Page 32 of Bittersweet

“Why would I be mad at you?”

She paused, unsure if she should bring it up again. “Because I got nosy about where you live.”

“I wasn’t mad.”

He sounded sincere, so she kept going. “Good, because you know I was just worried about … Kayla. She seemed so scared when you got to my place.”

“She’ll be all right. Kids are resilient.”

“Not if someone shoots her.”

Logan’s mouth fell open. “What the heck, Harper? Why would you say something like that?”

“I’m sorry for being so blunt, but I looked up on the news website where the shooting was that night. I don’t get how you can think living in that neighborhood with Kayla is a good idea.”

“This is none of your business, Harper.”

“I’ve been there. I didn’t feel very safe, even in broad daylight.”

His mouth fell open again and his forehead scrunched up. “What are you talking about? You went there?”

Harper shrugged her shoulders. “I was curious.”

His eyes narrowed, his nostrils flared, his jaw twitched. “Well, you know what they say about curiosity.”

She could see he wasn’t happy with her, but she stood her ground. “Now, I know you’ll think this is overstepping my bounds, but I found some apartments in better parts of town.”

“Harper,” he warned.

“I don’t know what kind of budget you have, but there are some at all price points. I made you a list.”

“Drop it.”

“Logan, I’m only trying to help. I just want you to be—”

“Drop it!” His voice echoed through the space and startled the ladies across the room.

The lingering feelings from her earlier run-in with that woman made new tears spring to the surface much more quickly this time around. She spun away from Logan as fast as she could to hide them and walked to the refrigerator to grab ingredients for the morning muffin batter. She carried a half-full carton of eggs and jug of milk to the work counter.

When she looked over her left shoulder, Logan was gone. Figures.

She turned to set the eggs and milk on the counter and was startled to see Logan standing to her right instead. Flustered by his unexpected presence, she placed the egg carton only halfway on the counter, not realizing that the remaining eggs were all to one side. The carton tipped over the edge and fell to the floor—but not before the lid popped open and released its contents.

Harper stared down at the slimy yolks running over her ballet flats and onto the floor. She noticed some on Logan’s boots too.

“Oh, no.” She grabbed some paper towels and crouched down to retrieve the broken shells.

Logan got down beside her to help.

Embarrassed and upset with herself, Harper’s hands trembled, and she kept dropping the shells before she could get them into the empty egg carton. She shook her head as she grabbed a shell from the top of his boot. “First I insult you, and then I ruin your boots. I bet you’re glad you stopped by today.”

“Yeah, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.” He winked.

Laughter slowly built up inside her at Logan’s silly joke, and the moment she locked eyes with him, it came bursting out. He let loose as well, and the tension from before was thankfully broken.

When they finished, Harper stood, ready to discard the mess in the trash can, but Logan remained bent down beside her. She glanced down just as he took hold of her ankle.

Her heart skipped a beat. “What are you doing?”

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