Page 153 of The Lost and the Found

Hayden

I shifted in my seat,staring out the window.

It was a beautiful day.

Spring in Chicago had always been my favorite. Everything was in bloom, and people are coming out in droves. We hadn’t quite reached seventy-degree weather yet, but I liked the mild weather we’d been having.

I should be enjoying the day.

It was the perfect driving weather.

Only I wasn’t driving. Logan was, and I couldn’t calm my nerves down enough to enjoy it. We were on our way to see Mathew.

It had only been three days since Logan showed up at Mason and Olivia’s house. Three days since I moved back home with him.

Logan had been attentive, but he wasn’t able to take time off of work. He couldn’t, not with Mason on paternity leave and, in a way, I was glad we could resume our normal routine.

I wouldn’t know what to do with a hovering Logan.

He pulled up to a nice, but small, suburban house not too far away from Mathew’s restaurant.

I originally had wanted my meeting with him to be at his restaurant. I supposed, I thought it would be better to have people around, and we would have something to do if it became awkward, but I didn’t know how I would react to seeing him again and, honestly, I didn’t want to have a breakdown in public.

So, we were all meeting at Mathew’s house: Logan and me, Veena and Grant, and it would be like a normal family dinner.

I still pull up short every time I think of this family as…my family.

I had spent so long being alone, I was afraid I might not be good at being in a family with anyone, especially not Mathew, who had never stopped loving his little girl.

But I wasn’t that little girl anymore.

And I didn’t know if he even liked who I had become as an adult.

What an unnerving feeling, to not know if he would like me, but wanting him to so, so badly.

And that wasn’t me.

I was supposed to thrive alone.

Logan was supposed to be the only exception to my rule.

Yet, when Logan opened the door and got out, the butterflies came, with the power of a million butterfly wings fluttering inside my belly, and it was taking everything in me not to bolt.

Logan opened the door for me, but I couldn’t make myself move.

“Don’t be nervous,” he said, reaching in and undoing my seatbelt. He didn’t rush me to get out, however. He stood there and guarded me, as if to protect me from every possible hurt I might experience.

What a silly boy.

But he was my silly boy.

“Do you really think he’ll like me?” I asked quietly.

“He loves you, Hayden.”

“I know that. I know he loves that little girl in his memory. But do you think he’ll like me now? You know, adult Hayden?”

Logan leaned down and kissed me. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around him, reveling in the comfort that one simple act brought. “Yes,” he whispered, his hot breath fanning my face.

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