Page 51 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

I bent down to Charlie’s level. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Good job at your game today. You were awesome.” I dropped her cleats and shin guards on a step, then held up my hand for a high five.

She slapped her palm to mine. “Night, Logan.”

“Good night, Charlie.”

“Go on upstairs,” Thea told her. “I’ll be up to do your bath in a minute.”

When the screen door slammed closed behind her, Thea leaned against the railing on the steps. “So? How’d it go?”

I smiled like I’d just won the lottery, not even trying to play it cool. “Fucking incredible.”

My phone was going to vibrate a hole in my pocket.

The damn thing had been ringing all day.

This morning, my team at the firm had called five times. There had been an issue with a client accelerating the timeline on a high-profile tech merger, so instead of having a month to tie up all the contracts, we now had eleven days. It was pure chaos and I was in Montana, unable to dive in and help. I trusted my team to get it done, but there were some issues that’d simply needed my guidance and expertise.

Besides the team at the firm, my personal assistant had called twice with information on the lake house I was trying to buy. Then my cousin had called to ask if I’d write her a recommendation letter to Columbia Law. When I’d finally hung up with her, thinking I had everyone handled for ten minutes, Nolan had called to talk about a five-million-dollar donation request for the foundation.

An hour later, one of the founding partners at the firm called me, wanting to know if I could take on a well-known real estate developer as a new client. I’d never said no to William Abergel in my life and hadn’t started today.

Two minutes after I hung up on him, my mother had called. I hadn’t answered. Then my father. Again, I hadn’t answered. Then it had been my sister, Sofia. Three times. I’d pushed those straight to voicemail. When I’d ignored her for the last time, she’d reverted to text messages, telling me between emojis how horrible I was for dumping Alice.

She’d been at it for days.

I just wanted to shut off my phone and spend my Saturday with Charlie, giving her my full attention before I left. But I couldn’t ignore calls for work.

I’d busted my ass this week, getting up before dawn to work so I could spend my afternoons and evenings with Charlie. I’d worked in the morning and had fun in the afternoon.

The two of us had been bonding. We’d hung out at the camp each afternoon, then eaten dinner together.

Thea had rearranged her schedule to have her evenings free all week, but today she had to work. So while she was at the bar, I’d volunteered to stay with Charlie for the afternoon so Hazel could go to the fair in Kalispell.

I was leaving tomorrow and wanted to be with Charlie as much as possible before my early morning flight. We’d spent a good amount of time at her house, playing outside in the fort and then inside doing some art projects. It would have been perfect except that the entire time, my phone had been buzzing, forcing me to step away from playtime.

By the time five o’clock had rolled around, Charlie had nearly finished an entire coloring book, while I’d absently colored in a half a page.

“What should we do for dinner?” I dug my phone out of my pocket to see another text message from my sister. I turned my phone screen down on the table. I’d had enough. “We could go get a Landry special.”

“Okay.” She smiled and nodded. “Can we get floats too?”

“Anything for you, peanut.”

She blushed a bit, looking back to her coloring book. I’d started calling her peanut yesterday. It had been just an accidental slip when we’d been throwing rocks in the lake, but today, I’d been slipping it in on purpose.

I loved the shy smile it always got me.

I glanced at my watch as she cleaned up crayons. “We’ve got about an hour before dinnertime. What do you want to do?”

“Can we go fishing?”

I nodded. “Sure. I—”

My phone vibrated on the table, interrupting us again.

Charlie’s shoulders fell with the buzz.

“Sorry.” I turned it over, this time glad for the picture on the screen. “Look.” I held my phone to Charlie so she could see the picture.