Page 58 of Here We Go Again

She squats on the edge of his mattress and Odie bounces up from his spot at Joe’s feet to enthusiastically lick her face. “Cause of emotional death?”

Joe tilts his head to look up at her. “Impossible to identify a single cause. There’s the humiliation of knowing you girls saw my dick—”

“You know we change your diapers, right?”

“And then there is the deep regret over the way I reacted. Theshame over how I spoke to you last night…. Logan, I didn’t mean what I said, please believe me.”

“I do. As a semiprofessional asshole, your little temper tantrum was farm league.”

Joe blinks back unmistakable tears and reaches for his handkerchief. “I’m sorry, Logan.”

He sounds beyond dejected. If she had to guess, she would say Joe didn’t get any sleep last night, that he laid here thinking about Remy St. Patin and the painting and his guilt.

She is pretty sure no one slept last night. Hale audibly tossed and turned for hours until she finally surrendered, pulled out a notebook, and sat at the small hotel desk scribbling something by the glow of her phone.

Logan tried to breathe rhythmically like she was asleep while she was kept awake by her own cocktail of embarrassment, regret, and shame.

She almost kissed Hale last night.

Worse, she had thought Hale wanted to kiss her back.

And isn’t that just a classic Logan move? Things are going well with Hale, so why not self-sabotage by kissing her?

She wishes she could tell Joe about the almost-kiss on the roof. He would call her a fuckboy, and they would laugh about her horrible life choices, and the almost-kiss would become funny instead of vaguely tragic.

But she can’t talk to Joe about Hale, because Hale is currently walking into the room in a sheer, light pink sundress that makes Logan want to scream. Odie leaps off the bed when he sees her and jumps up so his paws are on her shoulders like he’s trying to hug her.

At least Odie appears well rested.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Hale asks, hesitantly approaching the bed.

“I’m feeling very sorry, Rosie dear,” Joe answers. “For myself, but especially about how I acted toward you. I was an asshole.”

“No you weren’t,” Hale tries to reassure him.

“I was. Please forgive me?”

“Of course.”

He breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank you, darling. And… And I think you were right. We should get this trip back on track. Take the direct route to Bar Harbor.”

“Joe—” Logan starts, but he silences her with one pitiful look.

“I don’t know what I was thinking, trying to extend the trip and make up for lost time. We should just…” He inhales sharply, then coughs twice into his handkerchief. “We should go straight to Maine.”

Hale glances up from her side of the bed and meets Logan’s gaze. She’s all pale lashes and uncertainty. “If you’re sure that’s what you want, Joe…”

She’s sure Hale is thinking the same things Logan is.

What about Remy St. Patin?

What about the painting? The handkerchief? The one regret?

And do they really want the trip to be over in four days? Does Logan really want to go back to Vista Summit and how things used to be with Hale? Will Hale even stay in Vista Summit if she doesn’t work there anymore?

Logan isn’t sure she can handle Hale driving away again.

“I’m sure,” Joe says. “This is what I want.”