“Pansy is an anomaly. And she doesn’t count.”
“Okay. Well, good to know that you just get to decide who you think you know.”
“Pull the stick out of your rear, Logan.”
“Look, matchmaker, you meddle in people’s lives on your own time. It’s fence-fixing time.”
“Fine. But tonight when we go to the bar, I’m going to put feelers out.”
“God save us all from your feelers,” he said.
“I’ll be successful. You can bet.”
LOGAN ALREADY NEEDED another drink, and they’d only been at the Gold Valley Saloon for twenty minutes.
This time of a year was a bitch anyway. His slow slide into seasonal grinchhood began in November and continued all through December. He didn’t do Christmas. Not at all.
Not since his mother had died.
So he was already prone to irritation as it was. And Rose was being particularly Rose.
There was no stopping Rose Daniels when she was on a tear and Logan knew that better than anybody. She was a frenetic lightning storm wrapped in skin. And she drove him crazy.
In all the ways that could apply.
Much to his endless chagrin.
He had known pretty little Rose Daniels since she was a child.
His mother had been best friends with her parents, and after they’d died he had moved in with the family and essentially become part of it.
But there was something about Rose. She got under his skin, and made it itch. And that itch had transformed into something wholly inappropriate after she had gone from girl to woman, which had happened seemingly overnight. She had gone to bed, seventeen and a pain in his ass. And woken up eighteen—still a pain in his ass—and recognizably far too pretty for his own good.
No. Rose wasn’t like a sister to him. But the feelings he had for her were deep, special, forged in fire.
He had known that long before he had ever found her beautiful. He would be her protector. When she was seven years old, looking at him with eyes that were far too serious and asking when their parents were going to come back, because death was a concept that was simply too big for her to grasp, he had vowed it then. And he kept it now.
But sometimes the kid needed protection from her damn self.
He had turned protecting her from him into an art form.
It was her harebrained schemes that he couldn’t quite manage.
The woman had a habit of grating on him. And tonight, she was going to test every single one of his nerves, he had a feeling. More than a feeling.
He could think of nothing that Iris would like less than to have her younger sister trying to find her a pity date. Because whether Rose realized that was what she was doing, she was. He recognized it. Well, because he saw what Rose recognized in Iris. He did. She spent most of her nights at home baking and knitting. When she did go out, it was with the whole family.
At this point, it wasn’t like he did a whole lot else.
Not since his libido had transformed into something spiky and untrustworthy. Yeah. Sometimes he went out of town and found a woman. But he didn’t like hooking up here.
Iris hadn’t come out with them tonight, and from the looks of things, Ryder and Sammy were going to have to call it an early evening. Which would leave them with West and Pansy. He was fine with that, he liked the man that Pansy was engaged to. They were going to have a Christmas wedding, which was likely half of what had Rose so amped up about romance, and seeing her sister happy.
He got Rose a bottle of her favorite beer, and went back to the table. He had snuck her beer a time or two starting when she was about nineteen. Ryder would be angry if he knew. He had been a stickler for minding the rules. But Logan had figured it was a rite of passage. And since all Rose really wanted to do was have a beer out on the back porch, he had never seen the harm in it. As a result, he had a pretty good idea of what she enjoyed.
“He’s here,” Rose whispered.
“Who?” He sat down at the table next to her and passed her the beer.
“Elliott.”
“Rose, what did I say?”
“When have I ever listened to you?”
“Well, you should listen to me. You should listen to me now.”
“What are you saying exactly?” she asked, her tone far too sweet.
“To leave well enough alone.”
“What are you two whispering about down there?” Pansy asked.
Rose’s older sister was looking at them keenly.
“Nothing,” Logan said.
“Logan doesn’t approve of me,” Rose said.
“Well,” Pansy said, “I should think that would be a goal of yours.”
“Yes. I don’t really care about whether or not I am meeting with anyone’s approval. It has to be said.”
That wasn’t strictly true, and he knew it. Rose wasn’t really a rebel, so much as she was...exuberant. She acted before she thought, and spoke even sooner than she acted.
“I’m exhausted,” Sammy said. “Even though I really do want to stay and hear about what all Logan disapproves of.”
Sammy was five months pregnant, and Logan knew that her desire to be in the middle of the fray often lost out over her current level of energy. He was happy for Ryder, that his friend was able to get over some of the trauma of his past and begin to make a new life for himself. A new family. It had been completely obvious to him that Ryder had been in love with Sammy for the last decade and a half. His friend had denied it, but Logan had known.
And, it had turned out he was right.
That made him feel slightly uncomfortable, given that he was currently judging Rose for trying to get involved in people’s love life. But he had not gotten involved in Ryder’s. Not without his asking for input.
Anyway, in some ways
