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“How are you doing, hon?” Megan asked as the four of them headed inside.
Jodie cast a glare at Logan. “Great. A few hiccups here and there, but otherwise fantastic.”
“Hiccups.” Logan forced the sarcasm into his laugh. “Those are on you.” He might not like being the keeper of her secret, but it wasn’t his to share.
“Be nice,” his dad warned.
Megan sighed. “I hoped being away from home, in a less restrictive environment, would help you two learn to get along.”
“Right.” Jodie scoffed. “Not in this century.”
“There’s no reasoning with children.” Logan slid into the bench seat across from their parents.
Jodie took the spot next to him. He tried and failed to ignore the heat of her bare arm against his or the weight of her thigh as it pressed into him.
“Because I’m the unreasonable one, for recognizing you’re as inconsiderate as your friends.” Bitterness tinged Jodie’s words.
Guilt weighed heavy inside him. He didn’t want to pick this fight. He couldn’t think of an alternative, though. He couldn’t donicewithout remembering there could be more. “Don’t hate Noah because someone in that apartment is getting some.” That was a low blow, even in the scope of their arguments, but halfway wouldn’t work.
“Logan,” his dad barked.
“It’s okay.” Was that a quaver running through Jodie’s reply? No. Her expression was blank. And those definitely weren’t tears shining in her eyes. She stood so abruptly, she jarred the table. “I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back.”
Twin gazes of disappointment studied him from across the booth. “Could you two try to get along for one evening?” Megan asked.
She had no idea.
“Megan’s too polite.” Dad sounded angry, rather than resigned. “What the hell is your problem, Logan? She’s your sister.”
Thatwas Logan’s problem. He knew the variations on this conversation, though—what he was expected to say next. “I’m sorry. I’ll try harder.” He didn’t feel the smile he forced to the surface.
Their waitress took their drink orders. He ignored the instinct to get an iced tea for Jodie, and let her mother order instead. When his beer arrived a few minutes later, Jodie still wasn’t back. He swallowed half his drink in a single gulp, but it didn’t squelch the guilt crawling inside.
“Maybe you should go check on her,” his dad said to her mom.
Logan couldn’t do this forced indifference-bordering-on-cruelty. He didn’t know how he’d maintained the facade for this long. “I’ll go.”
Megan eyed him with disbelief. “Are you going to storm into the ladies’ restroom to find her?”
“I’ll knock politely and ask if she’s in there. I was the one who was rude. I should apologize.”
“Damn straight you should.” His dad’s irritation couldn’t hide his surprise.
Logan found Jodie in the hallway near the restrooms. She was leaned with her back to the wall and her gaze tilted toward the ceiling. She didn’t move when he approached.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
She didn’t look at him. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
It wasn’t ano. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s nice.”
He couldn’t do this. If he’d realized it would only take a taste to fuck with his head this way… It didn’t matter. What was done was done, and he wanted to make things right. “This will probably sound weak, but I was trying to—”
“Pretend there wasn’t a spark between us? Protect yourself? By being an intolerable asshole?”
He didn’t know if she was talking about tonight or the conversation in her apartment. Both, probably. “I didn’t say my execution was good.”
