Page 85 of The Player Next Door

“Am I missing something here?” he asked.

Both Clare and Logan ignored him. “I knew you’d move on, but I thought you’d do a little better than boring,” Logan said, crossing his arms.

Clare did the same. “Don’t be a dick. Just because Joey’s nothing like you doesn’t mean he’s boring.”

“Thank you. I think,” Joey said under his breath. Logan’s date moved to stand behind him, the two of them watching Clare and Logan with looks that were half annoyed, half amused.

Logan appeared to change tactics when he realized she wasn’t going to agree Joey was boring. “But up here?” he said again.

“Just because we were up here together doesn’t mean I can never come up here with someone else,” she retorted.

“It’s not what you think,” Logan said to his date, who had raised her eyebrows interestedly. “We just talked.”

“Honestly, that’s worse,” she said, making a face.

“Are you mad at me, or worried about whatshethinks?” Clare snapped.

“I’m not—that’s not—I—that’s not what I meant,” Logan replied.

“What do you want, Logan?” Clare asked, intending to sound irritated but landing somewhere around exhausted.

Logan’s eyes softened and he swallowed hard, looking away from them all. “Not this,” he admitted softly, and her heart lurched painfully.

His date clicked her tongue. “Okay, well, I don’t usually like to watch.” She nudged Joey’s shoulder. “I’m Amber. I was planning on getting laid tonight but obviously that isn’t going to happen here, so want to buy me a drink?”

Joey looked between them and pushed back from the table. Amber looked like she could eat him alive, and he looked like he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. “Joey,” he said, standing up. “And yeah. Let’s, uh, leave them to it.”

Clare could barely bring herself to spare them a glance as they left. She was trapped in Logan’s eyes, drowning in their ocean.

He never even looked back as the door swung closed behind him. “I’m sorry,” he said, finally closing his eyes. They had been glistening just a moment before, and the painful tug on her heart turned into a knife-sharp pain. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair and scratching the back of his neck. He glanced at Joey’s now empty chair. “I’m sorry I ruined your date.”

Clare shrugged, all the fight drained out of her. “Sorry I ruined yours, too.”

“Amber’ll be fine,” he said. “She always lands on her feet.”

“We’re messes, aren’t we?” she said with a weak chuckle.

Logan’s mouth curved up at one corner. “We really are.”

She took heart from that. “So, why did you come up here?”

Logan collapsed into an armchair next to the table, elbows on his knees and his head hanging between his shoulder blades. “I was going to fight for you. I think. I don’t know, I wasn’t thinking at all. Because if I had been I would have cancelled on Amber, but we don’t need to get into that.”

Clare leaned back against the table for support. “What changed your mind?”

“Your aunt,” he told the ground between his feet.

“Really? I never took her for a meddler.”

“If I had to guess, I think we’re a special case for her.”

“And are you?”

Logan finally looked up. “Am I what?”

“Fighting for me.”

“Only if you want me to,” he said, swallowing hard.