Page 107 of Risky Game

“Of course.” I sighed. She wasn’t doing this. She couldn’t be. We’d already had the miscommunication once, but this sounded different. She didn’t at all sound like she was talking about coming back to LA or the States. “Of course it would be best for Amelia if you were here, Vanessa, but…”

I looked up. The door to my office was opened and Ruby stood in the doorway. No suitcase in sight, but her purse was over her shoulder, and she had a small overnight bag in her hand.

“I just came to say goodbye,” she said, and she was gone. Tears streaming down her cheeks as she ran away.

“Vanessa…”

“So, it’s good. Right? If I come back and maybe instead of California, I come there?”

“No.” Shit. I had to catch Ruby, had to talk to her. I knew exactly what she heard. How that sounded. But damn it. She had it so wrong.

So very, very wrong.

“You can’t come stay with me, Vanessa. That would give Amelia the wrong idea.”

“But—”

“No buts, Vanessa. We’re through, and besides the fact we’re already divorced, I’ve met someone who means a lot to me. I’m not moving backward.”

Her hazel, large, round eyes widened. Tears shone in them, but she gaped at me. Blinked. Blinked again.

And then the largest laugh I’d ever heard fell from Vanessa. “I didn’t mean move in with you, Logan. Gross, no. I don’t want you back. I thought I could stay for a bit while I found my own place to live! I miss Amelia like crazy and it wasn’t for me to leave her so long! I meant how would you feel if I moved closer!”

She was still laughing and crying. She choked over her cries and then started laughing so hard blood rushed to my face.

“Vanessa… You have no idea what you’ve just done.”

And how badly I’d seriously fucked up.

“Who’s the girl?” she asked, now smiling and laughing and wiping tears away.

At least one of us was laughing.

I didn’t hesitate. Vanessa first. My parents second. Soon, I’d let the entire world know who I was dating if they asked.

“Ruby,” I told her. “The nanny.”

Chapter 29

Ruby

I overreacted. I knew as soon as I flung my bag and suitcase into my car and peeled down Logan’s driveway. I knew before then, when I was shoving everything I’d brought to his house into my suitcase that I was being immature.

Of course I needed to say that to him. Of course I needed to apologize and we would talk this out. I hadn’t given him any warning. Hell, I hadn’t even realized I was so upset about our arrangement until his parents came and he didn’t mention saying anything to them. I hadn’t realized I was feeling like a hidden secret all over again until Dawson dropped to his knee in front of his entire team and Logan couldn’t even come stand near me and hold my hand.

It’d all happened so fast, and my emotions ran away with me.

Of course I was being a fool. I’d fully intended to go apologize, tell him I was just going to go stay with Jassen while his parents were there, and we’d figure it out once they left.

Until Vanessa was crying about needing him, wanting to be with Amelia, and he told her it’d be the best thing for Amelia if she was.

He’d loved her at one point. He never hid that from me. He also never hid the mistakes he made with her. The mistakes he was making with me. But if it came down to some girl who took care of his daughter and the woman he’d spent a decade loving?

I had no expectations of where I fell on that totem pole.

I burst into Jassen and Molly’s house with not so much as a text warning them I was coming and threw my small bag on the floor.

Jassen was standing behind his living room couch, football game on the television, and froze at my abrupt arrival.

---