parts of her anatomy.
It simply wouldn’t do.
As soon as everybody was finished eating, Briana jumped up and started bustling around, cleaning up. Usually, she made Alec and Josh do the dishes, but tonight she needed to be busy.
So she bounced around that kitchen like a bumblebee trapped in a sealed jelly jar. Even Wanda regarded her with curiosity.
Logan tried to help with the dishes, but she sort of elbowed him aside. All she needed was that man standing hip-to-hip with her in front of the sink, or anywhere else. The scent of his cologne—if that was what it was—made her feel light-headed. He smelled like sun-dried sheets, fresh-cut grass and summer.
Josh fetched the photo album from its honored place in the living room, and opened it on the freshly cleared table. “This is him,” he told Logan, tapping at a faded black-and-white image with one index finger. “This is my Grampa, Bill ‘Wild Man’ McIntyre.”
Briana had long since come to grips with the fact that her boys would never actually know their grandfather. Just the same, her eyes were suddenly scalding, and her throat was tight.
The angle of Logan’s head, bent over the album, touched something tender inside her. She wished he’d just get up and leave. Wished even more that he would stay.
She
was
losing her mind.
As if he’d felt her watching him, Logan lifted his eyes.
“Mom says the clowns are the bravest men in rodeo,” Alec said, preening a little.
“She’s right about that,” Logan said, still watching her. “They’ve saved my… life a time or two.”
Briana tried her damnedest to look away, found she couldn’t.
“See?” Josh chirped, delighted to be right. “I
told
you Logan was a cowboy!”
Briana’s cheeks stung.
Look away,
she pleaded silently,
because I can’t.
As if he’d heard her, Logan averted his eyes. Fixed his attention on Alec and Josh. “I
was
a cowboy, once upon a time,” he told the boys quietly. “Gave it up to join the service.”
“Were you in the war?” Alec asked, impressed again. Or still.
“Yeah,” Logan said. His voice came out sounding hoarse, and he cleared his throat. “Didn’t care much for that.”
Didn’t care much for that.
The very way he’d said the words marked them as the understatement of the ages.
“We usually take Wanda for a walk after supper,” Josh said.
Logan was clearly grateful for the change of subject. He pushed back his chair, smiling. “Sounds like a good idea,” he replied. “Maybe Sidekick and I could tag along?”
“What if we should stumble across a
bear?”
Briana asked, raising both eyebrows. She’d finished with the washing up by then, draped the dish towel over the plates and glasses and silverware stacked on the drainboard.
Logan chuckled. “Well,” he said, “I wouldn’t recommend running. A bear can beat a fast horse. Climbing a tree is out, since they’re pretty handy at that, too. Guess I’d just have to grin him down, like ol’ Dan’l Boone.”
“We’re related to Daniel Boone,” Josh said.
“Isn’t everybody?” Logan teased.
Josh laughed.
Logan opened the screen door, and they all went out, Briana bringing up the rear.
She would have sworn Logan was looking at her—well,
rear
—as she passed.
Sidekick and Wanda trotted ahead, happy at the prospect of a walk, with the boys close behind them.
“They like you,” Briana told Logan.
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
She turned her head, looked up at his face. “Depends,” she said. “They miss their dad. It would be easy for them to—”
“To what?” Logan asked quietly.
“To like you too much,” Briana answered, embarrassed.
“I’m harmless,” Logan said.
“I don’t think so,” Briana replied.
And they walked in silence for a while, watching the two boys and the two dogs cavorting up ahead.
Although the sun would be up for at least another hour, the first stars were popping out, and the moon was clearly visible. The country air
Catherine Gilbert Murdock