“I know. I’m so excited. In First Class, even.”
“What? Get the fuck out of here? First Class to Japan? You know how much money that must cost? He is definitely not thinking friends. No way. He wants in your panties.”
“Would you stop? You are being ridiculous. Honestly, no he doesn’t. It’s the law firm paying, not Logan personally. But yeah, First Class. Probably the only time in my life I will get to sit in First Class. Here, hugs!”
“Hugs!” Brandi hugged her back. “Are you going to Blake and Marilyn’s picnic? Should we ride over together? Did you hear that Blaze Bryant is supposedly moving to Windsor? He is so damn good-looking but at Marilyn’s wedding, he seemed like such an ass. Why do men do that?”
“Nooo, I hadn’t heard that yet. He is hot as hell, in a looks-like-Blake-but-doesn’t kind of way. You can ride with us, Logan’s driving. It will be great to see everyone for longer than five minutes.” Her phone buzzed in her pocket. “Here. It’s Logan, I gotta take it.”
“Hello?”
“Did you have a chance to talk to Ginger?”
“I did. She’s here now.”
“What’d she say? Can she do it?”
“I talked to her—” She stifled a laugh as Brandi pointed to her crotch and mouthed “in your panties.”
“She said yes, didn’t she? I can hear it in your voice.”
Gabbie let out a mix between a laugh and a squeal. “She said yes. We’re going to Japan! I’m going to Japan! Oh my gosh, I’ll have to check the weather and see what kind of clothes I need. I might have to go shopping. I can’t be—”
“Calm down, Cinderella. We can figure that out later. A rather pressing issue at the moment is getting you a passport that arrives in time.”
Chapter Twelve
Logan got out of his truck, trying to ignore Brandi and Gabbie chattering on about the children Brandi watches for a living. When they were little Gabbie had wanted kids and once they had become juniors in high school, something changed, and she swore that she would never have children of her own. At that age, what had they been, seventeen? They started to become more aware of the life they lived. He always thought her change had to do with her parents. Tammy Crawford hadn’t been a great mom. Hell, she hadn’t even been a present mom. She was too busy doing God-knows-what to give a damn about Gabriella and Genevieve and what they might need. He assumed around that age, Gabbie began to realize that her friends had wonderful moms and she and her sister never did. She didn’t ever want to be like Tammy.
Listening to the ladies talk now, about the youngest sibling Brandi nannied for—she was four years old—had him questioning Gabbie’s decision to never have kids. She talked like she loved them. The ohhs and ahhs had him itching to turn the radio up to drown out their coos. Her nurturing side proved she would be great at parenting. She was easy-going and patient. A true lover this gal was, and it always surprised him that she didn’t want kids. He never pushed the topic. He respected her decisions and would never question her to the point of rudeness. But that didn’t stop him from hoping someday she would change her mind.
Logan had always wanted children. There were times where he thought that was the ‘thing’ to do because everyone did it, but as he’d gotten older, he’d realized he wanted children to enjoy. He didn’t know how many but at least one boy and one girl—the best of both worlds, his mother would always say. He would be unlike his father in the fact that he would not devote his life to work. He would devote his life to his family and then to work.
Growing up, his life was grand even though his parents had separated. He grew up with family, love and discipline, which balanced him into a well-rounded person. He grew up in a healthy lifestyle—dinner at the table, Sunday meals with his family, Gabbie and his grandparents, in bed by nine on school nights, had to complete his homework the second he got home from school—all things he didn’t necessarily like doing at the time. But things that made him who he is today.
Every summer he would spend two weeks with his uncle Chuck in a rural town in Western Kansas. His uncle was the town attorney. With a town as small as that, there was generally one of everything: one lawyer, one veterinary clinic, one pharmacy, and one used car lot. He practiced general law for anyone and everyone who needed his services. Every summer Logan would walk with him in the mornings to his small office that sat on the corner of the main street in town. With less than a thousand people, all of the businesses were centrally located on that one street. He and Uncle Chuck would walk there every morning, stop at the local gas station and buy their breakfast, usually a homemade cinnamon roll and the special fifty-nine cent fountain soda. And every single time anyone saw his uncle, they would greet him and thank him for the services he performed for them.
At thirteen years old, Logan was in awe by the number of people who would always stop and thank his uncle for helping with their parents’ estate after they’d passed away, thus allowing the family to keep the farm within the family. Or, sometimes it was something simple people would thank him for, like preparing documents to purchase a home or land. But every single time Logan watched these folks come up to his uncle and thank him, Logan had been impressed.
The people of that town held his uncle in such high regard, that Logan knew that one-day, he wanted to be like his uncle. He wanted
