Page 70 of The Player Next Door
Or maybe he just didn’t want it to fit. He didn’t want Clare to be like him. She was supposed to bebetter.
Schneider arrived and interrupted his spiral. Logan jumped to his feet and Clare shook his hand politely, asking very sweetly about his wife. “Decided to stay in St. Louis with the grandbaby,” Schneider said, sitting down across from them.
“Do you have pictures?” Clare asked, her face lighting up with what seemed like genuine joy. Logan knew her trick—I imagine the baby pictures are cute dogs and react accordingly—and he grinned softly, the pressure in his chest easing slightly.
They were fine.Hewas fine. He cared about her and their motives at the start didn’t matter anymore, what mattered was now. Schneider passed his phone over and Clare cooed with delight, sending Logan a tiny secret smile that made him feel even more at ease. Logan steered the conversation to boating, something Clare knew a surprising amount about, thanks to her water-based work fiasco, and it seemed like Schneider was warming up. Clare was easy to like and he and Clare worked well together; Logan realized somewhere between the salad and main entrée that they had the almost effortless banter of a couple with years of history behind them. There was a slight tension to her smile that Logan knew Schneider wouldn’t pick up on, but that was probably because of the overall pressure of the whole evening.
When Schneider asked Clare if she was going to order dessert, Logan knew he had it in the bag.Suck it, Wimberley, he thought, grinning warmly at Clare and covering her hand with his. His earlier nerves were completely gone; all he could think about were the ways he was going to pay her back for this. Repeatedly.
Schneider even lingered with them outside the door to the restaurant, eagerly talking to Clare about the biography of a medieval king he was reading. Clare dutifully wrote down the title in her phone and promised to read it, and Logan dimly heard him saying something aboutI didn’t believe it when he said he was seeing someone, but it was nice to meet youand then they were finally able to say their goodbyes and walk away. Logan slung his arm over her shoulders as they went, unable to stop smiling. “Good thing I’m interested in a lot of the same things as retirees,” Clare said cheekily, leaning into him comfortably. “That dinner would have been a lot harder if I had to fake interest in Louis IX of France. I mean, I still had to fake it—I both can and can’t believe that man is a fan of someone who went on acrusade; gross—but it would have been more difficult if I didn’t know anything about it.”
Logan chuckled. “And since I know absolutely nothing about French kings except one got his head chopped off, I’m glad you were there. That’s the most Schneider has ever liked me.”
Clare fell silent for a few paces. “Silly question—when did you tell Schneider we were dating?”
Logan stopped. “A while ago, why?”
“Things are just so new with us, you know? And you said he was out of town for a while, so I was a little confused, that’s all.”
Fuck.He had left out this minor detail in his original confession, on account of having way too much to confess to, but now it looked like he’d hidden it from her. “I—okay, hear me out,” he said, and Clare looked wary. “After we, you know,” he said, gesturing between them, “but before we were, uh, hanging out, I sort of—slipped. I’d told him I was seeing someone and I swear, I was going to ask Sam to pretend to be my girlfriend, but then I said your name instead, and, uh, yeah.”
Clare nodded slowly. “Okay,” she said, and Logan let out the breath he’d been holding. That was it—there weren’t any more lies between them, and Schneider would stay with Loyalty and Logan would keep his jobandthe girl.
He was so relieved, imagining Wimberley’s sour face when he learned Schneider wasn’t leaving, that when they turned the corner toward the gravel parking lot behind the building he didn’t notice Clare’s shoulders tensing up. She pulled away, looking intensely into her weirdly large, constantly full tote, like she’d lost something.
“Clare?” A male voice asked. A guy Logan vaguely recognized but couldn’t place emerged from between two cars.
“Oh hey, didn’t see you there,” Clare said, but Logan knew her well enough to know she was lying.
Abruptly, Logan realized where he knew the man in front of them from. They had met before, that first night he took Clare out to Pour.Neil? Noah.Noah was on Clare’s team; the golden boy who got away without any blame for that river-teaser thing. The one who’s job she wanted. Clare had put a good two feet of distance between them, but Logan could tell Noah wasn’t stupid.
“I don’t think we introduced ourselves properly before,” Noah said, reaching out to shake Logan’s hand. “I’m Noah. I work with Clare.”
“Logan. I’m—”
“My neighbor,” Clare broke in.
Fuck. I guess I am a secret.
“Neighbor,” Noah said drily, and Logan wanted to point out to Clare there was no possible way this guy was buying it, but he couldn’t manage that without Noah hearing, and at any rate, she was also refusing to look at him.
Clare’s face was beet red and her words came out in a rush. “Yeah, we ran into each other while we were out to dinner and since I don’t have a car, he offered to drive me home.”
“Got it.” Noah gave them one last, long look and spun his keys around his finger. “See you tomorrow, Clare,” he said, and headed off toward the sidewalk.
Clare waited for Noah to pull a few yards away before she turned to him. “Shit. I’m sorry, I panicked.”
There was a roaring in his ears, but she looked genuinely apologetic. Logan made himself respond normally. “Yeah, whatever. I get it.”
She looked slightly reassured, although he could tell she still knew something was wrong. She started to walk toward his car again, moving much faster than before, but Logan stayed put. She made it three paces before she noticed he wasn’t following. “Logan?”
He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t pretend like everything was fucking fine, when it wasn’t. “You said I wasn’t a secret,” he said flatly. “And then you go and tell him I’m yourneighbor.”
Clare blanched. “I’m sorry, I panicked,” she repeated. “Things at work are kind of weird right now, and Noah’s seen us together and if it comes out that I’m seeing someone before the pitch meeting, Craig could take the entire pitch away from me.”
“Yeah, I get that. I mean, I don’t, because you should just report Craig for being a fucking creep, but I get it.” He finally started moving again, now walking a lot faster than she could comfortably manage in heels.
Part of him cared, but another part of him didn’t. At all.