Sophie Oak: Back in Bliss

Which he would. Always. Because Hope had saved him that night.

“Hey, sweetheart.” He hugged her close, deeply aware that he’d failed her, too. He should have been here, should have taken care of her. He owed her so fucking much. “Hope, I’m sorry I missed your wedding reception.”

She squeezed him tight. “It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re back.”

“Dude, if you don’t let my wife go soon, I’m going to throw down with you,” Noah said, his words hard.

Logan let go of Hope, allowing her feet to hit the gravel of the parking lot.

Hope turned back to her husband. “What is wrong with you?”

“Hope, it’s cool.” He understood the whole territorial-male thing. He wouldn’t have BG. Before Georgia. God, he kind of measured his life in “befores” and “afters.” There was all that time before The Incident. And there was a time Before Georgia and After Georgia. After Georgia, Logan totally got that Noah wouldn’t want his wife held in the arms of another male, even if the other man thought of her as a sister.

Noah turned to his brother. “Dude, you got no problem with that? She wrapped her legs around his waist.”

Jamie threw an arm over his wife’s shoulder. “Naw. See, I know what Hope looks like when she’s really wrapping herself around a man. I had a really up close and personal experience with it about ten minutes back.”

Hope flushed a furious shade of red. “James Glen. I can’t believe you said that.”

Noah huffed. “I knew you weren’t really going to wash your hands. You followed her into the bathroom for a quickie. Damn it. I wanted to do that, but I was afraid Stella would come looking for us.”

“You snooze, you lose, brother.” Jamie had the smile of a perfectly satisfied man.

The Glen-Bennett family started arguing loudly amongst themselves over protocol when it came to bathroom quickies, but Logan got distracted. The door to the diner opened and he caught sight of honey-blonde hair and nice tits. Not as big as he remembered. She’d lost weight. Damn it . She was always trying to lose weight, and she didn’t need to. She was perfect. He was going to make her march right back into that diner and he would pick out the biggest piece of chocolate pie he could and feed it to her by hand. She loved sweets. He hadn’t missed the way she licked her lips when a fine piece of chocolate was put in front of her, but seventy-five percent of the time she pushed it away and claimed she was full when he knew damn well she wasn’t. He would take her to the bathroom and spank her ass and then feed her that delicious chocolate pie. He would get it on his fingers and have her lick it off.

What the fuck was his Georgia doing with some scruffy scumbag? The pretty blonde was joined by a guy in jeans and a T-shirt who immediately pulled her close. He was all over her. A wild, violent urge flared up.

“Dude, are you about to go all green and shit?” Noah asked. Hope and Jamie were still arguing over whether or not he should announce their forays into public sex, but Noah had moved closer, his voice going low. “That’s Gemma. She’s engaged to the man she’s kissing. His name is Jesse. And there’s Cade. They’re new here but keeping up with our long tradition of sharing.”

Not Georgia. God, he had it so fucking bad. As the pretty blonde turned her face up to the tall, dark-haired man, he could see plainly that she wasn’t his Georgia. Not his. He had to fucking stop that.

Logan shrugged it all off. “Hey, nice to know.”

Noah stared at him thoughtfully. “Is everything okay, man?”

“It’s all good,” Logan lied. He held his hand out and shook Noah’s again. “I’ll see you guys around. I’m going to go and talk to Stella real fast and then I have to check in with Nate. I’m going to work for Cam while he’s on leave. Hope, will I see you tomorrow?”

Hope was the heart of the station house. She was the office manager. Knowing that he would get to hang with Hope had made the whole thing easier to take. Hope could keep him calm.

Hope’s eyes widened. “No one told you? I quit. Gemma’s the new office manager.”

Excellent. The blonde with blue eyes who reminded him of Georgia was going to be around all the time. Awesome. Maybe she was really mean. Yeah. That would be good. Except his G had been a little mean, too. Fuck .

Why was he here again?

To find a place to stay, and it wouldn’t be the Circle G. The quicker he found a place to hang his hat, the better. The faster he could be alone for a while.

He waved good-bye and walked into the café only to be assaulted by the past. God, he’d loved this place. The smell of fries and baking pies lit up his system. This smelled like home. Tears pricked at his eyes, threatening to unman him, but he took a long breath and forced them back, his eyes taking in the dining room.

It was almost three in the afternoon. The lunch crowd was gone and the dinner crowd wouldn’t be around for another couple of hours. Stella’s was nice and quiet, just like he’d hoped.

Stella walked out, her boots ringing against the tile floor. She was dressed to kill in a red and white Western shirt, jeans, and boots that had been blinged out to an inch of their damn life. Stella was a flamboyant woman with a helmet of teased blonde hair that he was pretty certain he could bounce a quarter off of. He felt another smile cross his face, warmth flooding his chest. Stella was one of the good ones.

Her eyes widened. “Logan?”

Was he coming back from the dead? Maybe. A little. “Hey, Miss Stella.”

She sighed and rushed to him, throwing her arms around his neck. “Thank god.”

She held on to him, and he hugged her back.

“Do Teeny and Marie know you’re home?” Stella asked, pulling him to a booth.

He shook his head. “No. I wanted to find a place to stay first. Stella, I know everyone thinks I should move home, but…”

She patted his hand. “You’re a man now. You need your space. Of course. I can help you with that. Wow. What a coincidence. I got a call today from a broker looking for someone to watch over this cabin some rich guy is building just outside the valley. You know the land right next to Nell and Henry’s place?”

He nodded. There was a big tract right next to the river. Prime property. He’d always wanted to buy that land for himself and build a little place there. “Yeah. It sold?”

Not that he could have afforded it.

Stella nodded. “About four months ago. It seems like someone was slowly picking up all the land from Nell and Henry’s almost into town. We’ve all been trying to figure out who it is. Everyone thinks it’s some kind of movie star or something because that cabin went up fast, and it’s a cabin in name only. That thing is ridiculous. It’s so gorgeous. I swear, Stef is going crazy trying to figure out who it is and just what’s on the inside. He’s talking about redoing our whole house now. I think he’s just trying to keep up with that cabin. That boy likes being the richest man in town, I tell you. He likes it too much.”

Logan held a hand up to stop her because Stella could gossip for hours, and he didn’t have that kind of time. He had to be at work tomorrow and that meant finding a place to stay and getting some sleep. “Stella, I don’t need some mansion. Can I take the apartment upstairs?”

Stella’s had a small apartment over the diner that had been used by Stella for a while, and then several of the waitresses, and finally Hope. But Hope was at the G now. G . Georgia. His hand went right back to his pec like there was a magnet there. When was he going to forget that girl?

He would call Seth and lay into him and then ask him to find out what was happening with her. He couldn’t really rest until he knew she was safe.