Page 14 of Bittersweet

“We’re getting along, aren’t we?” He raised his eyebrows up and down at her.

She ignored his flirting and pushed forward into the part of the conversation she had been dreading but knew she needed to bring up. “I can’t be a part of it.”

“Harper, come on. Just give it a try.”

“I can’t. Not until I understand what happened. Not until I understand why you left. Because I don’t, Logan. I don’t understand how you could leave without telling me why and why you didn’t answer any of my calls or texts. You just disappeared from the face of the earth without a word.”

He chewed nervously on his bottom lip.

“We had plans and dreams …” She fought back tears as she finally said the words she had held inside for years. “You took all that away.”

Logan’s usual laid-back, casual air was suddenly replaced by uncomfortable shifting in his chair.

“And I don’t understand how you could come back here after four years and act like it would be no big deal for us to work together. Do you have no heart?”

“Harper.” He reached to touch her hand, and she jerked it away. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you? What kind of person does that? What kind of person says ‘I love you’ one minute and leaves without a goodbye the next?”

“It’s … complicated.”

“I bet it is,” Harper replied sarcastically.

Logan sat quietly for a minute, not speaking. His hand rubbed nervously over the scruff on his cheek.

“Cat got your tongue?” Harper couldn’t help the snarky tone in her voice. She had laid it all out there and asked the tough questions, but still he wasn’t giving her the answers she wanted or needed.

His eyes met hers. “I want to tell you everything. I’m not sure it will make much of a difference for us, friendship or otherwise, but—”

Harper’s eyes narrowed. “Otherwise? There is no otherwise for us. I’m … I’m seeing someone.”

“Oh.” He stared at her dumbfounded. “For how long?”

It really was none of his business. She wasn’t sure why she’d brought it up in the first place, except his comment had caught her off guard. And maybe there was a part of her that wanted him to be jealous. “Longer than you and I were together.” She hoped that hurt.

He stared down into his glass, appearing heartbroken.

It didn’t make her feel as good as she thought it would.

“Anyway.” Her thoughts turned to Savannah. “I have a business partner who wants to work with you, so I need to know the truth, and maybe we can all move forward in this venture.” She hated how cold and business-like she sounded, but she had to keep it that way. “I need closure, Logan. Please tell me the truth.”

Logan nodded. “I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time, but I wasn’t sure you’d want to hear it after all these years. I don’t know where to start … what I’m about to tell you … I just hope you’ll understand.”

Harper waited, and she felt for Logan as he struggled to speak, but she wanted answers.

“So … I never really told you much about my life before I came here, my life in Detroit.”

Not like Harper hadn’t tried to learn more about him and his past, but he’d never been very forthcoming. She’d gotten snippets of details now and then from him. He hadn’t had a very happy childhood. He’d grown up in a poor neighborhood in Detroit. For two years after high school graduation, he’d saved money and gone to community college before transferring to Grand Valley State University, where they had met. Other than that, he hadn’t given her much of his backstory.

“When we met, I knew right away you were way too good for me. I came from nothing. Less than nothing, actually. My parents were addicts—alcohol, drugs, you name it, they were into it. So were a lot of my friends. And if they weren’t using, they were dealing.” He paused and hung his head. “And so was I.”

Her mouth dropped open a little. She couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth, and she couldn’t wrap her head around them. Logan? My Logan? Drugs? A drug dealer? It didn’t seem possible. Not based on the man she had known and loved.

“The day before I left Grand Rapids, I got a call from the women’s prison in Ypsilanti telling me—” His phone suddenly rang, and he groaned, but quickly got a concerned look when he saw the screen. “Sorry.” He held up his index finger and stood, walking to the front of the restaurant to take the call privately.

Harper was on edge now, especially after hearing he’d once done and dealt drugs. These phone calls and texts of his certainly seemed urgent. Did it have anything to do with that? She hoped not. She hoped that was just a regret from his past, something he would never do now.

But he had done those things. She wondered if he’d been dealing drugs when they were together. No, he wouldn’t have done that. Would he? She suddenly began to question all she’d known about him and their relationship. Was anything about their time together true? Her chest felt tight, as if she was having some kind of panic attack. She breathed in slowly, held it, then let it out.

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