Page 4 of Single Mom's Guide to Love

“I’m not sharing a room with you,” I say, needing to make sure he knows that this isn’t a gateway to a hookup.

“I never thought you were.” He leans down to grab his laptop bag then takes a few steps toward me and takes my carryon. “What do you say? Care to join me?”

Why am I considering this? He’s as stereotypical as any other man in here. Is it just the accent? Am I that weak of a woman? There’s something different about him that I can’t put my finger on.

“I don’t even know your name,” I say. “You’re a stranger at an airport bar. This is how true crime podcasts start. And I’m sorry, but no one will say I was a wonderful person who lit up a room when they’re asked about me for the reboot ofUnsolved Mysteries.”

That should’ve scared him off. Between the ramble and the fact that my mind jumps to him making me disappear, he should be saying goodbye.

But he isn’t. He looks oddly shocked, though I’m not sure by what. It wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.

“You’re right. Not about the killing thing, but about the name.” He slings the bag over his shoulder and extends his hand. “I’m Logan. And, since I know that your name isn’t Love, what do you suggest I call you?”

It’s an easy question. Introducing myself to a man, or anyone really, shouldn’t be a big deal.

But for me it is.

I don’t date. I don’t flirt at bars. I barely make friends. I certainly don’t go with men I’ve just met to bars at hotels when it hasn’t been ruled out yet that they’re a serial killer.

Except the entire time we’ve been sitting here, my body and my reactions have betrayed my always logical brain.

And it’s about to do it again…because apparently I have zero self-control tonight. Or I just have that much of a James Bond kink.

“Maeve.”

The smile that forms on his face is slow and sends a tingle down my spine. “Maeve. That’s a beautiful name.”

Am I blushing? I don’t fucking blush. Sure, I might turn red from time to time when I’m trying to keep a secret, or I’ve been called out on something, but I don’t blush because of some flowery words from a man.

“Thank you.”

“Okay then, Maeve…” he cocks his head toward the exit of the bar. “What do you say? Join me away from the chaos?”

2

logan

She doesn’t knowwho I am…

I know I should be worried about ten other things. Like actually rebooking my flight so I can get back to Nashville after the hellish week I just spent at pointless parties, in board meetings, and talking with developers. Or alerting my assistant that my flight is delayed so she can move meetings around.

But no, all my brain can focus on is the brunette sitting next to me at the bar who doesn’t know me from Adam.

It’s been four years since I could just be Logan, a man in a bar wanting to strike up a conversation with a beautiful woman. Four years since I started to lose my cloak of anonymity. These days it seems wherever I go it’s people wanting to shake my hand for hopes of a possible business connection or women who checked out a popular magazine’s most eligible bachelors issue and saw my face.

But not Maeve. She didn’t have a clue who I was the entire time we spoke at the bar. I was already drawn in by her beauty. Her poise and directness intrigued me.

Then she said she didn’t know who I was, and somehow that passed any other test there could be.

Because now, tonight, whatever this night turns into, I can just be Logan. Not Logan Matthews, video game developer of SpaceCraft, the hottest game to come out in decades. Not Logan Matthews who went from eating ramen to having ten figures in his bank account seemingly overnight. Not the man who was in a sexiest man alive magazine issue this past year.

No, tonight I’m just a man at a bar talking to a beautiful woman.

A woman who looks like she wants to be anywhere but here.

“Relax,” I say, trying to calm her nerves as she checks the hotel check-in counter for the thirtieth time. “They said they’d call us when our rooms are ready.”

She turns back to me, but her shoulders are still tense. “I thought you said we were going to somewhere calm. This isnotcalm.”

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