Page 40 of Bittersweet

Brett’s eyes narrowed at Logan. “I changed my mind.” He turned on his heel and walked away.

Harper noticed how pleased Logan was to witness their interaction. She smirked at him then went after Brett, picking up the pace to catch him.

“Brett, it’s not a big deal. Savannah handles all of our dealings with him.”

He tilted his head, a look of disbelief crossing his face.

“I don’t have much to do with it, except the baking.” She zigzagged through festival-goers, trying to keep up.

“Except when he spends the night at your apartment,” Brett remarked.

“I explained that already.”

“You have an excuse for everything, don’t you?”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing.”

“I’m not making excuses. I was helping him out for his little girl’s sake. Come on.”

Brett finally stopped walking and faced her, looking as if a lightbulb suddenly came on above his head.

“He’s the reason you wanted the food truck in college, isn’t he?”

She chewed the inside of her cheek nervously, wishing he wasn’t so good with the lawyerly skills.

“You must have been pretty serious if you were talking about going into business together. Maybe there’s still something there between the two of you. Is that why you were so cold to me the other day? Is he why you were pushing me away?”

Boy, was he good at uncovering the truth. “I was working. I told you.”

He shook his head. “Don’t lie to me. It’s because of him, isn’t it? He’s the reason you won’t sleep with me.”

Her mouth fell open. She’d had it with the sudden and rude inquisition. “You want to know about me and Logan? Fine! He left me, okay!” Harper cried in the middle of the crowded festival. “We were together for six months, four years ago. We were planning a future together, and he just left without telling me.”

Brett looked at her, straight-faced.

“So there you have it. That’s the extent of our relationship. I thought we were going to be together for the rest of our lives, but we aren’t. He’s in the past. But you are my present. I’m with you now, Brett, so can we please let this whole Logan thing go?”

Brett looked in the direction of Logan’s food truck then pinned Harper with a serious stare. “I can, but can you?”

17

Seeing Harper at the festival yesterday with Brett stung. It shouldn’t have. She was on a date with her boyfriend, which was to be expected. But it still made him want to reach through the window of the food truck and wring the guy’s neck. It didn’t matter how nice a guy Brett was, seeing Harper with anyone would have given Logan the same reaction.

He couldn’t shake that day at her shop last week. They’d had a few nice moments, ones he had hoped they could build on and maybe move toward some kind of reconciliation. But with Brett in her life, he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Still, he couldn’t help but hope.

“Daddy, can we go visit Harper?” Kayla had perfect timing. Why didn’t she just pour a little lemon juice on that wound.

“I don’t know, Kay. What are you doing over there?” He attempted to divert her attention to the tea party she had set up with two stuffed animals and a baby doll.

“We’re having coffee, just like you make, Daddy.”

Logan smiled at his beautiful girl. When he looked at her bright eyes, sweet smile, and rosy cheeks, he couldn’t regret being with Naya. It had given him the greatest gift he never knew he needed in his life. Having Kayla had made him grow up quickly from the immature young man who had barely settled into life as a new adult to a single father who would give up his own life to protect his child. No matter how Kayla came to exist, he was meant to be her daddy.

He did his best to be both parents for her, but he knew she needed a mother. The thought of Naya getting out of prison early and wanting to be in Kayla’s life made him sick to his stomach. Maybe she had truly changed and been rehabilitated in there. Maybe she would come out a different person, and he had to hope for that possibility, for the sake of their daughter. But after all of their history, he wasn’t convinced she could change. She didn’t have the kind of support system he’d been blessed with in Gary and Marsha.

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