Confidential: Expecting! by Jackie Braun Page B

Mallory shook her head. “It was too humiliating, especially since I’d already loaded his luggage and he’d handed me the tip.”
    “What about your mother? Did you tell her?” he asked.
    “And give Maude another reason to gripe to me about him? Nah.” Mallory ran a hand over her cheeks, surprised to find them damp from tears. She hadn’t cried over her father in years, not even after the O’Hare incident. She hadn’t thought herself capable of tears any longer where the man was concerned.
    “You chose to protect her,” Logan said.
    She didn’t view her actions as altruistic. “He did it to me, Logan. He didn’t do it to my mom.”
    “But she would have commiserated and understood.”
    “No. Our relationship isn’t like that. My mother never would have let me hear the end of it.”
    “I’m sorry.” After a moment of silence, he added, “Thanks for sharing that.”
    “You know, it felt good,” she admitted. “Maybe there’s something to therapy.”
    “I’m not sure I’d classify this as an actual session,” Logan began. “But it felt good to tell you what I did, too.” He snorted out a laugh then. “And it was a good reminder, too, since I’m always telling my listeners that it’s not healthy to bottle up their emotions.”
    “Do as I say, not as I do?”
    “I guess you’re right.” His tone was rueful. “But no longer. Nothing gets resolved that way.”
    “You have to face things, don’t you?” she said.
    “Yes. You do.”
    Cradling the phone to her ear, Mallory rolled to her side and caught sight of the clock. “Oh, my God, Logan. It’s nearly one o’clock.”
    “I know.”
    “I really should let you get some sleep.”
    “I’m not tired. If you hang up now, I’ll just lie here awake.” She heard his breath hiss through the line a moment before he asked, “Stay with me, Mallory?”
    “Okay. I won’t go anywhere.” Cradling the phone to her ear, she turned on her side, and though he was far away, she felt him beside her, filling up a vast emptiness she hadn’t even been aware existed.

CHAPTER SEVEN

    M ALLORY wasn’t sure how she would feel during her next face-to-face encounter with Logan. Excited? Embarrassed? Both? She’d bared her body to him and then a little bit of her soul. They’d spent two nights together, and though miles had separated them during the second one, it had been every bit as intimate as the first. She’d never felt closer to anyone than she’d been with him during those long hours they’d spent talking in hushed tones and sharing secrets until just before the morning sun turned the horizon pink.
    When it came right down to it, she and Logan barely knew each other. Yet he already seemed to understand her far better than anyone else. And that was why she knew a moment of uncertainty the following afternoon when she spied him standing outside the Herald as she walked out the building’s grand front entrance.
    “Hello, Mallory.”
    “Logan.”
    The strap of the bag carrying her laptop slipped downher arm. The computer would have crashed to the sidewalk had he not rushed forward to grab it.
    She tried to keep a foolish smile corralled as she inquired, “What are you doing here?”
    “Besides rescuing your computer, you mean?”
    “Yeah, besides that. Thanks, by the way.”
    “You’re welcome.” When she held out her hand for the heavy bag, he looped the strap over his shoulder instead. “I wanted to see you.”
    That foolish smile unfurled. She ducked her head in an effort to get it under control.
    “I probably should have called, rather than just showing up at your workplace.”
    “I don’t mind. It’s a nice surprise.”
    “Do you have any plans for this evening?”
    She didn’t, but even if she had, they would have escaped her now. She couldn’t seem to think when he was looking at her like that, all interested and sexy.
    “None that I can think of. Why?”
    “Good. I thought I’d take you to a jazz club.”
    Though she