”

Raine wasn’t sure how she didn’t lose it completely.
She
’d spent so much of her life
faking
it
, that no one could even tell when her heart was really tearing in two.

Logan barely made his flight. Of course, if he’d taken Lydia’s advice and gone to LA two days ago, he wouldn’t be sitting on
a
plane
s
ca
red to death he was going to be
too late to stop the wedding.

He’d
spent the past two days trying to
figure out
what
he felt for Raine,
only to finally
come
up with the answer his gut had tried to tell him all along
—
he was in love with her
. And he’d be damned if he was going to let her marry some other man
without telling her. He had no absolutely no clue what he was going to say
yet.
He’d make it up when he got there.

If he got to the church on time. Between the
delay
taking off from Seattle
and
waiting
to disembark at LAX
,
he was cutting it
damn
close.
Unfortunately, Los Angeles traffic didn
’
t see fit to help him out.
How the hell did anyone live in a place this fucking crowded?
Less than five minutes from the airport, the cab slowed to a crawl and
stayed
that way.

Logan
swore under his breath as he
glanced at his watch
.
It was less than ten minutes to the
ceremony. Unless he made it to the
church
before
then, Raine was going
to
become Mrs. Cameron Kincade. Anything he had t
o say
after that
wouldn’t matter.

“How long until we get there?” he asked the cab driver.

The guy glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “
In midday traffic?
  You’ll be lucky if I can get you there in an hour.”

Fuck
.

He should have left earlier
. No, he should have left two days ago.

Cursing his own stupidity,
he
flopped
back in the seat and raked his hand through his hair
as the
minutes ticked away.
First five, then ten, then fifteen
, then thirty
.
He
was
too late
. By
the time he got to the church, the ceremony would be over
.

He
leaned forward
to tell the cab driver to turn around and go ba
ck to the airport when a gleam of silver
caught his attention
. He turned to see an old-fashioned
looking diner on his right.
At first he didn’t
recognize it
, but then the name slowly reg
istered.
Joe’s
Place
.

Logan’s mouth quirked. How was that for irony?

“Let me out here.”

Digging
in his back pocket for his wallet,
Logan handed the man
enough to cover the cab ride and
a
tip
, then
got out
. He didn’t know why he was going into the diner—he sure as hell wasn’t hungry. But something drew him, and so he went.

It was like any other diner
—small and
shiny
and
looking like it belonged on the set of
Happy Days
—
but
the minute he stepped inside
he saw why
R
aine
liked it
so much.
Despite the
crowd, it
wasn’t cramped or noisy
. The high-backed
vinyl
booths probably
had something to do with
that.
They
gave
you
a sense of privacy, which was probably
why Raine liked to come here so much.

T
he teenage girl behind the counter came over to take his order
as soon as he sat
down
.
She tucked a strand of platinum blond hair behind her ear.

“What can I get you?”

“Just coffee,” he said. “Wait. And a slice of pu
mpkin pie. Someone told me you
make the best.”

The girl gave him an apologetic look. “We just sold the last piece.”

Figures. When you snooze, you lose, right? “Just
the
coffee, then.
Where are you
r
restrooms?
”

“Straight back and to the right.”

Logan slid off the stool and headed in that direction, only to stop in his tracks. Raine sat in the back booth.
She was dressed in a wedding gown, her long, blond hair piled up on her head except for the few waves that framed her face. Her head was down and she was absently moving something around on her plate with her fork.
Pumpkin
pie.

His mouth twitched.

He forced himself to move, approaching her slowly, afraid she was a hallucination that might disappear. But she didn’t disappear. She didn’t look up, either,
th
ough. Not
even when he stopped beside
her table.

“Funny place for a wedding reception,” he said softly.

Raine
s
tared at
Logan. She had to be imagining him. A
side-effect of
too much stress and too little sleep. Because
daydreaming of
her lover
had never conjured him up
before
.

“
Do you mind if I sit?”

S
he
was afraid to even shake her head, terrified he’d disappear if he did. But he didn’t disappear.

“Wh
-
what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same
thing.
”

“I asked you first.”

