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Chapter Twenty-Five
Waking to the credits rolling, I rubbed my eyes, unsure how much of the movie I'd missed. Logan had also passed out on the couch at some point and instead of waking him I simply covered him with a blanket and stood watching him sleep for a bit.
Before me was the man I thought I couldn't see past, until he saw past me. Since then, my feelings had gone from pride, love and respect to heartache, sadness, and regret.
Unplugging the Christmas lights, I fumbled around until I got to the stairs. Feeling bone-weary and wrung out from all the mental challenges of the day, I stripped right off exhausted and fell straight into my bed.
* * *
"Mom, can I make myself some cereal? Mom?" Cracking open one eye, the bright sunlight streaming in my window made me wince.
"What time is it?" I croaked.
"It's 8:11 a.m.," he informed me, looking at my digital alarm clock." I thought I heard your cell phone ring a little while ago," he added. My heart almost stopped. Shit. Sawyer.
"Your dad slept on the couch last night, and I must have forgotten it when I came to bed. It's on the countertop in the kitchen. Please, would you bring it up to me?" I asked with a smile.
Nodding, Colby quickly left the room and I heard him thundering downstairs and then nothing. I held my breath, waiting for a conversation between him and his father, but there was none. I wondered if Logan had already left, but figured I'd have heard the alarm get disabled if he had.
The silence was broken by Colby coming back up the stairs, but by then I was already up and dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a top. I figured if Logan was in the house I'd wait until he left before I grabbed a shower.
"Dad's in the downstairs bathroom and I had to find your phone. It was on the floor by the couch." Shit. I glanced at the time. It was only 8:21, so I knew I couldn't call Sawyer yet. Sitting down on my bed I opened the screen and saw an unopened text message had come in from Sawyer just over an hour before.
Sawyer: I tried to call you. What the actual fuck, Billie?
I scrolled farther up and all the messages between us had been wiped apart from the one above to him, which was sent from my phone at 7:11 a.m.
Me: Billie's exhausted and flat out asleep. She had the most amazing time, ate too much food, drank too much wine, but we had a wonderful family Christmas. Logan.
Grabbing Colby by the arm I took him downstairs, my blood boiling. I was determined to keep my temper and get his father out of our house. Entering the kitchen, I prompted our son with the cereal box, milk, bowl and spoon and set him to work on his breakfast up on the countertop.
Meanwhile, I raced down the passage to our downstairs bathroom in time to see Logan wander out with a towel around his waist and another drying his hair. Pushing him back forcefully, I entered the bathroom with him and closed the door behind me.
"Clothes on and out. No fucking argument. How dare you send messages from my cell phone!" I spat, pointing at the floor to emphasize my point.
"Jesus, Billie, calm the fuck down. It kept chiming when I was trying to sleep, so I answered it."
"Not before you read all the messages between us though, right? What an invasion of my privacy. Get dressed! I want you out of here now!"
"You didn't change your lock code on your phone," he mumbled, like this permitted him to check everything out. "Can't I at least—"
"No, five minutes maximum. And then you'd better leave."
I could see how pissed off he was that I'd challenged him for meddling in my affairs, and I had no clue what I was going to say to Sawyer, other than Logan had tried to make his hijacking of our time look as damning as he possibly could. Whether he believed me or not remained to be seen.
A few minutes later Logan emerged from the hallway, dressed after his shower. Any thoughts about how handsome he looked were quickly squashed when I reminded myself the shell of a man was only part of him, and how he was ripe with deceit on the inside.
"Are you leaving, Dad?" Colby asked. I heard no alarm or tinge of sadness in his tone.
"Yes, your dad has to get back to his place today. I'll drop you off tomorrow on my way to the Hamptons to save him from driving back here. The airport is closer to his place than ours." I made sure to respond to Colby before Logan had a chance to say anything otherwise.
"That's right, buddy," Logan stated, purely because I hadn't given him any other choice. Walking over to Colby, he bent over by the table and kissed the top of our son's head. Turning to me he smiled. "Thank you for an amazing Christmas Day. I enjoyed myself."
I was tempted to say, "There's that 'I' again," but I let it slide, and opened the front door to shorten his exit and to make sure he left.
Once Logan had gone, I made a pot of fresh coffee with one eye on the time and the other concentrated on not burning myself. Colby settled in front of the television to watch his favorite children's show and I went to the window to make sure Logan had driven away.
When I was satisfied I wouldn't be interrupted, I took out my cell. After informing Colby I was going to call Sawyer upstairs so as not to disturb him, I pressed Sawyer's number and heard it connect.
