Page 5

Chapter Five

Logan’s hands shook as he held the handlebars of his Honda Shadow. He’d heard her harsh intake of breath at his never comment. But he was so angry. Why did he always bite at her with his words?

In all honesty, if he never talked to her again it would be too soon. No. That wasn’t true. He missed her, never had stopped loving her even after all these years. She was his first love, and he’d never love another.

With the flick of his right wrist, he opened up the throttle and pushed his luck with the speed limit on the country road that led around town toward his house. He’d write himself a ticket later if he had to.

Slowing as he entered town, Logan maneuvered the streets at a more reasonable speed. A block from his house, he spotted Miles getting out of his rental car. Logan pulled to a stop at the curb. “Hey, Miles.”

He walked over to Logan. “How goes it?”

“I was going to ask you the same. You were the one in a car accident. Nothing broken I take it.”

“A concussion and some bruises. Nothing that won’t heal easy enough.”

“Excellent. It could have been a lot worse.”

“For sure. Haven’t heard the kid’s excuse for running the stop sign, but I hope he has good insurance. Thankfully, I wasn’t carrying a load of supplies in the car.”

“Pharmaceutical sales, right?”

“Yep. Keeps me busy and traveling.” Miles ran a hand through his hair and winced. Must have hit his injury.

“A bright point was seeing AJ’s face when I came to after the accident.”

Logan kept his groan internal and smiled. “No doubt.”

“I still don’t understand how I missed the opportunity for something more with her after homecoming sophomore year.”

Logan wanted to laugh but kept it to himself.

“Maybe I should see what she’s up to.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“Still hold a candle for her, huh?”

“Trust me. Find someone else.”

Miles raised an eyebrow as if he hoped for a further explanation.

“I’ve got to get my groceries home. I’ll see you around.” Logan revved his motorcycle to avoid hearing anything Miles said, waved, and drove away.

He turned the corner and spotted a teenage boy taking off from his carport. What on earth?

Logan accelerated and followed the kid, but he cut through a yard and into the woods.

There was no way Logan would catch him there. He stopped and contemplated what to do. He could drive around and see if he spotted the kid coming out on the other side, but there was a creek back there, and the boy would be able to follow it and come out anywhere. Better to go home and see if he stole anything or caused any damage. Too bad Logan hadn’t gotten a better look at the teen.

Back at home, he didn’t find anything out of place.

Once the groceries were put away, Logan poured himself a glass of whiskey and sat at his kitchen table. He slammed the whiskey back and poured a second glass. He normally kept it to one glass, but it didn’t numb him enough anymore.

At work the next day AJ had done nothing but stew in her frustration with Logan for three solid hours. She’d cleaned the kitchen at the fire station from top to bottom. She’d remained cordial to everyone who talked to her, firmly cementing a wall to hold herself up and keep her emotions inside. She was going to need a nap soon though. She hadn’t been able to sleep at all after the definitiveness of Logan’s never last night at the store.

She put the cleaning supplies under the sink, and her phone dinged.

A text message from an unfamiliar phone number.

She opened the message.

Been thinking about you. We should meet up.

What? Who was this from? It didn’t matter, she wasn’t going to meet up with anyone. She deleted the text.

Probably should have blocked the number too, but she didn’t think of that until the message was gone.

She shoved her phone back into her pocket and went to find Ty, since it was their turn to clean the fire truck.

Out in the truck bay, Ty filled the buckets while AJ grabbed the sponges and tossed one to Ty. She took a bucket of sudsy water, set it beside the truck, and started scrubbing.

Ty stood there watching her.

“What?”

“You doing okay?”

The wall holding her up crumbled, and she slumped against the truck. “No.”

“I didn’t think so. Not after that save the other day.”

“It’s not even that. It’s Logan. Not only did we have that nasty exchange at the pool, but yesterday we ran into each other at the grocery store.”

“Talk to me, AJ.”

She couldn’t help but notice Ty called almost everyone else by their last names, but not her …

“What’s to say, Ty? He hates me, and I hate that. I want to fix things, but he won’t even let me apologize.”

Ty dipped his sponge into his bucket. “Seems like it’s going to take an act of God on his heart to make a change.”

She snorted and climbed to the top of the truck. “Why can’t he be a decent human being? It doesn’t matter if I’m nice or not. Anymore, he’s just a jerk.” She grunted and set to scrubbing the top of the engine.

The harder she scrubbed the more her frustrations took on a physical manifestation. She hated herself for how she’d wronged Logan. She hated herself for not confronting the ways he’d wronged her. She hated herself for not loving him like Jesus would.

That’s what she needed to do. Love him. But how could she when he did nothing but push her away?

Tears blurred her eyes, but she scrubbed her way toward the back of the truck.

Her heal hit part of the truck, and she lost her balance. She yelled but couldn’t catch herself. She slammed her back on the truck and went off the side.

When she hit the ground, the world went black.