Crush(127)

Logan thrust inside me once more with a shout, and then stopped with a shudder. He moved a second later, once, twice, then stopped again. When he dropped his head to the crook of my neck, he said, “I love you.”

My own planetarium show came to an end and as I tried to catch my breath, I held on to him as tightly as I could. “I love you, too,” I said in a whisper.

“You okay?” he asked.

Funny, I’d forgotten all about the floor until that moment.

“More than okay,” I said and kissed him.

Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep.

“Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Shit,” Logan cursed as he jumped to his feet, not exactly startled by the car horn but rather flustered.

Blinking, I sat up and watched as he shoved his feet into his jeans and then scurried to the closet and opened it.

“What’s going on?”

“Get dressed, fast.”

He was in such a state of distress, I did what he said without question. My nerves got a little frazzled, but it didn’t seem like he was worried. It seemed like he was nervous. I buttoned my blouse and said, “What’s going on?”

He blew out the candles and looked at that expensive watch that he seemed to have become fonder of. “They’re early.”

“Who is early?” I questioned, combing my fingers through my hair.

Logan had a bag in his hand, and he pulled out the red blindfold we’d taken from the boutique months ago but had not used.

I raised a very curious brow.

He shrugged and the corners of his mouth tipped up. “I thought we’d have time for this, but now I have to ask you to put it on.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Please,” he begged and stepped toward me.

I held a finger up. “Hang on. You were going to let me blindfold you?”

He nodded. “That was the plan, but then I got lost in you.”

I bit my lip. “I didn’t mind, really.”

His grin was devilish as he strode toward me. “Turn around.”

With a shake of my head, I waved my finger back and forth. “No, no, no, you turn around.”

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Please, I promise you can use the blindfold and the handcuffs on me later if you just turn around and let me put this on you now.”

He was vowing to give up control one night in the future. I didn’t have to think twice. I stuck my hand out in shaking position.

He raised a brow.

“Deal,” I said.

He shook his head and then my hand. “Deal.”

With the blindfold over my eyes I was surprised it didn’t freak me out, but it didn’t. I always felt safe with Logan.

Step by step he guided me down each stair, and when we were at my front door he opened it.

Music started to blare and I heard the sound of Peyton’s laugher. “Declan, turn that off,” she chided.

“Dumb ass,” Logan muttered.

I heard other voices too. “What’s going on?” I asked Logan.

He tugged my blindfold and it fell to the ground. “Well, this is not how this was supposed to happen, but I’ll just have to roll with it.”

Everyone we knew—Frank, Molly, Sean, Declan and Peyton holding hands, Rachel and her boyfriend, Miles, Erin and her husband and kids, and even Mrs. R and Clementine—were standing in the street with red balloons in their hands. “I thought we were supposed to go see each of them.”

Logan shrugged. “I thought it would be better this way.”

I nodded. I had to agree it was. I’d come to love each and every one of these people and I was going to miss them, but I’d made a promise to Michael and I intended to live up to it.

Logan gave a slight nod toward the crowd and then they all backed away to reveal a shiny red Prius. “Bon voyage!” they yelled.

Tears stung the back of my eyelids and I brought my hands to my mouth. “How did you even remember I’d wanted one in the midst of everything going on?”

His grin was cocky. “A very wise man once told me that it’s the little things that make the biggest difference.”

I threw myself at him. “He wasn’t wrong.”

Logan twirled me around on the stairs and then tossed me over his shoulder and started to carry me to the car.

“Hey, this isn’t very romantic.”

He laughed. “I told you I wasn’t good at romance.”

I think I might have been giggling and crying at the same time because he couldn’t have been more wrong.

When he opened the driver’s door, he set me down and smiled at me with that smile that from the very first time I saw it made my stomach flip.

“Mommy,” I heard Clementine say.

“I got her.” Logan closed my door and extended his hands to Mrs. R, who brought her to him. He strode around the car whispering something to her and then the two of them got in on the passenger side.

I smiled at her. “Hi, silly girl.”

“Shiny,” she kept saying.

I was laughing. “It is very shiny.”

“She’s not talking about the car,” Logan said, holding her on his lap.

I glanced into the backseat and all I saw was a car seat.

When I turned back around, Logan had his hand around Clementine’s. “Open it,” he whispered.