Two Times as Hot (25 page)

“Yes. Don’t worry. By the start of the semester I’ll be there, but before that—how
do you feel about driving back out here for another wedding?”

“Another wedding? Wait. You?”

“Yes, sir.” Logan smiled. It felt good to tell his friend the news. Real good. He
pulled Emma into a one armed hug. She wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed.

“Well, I’ll be. Let me guess. Becca’s sister?”

Surprised, Logan let out a short laugh. “How the hell did you know that?”

“Logan, we play cards together. You’ve never had a poker face and you never will.
I knew the moment you pulled her into the bushes at the wedding that you liked her.”
So much for Logan thinking he was being so slick and low-key. Mark continued, “My
last remaining single friend, finally married. I have to admit, I didn’t see that
one coming.”

“Me, either. What can I say? Love makes a man do things he never thought he would.”
Logan glanced down at the woman in his arms as she beamed up at him.

Meeting Emma had changed Logan, no doubt about it. As had his father’s stroke. Both
made him realize he’d been living half a life. He wanted more. Love. A partner. Everything
his parents had.

The baby, and Logan’s becoming a father himself, was the icing on the cake. It was
another piece of his future falling into place.

“I’m happy for you, Logan.”

“Thanks, Mark. Me, too.” Logan knew for a fact he’d never been happier.

“L
ogan, it’s getting late.” Tuck popped his head around the doorframe. “We gotta go.”

“I know. I know.” Logan blew out a breath and stared at the blank piece of paper on
the kitchen table.

“What the hell are you doing?” Tuck took a few steps into the room, the shoes of his
military dress uniform clicking against the tile of the floor.

“Trying to write my vows.”

“Are you freaking crazy?” Tuck’s eyes widened. “I married an English professor, and
we didn’t even write our own vows. Whose idea was this?”

“Mine.” Logan groaned at what he’d thought was a good idea at the time.

“What’s wrong with the regular old traditional ones? They’ve been good enough for
people for years.”

“I wanted something special for Emma.”

“Then you should have written them a week ago.” The judgment was clear in Tuck’s raised
eyebrows. “This thing is supposed to start in like half an hour.”

“I know, and you’re not helping by reminding me.” Logan had hoped something would
come to him, but it hadn’t. Maybe he should call Mark Ross and ask for help. If an
English professor couldn’t help him, no one could.

Tuck glanced at the paper in front of Logan. “Come on. Write them in the truck while
I drive.”

“Logan? We’re leaving. Are you driving with us?” Logan’s mother called to him from
the front of the house.

“No, Mom. I’m not ready yet.” Logan blew out a loud breath, frustrated. He wouldn’t
be able to write if he was in the car with his parents or in the truck with Tuck.
A stress-free environment would be too much to ask for today, but Logan needed to
at least be alone and somewhere quiet if he had any hope of getting this done. “Tuck,
would you mind following my mother and father over? Mom is going to try to get the
wheelchair out of the car by herself instead of asking for help. Stubborn as a bull,
that woman.”

Tuck laughed. “So that’s where you get it from.”

Logan let out a snort. “Nah, Dad beats Mom in the stubborn department. Hands down.
Between the two of them, I never had a chance.”

“All right. I’ll go and follow your parents over. You finish up. But make it quick.”
Tuck took one final glance at the blank page.

“I’ll try.” No pressure there.

Logan heard the front door close behind Tuck, but words didn’t magically pop into
his head once he was alone. Logan was just considering getting on his parents’ computer
and searching
original wedding vows
when there was a knock on the back door. Tossing the pen down, Logan strode to open
it.

“Tara. What are you doing here?”

“Why? Aren’t I invited to the wedding?” Tara’s voice rose high, tinged with a bit
of hysteria.

Logan frowned. “Of course, you are. But I didn’t think you could make it home from
school for the weekend.”

“I had to come. I had to talk to you before you do this.” She moved forward. “You
can’t marry her, Logan. Not before I tell you . . . Logan, I love you. I’ve always
loved you.”

“Tara—”

“No, listen to me. I know you kept your distance from me all these years out of respect
for my family, but I’m an adult now. You don’t have to do that anymore. I want to
be with you.” She pressed her hands to his chest. “We can be together.”

Logan grabbed and held her hands. “Tara. Stop. I’m getting married today to Emma.”

