Fighting Fate (Granton University #1)(44)

“You better not.” Grinning, she nodded in approval.

Then she turned away to help a group of guys who came into the shop. They didn’t have a chance to tease and play around for the rest of the night, but Logan still felt high from their brief encounter. By the time closing rolled around, he still had this euphoric surge of adrenaline pounding through him, like he could pick up the entire building and twirl it around on his pinkie.





As soon as Paige turned the Open sign around to display Closed, her nerves kicked in. She’d wanted to talk to Logan about his wrists for a while. After chickening out earlier, now was her last chance. But since “now” was actually here, saying what she wanted to say seemed awkward.

She cleared her throat as she hurried back the counter. “Do you mind if I turn on the radio? It helps me work better.” Maybe it’d help ease her nerves into saying what she wanted to say too.

He glanced at her with the most inscrutable expression, and then gave a slight shake of his head. “I don’t mind.”

She tried to smile and found it strained. Her chest felt full, crammed with anxiety. “Thanks.”

Gus kept an old alarm clock radio sitting on top of the tallest juice machine. Ricky had taught her she could turn the radio on after hours. Stretching up onto her tiptoes, she reached for the power button, her fingers stumbling blindly for the knob.

“Here.” A long arm swooped above her head and flipped the switch.

A low, slow melody flowed over them. Paige lowered her hand and turned, finding it difficult to breathe as she caught Logan’s gaze. With his arm still stretched over them, he asked, “Is this station okay?”

Her voice had definitely gone on vacation. She opened her mouth, tried to speak, and got nothing. Pressing her lips together, she nodded.

He lowered his arm, and she released her breath in a shudder.

When he shifted away, she felt a little lost. Pressing her hand against her heart, hoping to calm the rapid beat pouring through her, she closed her eyes, and steadied herself.

“I call dish duty.”

He’d have to roll up his sleeves to do the dishes, and she’d caught him more than once this evening tugging them down. He’d probably done it before around her, but now she noticed it. She wondered if he realized how hard he constantly worked to hide them though.

Logan moved to the meat slicer and began to disassemble it. They worked together in companionable silence, the radio lulling her as it played the top forty hits.

When they finished, she glanced around. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever finished clean up this fast before.” Tossing him a pleased grin, she added, “We make a good team.”

A choking sound came from his throat as he seared her with a dumbfounded glance.

She drew in a long breath, glad she had his attention, yet dreading the next few minutes.

“Actually, I’m glad we were scheduled together tonight,” she pushed out, ready to get her speech over and done with. Ignoring the shock on his face, she smiled again, hoping to reassure him that she wasn’t going to say anything rude or hateful. “I’ve been hoping to run across you for a while now. There was something I wanted to say. And I was going to do it on Halloween when you drove me and my friends home, but then Einstein got into trouble and sidetracked me, so…” She shrugged and sent him a rueful smile.

He blinked. “Okay.” When he just watched her, his face frozen as if he was reserving his reaction until he heard her out, she glanced away, suddenly self-conscious.

“Anyway, I wanted to tell you I…that is, it wasn’t fair of me to kick you out of the grief group. I shouldn’t have done that.”

He stared at her a moment longer, still frozen. Then he shook his head and frowned. “You didn’t kick me out. I left voluntarily.”

She frowned right back. He wasn’t going to make this easy on her, was he? “But you wouldn’t have left if I hadn’t—”

He lifted his hand to stop her. “It’s okay. You don’t have to—”

“No,” she pressed, remembering Einstein’s scars, not just on his skin but on his soul. She didn’t like the thought of someone else suffering that way too. Not even Logan Xander. “I do have to. When you said the group had really helped you, I didn’t get it. Not then. But I know what you mean now, because the group’s really helped me too.” She flushed. “I mean, I haven’t been able to talk about my issues with my mom’s death yet or anything like that, but I just…I can tell that it’s working…somehow.”

She bit her lip, hoping that made some semblance of sense to him.

Logan gave a slow nod. “Yeah, I can tell too.” When she looked up, he was the one to glance away and flush. “I mean, you’re definitely different than you were at the beginning of the semester.”

She smiled. “As in, I don’t run wailing from the room whenever I see you now?”

His lips did that crooked hitch in one corner, as if he wanted to smile but wasn’t quite capable. “Among other things.”

His low voice moved through her, spreading a strange heat into all her limbs. Looking down at her hands, she pushed at her cuticles.

“Well, I feel different,” she announced. “In a good way.” When he didn’t answer, she dropped her hands. “I guess we don’t have to stand around here all night if we’re done.” Spinning away, she reached up to turn off the clock radio, except she couldn’t reach it.