Page 88 of The Lost and the Found

My shoulder drooped then. I didn’t want fight. Not this morning, not when everything was going so well. “I told you my reasons for saying no.”

“You think we’re really standing on unequal footing?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

He chewed on his bottom lip for a second or two. “I suppose you’re right.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I didn’t really think he would agree with me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, even if it was what I wanted all along.

I was a little disappointed, actually.

Maybe because I liked that Logan saw me through rose-colored glasses. It made him less likely to ever leave me.

“Okay,” I said. And that was all there was to it, I supposed.

Logan shook his head. “We are standing on unequal footing.”

“I know. I heard you the first time. You don’t have to keep saying it.”

“No, you’re not hearing me. We are standing on unequal footing, with you always above me.”

“What?”

He smiled, the lines around his eyes softening his features. I never really noticed those slight imperfections until now. I was quite fond of his wrinkles, I realized.

“You will always be above me. Because I will always need you. Don’t you see? You think our financial situation is what defines us? That’s never been the case. I would give up every penny I’ve ever earned if it meant being with you.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Why? Do you think I would ever say something like that lightly? Or that I’m just being romantic? You should know by now, that’s not me. I’m saying it because it’s true. I would lay the world at your feet, if only you’d accept it.”

I swallowed hard, looking anywhere but at him. “You’re a stupid man for putting me on a pedestal. As if I can do no wrong. I’m more than flawed, Logan. I’m broken.” The last word was said in a fractured whisper. I always knew that about myself, but to say it out loud, even in whisper, to a man like Logan was a bit unnerving.

Perhaps I was every bit as guilty as him. Perhaps I had put him on a pedestal, too, ignoring all his flaws and imperfection, ignoring everything else, because I loved him.

Did that mean Logan loved me, too?

I almost shook my head. The thought was just too much to even contemplate.

Logan cupped my cheek and brought me back to him. “Perhaps it does make me stupid for placing you on a pedestal,” he said quietly. “I don’t care. Can’t you see how much you’ve come to mean to me?”

“The higher you put me, the harder I fall.”

“Didn’t I promise to catch you?”

I knew my eyes were misty as I looked into his unnerving hazel ones. They were more green than brown in the morning light, with golden flecks reflected in them, making him look almost ethereal.

He had told me that once, when I was trying on the dress for the charity gala. That he would be there to catch me if I fall.

But could I believe him?

“The car is nothing. Nothing compares to what I want to give to you,” he said, moving in closer to me. “It’s yours, baby. Just accept it and don’t think too much about what it means.”

I leaned forward and closed the tiny space between us to kiss him. He let me control the kiss, letting me take it as slowly as I wanted, and I loved that. I loved the heady rush of power that surged through me at being able to do this with such a powerful man.

“Okay,” I whispered. “But only as a loan. For now. And I don’t want to drive it until I have my driver’s license.”

He shook his head, though he was smiling. “Stubborn, stubborn woman.”

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