Tate (Temptation Series Book 5), page 8
“Oh yes, please finish that sentence. Because if I’m not feeling awesome already, hearing I look like shit is going to help.”
“You look stressed. Worried. Not like shit. But you’ve barely cracked a smile since you walked in that door, and I know you were looking forward to today.” Cole came around the desk, and when he reached Logan’s side, he said, “Was it the dinner last night? Did something happen? To you? To Tate?”
Logan put his coffee mug down on the desk and brought his hands up to rub them over his face. Christ, he hadn’t realized just how tense he was until Cole had said something. He’d been trying so hard to keep it together around Tate that he’d barely realized the toll last night and this morning had taken on himself.
“No, Jill was fine. I said all the things I wanted to say and she sat there and listened. She was apologetic and regretful, and receptive to the two of us in general.”
“Okay. Then what’s with the frown? You look like someone ran over your cat.”
“I don’t have a cat. Nor do I want a pussy of any kind.” When one of Cole’s eyebrows rose, Logan sighed. “I don’t know. A few things came up last night, and they…”
“They…?”
“I don’t know. Rattled Tate, I guess.”
Cole moved so he could rest his ass against Logan’s desk, and then braced his palms on either side of himself. “I imagine that’s pretty normal, given the circumstances. He hasn’t spoken to his sister in years. Do you remember when we first met? I was pretty rattled.”
Logan cast his eyes in Cole’s direction. “You were an asshole.”
“Because I was rattled. I’d just found out I had a brother.”
“Sure. Keep telling yourself that. But that’s not the problem here. This isn’t so much about Jill as it is about Tate.”
Cole quietly contemplated that before saying, “Would you rather I butt out?”
“No. No, it’s not that. I’m just trying to work out what I think is going on with him. A lot of old emotions came up last night with his sister. Talk of his nephews, old friends, seeing them again—with me. I don’t think he’d really thought about that since he’d left it all behind. And now…”
“Now it’s all flooding back in,” Cole said.
“Yeah. It’s like he’s got to come out all over again. And we both know how well that went the first time around.”
“Geez. That’s got to be rough. One minute you two are buying a house and everything seems right side up, and the next day it gets flipped on its ass.”
“No kidding,” Logan said.
“So what’s the plan?”
“There isn’t one yet. We talked some last night and again this morning, but ultimately, it’s his decision. He’s got this misplaced sense of guilt that he owes me this proper introduction to his friends and family. Like he was hiding me from them or something. But I don’t want him doing this for me.”
Cole pushed off the desk and faced him with an expression Logan couldn’t quite decipher. “Did you ever think that maybe it’s not about owing you? Maybe it’s about wanting to give this to you.”
When Logan merely stared at Cole, waiting for further explanation, Cole sighed. “What was the one thing that Chris never did for you? The one thing that asshole denied you at every turn? Meeting his friends and family. Tate knows that.”
“Oh, come on.” Logan gave Cole an incredulous look. “This is nothing like that. Tate is nothing like that,” he said, his hackles starting to rise.
“I know that. But does he?”
“Of course he does. That’s never even crossed my mind. I love Tate. I want to marry him, for God’s sake.”
“Wait up…what did you just say?”
As soon as the words left Cole’s mouth, Logan realized exactly what he’d just said.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. But there was no way he was able to take it back now, so Logan suddenly took a great interest in the mail Sherry had left in his tray earlier that morning.
“Logan,” Cole said, and when Logan continued to avoid eye contact, Cole grabbed his arm. “Did you just say you want to marry him?”
Logan looked into Cole’s eyes, unable to form a coherent response, but he knew the truth was written all over his face.
As the blood started to ring in his ears and his pulse went haywire, Cole pulled him into a hug and thumped him on the back. And all Logan heard was, “Well. It’s about damn time, brother. It’s about damn time.”
