ridiculous, one guy in all this space. The second and third stories featured bedrooms and bathrooms of all sizes, including a bunk room for eight.
“Here’s where you’ll sleep. When Charlie and his cousins get here, there’ll be seven kids.”
“Cool,” said Andre, climbing like a monkey to a top bunk.
“That’s a houseful,” said Maya.
“I’m up for it,” Logan told her.
She kept checking the screen of her phone. As they walked through the rest of the house, exploring nooks and crannies, dormer windows with views of the snowy woods, she seemed to grow more and more tense. He then gave them a quick tour of the resort.
In the main lodge, he spied Darcy Fitzgerald from afar, but she seemed busy with her friends or work associates, so he steered clear of them. Maya was clearly unraveling, and he needed to focus on getting the kids settled in. He led the way back to the house.
“Doing all right?” he murmured, holding the door for Maya.
“Freaking out,” she said. “My doctor gave me something for anxiety, but the pill I took this morning is wearing off.”
“Who’s hungry?” he asked, turning to the kids.
“Starving,” Andre said.
“Let’s go make some sandwiches.”
While the kids debated PB&J versus grilled cheese, Maya watched them with her heart in her eyes. Logan hurt for her. He ached all over, imagining how hard this was going to be. “Eye on the prize,” he said to her in a low voice. “Keep that February release date in mind.”
“It’s the only thing keeping me sane,” she said, and checked her phone again. “My ride back to the station should be here by now.”
Adam Bellamy had volunteered to drive her back down to the station.
“He’ll be here soon,” Logan assured her.
“I almost want to get it over with.”
Logan nodded. “The sooner you get going, the sooner you’ll be back.”
“Yes. Oh my God, how could I have been so stupid?” she asked, moving to the foyer, where the kids were out of earshot. “So, so stupid?”
“Hey, take it easy. You’re only human.”
“I thought I loved him. I kept thinking...I wasn’t thinking. Love makes us do such stupid things. Why is that?”
“No clue. I’ve made my share of mistakes.” He noticed her watching her kids, devouring them with her eyes. “I swear on my life, I’ll take good care of them,” he told her.
“I know, Logan. I can’t thank you enough.”
When her ride pulled up in front of the house, she wobbled a little on her feet, and Logan took her gently by the arm to steady her. “Easy,” he murmured. “It’s going to be all right.”
“Hey, guys,” she called to her kids, “I gotta go. Come give me hugs and kisses.” Her face was stiff with the battle against tears as she sank down on one knee and opened her arms to them.
Logan’s heart felt ripped in two as he watched her tell them goodbye, breathing deeply as though to inhale their essence. The kids clung, but relinquished their hold readily enough, innocent of her true destination.
“Be strong,” he told her. “You’re going to get through this.”
She practically fled to Adam’s truck, and she didn’t look back. The kids stared after her, stricken.
Logan burst into action. “I’ve got a surprise for you two.”
“What’s that?”
“We’re going to decorate Christmas cookies. Ever tried it?”
Andre looked skeptical. “You mean with icing and stuff?”
“Icing and sprinkles and everything good. You should see the stuff I bought. But these aren’t just any cookies,” Logan warned him.
“Yeah? Then what are they?”
“They’re Walking Dead Christmas cookies.” Logan went into zombie mode, with a stiff, swaying gait as he growled ominously, taking swipes at both kids.
Angelica squealed and they both ran for cover. Logan herded them into the kitchen, cranked up the music on the stereo and hoped for the best.
Darcy was distracted in the worst way when she met up with her team for the video shoot. Everyone bustled around with excitement, and normally she would share that energy, reveling in the sense that they were about to do something very, very cool. There were few things more exciting than being chosen to test gear and show it off for the client.
But today she had something else on her mind—Logan O’Donnell. She’d made a fool of herself over him at the train station. What a boneheaded move, showing up, unannounced, on a transparent pretext. And then to jump to the conclusion that he’d come to meet her at the station... She shuddered in horror and wondered how she was going to smile for the camera.
It was a total bummer to find out that her crush—her very inappropriate crush, as it turned out—was now dating a woman with kids. A woman who happened to look like Sofia Vergara. How nice for him.
Darcy felt like a grade-A idiot, chasing after him even though he hadn’t called or sent a text or even a freaking one-line email since Florida. Bringing her team to Avalon for the shoot was hopelessly transparent, the equivalent of a junior high girl riding her bike past the cute boy’s house to get his attention.
Come to think of it, she had tried that ploy in seventh grade and it hadn’t worked then, either.
No wonder he hadn’t called after Florida.
One kiss was hardly an obligation.
Even if it was an amazing kiss.
Even if it happened after a moment of shared magic, like when the dolphins appeared.
Even if it was the kind of kiss she couldn’t stop thinking about, long after it was over.
“We’re ready for you, Darcy,” said the shoot coordinator. “Oh my gosh, you look amazing.”
“Two hours of hair and makeup, and I’m a natural beauty,” she said, flourishing her fashionably gloved hand.
“Ha-ha.”
“Where do you want me?”
“Top of the long chairlift. The light’s perfect today. This resort is ideal, by the way. Whose genius idea was it to shoot here instead of Lake Placid?”
“That would be me,” Darcy said.
“It’s great. I’ll bet we can wrap this up in a day.”
That was a relief, Darcy thought as she rode the lift, sharing the ride up with a guy named Jeff, who said he was local and had been skiing Saddle Mountain since he was a kid.
“I like what the new owner’s doing,” he said, pushing his ski goggles up on his helmet.
“He’s keeping what people like about the resort and building on it, instead of changing everything all at once.”
At the top of the lift, the crew waited with a woman called Brandi, who was Logan’s uberefficient assistant. She’d coordinated everything via email. She wore retro stirrup ski pants with a tight sweater, and she was pinup model pretty. She was soon joined by the resort’s director of operations, a striking redhead in a green jumpsuit who was causing the videographer to drool. Apparently Logan liked surrounding himself with beautiful women. No wonder he wasn’t interested in Darcy. Plain old girl-next-door Darcy.
“Ready?” asked the camera guy.
