Page 43 of Fighting Happily Ever After

“Maybe.” Faith looked so sure, and what she said made some sense. Logan shrugged. “You’re probably right. And really, it’s not like I’m an expert on love or anything, right?”

He was joking, but the look on her face told him he’d hit a little closer to home than he’d intended.Dammit.“That’s not really what I—”

“Forget it.” She held up a hand to prevent him from saying anything more. “I can’t do this right now, Logan. I just…” She pressed her mouth together, before biting her bottom lip.

She took a deep breath and Logan was positive she was going to say something important. Maybe how she’d been wrong and she didn’t want him to keep his distance, or that maybe they could—

“I just…” She shook her head as her shoulders slumped in defeat of whatever she’d been about to say.

But he wasn’t going to let her go that easy. Logan reached out and held her upper arm. “No. What were you going to say?”

She opened her mouth, but closed it again. The moment had passed and she pulled her arm out of his grip. “I should get inside.”

ChapterSixteen

Stephanie hadn’t beenable to sleep in. How could she? It was her wedding day and there was so much to do. She snuck out of bed before Dax could wake up and see her. It would be bad luck for him to see her on their wedding day, wouldn’t it?

Damn.

She hadn’t thought of that the night before. She hadn’t thought of a lot of things. Like the time difference between the mountains and New Zealand. Dax had tried to stay up as long as possible in order to avoid jet lag if he could, but finally he’d insisted on going up to bed. Of course, she went with him and they’d made love before he’d fallen asleep next to her.

They hadn’t been together in just over a month, and they were no strangers to time apart, but usually when they came back together, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other and Dax would all but tear her clothes off the second they were alone.

Not last night. It had been different. A distance between them.

Steph stood in front of the bathroom mirror and stared at her reflection. She was a woman in love about to marry the man of her dreams. Yet, something wasn’t right.

She didn’t look right. Shouldn’t she have a sparkle in her eye the way Hope did whenever Levi came in the room? Or the tiniest grin on her face that Faith seemed to get whenever Logan was nearby?

She leaned in and examined herself carefully, but all she could see were dark smudges under her eyes that definitely weren’t sparkling.

It’s only because she’d had such a restless sleep the night before, she told herself.There was just so much going on.Of course she was stressed out. And she was just overthinking everything because she’d been spending so much time with Faith and Hope and their men, who were…different than Dax. That’s all it was. Different. Not better or worse. Just different.

Satisfied with her explanation to herself, Stephanie brushed her teeth and pulled her hair up into a ponytail before quickly getting dressed and sneaking out of the room.

It was early and no one else seemed to be up, so she measured out the coffee grounds, the way Logan had shown her a few days earlier. He’d laughed at her when she told him she didn’t know how to make a pot of coffee and made a comment about Faith’s complete ineptitude at making coffee. It was just one of many random similarities between her and the twins that might have been explained by the fact that they were long-lost sisters.

Except they weren’t sisters.

Stephanie’s shoulders slumped as the disappointment hit her fresh. It had been such a long shot, and what were the odds that it could have ever actually been true? Still, for a few minutes, she’d actually believed that she could be Faith and Hope’s older sister. It had felt so right and so many of the details lined up. It made sense.

But of course it had been too good to be true.

Maybe that was part of what was making her feel down? She’d been so close to belonging to something. To a family. And then…

Stephanie shook her head hard. She was being ridiculous. Shehada family. Her parents loved her. They’d adopted her andwantedher. They’d given her an amazing childhood. It wasn’t until she’d become famous that things had become strained with them. When she’d started to bring in real money. More money then she’d ever known what to do with. In fact, Steph’s first response had been to help them out. Buy them a big house, and new cars. Maybe a place down south so they wouldn’t have to spend winters fighting the deep freeze of Northern Canada.

More than anything, she’d wanted to share her wealth, but they’d refused. They wouldn’t take any of her money. The luxury SUVs she’d bought them had been donated to a local day care.Donated.

And when she’d called them, confused and hurt, her mom had tried to explain to her that they didn’t want anything from her. That it should always be the other way around: the parents giving to their child, and her grand gifts made her father feel guilty and unworthy as a parent.

It was ridiculous. But not to them.

Even so, it had created a rift between them. As the years went on, and they’d refuse her offers to fly them down to Los Angeles for movie premieres or awards shows, Stephanie had started to feel more and more abandoned by them as they clearly didn’t accept her lifestyle. Or more specifically, her father couldn’t get over his pride long enough to be proud of her and what she’d created for herself.

The coffee finished brewing, so she poured herself a cup and took it outside to the porch, where she settled into the swing that had become one of her favorite places on the ranch. Ever After had very quickly felt like home to her, and everyone like close friends that she didn’t want to leave. But she’d have to, soon. She couldn’t stay in Glacier Falls forever. Even if she wanted to.

Besides, she’d be a married woman, and she and Dax would return to LA and begin their married life together.

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