“Emma.” Tara let out a snort. “It’s all her fault. Everything would have been fine
if she’d never come to town. You and I would have hooked up at the wedding. You would
have realized I’m the one you want.”

The last thing Logan wanted to do was hurt this girl, but he couldn’t let her go on
believing that. “No, sweetie. That’s not true. You can’t blame Emma for us not being
together. It never would have happened for you and me.”

“How do you know that? You never even gave us a chance.” She tried to step closer,
tears in her eyes. “Just look at me. I’m all grown up, Logan. Don’t you see that?
You don’t have to be my older brother anymore. I’m a woman now. You can act like a
man with me.”

She leaned closer, trying to press against him even as he held her away. Horrified,
Logan took a step back. When she moved to follow him, he planted a hand on each of
her shoulders and locked his elbows to keep her at arm’s length. “Tara. I’m getting
married today.”

“Why are you getting married? You barely know her. What’s the rush?”

Tara didn’t know Emma was having Logan’s baby, but that didn’t matter, because the
baby wasn’t the reason Logan wanted to marry Emma. “I love her, Tara. It took me too
long to find her as it is. I’m not wasting any more time apart when we can be together.”

“You only think you love her because you didn’t know that
I’m
in love with you.” The sincerity and pain were clear in Tara’s tear filled eyes.

“I know you think you are, but you’re not. Not really. You’ll find someone worthy
of all the love you have to give. One day. I swear to you, you will.” Logan continued
as tears streamed down her face. “Tara, I’ll always love you like a sister, just as
I love Tuck and Tyler like brothers, but the man who’s meant for you is not me. Never
was. Never will be.”

She shook her head, and drew in a trembling breath. “No.”

He dropped his hold on her. It was getting late. Emma and over two dozen of their
friends and relatives were waiting for him. “I have to go. I’m sorry, Tara. I really
am. I’d like you to be there for the ceremony, but if you’re not, I’ll understand.”

Logan grabbed the hat for his dress blues from the table, abandoned the blank paper
there and turned toward the door. He’d clear his head on the drive over and then he’d
wing it on the vows. Speak from the heart. That’s where his love for Emma lay. The
words would come.

 

“Hmm. I seem to remember someone, not very long ago, commenting how Tuck’s backyard
wasn’t the Plaza wedding I’d always planned and dreamed of.” Becca glanced around
them and then at Emma. “But never in my wildest dreams did I picture you getting married
at a hunting cabin.”

Never in Emma’s wildest dreams had she thought she’d be pregnant, marrying an Oklahoma-born
army officer, either, but here she was.

They hadn’t had a lot of time to pull this thing together, so they’d planned a small
wedding lakeside at Logan’s family cabin. Just family and very close friends. It was
a good place. There was history. It felt right to start their new life together here.

The empire-waist cut of the off-white wedding dress, and the fact they’d planned the
wedding in a month, meant she wasn’t really showing. Even though her breasts felt
huge, Logan didn’t seem to mind the changes in her body at all, so Emma wasn’t going
to worry.

“That’s what surprises you most? That I’m getting married outside by a lake? Not that
I’m quitting my job in New York and moving to Oklahoma?”

Becca laughed. “Yes. That, too. But no more than Logan’s plan to retire next year
from both the army and OSU and move here to work at his father’s store. With you by
his side, to boot. Or that Tyler is going to help run it with some old guys from the
veterans’ association in the meantime.”

Emma smiled. “It has been a kind of surreal summer, hasn’t it?”

“You can say that again.” Becca glanced past Emma. “Here comes Jace. There’s one more
surprise, that you invited him.”

“He’s kind of the reason Logan and I are together.” Emma lifted one shoulder in a
shrug.

“One day, you’re going to tell me that whole story.” Becca narrowed her eyes.

Emma laughed. “Don’t count on it.”

“Hmm. Just wait until you can drink again. A bottle of wine, a girl’s night out, you
and me alone and we’ll see.”

“That we will.” Emma dismissed Becca’s threats and watched as Jace made his way across
the grass to meet them where they waited for the ceremony to start.

True to gentlemanly form, Jace tipped his hat. “Becca. Emma. You both look beautiful.”

Emma smiled. “Thank you, sir.”

“Thanks, Jace. Em, I’m going to go check on some last minute things. You okay here?”
Becca asked.

“I’m fine.”

When Becca had left them, heading toward where the preacher was talking with their
parents, Jace eyed Emma. “So . . . Logan, huh?”

Emma laughed. “Yeah. Logan.”

