Page 38 of Wilde Secrets

“I’m sure that wasn’t the case,” she said.

Logan nodded. “Yeah. Mom tried to convince him too, but it didn’t matter who told him, he blamed himself. And he withdrew. He stopped caring about lots of things. Everything changed. Mason never smiled after that. Rowan left for Europe and didn’t come home for years. Cassie was just a kid.”

Harper swallowed. “And your mother?”

Logan looked back at Harper. “Most days she couldn’t get out of bed. Dad couldn’t help, he was struggling just get through the days. If it wasn’t for Cassie, I’m not sure what mom would have done.”

Harper found it hard to imagine the vibrant woman in the tie-dye shirt bedridden with grief, but she knew more than most that looks can be deceiving. Her throat thickened as she fought back tears for the family who had lost so much.

“And what about you?”

Logan nodded. “I got drafted.”

Harper’s eyebrows rose. “The NFL?”

Logan nodded. He just watched her, the same way Harper watched people when they realized who her sister was, gauging their reaction.

“But you didn’t play, did you?”

Logan shook his head. “No. I didn’t sign. I couldn’t leave my family the way they were and live with myself.”

Harper’s brows knitted in thought. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

Logan huffed a laugh, but it was humorless. “Isn’t there always?”

Harper squeezed Logan’s hand in encouragement. She gave him a small smile.

The boats moored at the marina bobbed gently in the water as seagulls circled overhead. It’s a beautiful day, and she wished she were spending it with Logan in some other way. Under other circumstances.

“I’d been dating a girl I met at college. I thought she was the one.” He shook his head and looked away, across the water.

“I asked her to marry me when I graduated.” He smiled sadly and turned his head to look back at Harper. “When I told her I wasn’t going to sign, she gave me back the ring.”

Harper gasped. Some woman was lucky enough to have Logan West as a fiancé and she just threw that away?

What an idiot!

“She broke up with you because you weren’t going to be in the NFL?”

Logan nodded. “Yeah. It turns out she was pretty shallow. She mailed me back the ring.”

Harper gasped. “She didn’t even tell you in person?”

Logan laughed as he shook his head. “Nope.”

Harper scowled and growled. “I’d say you dodged a bullet with that one.”

Logan quirked a brow and grinned. “Harper, are you jealous?”

Cheeks heating, she turned away and jammed her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “Of course not.”

Logan hummed as he kept grinning at her.

Harper darted a look at him.

“You must have been pretty good.”

Logan settled next to her, back against the wall, his shoulder bumping hers. Harper’s skin tingled from where they touched—hip to shoulder.

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