Page 66 of Keeping the Single Dad
Logan shook Brodie’s hand. “He’s got a firm handshake, this fella.” Logan transferred his gaze back to me. “Good to see you, pal. Can I get you a drink? You want a beer?”
Mel raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “I’m making tea.”?
Logan poked absently at a raised pink scar on his forehead. “How’s things? What have you been up to these past years?”
I’ve been sleeping with your daughter.
She sold me out to the national press.
We have no idea where she is.
My chest tightened with impatience. “I need to know what's going on.”
Logan wrapped his arms around himself. He rocked gently back and forth on the chair.?Mel weaved with brusque efficiency around the kitchen, wiping the surfaces. “Alex isn’t here for chit chat. He’s here about Lana.”
“Lana?”
The hiss of the tea-kettle raked through me. How was he going to take this news? I didn’t have time for this. I just wanted to know that Lana was okay.
“Lana is Dad’s girlfriend,” Brodie announced, proudly.
I coughed, awkwardly. “That’s not quite true, pal.”
Logan’s confused eyes met mine. “What?”
“I know I’m older, but…”
I love her.
The words stuck in my throat. Not because I didn’t mean them, but because of what it would mean to speak them out loud. Brodie looked up at me with keenly expectant eyes. The damage was done. The worst had come to pass. Brodie loved Lana, too. I had to be honest with him.
We’d cope with the heartbreak together—the way we’d always done. I couldn’t stop life from happening to Brodie. Life would keep coming, and with it, pain. I couldn’t stop him from getting hurt. I could only be with him and stand firm when he needed me to help weather it.
“I’ve fallen in love with your daughter.”
A muscle jumped in Logan’s jaw. He drew his lips in then flashed a small wry smile. “Well, good luck with that one, pal. Lana can be a lot of trouble. All I care about is that you treat her right…”
“You love Lana?” A pensive shimmer lurked in the shadows under Mel’s eyes. She put a steaming mug of tea on the table in front of me.
Did I still love her? Yes. Of course. I couldn’t turn my feelings off like a light switch even after the article.
Brodie’s face split into a wide grin. “We both love her.”
My heart dropped at the same time as a small smile played on my lips. Brodie was always so happy around Lana. She’d brought him so much joy, even if now she’d brought us pain. That was the price we’d paid.
“Yes. I love her. Now, do you want to tell me what’s happened?”
Mel sighed. She cast her weary gaze over her father and smoothed her smart shift dress. “Lana was being blackmailed. Some nasty journalist was threatening to print a story if Lana didn’t give her dirt on the team. She’s been trying to hold it off by feeding her information about Sean.”
A frown creased my brow. “Lana was the one leaking stories to the press?”
Mel slid into a chair at the table, her thin fingers tensed in her lap. “Sean Wallace is a nasty piece of work. He deserves whatever he gets. In the end, the journalist was out for blood. Lana had no choice. She either told the story of the two of you or…” Mel bit her lip, and her eyes slipped away. “The journalist had some stuff on Dad.”
Logan paled, his dull eyes blazing brighter. “What? What stuff?”
Mel swallowed, and her gaze rested on Brodie. “Private stuff. Now’s not the time. Suffice to say, it was damaging. I told Lana, if she didn’t keep the journalist off our back by giving her the story she wanted....” A swift shadow crossed Mel’s composed face. “I wouldn’t forgive her.”
The color drained from Logan’s grizzled face. “You did what?”
