Of Loss & Betrayal (Madison & Logan Book 2) (17 page)

Mack grinned. “I just thought it would help with the Thanksgiving cheer.”

Logan took the wine and added it to the collection of bottles we had already put out. “I think there’s more wine than actual food,” he joked. He offered Mack a glass of wine from a bottle we had already opened, which he accepted, and we all settled into the living room.

“I hope you’re ready to eat,” I said. “I wanted to make sure we had enough food, so I kind of overdid it.”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “Kind of? We have enough food for ten people.”

“You’re supposed to overeat on Thanksgiving,” I protested. “You haven’t eaten enough unless you’re in pain.”

“I promise to eat until I think my pants are going to bust open,” Mack pledged.

“See?” I said to Logan. “Now that’s a good Thanksgiving guest.” I turned to Mack. “Did you get a chance to call your grandmother?”

He had mentioned at dinner last night that his grandmother was spending Thanksgiving with his uncle, who was her brother, and his family. He had been considering flying back to spend it with her, and then flying back to Chicago to finish up work, but his uncle had insisted that she would be fine without him.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t a very productive conversation. She kept asking who she was talking to, and then finally decided I was a salesman and got mad at me for making a sales call on a holiday and hung up on me.”

I tried to suppress a smile because I didn’t think it was supposed to be funny. “I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”

Mack laughed. “It was actually pretty funny. Even though she couldn’t remember me, she had all the spitfire that I remember so well while growing up. God help any telemarketers who actually try to call. She’ll put the fear of God in them.” His expression sobered. “As long as her spirit is there, I can handle her not recognizing me. It’s the days when she doesn’t even want to get out of bed that are hard for me to handle.”

I started to reach out a hand to touch him in sympathy, but I stopped myself. I remembered how upset Logan had gotten when he had seen Mack’s hand on my arm. They seemed to be on good terms now, and Logan would probably be okay with it, but I decided it was better to be safe than sorry. I didn’t want anything to ruin today.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang and I tensed. If anything could ruin today, it would be Kristina’s presence, but I had no one to blame but myself.

Logan got up to get the door. Mack gave me a considering look when he was out of sight.

“You look like someone just kicked your puppy.”

I couldn’t help laughing at his comment, and it helped to relieve some of the tension. Before I could reply, Logan came back into the living room with Kristina. She smiled tentatively at me, nervously clutching a bottle of wine.

“I think we have enough wine to open up our own liquor store,” Mack said with a grin. Kristina frowned at his comment, her frown deepening when she looked at the table and saw all the bottles of wine.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to bring.”

“Don’t listen to him,” I said, getting up and taking her bottle of wine to place with the others. “You can never have enough wine.”

I was the one who had invited her, so I decided that being anything but gracious would be in poor taste. I could grin and bear it for a few hours.

“Should we eat now?” Logan asked. “Everyone’s here.”

“We might as well,” I replied. “The food will just get cold if we wait any longer.”

Instead of each person sitting on one side of the table, I had grouped the chairs so Logan and I were sitting on one side, and Mack and Kristina were sitting on the other. Despite having invited her out of pity, I wanted to make it clear to Kristina that Logan and I were a couple.

We started to place all the food on the table and Kristina and Mack made all the appropriate exclamations of appreciation. I couldn’t help feeling a little proud about the spread, especially since this was my first real attempt at making Thanksgiving dinner. After the turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, green bean casserole, roasted brussels sprouts, sweet corn casserole, and a few other dishes had been set on the table, we sat down to eat.

“This is amazing,” Mack said in between bites. “And you said you weren’t a very good cook.”

“Logan helped a lot,” I said, although I was gratified by his compliment. “I just don’t cook that much, so I wasn’t sure how well this was all going to turn out. My repertoire pretty much consists of Western omelets and spaghetti.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Logan said with a smile. “I could probably live off those two things.”

“And nachos,” I said with a wry grin. “Don’t forget nachos. And only if they’re the size of Texas.”

“How could I forget about nachos,” he said, pretending to look aghast. “That should be added as one of the main food groups.”

“I like nachos, too,” Mack said. Logan and I laughed at his comment, since he had no idea what we were referring to, but he looked happy at the notion of nachos.

“Sorry, no nachos for Thanksgiving,” I said. “We’ll have to do without.”

I glanced at Kristina and saw the pained expression on her face. My smile instantly disappeared. I remembered the first time she had been to the Half Pitcher and what Logan and I had done in the back room while she waited for us at the table, none the wiser. My stomach twisted at the thought, and the guilt that had propelled me to invite her over for Thanksgiving reared its ugly head again.

“How’s work going?” I asked Mack, wanting to change the subject. “How much longer do you think you’ll be in Chicago?”

“I’ll probably be leaving sometime next week,” he replied. “Although I might have to come back again next month.”

“You’re just trying to finagle an invite to Christmas,” Logan said with a smirk. “Then you’ll be back in February for President’s Day.”

“What’ll we have for President’s Day dinner?” Mack asked, pretending to be excited. “Nachos?”