“YOO HOO, EARTH to Tate…” Robbie waved a hand in front of Tate’s face where he stood behind the bar with a glass and towel in hand. They were around twenty minutes away from opening, and ever since he’d arrived at The Popped Cherry, he’d been…distracted.
After Logan had left for work, he had dived into the mammoth task of packing. He’d cranked up the music, grabbed some boxes, and attacked the living room, deciding the busier he was, the less likely he’d sit around and dwell over last night.
But hell if he’d been able to shake it.
Between the night with Jill, his breakdown with Logan, and this morning? Nothing short of a major catastrophe was likely to take his mind off all that was going on with him. Something Robbie had definitely noticed.
“Sorry,” Tate said. “What did you say?”
Robbie glanced at the glass in his hand and then nodded at it. “You hoping a genie is going to appear if you rub it long enough?”
Tate rolled his eyes and put the glass on the counter. “Smartass.”
“You’ve been polishing that one for the past ten minutes.”
Tate tossed the towel onto the bar beside the glass, and then turned to check out the back shelf to make sure their staples were all stocked enough for the evening ahead. Shit, he needed to get his head on right or he’d be no good to anyone when they opened.
“Hey?” Robbie said as he came up beside Tate. “You okay? You seem a little, I don’t know, off tonight.”
Tate cast a quick look in Robbie’s direction, and when he cocked his head to the side, Tate shrugged.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Just a bit distracted. Lots going on with the new house is all.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Robbie said with a grin. “Settling down out in the ’burbs.”
“Wicker Park is hardly the ’burbs.”
Robbie placed a hand on his hip and pursed his lips. “True. But still, I saw pictures. It has a little fence and everything.”
“A black iron fence. There’s no white picket shit anywhere. God forbid; Logan would have a coronary.”
“Ha. You’re probably right. But if anyone could get Logan to do something he didn’t want to, it would be you. White picket fences, a parcel of kids, a dog or three?”
Tate immediately screwed his nose up at Robbie’s words. The idea of Logan ever doing something he didn’t want to for him made him incredibly uncomfortable. And the idea of changing Logan horrified him even more. “No way. That’s so not Logan. Or me, for that matter.”
“Fair enough. I’ll keep the white picket fences in my dreams, then.”
“Yeah?”
Robbie’s face took on a dreamy quality. “Yeah. One day. I can see it now. A white picket fence, surrounding a little red and white house where a sexy man in nothing but an apron has dinner waiting for me on the stove.”
“That’s…very specific.”
Robbie’s eyes widened. “Well, of course it is. If you want something, you’ve got to visualize it.”
“Really?”
“Yep. My nonna always used to say, if you can’t see it in your mind’s eye, how are you going to be able to see it when it’s right in front of you?”
Okay… So that actually makes sense. “She sounds like a smart woman.”
“The smartest.” Robbie smiled and then added, “Also the kindest and toughest.”
“You’re lucky to have her. From what you and Logan have told me, she sounds like one hell of a lady.”
“She is. And you’re right. I am lucky. I don’t know what I would’ve done without her these last couple of months.” Robbie paused, and Tate figured he must’ve been thinking about his own distractions, before he focused again. “What about you? Your family cool?”
And just like that, Robbie inadvertently reminded Tate of what had been bothering him in the first place. “Yeah, uhh…some of them are.”
“Some of them?”
Am I really going to talk to Robbie about this? Tate thought, but as Robbie stood there with an earnest expression on his face, Tate found himself wanting to. “Yeah. My dad’s a pretty stand-up guy.”
“Geez, don’t sing his praises too loud. He might hear you.”
Tate turned and leaned back against the bar, crossing his ankles. Then he did the same with his arms over his chest. “Well, we’ve had an interesting relationship over the last few years.”
At the serious tone in his voice, Robbie walked across to the other side of the bar and mirrored Tate’s stance. But instead of crossing his arms, he fiddled with a towel he held in his hand as if he was uncertain of his next question. “Because of Logan?”
