“I’m happy for you,” Melanie said.
“Thanks...” Gayle smiled, and her cheeks pinked. “You were saying that a spark isn’t that important last night, and I just think it is. When you’ve been married for thirty-five years without it, you don’t take something like mutual attraction for granted.”
But a spark with Logan was so much more than mutual attraction. It was mutual respect, mutual interest and a depth of feeling that frankly, frightened Melanie. They’d fallen in love all over again... And she was afraid of risking her heart, because having her heart broken wasn’t quite so easy to recover from as she might want her stepdaughter to believe.
“Gayle, can I ask you something?” Melanie asked softly.
“Sure.”
“Aren’t you scared?”
Gayle paused, took a sip of her coffee, then shrugged. “Yes. But I took the safe, cautious path once, and it burned me. Taking a risk on something as beautiful and irrational as a spark—it’s terrifying! But would I rather live out my life with my heart carefully tucked away? Or take a few chances on something that might give me what I’ve wanted all these years?”
“Yeah, I can see that...”
Gayle looked out the window, and a smile tickled her lips. “He’s early.”
Melanie looked out the window to see an older gentleman walking toward the coffee shop. He had a little bundle of plastic-wrapped flowers in one hand and a certain hop in his step. Gayle was right—he was excited.
“I’m going to slip out,” Melanie said, giving Gayle’s hand a squeeze. “Have fun.”
Melanie took her to-go cup and headed for the door in time for Matthew to open it and step back to let her through. He was polite, too. Gayle had found herself a nice guy, it seemed.
Melanie headed out onto the street and took a savoring sip of her coffee. Gayle had been through more than Melanie had, and she was willing to take a risk, just on the chance of falling in love with a man who could appreciate what she brought to the table.
And Melanie had a man she was in love with, who loved her, too. And that elusive spark—they had it...did they ever have it! And what was holding Melanie back? Fear. She didn’t want to get her heart broken again, sacrifice her careful plans on another try at love... But did she want to give up on the real thing?
Melanie’s phone pinged and she looked down at an incoming text.
I’m in town. Would you let me buy you breakfast?
Tears misted her eyes. It was Logan. She stood there for a moment, then typed in her response. I missed you.
He typed back almost immediately.
Me, too. Will you see me?
Yes. Should I meet you at the lodge?
Perfect. I’ll get us a table. See you soon...
And Melanie’s heart skipped a beat. Logan was back...the very next day. What did that mean? Even if she was willing to take a risk on them, it didn’t mean he was any longer. If Logan wanted to just continue as pals, she wasn’t sure her heart could handle that.
But Logan was back, and the only way to find out why was to meet him.
LOGAN HAD A table by the window overlooking the turquoise blue of the lake, but his gaze kept moving back to the doorway. The entire drive back to Mountain Springs he was going over how he’d explain this to her...and none of it had been right. All he knew was that every mile that brought him closer to her felt like a relief.
A waitress came by with menus and left them, and just as she was leaving the table, Melanie arrived. She was wearing a light blue summer dress cinched in at the waist. When her gaze landed on him, a smile tugged at her lips, and she headed in his direction. She looked tired. She wasn’t wearing makeup and her hair was pulled back from her face.
Logan stood up when she got to the table and waited until she was seated before he sat back down again.
“I still like your manners,” she said.
“Yeah?” He met her gaze. “I know it was all of one day, but I missed you.”
“Me, too.” She dropped her gaze. “More than I thought I would.”
“Am I a massive jerk to be glad of that?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, but she smiled. “What brought you back?”
“Last night, my son showed me my wife’s very last diary entry. He’d kept that journal for himself, and...” Logan swallowed. “It helped to see what Caroline wrote when she was in the hospital. People take each other for granted when they’ve been together for a while, and I think we both did that. But when we were there together, it cemented things, I guess. She wrote that she was glad she married me, that I was worth it.”
“Of course, she would have been grateful for you...” Melanie reached out to touch his hand, and he caught her fingers instead.
“I honestly wasn’t sure this delightful mess that I am was worth a lifetime commitment,” he admitted. “I wasn’t easy to live with. I could be difficult sometimes. I didn’t want to launch myself into something new until I knew I’d dealt with my own issues.”
“And have you?” she asked, frowning slightly.
“Yeah. I always thought that Junior was more like our father because he looked like him, but it turns out, I’m a whole lot like him, too. I’ve got the same stubbornness, the same emotional makeup. You’ve complained about the same things Caroline did—I close off, I run from my feelings. I did my best to do better by my son, and you know what? If my father’s funeral showed me anything, my dad had done
