Page 81 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

“No. Just pack a bag for you and Charlie. My assistant will have everything ready by the time we get there.”

I nodded, patting his back and letting him go. “I think we need to clarify a few things before we go.”

I’d been dreading this conversation, but before we left Montana, Logan and I needed to be on the same page, starting with a label for our relationship. The last thing I wanted was to show up in the city and be bombarded by his family, not sure exactly where we stood.

“What’s there to clarify?” Logan stepped back and assumed his normal leaning spot. I’d never be able to look at that cabinet again without picturing him there.

“Well, for one, what exactly are we going to be doing?”

He shrugged. “Whatever you like. I’ll need to work during the day but you and Charlie can explore. And then at night, we’ll all be together.”

“Okay.” I might be able to conjure some excitement to beat out the nerves if I focused on planning fun activities for me and Charlie. “What about your family? You said you wanted them to meet Charlie.”

“I do.”

“And what about me? How do you want me to play this?”

“Play this?” His eyebrows came together. “What are you talking about?”

“This.” I waved my hand between us, then blurted, “Am I going just as Charlie’s mom? Or as your Montana piece? I don’t know how you expect me to act when we’re there.”

The confusion on his face disappeared as his entire frame locked. “What did you just say?”

“I sa—”

Before I could finish, he pushed off the cabinet, crossing the tiny space between us in a flash to press three fingers against my lips. “That was rhetorical.”

Ohh-kay. I held his angry eyes, not moving an inch.

He removed his fingers from my mouth, only to hold one up in front of my nose. “Don’t you ever call yourself a ‘piece’ again. Understood?”

I nodded.

He huffed as he dropped his hand and spun around, raking it through his hair. “Is this why you’ve been stalling all week? Because you’re worried about how I’m going to treat you when we get to the city?”

“Maybe?”

He glowered at me.

“I’ve never done this before and I’m nervous,” I confessed. “You coming here is one thing. We’re on my turf with my friends and family. But me going there is entirely different. I’m not sure how to act when we’re together and I don’t want to do anything that will embarrass you.”

There, I’d said it. Now he knew at least one of the reasons why I was so hesitant to go to New York.

“Baby.” His voice was gentle as he laid his hands on my shoulders. “You could never embarrass me.”

I scoffed, but before I could give him one of a hundred examples of exactly how

—use the wrong fork at dinner, say the wrong thing to his mother, wear the wrong dress to meet his sisters—he stroked his thumb across my lips.

“You couldn’t. And you’re coming with me as more than just Charlie’s mother. Since you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ll just be blunt.”

“Blunt is good.”

He grinned. “We’re in a relationship, Thea. Man. Woman. Boyfriend. Girlfriend. Call it whatever you want. But when I introduce you to my family, it will be with your hand in mine. And it’s time we stopped hiding it from Charlie.”

He dropped a hand from my shoulder to trail it down my arm to my hand.

The minute our fingers were laced together, a lump formed at the back of my throat. The same one I got whenever he kissed Charlie’s hair and called her peanut. The same one I got whenever he tucked me into his side at night before falling asleep.