Tate nodded slowly.
“Your family didn’t like that you, uhh…”
“Fell in love with a man?”
“Right.”
“You could say that. Last night was the first time Logan met my sister. Well, the first time he’d ever actually had a conversation with her.”
“Oh my God.” Robbie brought his fingers up to cover his mouth. “No wonder you’re a head case today.”
A head case… Yeah, that about sums it up.
“Was she horrible to him? Was it awkward?” Robbie asked. “Was Logan horrible to her?”
“No. It was the exact opposite, actually. It went great. She was…apologizing for past behavior.”
“Oh, okay. So if it all went well, what’s with the frown?”
“Remember your nonna’s speech about visualization?” Robbie nodded. “When I first started dating Logan, I visualized taking him home to meet my very Catholic family, and all the friends I grew up with. I figured at first they’d freak out, but then, well, then they’d come around and everything would be fine.”
Robbie winced. “I assume that didn’t happen?”
“No, it didn’t. My family disowned me that day. Kicked me out of the house, and told me not to come back unless it was without Logan. After that, my life changed, and I didn’t really think about taking Logan around to my old friends. I was too busy trying to work out how to live my new life.” Tate ran a hand through his hair and then gripped the back of his neck. “But I’m starting to think that maybe that was just a good excuse, and that I was a fucking coward.”
“Okay, first up,” Robbie said, stepping forward with his hands on his hips, “you are not a coward. Are you kidding me? Have you forgotten the first time we met at the Daily Grind?”
Hell no, he hadn’t. Robbie had been seated opposite Logan flirting outrageously, and Tate had wanted to strangle him. “No. I remember.”
Robbie smirked and raised an eyebrow that screamed exactly. “There was nothing cowardly about the way you looked at me that day. Or spoke to me, for that matter. And even though you didn’t outright say I was trespassing where I shouldn’t be, your attitude sure as shit let me know you already thought of Logan as yours. There was no mistake.” Robbie laughed. “God, you were pissed at me.”
When Tate stared at him, Robbie reached out and poked him in his forearm.
“All I’m saying is, there was—is—nothing cowardly about you. Were you still getting your footing? Yeah. But you made it very clear that day that Logan was yours and I needed to get lost.”
Tate finally cracked a smile at that. “You were a little shit that day.”
“It’s all part of my charm.”
“Uh huh.”
“But seriously. Why would you ever think that?”
“Think what?”
“That you’re a coward, silly.”
Tate shrugged. “Oh…I mean, I guess I don’t. Not really. It’s just my sister wants us to go to this get-together with all my old friends and people I haven’t seen for years, and…”
“And?”
“I freaked out about it.”
“Umm, after what you just told me about your family, why wouldn’t you?” Robbie asked. “Seriously, I had no idea you went through all that.”
“Why would you?”
“I don’t know. I just assumed you guys were, like, perfect and happy and shit.”
“We are,” Tate said. “And my dad. He came around right after my accident and loves Logan. But I have no contact with my mother at all.”
Robbie’s expression turned to one of sympathy and understanding. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. And to Logan. I was lucky. My family is very understanding; they just don’t live close by. But I have friends who’ve been in similar situations. I also dated, well, you know, my ex-boss. I guess that wasn’t really dating, per se. But anyways, he was terrified of his friends and family finding out because of the same reaction you got. Difference is, you were brave. It’s so fucking ridiculous that in this day and age people are still so narrow-minded. So judgmental. What should it matter who we love? Who we’re attracted to? Pisses me off.”
“Pisses me off too,” Tate said.
Robbie huffed and then a devious smile quirked his lips. “Then don’t let them win.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t let the ones who have judged you in the past get in your head. Be like you always were with me. Brave and ballsy as ever. Rock up to this thing hand in hand with Logan and show them how happy you are. You were invited, so go.”
