Elissa: Hope you’re having a good time with Mr. McHottiePants.
Elissa: Smooch, smooch, smooch.
India: Ignore her. Call if you need us.
Several more followed in the same vein before India’s final message:
Where are you? Are you ok? Let me know.
She glanced across the street toward the mostly empty parking lot of the Blue Falls Music Hall and knew she couldn’t face seeing either of her friends tonight. With a deep breath, she texted India back.
Fine. Sorry, forgot to turn the ringer back on. Tired, heading to bed.
Just as soon as she walked the mile and a half around the lake to her apartment. If she made it without someone seeing her and setting the local gossip mill ablaze, she’d officially be the luckiest woman in all of the Hill Country.
She hurried toward the walking path that circled the lake. When she passed the Ice Cream Hut, she couldn’t help but remember how Logan had teased both her and Mari as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Damn her hormones—it probably was. She imagined him buying an ice-cream cone for a woman in every rodeo town he rolled into. Tears pooled in her eyes, and that made her even angrier. But she wasn’t angry at Logan. He hadn’t claimed to be anything he wasn’t. No, she was angry at herself. She’d let her body trump the orderly, precise thought process that had gotten her through years of upheaval and allowed her to become a successful businesswoman.
She increased her pace, wanting to be home more than she could express. Her anger grew, extending to her friends. They’d pushed her to the point where she’d fallen prey to Logan’s good looks and smooth talking. All the way back to the inn, she concocted countless ways to get back at them. But that would mean admitting what had happened. And by the time she unlocked the exterior door to her apartment that wouldn’t necessitate her walking through the inn’s lobby, she’d decided she was keeping her one-night stand to herself. That shouldn’t be a problem, since she couldn’t imagine Logan caring enough to deliberately cross her path again. He’d had her, and most likely he’d be on to the next woman who caught his eye.
That last thought kept reverberating in her head as she made straight for her bathroom and took a shower. Why did it bother her so much?
Because she wasn’t one to give even her body so easily. She’d lost control, and if there was one thing she couldn’t bear, it was to not be in control of her own life.
She dressed in cool summer pajamas and crawled into her bed. She inhaled the familiar clean scent of it, ran her hand across the downy softness. Everything about it was better than the bed at the Country Vista Inn.
Except that she was alone. She tried to tell herself that she was perfectly fine on her own, that she preferred it that way. But as a tear finally leaked out and trailed down to her pillow, she admitted that she was lonely. Logan wasn’t to blame for what happened between them. Her friends weren’t either. It was the loneliness that most of the time she could convince herself was a figment of her imagination, the empty feeling that she rarely acknowledged. But as she lay in her bed alone, she let herself feel it. She let herself admit, if only to herself in the privacy of her own mind, that she missed the warmth of a man’s body next to her.
As she closed her eyes, she allowed herself to relive every moment, every touch she’d shared with Logan. Moments and touches that had for a short while made her forget that loneliness.
Chapter Five
Logan knew Skyler was gone even before he opened his eyes. The room was too quiet and the bed next to him too cool for her to still be there. He looked at the rumpled sheet where she’d lain. It wasn’t a surprise she was gone, but he had to admit it was a disappointment. Finding his way into her body again this morning would have been a great way to start the day. But he guessed he was lucky she’d stayed as long as she had, that she’d agreed to come back to the room with him at all.
If he were to place a bet, he’d say she was drowning in regret this morning. He wondered if he shouldn’t have pressed her so much, but then he remembered how she’d pulled him into that dark little park and kissed him as if her soul depended on it. She might not admit it, but she’d wanted what they’d shared just as much as he had.
Suddenly ravenous, he rolled out of bed, took a shower, dressed and headed for the Primrose Café. He’d worked up quite an appetite with Skyler. Maybe he’d even see her in town this morning and cause her to blush with a kiss in broad daylight. He smiled at that thought. If Skyler was regretting going to bed with him, maybe he should make it his mission to erase that regret. And get her right back in that bed. Whatever she might say the day after, they’d been good together. Who knew there was that much fire under the surface of Miss Prim and Proper?
When he stepped through the front door of the café, a quick survey of the room showed every table was full. A young waitress with a dirty plate in one hand and a coffeepot in the other stopped next to him on her way across the dining room.
“There’s still a couple of stools left up front,” she said with a nod toward the counter lined with stools.
She was probably in her mid-twenties with a long brown ponytail. He recognized the smile on her pink lips and the look of appreciation in her bright blue eyes. Normally he would have returned them as his thoughts shifted away from breakfast. But for some reason, in his mind the waitress’s face was replaced by Skyler’s.
Feeling a bit off, he nodded. “I’ll take a cup of that coffee when you get the chance.”
“Be right there as soon as I take care of the Chew the Fat Club.”
He watched as she headed toward the front corner of the restaurant next to the big picture window that had Primrose Café painted across it. Four old coots were deep in conversation, likely solving all the world’s problems. Logan laughed a little under his breath. There seemed to be a Chew the Fat Club in every small town in America. Those guys probably had a dozen grandkids between them and were here every morning drinking their weight in coffee. And by the way they smiled when the waitress approached, probably part of what they talked about during their morning get-togethers was the good old days when they’d been wild bucks chasing pretty girls.
Pretty girls like Skyler Harrington.
Logan shook his head and crossed to the stool at the end of the bar. He needed an entire pot of coffee to wake up and send his body and mind the message that it was a new day. His hot night with Skyler was done. He didn’t regret it, not one bit, but he wasn’t one to get too wrapped up in any one woman. He didn’t live the kind of life where that made a lick of sense. He slid onto the stool and grabbed a menu.
“Saw you at the music hall last night,” the pretty waitress said as she set an empty cup in front of him. He glanced at her nametag. Gretchen.
“Yep. Seemed like the place to be.”
“You know Skyler?”
There was more to her question than simple curiosity, and for some reason a voice in Logan’s head told him to tread carefully. What was up with that?
“Met her and her friends yesterday.” He pointed toward a photo on the menu. “I’ll have the Good Morning Platter with scrambled
