Page 32 of Single Mom's Guide to Love

“Whatever you were envisioning, I want that. If it were up to me, yes, I’d have thrift store furniture, a few couches and a game room. And yes, I’m frugal, but that’s because I don’t like to spend a lot of money on things I don’t think I need. But I trust you, Maeve. I trust Kat telling me that I need to own up to my status. If you tell me I need to spend twenty grand on a couch, then I’ll do it. No questions asked.”

This seems to get a reaction out of her. “Really? You’d be fine with that?”

“Yeah, I would.” I take another step toward her. “In my business, when I don’t know something, I find people who do. And that is you, when it comes to this place. This can be what you want it to be, Maeve. That is, if you’ll forgive me?”

Well, I might not have gotten on my knees and actually begged, but that was a pretty good grovel if I do say so myself.

I watch Maeve, looking for any signs of which way she might go. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but the longer she stays, the better I think my odds are.

Just when I’m starting to think I’m in the clear, Maeve shoots up from the chair, grabbing her tote and throwing it over her shoulder.

Dammit!

“That was a nice speech. Mostly believable,” she says, our bodies only a few inches apart. “And even if it was true—which I’m sorry, there’s just too many coincidental things for it to be—I can’t work for someone who lied to me. Or that I slept with. That’s just…it would never work. So, it’s best that we end this meeting now.”

Maeve starts storming out of the room, but luckily I’m quick enough to stop her before she can exit. “Maeve, please…”

A surge of heat passes through us, and judging by her expression, she’s feeling it too.

Is she remembering that first kiss? Or the heat and tension that passed through us while sitting at the bar? Or when I had her pressed against the door? Or when my face was buried between her legs?

I study her eyes, and for a second, I see the face of the woman I met the other night. And then just as quick, her eyes refocus, and I realize that this is it.

“Goodbye, Logan.”

And with that, she pulls her arm from my hold, marches down the hallway, and out the door.

Game over.

10

logan

“Shocker.I found the video game nerd in his video game cave.”

Oh, what would my life be without the snark of my best friend/publicist/temporary assistant?

I don’t say anything or turn away from the game I’m playing—a combat game where I can take my frustrations out on some bad guys—as she comes in and sits next to me.

If she was looking for me, this means one of two things: She missed me while I was away or she’s coming to scold me about something I did while I was away. It’s likely the latter, but I’m going to be hopeful it’s the former.

Wild card is she found out about Maeve—that we slept together and that she turned me down earlier today—and I’m going to get yelled at for that.

Honestly, it could be all of the above. Kat knows everything. I don’t know how she does it, but the woman has either planted listening devices around my house or she’s some sort of time traveler who can put herself into many different places simply by turning clocks.

She always was a big Potter head…

“Do you need something?”

I don’t make eye contact with her, which she’s used to. She’s been my best friend for a little more than a decade at this point, having met at freshman orientation at Stanford.

She stood next to me because she told me that she had a thing for guys in glasses. I snickered at one of her smart-ass comments to the tour guide. We’ve been inseparable ever since. But not in a romantic way. We got drunk one time and kissed. It lasted two seconds before we both backed away in simultaneous horrified laughter.

Sometimes the friend zone is a bad place to be. For me and Kat? It’s the best one.

I take a quick glance at her out of the corner of my eye to assess her mood. She looks stressed. Which isn’t new. She doesn’t look mad, per se, but she doesn’t look happy either.

What has me worried most of all is that she’s not talking. She’s just sitting still, staring at me, waiting for me to turn off my game and focus on her.

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