Jesus, how is it I’m standing in my bar getting life tips from fucking Robbie? “You’re right.”
“You don’t have to sound so shocked, you know.” There was a buzzing noise, and then Robbie pulled his phone out of his back pocket. He frowned at whatever he read on the screen before turning it off and aiming a dazzling, but forced, smile in Tate’s direction. “I better go get the doors. We open in five.”
And as Robbie walked off to do just that, Tate wondered when Robbie was going to take some of his own advice and decide to once again be brave and ballsy.
Chapter Nine
“SO WHEN ARE you going to ask him?” Cole’s question was delivered in a hushed voice as he and Logan stood to one side of a taped-off office space, and Priest stood on the other side with Joshua Daniels.
Josh, who owned Creative Construction & Remodeling, was a longtime friend and client of theirs, and also happened to be the husband of Dr. Shelly Monroe. He had just finished walking the three of them off the elevator and showing them where the reception desk would be, and then explained how the glass walls of the new conference room would give the floor an open feeling and still have all the privacy of being soundproof.
Logan loved the openness of it all. Their current setup downstairs was good, but starting to get claustrophobic. With the three of them moving up here along with a few others, it would make for less clutter downstairs and, hopefully, a more productive workspace.
They’d all just come to a stop at the largest of the three office spaces on the floor. With no walls in place yet, just tape extending from the thick column they’d been told would support the interior wall, this was the only office that had a balcony running along one side of it. The very office that Logan had been eyeing.
Yes, this would be real sweet, he thought, letting his eyes wander around the area Josh had marked off. The question is, how hard am I going to have to fight for it? He turned to face Cole, and saw the same ridiculous grin he’d had on his face since they’d left Logan’s office, gotten in the elevator, and headed up here, and Logan inwardly groaned.
“So…?” Cole asked again. “When are you going to ask him?”
Shit, he’s worse than a fucking girl. “Can it, would you?”
If it were possible, Cole’s grin got wider, and he kept right on talking. “Does he know? Have you two talked about this?”
“Oh my God.” Logan turned so his back was to the other two in the room and pinned Cole with a look that screamed, Stop talking—now.
Cole’s lips curved. “I’ll take that as a no?”
“Take it any fucking way you want. Just zip it. Jesus, when did you get so chatty?”
“When my antiestablishment brother slipped up and said he wanted to get married.”
Logan grabbed a hold of Cole’s arm and spun him away from the other two. “Would you keep your voice down?” He glanced over his shoulder at Josh and Priest, who were now staring at them. “We’ll be right back. Just a little brotherly discussion over who’s getting the balcony.”
As he rounded back to Cole, Logan shook his head. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?” At the hell no expression that lit Cole’s eyes, Logan sighed. “Fine. Let’s see if I can break this down for you in two sentences or less. But then you have to agree to stop talking about it. Deal?”
“Deal.” Cole clamped his mouth shut.
Logan inhaled and then let it out on a rush, nervous to actually be talking about this for the first time with…well, anyone. “Okay so, no, we haven’t talked about it and he doesn’t know. And the answer to your other question is: I don’t know yet.” When Cole opened his mouth but then shut it, Logan rolled his eyes. “What? I can see that you’re dying to ask something.”
As a smile wide enough that it threatened to slide off Cole’s face hit, Logan instantly regretted allowing him to speak.
“Can I tell Rachel?”
As if I could stop you. “Would you really keep it from her if I asked you to?”
Cole thought about it for all of a second. “No.”
“Figures. Just…I don’t know. Keep it to yourselves, okay? I’m still getting used to the idea, and I want—”
“It to be a surprise?” Cole asked, his eyes widening. “Are you going to make it romantic? I could help you plan it. So could Rachel.”
“Oookay. That’s enough about that.” When Cole went to speak again, Logan held up his finger. “That’s it. You promised. And because you’re being such a pain in the ass right now, you’re going to agree that the office with the balcony is going to be mine.”
