Page 65 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

“Can I help with something?” I asked Thea. It was almost three and guests were due to arrive at any minute.

“No, I think I’m all set.”

The cake, a camouflage rectangle with neon-orange piping, was on the kitchen table. The snacks were all in bowls ready to take out to the card table set up on the back lawn down by the dock. And the coolers on the porch were all full.

Charlie had invited over some friends to play outside and go swimming in the lake for her party. There’d be kids with their parents along with Jackson, Willa and a couple of Thea’s friends from the bar crowding their backyard.

There weren’t a ton of decorations, just some balloons on the porch and tablecloths on the card tables. It was the polar opposite of the birthday extravaganzas that my sisters and I had experienced as children. There were no petting zoos or Cirque du Soleil performers. This wasn’t a competition to see who could spend the most money for their child’s special day.

Because it wasn’t about the party at all. It was just about celebrating Charlie.

“That was a really nice gift you bought her.” Thea spoke to the kitchen window as Charlie came driving around the side of the house.

“Too much?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t care if you spoil her for a while, Logan. I get it.”

She did. Thea had been nothing but supportive of the bond Charlie and I were building. If only she’d let down her own guard, then the two of us could do some more bonding too. “It’s time to talk about last night. Why did you run away?”

She abandoned the sink, darting around the kitchen, looking for something to do.

I grinned as she shuffled the bowls on the counter around, then squared up the stack of army-green party napkins.

With her back to me, I crossed the floor and placed both of my arms on the counter at her sides.

“Logan,” she gasped as I trapped her, my chest pressing against her back.

“Thea.” My voice was low and quiet as I spoke in her neck. “You can’t avoid me forever. I’m not going anywhere. Talk to me.”

“Except you are going somewhere.” She turned her head, speaking to my bicep. “Back to New York. Back to being distracted.”

“Distracted? What are you talking about?”

She spun around in the space between my arms, leaning back against the counter and crossing her arms. Her breasts lifted under her simple gray sundress, revealing a hint of cleavage.

I fought the urge to press my hips into hers. There was fire in her eyes, a passion that made the bulge in my jeans even worse.

“You were different these last two weeks,” she declared. “Like you didn’t really have time to talk to us.”

My eyebrows came together as I mentally ran through our phone calls. Most of the last two weeks had been spent at the firm with my team buzzing in and out of my office with questions. Was that why she’d asked me if I had a girlfriend? Was she worried I’d been seeing someone else?

“I spent the last two weeks working fourteen-hour days at the firm. Every. Day. If I was distracted, it was because someone had barged into my office and interrupted our call. Trust me, there was nothing I would have rather been doing than talking to you and Charlie.”

“Then—”

My phone rang in my pocket. Damn it. I’d forgotten to put it on silent.

She dropped her eyes to stare at her bare toes as I declined the call.

“Hey.” I hooked a finger under her chin. “I work. A lot. My job is important to me. But that doesn’t mean you and Charlie aren’t important to me too. I’ll try to do better.”

“Thanks. Charlie will appreciate it.”

I grinned. “Just Charlie?”

She fought it, but I caught a twitch on the corner of her mouth.

A mouth I was going to kiss right now.