Page 18 of The Runaway Bride's Vow

“You can’t just ignore me. I’m not going anywhere.”

He blew out a deep sigh. He straightened once more. “What do you need?”

“I was wondering if you gave some more thought to letting me help.”

“No.” He reached for his water bottle and took a swig.

“No, you didn’t give it any thought? Or no, you don’t have anything I can do?”

“I have something you can do,” Henry spoke up.

Immediately, Brooke’s face lit up. She swung around to face Henry. “Hi. I’m Brooke.”

Henry smiled so rarely since his wife passed that Logan was hesitant to interrupt. Logan kept his mouth shut and instead stood there witnessing their exchange.

His friend stepped forward. “I’m Henry. So, how are you at painting?”

“Ah… If you want someone to paint a mural, you might want someone else.” She smiled at Henry. “But if it’s something much easier, I can give it a try.”

“Oh, this isn’t so hard.” He waved her over. “See this groove in the bench. It goes the whole way around the bench. It should have a line of gold paint in it. Do you think you could do that?”

Logan noticed how her eyes lit up. “You mean all you need me to do is paint in the groove?”

“Well, it’s a little more involved than that but I’m sure you can handle it.”

She paused as though considering the offer. “I can do that.”

“Then you’ve got yourself a job.”

Logan inwardly groaned. What was it with this woman? Every time he thought he was done with her, she came back. And now thanks to his partner, she was going to be working with them for who knew how long.

Chapter Six

It had been a long week.

Saturday night, Logan had just put Kaylie to bed. The next day, Margie would be home from her conference and pick up Kaylie for the week. He was going to miss having Kaylie around the house. That happened every other Sunday when her mother picked her up. And then he’d wait all week until he got to see his daughter’s bright, shining smile again.

As a yawn snuck up on him, he was tempted to call it a night. But he wasn’t afforded that luxury because he still had a load of laundry in the washer. He couldn’t send Kaylie back with a load of dirty clothes. He didn’t want Margie to think he couldn’t multitask.

He’d just finished folding some towels when the doorbell rang. Who in the world is it? He wasn’t expecting anyone. Maybe if he ignored them, they’d go away.

Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

He sighed. Then again, they seemed pretty insistent. And he didn’t want the doorbell to wake Kaylie. Maybe it was something important. With a resigned sigh, he moved to the hallway. He flicked on the lights and went downstairs. He glanced out the side window to find his best friend and co-worker from the firehouse, Dylan Adler. They’d met in fire academy. They’d remained friends through the years, even when they were assigned to different houses, but they were now assigned to the same house.

Logan opened the door. “Hey, Dylan.”

Dylan dodged around him and headed straight to the kitchen, just like he had done a million times before. “Why is it so dark in here? And why isn’t the game on?”

It took Logan a moment to figure out what Dylan was talking about. Then it came to him. The basketball game. They’d made plans to kick back and watch it. He’d totally forgotten about it.

Logan came along behind him and flicked on the lights. “I totally forgot. It’s been a loong day.”

Dylan glanced around the kitchen and frowned. “I take it you forgot about the pizza too.”

“Actually, I didn’t. Kaylie and I had some for dinner. The leftovers should be on the top shelf.”

Dylan opened the fridge and peered inside. “There it is.” He grabbed the foil-wrapped food and headed for the island where he had a seat. “I’m starved.”

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