“All that time when I’d hoped and dreamed of me being the one for you, you had your
eye on good old Logan.” Jace’s grin told Emma he was only teasing.

“Well, not the whole time. I met you the year before I met him. Remember? At a certain
rodeo?”

Jace hung his head and let out a sigh. “I messed up pretty big that night, didn’t
I?”

“Yes, you did.” Emma could laugh about it now. She was even grateful. Everything that
had happened had led her to being with Logan, so how could she be upset with Jace
now? Then, though? Then she’d been pissed as hell. “You know, to be perfectly honest,
I could have forgiven you that one time if it had been just a friend helping out a
friend. But really, Jace, come on. You did it again to me at the wedding.”

“I know.” He hung his head until the shadow of his cowboy hat hid most of his face.

“I do want you to be happy, Jace. And if it’s with Jacqueline, that’s great. I guess
I’m saying I think you have to commit one way or the other. Either be with her, or
make a clean break, because as long as you two are tethered to each other, you’ll
never be free to find someone else.” Emma let out a laugh. “And I’m so
not
the person to be giving anyone advice on their love life, so just ignore me.”

He lifted his head and met her gaze. “No, you’re right. I guess I have some thinking
to do. And she and I have some talking to do, too, I suppose.” A frown drew his sandy
brows down. “Hey, isn’t it getting kind of late? What time was this shindig supposed
to start?”

“One. What time is it?”

Jace glanced down at his cell phone. “Quarter to.”

“Is Logan not here yet?” Emma’s heart gave a little lurch.

“I didn’t see him when I pulled up.”

Oh God. After her long speech to Jace about relationships, was Logan ditching her
at the altar? Had he changed his mind? Emma swallowed hard. No, he wouldn’t do that.
Yet he’d lived forty years unmarried. Maybe the idea was too much for him.

Were his parents here yet? Was Tuck? Emma needed answers. She needed Becca. She needed
her damn cell phone. “Excuse me. I’m, uh, feeling a little bit warm. I’m going to
go find some water.”

“You okay?”

“I’m fine.” Or she would be as soon as she found Logan.

Jace nodded. “A’ight. See you after.”

Emma escaped him and strode around the corner of the cabin, feeling ill. This time
it wasn’t from the pregnancy. Her heart beat so fast and furious, she got lightheaded
and was afraid she might pass out.

Logan’s truck pulled into the already crowded drive and stopped her in her path. Emma
held one shaky hand to her chest. He was here. She should never have doubted him.

She knew the moment Logan saw her. He smiled wide enough for her to see it from a
distance, then slammed the truck door and made a beeline toward where she stood. He
looked so good in his dress blues it made her heart flutter. She’d had to work hard
to convince him to wear the uniform for the ceremony, but it had been well worth the
effort.

“Emma. You’re perfect. So beautiful.” As he reached for her hands, Logan seemed as
overcome by the moment as she felt. “How am I so lucky?”

His sweet words had Emma getting choked up. “You’re not supposed to see me until the
ceremony starts. It’s bad luck.” Even so, she grasped his fingers in hers with no
intention of letting go.

“I’m so late, the ceremony is starting about now, isn’t it? I think we found a loophole
in that tradition. Besides, I don’t need luck.” He smiled. “I have you. That’s all
I’ll ever need.”

“Please stop saying such sweet things. You’re making me cry.” Emma looked up at the
sky and ran the tips of one finger beneath her lower lashes, wiping at the moisture
there.

He laughed and drew her against him. “Don’t worry about that happening during the
ceremony, because I tried all morning to write vows and I failed miserably.”

“It’s all right. I failed pretty badly with my vows, too. I even asked Becca with
her doctorate in English to help, but nothing felt . . .” She shook her head as the
right word eluded her.

“Nothing felt right.”

Emma nodded when Logan finished her sentence. “Exactly. Do you want to go with the
traditional vows?”

“Yes, please.” The gratitude in Logan’s voice had Emma smiling as he leaned his forehead
against hers. “I love you so much. You’re my light. My world.”

Those were pretty good words for a man who claimed to have none. She’d be sobbing
soon if he didn’t stop being so sweet. “Can we go get married now?”

“I want nothing more. Well, maybe
one
thing more, but that’s for later.” Logan ran his hands down her back and pulled her
closer.

She saw the heat darken his eyes and realized just one lifetime might not be enough
with this man, but it would be a good start.