“
Fair enough.” His mouth edged up. “
I came
to stop the wedding.”

She frowned. “You were at the church?”

He shook his head. “
I was
in a cab sitting in traffic. I
thought
I was too late
, though,
and
decided to
tell the cabbie
to take me back to the
airport when I saw the diner. I
don’t know what made me come in, but I’m glad I did.
”

R
aine
blinked.
“You came to stop the wedding
?”

“Yeah.”
His dark eyes searched her face.
“
So, if you just got married, what the hell are you doing sitting here alone
?”

She clasped her hands in front of her to stop them from trembling. “I
didn’t get married.
I
was about to walk up the aisle, but
when I sa
w Cameron standing at the altar
waiting for me,
I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t marry him.”

She didn’t mention the scene she
’d
made fleeing the church
. She’d mumbled something to her stunned father, then dropped her bouquet and bolted out the door like some runaway bride.
With crowd
s
of fans outside, there had been no way to slip out without being seen
, but fortunately her limo driver was there to whisk her away to the one place in all of Hollywood where she could go to be alone—Joe’s Place.
Reginald
was
probably
still at the church trying to spin things for the press.

“
Why did you change your mind?” Logan asked.

She took a deep breath, almost afraid to say the words. “
Because I
love you.”

Raine waited for him to say something, but he only
sat there gazing
at her
.
Okay,
maybe putting herself out there like that hadn’t
been such hot
idea.

She chewed on her lower lip.
“Isn’t this the par
t where you say something to me
?”

“Like, I love you, too? Because I do.
And if I wasn’t so damn stupid I would have told you that before you left Seattle.
”
He
got to his feet and taking her hand in his, dropping to one knee beside her.
“
M
arry me
, Raine
.”

Tears filled her eyes, happy ones this time
. Not only did Logan love her—which would have been enough all on its own—but he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

Down on one knee before her, Logan suddenly looked unsure of himself. “Isn’t this the part where you say something to me?”

“Oh!” She giggled, embarrassed. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

He pulled her to her feet and into his arms, his mouth coming down on hers in a
k
iss that made her heart do a triple-flip
.

A
cheer went up around them,
followed by a round of applause. Gasping for breath, she pulled away from Logan to look around in amazement. The diner’s other
customers
were
watching the entire scene as if it
were something out of a movie.
Blushing, she
turned back to
Logan to find him grinning down at her.

“I guess I’m go
ing to have to get used to this since I’m going to be married to a famous movie star, huh?”

She let out a sigh.
“
I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. A
fter today, what’s left of my
career is going to be
in the toilet.”

His smile faded. “I’m sorry. I know how
important
it is to you.
”

She went up on tiptoe to kiss him.
“
But you’re more important.
”

Movement by the door caught her eye, and she looked over to see Chloe coming into the diner, followed by her
wide-eyed
parents.
Of course, Chloe would know where she’d gone.

Grinning, Raine took Logan’s hand. “Come on. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

“What are you thinking about?”

Raine
smiled at the question. “That all women should get spanked on their wedding night.”

Beside her, Logan’s laugh was a deep, sexy rumble. They were lying on a blanket in front of the fireplace
in the cabin
, her freshly span
ked ass still tingling from the
spanking he’
d given
her.

“And why is that?” he asked.

“Because the sex afterward is
better than pumpkin pie.”

Her husband
grinned
. “That must mean it was pretty damn good
then, because I
know how much you love pumpkin pie.”

She leaned over to kiss him. “I love you more.”

And she meant it. Logan was the best thing th
at ha
d ever happened to her, and she
thanked God every day she’d gotten stuck in that snowstorm
two months ago.
If she
hadn’t she’d be married to Cameron and miserable right now.

As it turned out,
leaving Cameron at the altar
hadn’t
destroye
d
her career. In fact, it
had gotten her even more
publicity
.
Reginald had immediately
wanted to
go with that
tale about Logan being her lost love
and how she’d finally reconnected with him
, but she
’
d
pulled rank on him
and demanded he tell the media the whole truth about her engagement to Cameron. Then she’d braced herself for the backlash.