“What on Earth could you possibly find amusing right now?”
Logan stuffed his hands into his pockets and slumped down into the chair. “You’re acting very much like a father right now, about to send me to my room. And just earlier, I was thinking how motherly Rachel looked. This whole pregnancy is really bringing out the best in you guys.” A chuckle escaped him as Cole’s eyebrows practically hit his hairline. “What? You do. Not that I’d know. It’s not like ours ever bothered with me.”
Cole pulled his chair out and sat, appearing to think over his next words carefully. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Logan spoke up again.
“Please don’t give me some speech about how I didn’t miss much. This I already know. But I bet he used to look just like you when he was mad, all scary and shit. He had your hair color and my eyes. I’ve seen pictures. Mom used to try to be strict with me, but really, with this face?” he said, pointing to himself as he gave his most charming smile. “She always crumbled. A bit flaky, she was.”
Once he finally stopped talking, Cole sat back in his chair and asked, “You done?”
Logan made a show of clamping his mouth shut and waited for Cole to continue.
“Jesus. When you’re nervous, you don’t know how to be quiet. It’s been so long since I’ve seen that side of you I forgot it even existed. Nice to know that that geeky school kid with the skinny legs, big glasses, and shaggy hair is still lurking in there under all of that sophisticated arrogance.”
“Oh, fuck off. Like you’re one to talk,” Logan retorted, but he appreciated that Cole was trying to ease the tension in the room.
He really didn’t want to get into this. Not with Cole—the one person who’d known him since he was a teen. The one person who’d witnessed the way Chris had treated him back in college. How could he admit to him that he’d…what? Gone back for more as an adult? For years?
God, he was disgusted with himself.
“So, you want to go first?” Cole asked.
Logan’s brow winged up, and he asked, “What is this, show-and-tell? Just ask what you want to ask and get it the fuck over with.”
Cole regarded him as if he were deciding where to start, and then he asked something Logan hadn’t expected.
“Does Tate know everything that happened with Chris? Or just the parts you decided to tell him?”
Typical fucking lawyer, went straight for the jugular.
“He knows everything.”
Logan couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw a flash of hurt behind the shock that entered Cole’s eyes.
Cole’s jaw bunched. “So, it’s just me who was left in the dark?”
Logan wondered how long he had until the temper that was rising in his brother exploded. Deciding he should just lay it all out on the table, he offered up the details before Cole asked for them.
“I told him about Chris when we were up at the cabin.”
The hazel eyes drilling him appeared hard as stone, and Cole looked just as unmoving. But what was most disconcerting was that he still hadn’t revealed what Chris had told him.
“How nice,” Cole said, but his voice certainly didn’t match his opinion. “Did it ever occur to you when you found out that Chris would be at the function that it might be a good time to tell me you, oh, I don’t know, had a fucking affair with him for two years?”
Shit. He’d figured Cole had known it all, but he wasn’t sure he believed it since…well, how did Chris even bring that up?
“Logan?”
“What?” he snapped, growing more irritable by the second.
“Please tell me he was lying. Trying to piss me off for punching him all those years ago.”
He wished he could tell Cole that that was the case, but as he sat there staring his brother head on, it became apparent he was not going to refute the claim.
“Fucking hell, Logan. When did you even see him? Why would you… You know what? That isn’t important right now.”
Logan offered no words. Now wasn’t the time to apologize, and it certainly wasn’t the time for a joke, so he figured his best course of action was silence because there was no way Cole was done with him yet.
“I need to know if working with them, him, is going to be a problem? LPCW Architecture would be a huge account. You aren’t stupid.” Cole paused for a moment as if he wanted to tack something on after that claim, but then, he kept going. “You know how much revenue this would bring in. But if you aren’t comfortable working with Chris—”
“I’m fine,” Logan said, cutting him off.
“If you’re not, that would be understandable.”
“I said I was fine, and I am,” Logan stressed.
“Is Tate?”
The room fell silent as the question lingered between them, and Logan was appalled to realize he hadn’t even considered that.
“Well?” Cole pushed. “Is he?”
Good fucking question…
Logan stood as if the seat were on fire, making it rock back. Then he pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked at the blank screen. Tate hadn’t said that he was upset about him working with Chris…but would he be?
“I have to go.”
“Logan, I’m not done talking to you.”
“Too bad,” he said, his tone clipped as he stepped around the chair and walked to the door. When he got there, he reached for the handle and turned back to see Cole frowning at him. “The CliffsNotes are: I met up with him a few years back, we, as you so bluntly put it, had an affair for two years, and then it ended. That’s it. Nothing more and nothing less.”
Cole stood and shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants, a look Logan despised entering his eyes—pity. “I don’t need to know the details, Logan. This isn’t college, and you aren’t a kid anymore. But…”
Logan swallowed, not really wanting to hear anything else.
“Be careful. Firsts are always hard to forget and, as you already seem to know, the hardest to walk away from. You have something real with Tate, one might even say something of the forever kind.”
Logan bit back the urge to tell Cole to butt the hell out, but as usual, he resorted to his normal ammo—sarcasm. “Thanks for that, Doctor. How much do I owe you?”
“Nothing right now, smartass. But I swear, if I don’t think this is doing us as a whole any good, I’m terminating their contract. No matter how much money they bring in. It’s not worth it to my family. Remember that.”
Logan lifted his chin and locked eyes with Cole as he felt his own temper finally snap. “You need to trust me. When we first pooled our money from our illustrious father together, we decided it was us against the world. Especially dear old dad. Since then, we’ve proven that we could each be successful in our own right and built one of the most reputable law practices in town. I would never jeopardize you, Rachel, or your baby. You’re my family, and so is Tate. And I’ll be damned if I screw that up for Christopher Walker. I won’t screw that up for anybody. You remember that.”
And before Cole could offer a response, Logan walked out the door.
Chapter Four
It was late when Tate rode his motorcycle into the parking garage and shut the engine off. Saturday nights at After Hours were always busy, but tonight, it had been even more so. They’d been slammed from the moment he’d walked in until he’d clocked out, no doubt due to the cold front that had rolled in. It always brought the customers by, reminding them that the snow-filled winter was just around the corner.
With his helmet tucked under his arm, he made his way up to his floor and stifled a yawn as he wandered down the hall. God, he couldn’t wait to get into bed. He was beat.
He was almost at his place when he spotted Logan seated on the carpeted floor with his back pressed against the locked door. He had his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms resting on them as he twirled his cell phone in his hand. He’d been home, as he was now dressed in jeans and a black, lightweight sweater, but the fact that he was sitting on the floor had Tate asking as he stopped beside him, “Did you get lost on your way home?”