Page 37 of Every Sunset
CHAPTER 15
ANNA
“Sure you’re doing okay?” Logan asked. It was dark out now. Dinner had been fun in the end. I’d struggled to engage with Tate much but I got to a point where I didn’t see Callum’s face in my mind every time I looked at him. Cat was great fun, even if she didn’t seem to have much of a filter. Three glasses of wine had seemed to be enough to have her pretty wasted, but not drunk enough to stop her demanding we all head into the pool house when the weather turned a little cooler.
I’d been reluctant to swim, since I worried about my scars showing in a swimsuit, but I had found an old one piece from when I used to take Max swimming when he was younger that covered almost everything but the top of the puckered, red line between my breasts. Beaten down by Cat’s demands that I join the fun, I had donned the plain black suit with Max’s hoody pulled over it, and trudged back to the pool house good naturedly.
Maddox had dropped Max off at his party around eight, so I was child free for the night, Maddox having not drank a drop of alcohol since his one and only beer, had reassured me I could relax because he’s go and pick Max up the second Max called him.
I had been reluctant to let go at first, the consequences I paid last time for doing something for myself playing on a loop, like a warning, in my head.
But one glass of wine had turned into three, and I’d got caught up in the fun of us all playing volleyball over the net Logan pulled out. Luckily for me, we had played our side on the shallow end of the pool, so I hadn’t needed to admit to anyone that I didn’t swim, which would have been embarrassing.
Logan and Maddox had kept me close enough throughout, that my anxiety had been soothed and I had been able to relax, and I just felt safe, and even a little care free for the first time, maybe ever.
Now Cat was passed out on one of the sun loungers beside the pool in the huge conservatory room that housed the vast pool. Maddox and Tate had wandered inside to play a game of pool in the games room that the guys apparently had in their enormous, palatial home.
That just left Logan and I in the pool. I was tired and a little buzzed from the wine, but I was in no hurry to get out. I’d never just had the chance to fool around and relax in a pool before. I used to take Max when he was little, but most of that time had been filled with him learning to swim, then when he was older, he was such a daredevil that I never dared take my eyes from him.
“Did you have fun, sweetheart?” Logan asked.
“Yeah,” I sighed happily, a gentle smile on my face. “I needed this,” I admitted.
“I noticed that Tate makes you nervous, but I’ve known him for years, Anna. He moved here when I offered him a job. He used towork for me in Los Angeles before that. He and Cat, they’re good people. They can be good friends if you’ll let them be,” he told me. He was sat on the edge of the pool now, just watching me as I leant my back against the wall opposite him, holding the edge and kicking my legs lazily before me back and forth in the water. It was so relaxing and I was already considering coming back to use the pool more.
I’d never really considered it when we moved in. Why would I? I didn’t swim. The only reason my son could, was because I had put him into swim lessons when he was three years old, determined that he would learn the vital life skill I had never been taught. When I used to take Max swimming myself, I never allowed him to leave the shallow end, where I could keep my feet on the ground.
Before that, living the life I did, swimming hadn’t been an option, and learning to do so was far from the top of my priorities. But Logan and Maddox’s pool gradually got deeper from the shallow end, and I felt that I could maybe take a dip every now and then, as long as I stayed where I could reach the bottom.
“I know,” I nodded. “It’s just…well, Tate…he reminds me of someone. I’ll get over it, but it’ll take time,” I admitted. “I don’t think I have much choice about being friends with Cat,” I added with a laugh as we both glanced to where she was sleeping curled up tightly on the lounger near the door into the house. Tate had covered her over with his hoody and she seemed to be out cold.
“Is that a problem for you?” he asked.
“Of course not. I like her, and it would be nice to have a friend.”
“You have me and Madd.”
“That’s different though, isn’t it?” I asked boldly, looking up at him with what I knew was lust. Being in the pool with him for the last two hours, him wearing nothing but a pair of navy swim shorts that fit him perfectly was killing me. The only thing that would have perfected my dream was if Cat and Tate left, and Madd got on his swimming shorts, revealing all his own sculpted , tanned body just the way his brother had.
But Madd hadn’t gotten into the pool, and no one had nagged and attempted to persuade him the way they had me. I already knew Maddox was conscious, and maybe even a little embarrassed of the fact he’d lost his leg, and I guessed that was why, but I hated that he missed out because of it.
All thoughts of Madd ceased as Logan slid down the wall into the water. I didn’t take my eyes from him as he stalked towards me, the water that had splashed up his body just a little when he slid in, sliding down his rippled, tight body guiding my eyes to take in every single inch of his perfectly tanned skin. His shoulders were so wide, also hard with muscle. A tattoo wrapped around from his back and down over his sculpted bicep on his right arm. I had been trying to work out what the tattoo was earlier, but the image had been too unclear when he was in the water, Now I saw that the part that came over his shoulder and down his arm looked like some kind of vine, barbed, and gnarled looking, with leaves so dark green they almost looked black. That just made me curious about the tattoo on his back even more.
“Anna?” I snapped my eyes up to meet his and adored the playful smirk on his face. Clearly I’d been caught staring.
“Yeah?”
“I asked you a question, sweetheart,” he chuckled, and then he was there, right before me, his arms holding the wall either sideof me and caging me in, his body so close to mine I could feel the heat coming from him.
“A question?” I repeated, my tongue tied as all of his perfection surrounded me and held me rapt.
“Yes. I asked you how mine and Madd’s friendship is different? You don’t like us the way you like Cat?” I moved my eyes up to meet his and became lost in the way he was watching me, with so much heat and desire. I had never even seen that look before, but it was so glaringly easy to read in that moment, mainly because I felt exactly the same way.
“I like you,” I told him, a little breathlessly. Why were we talking? I didn’t want to talk. I wanted…no I needed him to kiss me. All of my promises to myself, all of my fears and worries that I could never seek any kind of relationship ever again were forgotten right then. Or silenced at least, because all I could think in that moment was that I wanted Logan.
“You do?” he asked, and I was sure he was toying with me now. The smile on his face was filled with devilment. He was enjoying this.
“You know I do.”
