Page 21 of Perfect Persuasion (Love’s Second Chance #2)

Claire swallowed heavily and looked away from him.

French vanilla was her favorite scent. He had noticed.

She forced her attention to the walls of the café, anything to take her mind off him.

Besides, it wasn’t as though the walls were boring.

They were dotted with old black-and-white photographs of the town in its heyday.

There was a picture of the hotel, the main street lined with carriages, another of the buildings with a handful of distinguished-looking men posing before it.

Yet another captured the townspeople going through their daily lives, women walking along the street in dresses, baskets in hand, men carrying wooden crates.

“I love the photographs,” she murmured, feeling the need to fill in the silence between them. “It’s amazing that the town looks almost exactly the same as it did then.”

“It’s been used as a filming location for a few movies,” Logan offered, dragging her gaze back to him.

“Derek was in one, in fact, which was how we happened to find the town in the first place. It’s beautiful, and it still has that small-town atmosphere.

Since the locals are accustomed to having actors in their midst, it’s not a big deal for Derek to be here. ”

“What movie?” she asked, her interest piqued.

“Stealing Annabelle.” A grin curved Logan’s lips. “One of his sappy love roles.”

“I remember that movie.” Snapshots of it filtered through her mind. It had been about an actor who returned to his sleepy hometown and fell in love with his best friend’s ex-wife. “I liked it, and I didn’t think it was sappy.” Naturally, Logan, Mr. Devoid of Emotion, would think it sappy.

Logan tilted his head to the side and gave her an oh-come-on look. “That’s because you’re a woman.”

She tapped the tabletop with her fingers. “As I recall, it was a box office hit. You can’t tell me every single person who went to see it was a woman.”

“You’re right.” The smile he sent her was one hundred percent pure smug. “Half the people who went to see it were men dragged there by their wives or girlfriends.”

“Ah.” She tapped her fingers harder, her annoyance growing as she considered his words. “So your girlfriend of the moment dragged you to it?” The idea of it rankled, she had to admit, if only to herself.

His high cheekbones suddenly darkened. “Er, not exactly.”

Was he actually blushing? Claire blinked, unable to believe it.

“You went by yourself, didn’t you?” He didn’t bother answering her, didn’t need to since she’d already figured it out herself. Claire laughed. She couldn’t help it. It was so cute, picturing Logan by himself in the movie theater, watching a romantic film.

“Stop laughing, damn it,” Logan growled. “He makes me see all his movies and tell him what I think. But I refuse to watch the ones with nudity. I draw the line at seeing my best friend’s bare ass.”

Claire’s laughter subsided long enough for her to catch her breath and formulate a response. “His bare ass, huh? Which movies are those? I’ll have to rent them.”

He scowled at her, clearly unappreciative of her humor. “Like hell you will.”

“Why not?” she asked innocently, enjoying the knowledge that it bothered him.

“He’s my best friend, for Christ’s sake,” Logan spit out, looking ready to throttle her. “His ass is off-limits to you.”

“Hi, I’m Leslie. Can I take your order?”

Claire bit back a grin as she turned her attention to the young waitress who’d just appeared at their table. She wondered how long Leslie had been standing there and how much she’d overheard.

Logan’s cheekbones darkened further, and Claire had to actually swallow her laughter. Apparently, he was wondering the same thing. She decided to spare him from more squirming.

“I’m not sure what I want to order yet, so I’ll start with a drink. I’d like water for now,” she told Leslie with a smile. “Do you have bottled or tap?”

“We have both,” the girl replied helpfully.

“I’ll take bottled then,” Claire decided. She hated water that tasted like chemicals had been pumped into it.

Leslie scribbled on her pad, then turned to Logan. “And you?”

“The same,” he said curtly, still obviously embarrassed.

When Leslie had disappeared, Claire flipped open her menu and began perusing its contents. A giggle escaped her lips and she pressed them together to quell the others rising in her throat. Another made its way to the surface.

Logan growled. “What’s so damn funny now?”

Claire looked up at him through her lashes. It was unfair that he was so gorgeous and sexy and yet so wrong for her. Sophie’s words popped inexplicably into her mind. It was true, Claire would never know for certain whether Logan was wrong for her. Unless she gave a relationship with him a try.

Which she really shouldn’t. But the idea was so damn tempting.

“Well?” Logan demanded, still sounding quite surly.

It was too easy to provoke him, she thought, and she really shouldn’t. But it was also entertaining.

“I was just wondering what other bare asses are off limits to me,” she said with a grin. “Maybe you could make a list.”

Logan grumbled something beneath his breath and glowered at her above his menu. “Just shut it.”

She blinked at him with feigned innocence. “It was a simple question.”

“There’s nothing simple with you. Believe me.”

Claire studied him, trying to determine whether there was a hidden meaning in his words. Was it possible that he too was beginning to feel a complicated mix of emotions? She decided to throw him a lifeline and change the subject.

“Why don’t you tell me about Eunice Withers,” she tried.

Logan expelled a sigh, his gaze searching hers. “You’re determined to go for the jugular today, aren’t you?”

“Teasing you was fun,” she admitted, “but this is serious. I want to know more about you. We’re having a baby together, and in so many ways, we’re still complete strangers.”

“Not in any ways that count,” he returned, his voice low, sexy. It stirred up vivid images of the two of them in her hotel room at the Pierpont.

She swallowed and forced herself to picture a sweet-faced elderly woman instead. “Stop trying to avoid the subject, Monroe. Tell me about Eunice Withers.”

