Thank god. He was done. He could stop fucking talking and just wait until he could get back to the dungeon. Except that now he knew he was here on Seth’s fucking charity.
Wolf turned to him. “I don’t know about that. Logan, I just got off the phone with Jamie.”
Fuck. “What happened?”
“You know Cam and Laura and Rafe got married last weekend, right?”
He felt his jaw tighten. Yeah. He’d been invited. Cam had become one of his best friends, and he’d always had a thing for Laura, but they had gotten married in a ceremony that included Holly and Caleb and Alexei.
He couldn’t watch Alexei find his joy. He fucking couldn’t.
“Yeah, I know,” Logan replied.
“Well, Cam and Rafe surprised Laura that day. They adopted a baby. Caleb and Stef made it possible.”
Because they were billionaires and money greased a lot of wheels. But Laura had a baby. A little knot formed in his chest that had nothing to do with hate and everything to do with that part of him that could still love. Laura would be a great mom. That kid was lucky. “Good for her.”
“It’s just Nate at the station. He forced Cam to take paternity leave, and there’s no one else qualified. Rachel is pregnant again, and she’s having a rough time. Rye won’t leave her. Nate’s been living at the station. I’m going to head back out to Bliss. I have to help out.”
Wolf was going to Bliss to do Logan’s job? Nate had kept it open, but he’d known he wouldn’t go back. Except that the thought of Wolf sitting at his desk kind of pissed him off.
Leo stood. “You can’t leave. We have the engagement party in two weeks. Do you know how long Shelley has been planning this? She’s going to be devastated.”
Shelley. She’d been so sweet to him, inviting him to dinner, taking care of him. Was he going to let her engagement party get ruined because Wolf felt like he had to do Logan’s job? And then there was his moms’ party. Twenty-five years of pure love and devotion should be acknowledged.
“I have to go. I owe these guys,” Wolf argued.
Wolf didn’t owe anyone, but Logan fucking did. Nate had helped him out when anyone else would have fired his ass and washed his hands of him. Cam had been a true friend. Hell, he owed James and Noah’s wife, Hope, more than they could know. He owed Bliss.
“I’ll go.” The words dropped out of his mouth like a lodestone, dragging him down.
He owed his moms everything.
Wolf’s whole demeanor changed, relaxing and showing some joy. “Are you serious? Because that would make my life so much easier. Shelley would be upset if I wasn’t here for the party. Are you sure, man?”
And he owed Wolf. It was time to man up and help out his people. He would survive it. He would go to his moms’ party and help out at the station, and when he left this time, his head would be held high.
And he could leave and not go back. And he damn straight would figure out how to deal with Seth.
“I’m sure.”
Leo and Wolf looked at each other, having a silent conversation that only brothers understood. And jealously nearly split Logan in two because he knew what that felt like. He and Seth had that kind of communication once. And then Logan had realized just how unworthy he was.
“If you’re sure, then I’ll have Kitten make the ticket out for you instead of me,” Wolf said, but his voice hesitated.
God, he hated that. He hated the whole sympathy-pity thing. And he was going to have to call Seth because he also didn’t take fucking charity. “Tell her to make it out for me. I’ll be fine.”
Because he was headed back to Bliss. Back home. God. He was going home.
He started out the door to go and pack. As he turned back, he was almost sure he saw Leo and Wolf high-five each other.
Chapter Three
Logan pulled the truck into town and drove right past the Trading Post. He couldn’t go there yet, hadn’t even called to let them know he was coming. He’d had a single conversation with Nate where he’d arranged for his truck to be brought to the airport and then asked Nate to keep the whole thing on the down low. Only Nate and Zane knew he was coming back to town. They thought he was trying to surprise his moms, but the truth was he didn’t want anyone to know until he’d figured out how it was going to work.
Cam had six weeks of paternity leave. He could survive six weeks. He had to.
And maybe he wouldn’t even go back to Dallas. Maybe he would just take off and find someplace where he didn’t have to talk about shit and no one cared what had happened to him.
Stella’s was up ahead. He knew the roads like the back of his hand, but the sight of Stella’s had him choking up a little bit. The sign was the same as it had been since he could remember seeing it. White letters on a red background. A little cup of coffee. Stella’s Diner. Bliss, CO since 1970.
He remembered vividly the first time he’d eaten here without his moms at his side. He’d been with Seth. He’d been nine and Seth ten, and he could still recall how adult he’d felt sitting there and eating a turkey sandwich and fries with his best friend and paying for it himself. He’d been a real big man.
The sight of the sheriff’s station up the street turned his stomach.
He hadn’t been a big man then. No. Not much of a man at all.
“Holy fucking shit,” a low male voice called. “Am I seeing things?”
He looked over and there was Jamie in the parking lot of Stella’s. James Glen. He was standing there with Noah, his brother. Hell, half his childhood had been spent knocking around the county with those two, and he had skipped their wedding party, too.
It was right there—the urge to punch the gas and get out of town. He didn’t have to deal with any of this. But then he caught the smile on Jamie’s face dimming as though he realized what Logan was thinking. Fuck.
Logan pulled in and plastered a smile on his face as he shut off the truck. Before he got out, his hand went to his left pec, rubbing there. He did it almost unconsciously now, as though she was there in the lines and flowers of the G.
He got out, and Jamie was on him in a heartbeat. “Logan! Oh, man, you have no idea how good it is to see you.”
He let himself get pulled into a manly hug and managed to slap his old friend on the back. “Hey, Jamie. Noah.”
Noah stood back a little as though unsure of his welcome. He’d only been home for a few months, but Logan hadn’t seen him at all. God, Noah had come home and managed to get married and set up his veterinary practice, and Logan hadn’t even called him.
He was a shit.
“Noah, my man.” He pulled away from Jamie and held a hand out to Noah. But he couldn’t help giving him hell. He’d heard some from Wolf about what had transpired, but giving his friend shit was something Logan lived for. “Heard NYC wasn’t so great for you, buddy. So the whole ‘marrying a complete ho-bag’ didn’t work out?”
Noah flashed Logan his happy middle finger and then shook his hand, pulling him in for a manly hug, the tension dissolving. “Yeah, well, I did better the second time around. What the fuck happened to you, dude? When did you go all Incredible Hulk? You’re huge.”
A whole fuck-ton of weight training had transformed him from a lanky, six-foot-three, one-hundred-and-sixty-pound kid, into a man with two hundred and twenty-two pounds of pure muscle. He’d kept up the workouts in Dallas, never missing a day. Fuck. Where was he going to work out here? All of his equipment was back in his old room, and he just couldn’t stay there.
“Logan!”
A brunette ball of pure energy raced his way, and Logan braced for impact, a genuine smile hitting his face for the first time in forever. Hope. She threw her arms around him and just expected him to catch her.