Page 165 of Sapphire Sunset

“It meant the world to me that you asked me before youaccepted her offer,” Logan said.

“She made more of a target out of you than she did of me.”

“We were both targets.”

“True. So did you mean it?” Connor asked.

“What, the more than words can say thing?” Logan asked.

“That was my part. You said theand then somepart.”

“Yeah,’causeit was true.”

“Good. Just checking. I mean, now that you know I can bake Ifigured it’s a lock, but maybe you don’t appreciate muffins.”

Logan tightened his embrace. “They werereallygoodmuffins.”

“Muffins are only the beginning. The banana bread’s going tomake you mine forever.”

“What if I don’t like bananas?” Logan asked.

“You will when you have my banana bread.” Connor smiled upat him and waggled his eyebrows.

“I do love your determination.”

“And my baking.”

“And your powers of perception,” Logan said.

“How so?”

“How could you tell her husband didn’t tell her he was sick?”Logan asked.

“It was the way she looked at the room. There was thislonging in her expression. I’d expected her to be angry, you know. But insteadit was like she was staring at doors that had been closed in her face.”

Logan crooked his finger under Connor’s chin and lifted ituntil their eyes met. “She’s right. Sometimes it’s harder to receive the lovethan it is to give it. But after a while, maybe it becomes second nature. Sowhat do you say? Let’s do it every day, so it becomes a habit.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Connor whispered, then graced him witha quick and tender kiss.

Then it was time to get back to work. Together.

Six Months Later

26

“Logan, let me help, please,” Connor said forthe fourth time.

“Not a chance, my prince.”

Donnie was in the kitchen, warming up the dish he’d brought,and the other guests would be there any minute. But Logan had already spenttwenty minutes trying to screw a hook for the string lanterns into the backwall of their new home. He didn’t seem to be making progress, and Connor wasgetting nervous. “Tonight’s my show, remember? That’s the deal.”

“Well,” Connor said, batting his eyelashes, “maybe I justwant an excuse to rub up against you on that ladder.”

Logan unleashed several more fires of the automatic drill. “You’llhave plenty of time to get all up on this later. ButI’mdoing thisone. We agreed.”

As good as Logan looked in his Levi jeans and hunter green polo,Connor was more interested in getting handsy with the preparations than withhis boyfriend. Throughout their grassy backyard, Connor saw a litany of designchoices in desperate need of improvement.

Logan had already put the place settings on the foldingtable even though it would be an hour before they ate, an hour in which theywould be dusted with whatever their sycamore tree felt like shaking loose inthe warm, canyon breezes. Now he was spending way too much time setting up thestring lanterns that would soon—Connor hoped—stretch across the entirebackyard, hopefully providing more illumination for their dinner than thecandles on the folding table. Candles that had no covers or wind shields.

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