He shifted in his chair, looking uncomfortable. The man was terrible at opening up emotionally. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything. How did you meet her? Where did she live? How did she help you?”

Logan’s face shuttered. “I’d rather not go into this right now.”

Or ever, she thought. But she wasn’t about to allow him such an easy route of escape.

“Why not?” she demanded.

“Fine,” Logan gritted. His eyes glinted with suppressed anger.

His expression was cold and impassive. “Damn you. I was rooting in the dumpster in the alley behind her house for food. That’s how I met her.

I was fourteen and I had run away from one of the foster homes I was shuffled to.

The husband, my foster father, was a real bastard.

He used to beat me regularly. I finally had enough and I ran away and lived on the streets for about a week before Eunice found me.

You’d be amazed what you can eat when you’re starving.

” He paused then and shot her a hard look.

“There. Are you satisfied? Not what you wanted to hear, I’m sure, but there it is.

I was a runaway alley rat who ate moldy pizza out of dumpsters. ”

Claire’s heart ached for him, for the child he’d been, and for the angry man he still was because of it. She shuddered to think of what would have happened to him had Eunice Withers not found him that day. How had the system failed a little boy so horribly?

“It doesn’t make me think any less of you, if that’s what you’re afraid of,” she told him. “If anything, it makes me admire you even more.”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” he snapped. “I did what I had to. There’s nothing to admire in that.”

“Logan, you’re a good man. You should be proud of yourself for your accomplishments, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of your past.” She knew he wouldn’t accept her words easily, but they needed to be said.

For all Logan’s success, he still thought of himself as the runaway who ate suppers from a trash bin.

As a foster kid no one wanted. It was why he used the side door to his house rather than the front entrance.

He was the feared, arrogant CEO of LM, and yet inside him was still the boy who thought himself worthless.

“Don’t play psychiatrist with me.” His words were cool, his eyes still hard and intense on hers.

Her heart ached for him, and in that moment, she decided she was going to use the week to get him to open up to her.

She wanted to heal his scars, to help him realize there was no shame in his past. And by the end of the week, come hell or high water, she would do it.

Regardless of what did or didn’t happen between them, she wanted to give him that much, simply because he deserved it.

Their waitress returned before Claire could form a reply. The girl plunked down glasses of ice and bottles of water before them, then pulled out her pad and paper. “Have you decided what you’ll be having yet, or do you need more time?”

“We’ll order,” Claire said in the exact same moment as Logan said, “We need more time.”

“We need more time,” Claire revised.

“We’ll order,” Logan said.

Leslie looked at both of them, nonplussed.

“I guess we’ll order,” Claire said quickly, laughing. “I’ll have the chicken taco. Is it spicy?”

“It is a little spicy,” Leslie told her, “but I can have them prepare it non-spicy for you if you’d like.”

“Oh no.” Claire smiled. “I’d like it spicy.”

Leslie jotted that down and turned to Logan.

“I’ll have a hamburger, medium well, and fries,” he said, closing his menu and handing it to Leslie. Claire did the same.

When Leslie was gone again, Logan looked at Claire, a brow raised. “Spicy? I wouldn’t have pegged you as someone who likes spicy food.”

“Normally I don’t,” she conceded, “but the baby does. I get spicy food cravings all the time.”

A half-smile quirked his lips. “I don’t think the baby can tell the difference.”

She shrugged. “All I know is that I want spicy food and raspberry yogurt. I just obey.”

Logan chuckled, the sound deep and pleasant. Claire liked to hear him laugh. He did it so infrequently. “Do you think the baby is a boy or a girl?”

“I don’t know.” Claire’s hand crept to her rounded midriff. “I haven’t really given it much thought.”

“I have,” Logan admitted, his voice soft. “I have a room I’d like to set aside for a nursery, and I was wondering if I should have it painted blue or pink.”

Claire liked the idea of Logan contemplating painting a nursery for their baby.

Her initial concerns about his fathering abilities had long faded.

She expected him to dote on the baby, probably to the point of spoiling him or her terribly.

Just the thought of Logan cradling their tiny baby in his arms, of the look of awe and love on his face when he held him or her for the first time, made a big lump swell in her throat.

Think nursery , she told herself firmly, before you start crying right here in the middle of the restaurant.

“Maybe you should paint it yellow,” she suggested, her voice sounding husky even to her own ears. “Unless you want me to ask the doctor at the next sonogram?”

“No.” Logan shook his head. “I like wondering.”

“I do too.”

“At least we agree on something.”

She smiled. “We’ll have to agree on at least one other thing. A name.”

“Did you have any in mind?” From his tone, it was clear to Claire that he did.

“Not yet,” she answered honestly. “I haven’t been able to find any I names like enough. What do you think?”

“Well,” he paused, looking hesitant, like a boy about to be told he was kicked off the baseball team. “What do you think about the name Julie for a girl?”

“Julie.” Claire tried the name on her tongue and found she liked it. “It’s a pretty name. What made you think of it?”

He looked a little sheepish. “I saw it on a license plate on the drive down here, and it just struck me. We have plenty of time to decide on names, though. We don’t have to decide anything now.”

“No.” Claire’s tone was thoughtful. “I like the name Julie for a girl. I think it fits.”

“I’ll be damned.” Logan grinned at her, looking boyishly sexy. “We agreed on two things.”

“We did,” she said, grinning foolishly back at him. “Amazingly enough, we actually did.”

Maybe, she thought, coming on this vacation with Logan had been a step in the right direction. They were certainly making some headway already, and she planned to cover much more ground before the week was over. Yes, coming here with him had been the right decision to make. No doubt about it.