Ten
“I’m going to marry her.”
As Aidan’s eyes widened in shock and dismay, Logan almost laughed himself silly.
“You’re kidding,” Aidan whispered.
“Why are you so surprised?” Logan asked. “Haven’t you noticed they’ve been in love practically from the first day they met?”
“You noticed?” his father asked, his grin broader than Logan had ever seen it.
Logan laughed and slapped Dad on the back. “We all noticed, Dad. Except Aidan, apparently.”
“Sorry, Dad. I’ve had a lot on my mind.” Aidan scowled at Logan as he threw down the toast he’d been about to bite into. Shaking his head to rid himself of what seemed to be a pretty weird mood, Aidan pushed away from the table and walked over to Dad, who stood and wrapped him up in a bear hug.
Logan jumped up and grabbed them both fiercely. “I’m thrilled for you and Sally, Dad. She’s the greatest.”
“She is,” Aidan said quickly. “I guess I was shocked because I never thought I’d see the day.”
“Me, neither, son,” Dad said, and his eyes grew misty. “But she’s the woman for me. I’m in love with her and I want to be with her always. Took me long enough, but I got it right this time.”
Logan felt his own eyes tear up and he willed himself to get a grip. “Where is Sally right now, Dad? I want to give her a big kiss.”
“Me, too,” Aidan said.
“She’ll love that.” Dad wiped away a happy tear. “Right now she’s off making plans for us to go somewhere special for a picnic.”
“Sounds great,” Aidan said. “You two will have a fun day.”
“But we’ll celebrate tonight, right?” Logan said. “I’ll reserve the table in the wine cellar and we’ll all go a little crazy.”
“Sounds perfect,” Dad said.
Before Logan went off to find Sally, he wanted to find Grace and invite her to the family party that night. He didn’t care what Aidan thought of his decision, he just wanted Grace to be with him for as long as she was on the island. He still didn’t know what had gone on between her and Sally last night and while he was anxious to find out, he realized that he trusted Grace enough to know it wasn’t anything sinister.
Logan turned for one last look at his dad who was still grinning from ear to ear. He hoped and prayed his father would be wearing that grin for the rest of his life. Nobody deserved happiness more than he did. When Logan thought about all the years when he and Aidan were growing up, all he could see was his father, always there. Always steady. Always loving his sons enough to make up for the loss of their mother.
Yeah, Sally Duke was perfect for Dad because Logan could see in her eyes how much she loved his father. And that made her perfect, period, as far as Logan was concerned.
The following day, the Duke brothers and their wives, along with Sally and the twins’ dad, Tom, flew back to the West Coast.
“Damn, I miss them already,” Aidan said as they stood together on the tarmac.
Logan agreed, staring at the sky as the jet climbed higher then curved gracefully toward the west. “Funny how we all became a family in an instant. It’s like we’ve known them all our lives.”
“I know,” Aidan said. “It’s comforting. A little weird, but nice.”
“Really nice,” Logan murmured. “Glad we got to party last night with everyone. Dad was in his element.” Logan was especially glad that Grace had agreed to accompany him to the party. She’d looked beautiful and he’d been so proud to introduce her to his entire family. She’d fit in as well as he’d imagined she would.
“Yeah, it was great to see Dad and Sally together,” Aidan said. “Can’t wait for the wedding. It’s going to be one hell of a celebration.”
“Dad really deserves that.”
“Yeah, he does.”
Logan didn’t say it out loud, but he was starting to wonder why they
“I like it. You know,” Aidan said with a grin, “you’re smarter than you look.”
“Ah,” Logan countered, with a matching grin, “twin joke. Good one.”
“Okay, bro, let’s get going,” Aidan said, and they strolled over to the limo. Once they were settled and the driver took off, he broached the subject they’d left hanging last night. “So, did you find out about the note Grace slipped to Sally?”
“No, I didn’t get a chance to ask her yet.”
“Dude, you were with her all night.”
“I had other things on my mind.” Such as getting Grace back to his suite and into his bed. That note had been the last thing he was thinking about by then, and he smiled at the memory.
Aidan snorted. “Fine, but you’ll ask her today, right?”
“Of course.” Though he wasn’t real anxious to open up that line of conversation and he couldn’t really say why.
“Because I’ll ask her myself if you don’t.”
“No, you won’t,” Logan said, jabbing his finger in the air. “Just…back off. First of all, it’s probably nothing to get excited about. And second of all… Damn it, just…back off.”
Aidan held his hands up in surrender. “Jeez, power down. Fine. I won’t ask her. As long as you do.”
“I said I would, didn’t I?”
“Good. It’s cool. I trust you.”
“Yeah, right.”
The car pulled to a stop outside the hotel entrance. Both men thanked the driver and climbed out, then Aidan checked his watch. “Look, I’ve got to go pack.”
“Oh, hell,” Logan said, rubbing his head in frustration. “I do, too. In all of the excitement over Dad and Sally, I forgot we’re leaving for New York tomorrow.”
He didn’t want to leave.
Logan had been dragging his ass around his bedroom, throwing socks and T-shirts into his open suitcase and counting out the required number of dress shirts and suits for the hanging bag. But the realization didn’t hit him until he started pulling shoes out of the closet and lining them up next to the suitcase.
Damn. He would never disclose this to Aidan, but Logan had the strongest urge to blow off New York and stay here with Grace. They’d spent almost every night together and he was forced to admit-to himself only-that he’d grown damned close to her. He liked having her around and knew he was going to miss her while he was gone.
“Get a grip,” he muttered to himself. He was only going to be gone for three days.
The problem was, he didn’t know how much longer Grace intended to stay. Checking his calendar, he realized she’d been here almost three weeks. He’d never asked her how long she planned to stay. But he wanted her to be here when he got back.
If she did have to go home for a while, maybe Logan could convince her to just drop off the spores and come back right away.
“Ah, jeez.” When had he turned into such a sap? Shaking his head in disgust, he stuffed his shoes into the soft cloth shoe bag, fitted them into the suitcase and zipped it closed. Nope, he definitely wouldn’t be mentioning any of that to Aidan.
“What are you looking at?”
Grace jolted, startled by the voice. She hadn’t heard footsteps approaching, but that was because she tended to recede into her own little spore world when she was out here among the palms.
“I’m looking at these tiny creatures.” She turned over one of the palm fronds and pointed them out to the little girl who stood a few feet away. “Can you see them?”
