Page 146 of The Lost and the Found

Logan

I hadn’t seenHayden in a week, and I knew it would be best if I gave her time to process everything, yet a part of me wanted nothing more than to go to her, demand she forgive me and come home.

Even I could hear how unreasonable that sounded, but I was beyond reason when it came to her. Plus, I knew if I wanted a future with her, I needed to give her time.

I should have told her from the beginning. Before we got in too deep.

My only excuse was that she had fascinated me from the first moment I saw her, and I wanted to keep her to myself.

I knew she was staying with Olivia and Mason. And I knew she took the Honda, which was good, because I didn’t know how I would react if Hayden went back to taking the bus and walking in the street late at night once again.

Mason kept me updated on Hayden at work, but it wasn’t the same.

I missed my girl.

I missed those reserved smiles of hers. I missed the way her blue eyes burned dark with passion, the way she looked at life as if it was a gift and that every moment with me was one she didn’t want to take for granted. I even missed her stubbornness, her surly attitude, and especially her laugh.

It wasn’t something I got to hear very often, but every time I did, it still stopped me in my tracks, and I could do nothing more than savor every precious moment.

I walked back into the office Monday evening feeling restless.

I should be heading home, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to Mason this morning, having been out of the office most of the day, and I needed to hear from his lips that Hayden was okay.

I headed straight to Mason’s office and opened the door without knocking.

He looked up and put his pen down, leaning back against the chair. “She’s doing fine,” he said, before I could ask.

I looked out the floor-to-ceiling window behind his desk, noting all the lights on despite the sun still being out. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. She looks a little sad, but talking to Olivia seems to help. Plus, she’s eating and resting, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Not worry? I’m going out of my mind with worry.”

Mason smiled a little at that, but it wasn’t a happy or amused kind of smile. It was bittersweet, almost. “Yeah, I know what you’re going through.”

I nodded and took a seat. “I don’t know what to do. A part of me want to drive up to your house and take her home with me.”

“Yeah, that won’t go over well with Olivia. She already loves Hayden too much. You’ll have to fight your way through my pregnant wife,” he said with a laugh.

“And Lord knows I’d lose. Olivia can be fierce when it comes to those she loves. I’m glad she’s in Hayden’s corner.”

“Good. And you know, this will be a temporary thing. I know Hayden loves you, though I don’t know why.”

I rolled my eyes at that and his smile widened.

“Things will work out. It took months of waiting before Olivia forgave me and came back. You’re only a week in, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it yet.”

I knew he meant to make me feel better, but I didn’t think Mason remembered accurately how he was when Olivia left. Or perhaps he blocked the memory out of his mind, because he had been that bad. Everything about him during that time was distant and robotic. He had looked like nothing more than an empty shell of his former self, and I knew the only thing getting him through it was the hope that Olivia would come back to him.

Even Gage had been worried.

I shook my head at the thought, wondering if I was heading down the same road as him, when Mason’s phone rang.

He held up a finger. “Sorry, it’s Olivia. I have to take this.”

I nodded, looking down at the documents on his desk. It was the Hastings case. Though we weren’t going to take an active role in this case, we couldn’t—not when Kade, Walker and Cross dropped Hastings Enterprise Holdings as its clients a month ago citing irrevocable differences, and not when we weren’t one of the firms suing them. But that didn’t mean we weren’t obsessing over the case.

“What?” Mason’s sharp tone got me out of my thoughts, and I looked up at him, frowning a little.

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