“I told them I had a theory. But they all thought I was imagining it.”
Katie pulled up the app and found Logan’s profile. “God, it is, look!” She swept the phone under all of her friends’ noses. “It’s so obvious, now that I look at it again. Back off, Lori, that purse is mine. They technically met on Tinder.” Katie beamed triumphantly, confident she had the better claim to the prize.
But the women all started to shout over each other again.
Logan had had enough. He stood up. “Ladies, calm down. Harriet and I found each other, unaided, eight years ago. It just took us awhile to move forward.”
Sarah laughed. “Ah, but you still wouldn’t be together if Lori and I hadn’t intervened. Honestly, I think Lori should share the purse with me.”
Logan knew when he was beat. “Hmm, possibly true. Okay, here’s how we are going to settle this. You each get one of these.”
He lifted the paper bags off the floor, and onto the table. There was an unseemly scrum that reminded him of a stampede at Walmart on Black Friday he once saw on You Tube. “Jesus Christ.” He stepped back out of the way, taking Harriet with him, fearing for their lives. “They really are that serious about purses, huh?”
She snuggled into him and laid her head on his shoulder as he hugged her. “You better believe it. If the girl’s make a bet with a purse as the prize, then you know they mean business.
Lori sank back into her seat, a cream leather purse clutched to her chest. She kissed the handles. “This will look so cute with the outfit I have picked out for my sister’s wedding.’
Tashia came out of the scrum with a deep pink purse raised above her head, holding it out of reach of the others, claiming it as her own.
RoryLynn chose the mustard-yellow one, and immediately started emptying the contents of her other pocketbook into it. Katie cradled a red one in her arms, and then pulled out her phone to take a selfie with it.
“Which do you want, Sarah? Black or Navy?” Harriet pointed to the remaining two.
Sarah looked down at her outfit. A black shift dress that showed off the tattoos on her upper arms. “Hmm, as I only ever wear black…”
“Have it.” Harriet took the navy purse and placed it back in the paper bag. Then, as she held hands with Logan, the girls fired off questions.
“Are you together, together?” Tashia winked at Logan.
“Does this mean you have totally ruled Wesley out? He was cute, and a doctor, and…”
“RoryLynn!” The others shouted her down.
RoryLynn blushed a little. “That’s not to say that Logan isn’t cute. Um, obviously he is hot, and,” she blushed an even brighter shade of red, “but… okay, I’m going to shut up now.”
“Are you guys gonna stay living together?” Katie’s grin was almost as wide as Logan’s.
He held up his hand again to silence them. “Yes, yes, and yes.”
He put his arm around Harriet’s waist and had the overwhelming desire to kiss her. Pulling his new girlfriend towards him, he took her face in his hands, and for several minutes, he was lost in her. When they finally parted, the women around them clapped. Then it was Logan’s turn to blush when Tashia put her fingers in her mouth and wolf-whistled.
As they walked back to Logan’s car, Harriet ’s hand was still in his. He stopped and tugged her around to face him. “I thought your friends were wild in the bar after having a few drinks. That is nothing to what they were like sober at brunch!”
“Yeah, they are kind of nuts, but they really are the greatest best friends a girl could have. “
Logan pouted. “Hmm, I thought I was your best friend?”
Harriet shook her head. “You are so much more than a best friend, Logan Jackson.”
His grin returned. “Mmm, so are you, Harriet Carmichael.”
They climbed into the car, and he started the engine. “Let’s go home, baby, I want to spend my afternoon off in bed with you.”
Harriet placed her hand on his thigh, and after he maneuvered them out of the space, he grabbed hold of it.
“That sounds like a perfect way to spend the day.” She leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Um, but first, we need to do one more thing.”
“We do?”
She nodded. “We need to book flights to Colorado. I want to introduce you to my family.”
Logan grinned. “Whatever you want, baby, whatever you want.”
20
Logan
Six Months Later…
Harriet drove them along the sweeping driveway that led up to her brother’s ranch. There was a light fall of new snow last night, and the truck’s wheels crunched against the powder. Logan looked out of the window, dazzled by the sun glinting off the breathtakingly beautiful mountains that surrounded the property.
As they rounded the bend, the house came into view, and he began to get butterflies. “So, will everyone be here?”
“Yup. Christmas is the one time we all make it back home.”
“So, how many of you are there?”
“Mom, three brothers, and a sister. Nolan and Miles are married, so their wives will be here, too.”
Logan gulped as she swung the truck into a parking space. He’d had to buy Sarah a second purse in order to bribe her to take on managing Jackson’s while he was away, but it would be worth it for this weeks’ vacation with Harriet–well, it would if her brothers didn’t take a disliking to him.
“So, which one do I have to convince that I am a nice guy, and worthy of dating his sister?”
She grinned at him. “They are all going to love you, Logan. Um, but Miles probably. He’s a little older than the rest of us. Miles is my half-brother, and he can be a bit protective.”
The door to the ranch house opened, and an older woman appeared, drying her hands on her apron.
“That’s my mom.”
“Okay, I guess we should do this, yeah?”
He jumped
