Logan grinned. The convoluted nature of their relationship confused him sometimes, too.
But a year ago, Logan’s father, Tom, had received a call out of the blue from Sally Duke, explaining the connection.
Brothers William and Tom had lost their parents in a car crash and been sent to live in an orphanage in San Francisco for a few years until William was adopted. In those days, there was no concern for keeping siblings together, so the boys never saw each other again.
Once he was old enough, William tried to contact the orphanage to find his brother, but the place had burned to the ground five years earlier and all the records had been lost.
Sally had picked up the lost trail after William died and spent years trying to track down Tom. Thanks to the miracle of internet search engines, she finally found him, along with his two boys who were now grown men. Sally had arranged for a family reunion and now they all tried to get together as often as possible. And it seemed to Logan that their father might’ve developed a bit of a crush on Sally.
Since the Duke brothers built hotels, it had been a natural move for Logan and Aidan to eventually invite them to Alleria to see if they might be interested in expanding their empire to the Caribbean.
They’d be here next weekend, and Logan and Aidan intended to pull out all the stops and show them the best that Alleria had to offer. And thinking about that, Logan was reminded that he really needed to show Grace the hot springs in the rain forest.
Putting thoughts of a wet, naked Grace out of his mind, Logan watched his brother move around the room putting his things away. In that moment, Logan realized that a part of him felt much more relaxed now that Aidan was back on the island. It was almost as if he’d been missing a body part or something. It was no big deal, just another weird twin phenomenon he and Aidan had laughed about their entire lives.
“You want to go for Mexican food?” Aidan asked.
“How’d you know?”
Aidan just grinned as he used his foot to straighten the line of shoes in his closet.
Logan lined his shoes like that, too, he thought, and added the quirk to the list of oddities that went along with being a twin. Although, watching Aidan go down the line of shoes again, nudging them minutely, he wondered if this particular quirk wasn’t more like a case of mutual OCD.
He finished his beer and tossed the empty bottle into the recycling can. “Let’s go.”
After returning from the rain forest, Grace had tried to track down Logan to tell him about the temptingly secluded pool she’d seen and what she’d like to do about it with him. But one of the clerks had told her he’d gone to the airport to pick up his brother, so she went to her room instead and had been studying spores ever since.
At least, she’d tried to study the spores when thoughts of Logan weren’t interfering. She wondered if she would see him in the lounge tonight. Would he introduce her to his brother, Aidan? Would Aidan like her? She hoped so. She knew that the two men were twins. Everyone on the staff talked about them, especially the women. Apparently, it was impossible to tell them apart.
That’s when another thought suddenly interfered: How would Grace know which one was Logan? Would she embarrass herself in front of his brother?
She couldn’t imagine not being able to tell the difference between the man she’d spent so many hours laughing and talking and making love with, and his brother. What kind of woman would that make her?
She couldn’t wrap her mind around that possibility, so she forced herself to concentrate on her work. She’d studied slide after slide of the new spores and under the microscope, these new batches appeared to have the exact same qualities as the original group. But time-and her ultra-powerful electron microscope back in the laboratory-would tell.
She jolted when the buzzer on her travel alarm went off. She pressed the off button, then closed up her notepad and began to prepare to take a hot shower before heading out to her evening job in the cocktail lounge.
Removing her clothes, she folded them on top of her bed, then walked into the bathroom. A sudden image of Logan standing in the shower with her, his broad chest glistening with soapy water, brought a shiver to her spine and a smile to her face as she waited for the water to get hot.
“At this rate, you’ll need a
As she washed and rinsed her hair, Grace’s thoughts drifted back to Logan’s reaction at finding out how smart she was. Most men she’d known would’ve brushed her off. For goodness’ sake, if she was being honest about it, even her own father and mother had brushed her off. But Logan seemed to enjoy the fact that she was knowledgeable, that she paid attention and enjoyed learning new things. It was heartening that he seemed to like her and to want her to stay with him, because the feeling was mutual. She’d never wanted anything quite as badly as she wanted him. Even temporarily, which was all she could really hope for anyway.
She’d given up trying to lecture herself on falling in love with him since she was pretty sure it was too late. Maybe she should’ve tried a little harder; because, after all, in case she needed to be reminded, she really couldn’t be trusted when it came to her feelings for men. Remember Walter.
But as she rinsed her hair one last time, she realized that she couldn’t exactly recall Walter’s face. How odd was that? It would be wonderful if Walter and his face were truly just a vague memory now. If she was lucky, she would never have to see the man again.
Logan was another matter altogether. His face was etched in her memory so clearly, she was pretty certain she would never forget him. Still, she thought it might be nice to ask Dee to take a surreptitious photograph of Grace standing next to Logan. It would be lovely to have something to look at and remember him by. But even if she couldn’t get a picture, she would never forget his face. Or his body. Or his voice. Or his kiss.
She really would need that cold shower at this rate.
Turning off the water, she grabbed a towel and dried off. She couldn’t help it if her thoughts continually turned to Logan. He was simply the loveliest man she’d ever known and part of her wished, foolishly, that she would never have to leave Alleria.
Her more practical mind argued that nothing lasted forever. Even if she stayed on the island, Logan might very well grow tired of her. And what would happen then? Would he fire her? Or would he just make it so impossible for her to be happy here that she would end up leaving anyway?
That thought was such an unhappy one that it left an achy feeling in her chest. She absently rubbed her sternum to ease the pain as she told herself firmly that it was better all the way around to leave when she planned. Before Logan began to look at her with boredom, or, worse…irritation in his eyes.
Shaking off the heaviness around her heart, she applied a touch of mascara and lip gloss, then walked over to the dresser and pulled out the bikini and sarong that made up her uniform. And since she was standing by the dresser anyway, she checked the microscope slide again.
Then she checked it one more time.
“That can’t be right,” she said. She rechecked her notes. Had she made a mistake in notating the circumference around the edges of the new spore gathering? She didn’t think she had, so she looked back at the slide. Then her notes.
Either she was seeing things, or the spores were replicating at least three times faster than the ones back in the lab at the university. If it was true, if she wasn’t hallucinating, then these new spores from the top of the rain forest were stronger, faster and more efficient than any she’d found before.
She did a little happy dance. It was an unexpected breakthrough, a development she couldn’t have foreseen in a million years. She should’ve been itching to get back to the laboratory and the more precise equipment she could use to measure things more accurately. But all she wanted to do was track down Logan and share her news with him. After all, it was Logan who’d allowed her to stay on the island, thus providing her with the opportunity to find these spores and accelerate her experimentation. She thought it only fair that she thank him for that.
Her face heated up as she considered the many inventive ways she could show him how grateful she was.
Lively mariachi music floated out to the patio of Casa Del Puerto, where Aidan and Logan sat enjoying the three items the restaurant was most famous for: fajitas, homemade tortillas and an unsurpassed view of the picturesque harbor of Tierra del Alleria. The margaritas weren’t bad, either.
The quaint Tierra marina was where Logan and Aidan had first docked their boat on their original visit to