I rolled my eyes at them, but I enjoyed their lighthearted banter. I looked at Kristina, wanting to include her in the conversation, but I had a hard time coming up with a topic to discuss. Her failed suicide attempt and her desire to get back together with Logan weren’t exactly subjects we could discuss over dinner. I finally settled on work.

“You work in advertising, right?”

Kristina nodded her head. “Yes, I work for an ad agency as an account director.”

“That must be exciting,” I remarked.

Kristina smiled slightly. “It’s a lot of meetings, RFPs and scheduling. Not exactly fodder for
Mad Men
.”

“I’m sure you see more action than I do,” I commented, “considering I usually work at home in my PJs. When I want to get really wild and crazy, I go to Starbucks and work.”

I was surprised by Kristina’s laugh. It made me realize that we would have probably been friends if we had met under different circumstances. Even though I had resented her when Logan moved back to Chicago with her in tow, I hadn’t been able to deny that she had been a warm and friendly person. I wasn’t naïve enough to think that we could be friends now, but maybe we could become civil. Not that there was any need to be in contact again once she went back to L.A.

We kept the topics neutral for the rest of dinner, and I found myself enjoying myself more than I thought I would. After we were stuffed full, we moved to the living room to rest and recuperate enough to tackle dessert later.

Kristina sat in the armchair and Logan and I sat on the couch. I saw her avert her eyes when he put his arm around my shoulders, and I didn’t know how to feel about that. A part of me wanted her to see my claim on Logan, but the other part of me felt guilty for rubbing it in her face.

Mack sat on the other side of me on the couch and flicked through the channels, settling on the football game. He propped his legs on the coffee table.

“Are you going to unbutton your pants, too?” Logan asked with a raised eyebrow. “I wouldn’t want you to be anything less than comfortable.”

Mack grinned unabashedly. “I want to, but I’m a gentleman. I wouldn’t do that in mixed company.”

We watched the game in companionable silence, and I was amazed that I could feel so relaxed in Kristina’s company. I had been so on edge about her coming over for Thanksgiving, but things had turned out remarkably well. The multiple glasses of wine hadn’t hurt, either.

“I’ll be right back,” I said, heeding the call of nature caused by all those glasses of wine. When I looked at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I saw that my cheeks were flushed and realized I was a little bit buzzed. I ran my wrists under cold water, wanting to cool myself down.

When I walked back into the living room, Logan stood up. “I think it’s time for dessert.” He nodded towards Mack. “He keeps patting his stomach and saying there’s room for something sweet. I think that’s supposed to be a subtle hint that he’s ready for dessert.”

Mack just grinned at me and went back to watching the game. I laughed and followed Logan into the kitchen.

“Can you get the plates?” I asked, taking out the apple crisp that I had kept warm in the oven, and setting it on the counter. I gasped in surprise when Logan whirled me around.

Before I could ask what he was doing, Logan’s lips came crushing down on mine. Without thought, I wrapped my arms around his neck, returning the kiss.

“They need to leave after dessert,” Logan muttered against my mouth. “Unless you want an audience while I fuck you.”

My pulse quickened from his words. “I didn’t know you were into that,” I joked, although I was breathless from the sudden passion.

Logan straightened and frowned. “I’m not. I’d pretty much kill any man that saw you naked.”

I rolled my eyes. “I was just kidding. Anyway, you’re the one who brought up having an audience.”

“That’s why they need to leave,” he said.

“Fine,” I said, shaking my head. “We’ll feed them dessert and then open the front door. They’ll probably get the hint.”

“Now, you’re talking,” Logan said with a grin. “Let’s hurry up and plate up dessert.”

I laughed at his eager expression. After we were done spooning out the apple crisp and vanilla ice cream, we carried the plates out to the living room. Mack’s eyes lit up when he saw dessert.

“This is awesome,” he said after taking the first bite. “I’m definitely coming over for President’s Day dinner.”

I laughed, gratified by his enthusiasm. Kristina nodded her head in agreement.

“It’s really good. I hate pumpkin pie, so I was dreading having to eat a slice to be polite.”

“Ugh, I hate pumpkin pie, too,” I declared. “People always act like I’m some kind of freak when I say I don’t like pumpkin pie. I don’t know anyone else who dislikes it.”

Kristina smiled. “Finally, someone else with good taste.” She glanced down at my hand as I got another spoonful of dessert. “That’s a beautiful bracelet.”

“Thanks,” I said. For obvious reasons, I didn’t want to get into who gave it to me, so I quickly changed the topic to the football game.

After Mack had a second helping of dessert, he got up and stretched. “That was a great meal. Thanks so much. Unfortunately, I need to wake up early for work tomorrow so I should probably head out.”

Kristina got up quickly, obviously not wanting to stay without Mack here. “I should go too.”

Logan lost no time in ushering them out. He refused all their offers to help clean up and had them out in record time. As much as I had been relieved at how well today had gone, I was happy to be alone with Logan.

I laughed when he grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the bedroom. “We should really clean up first,” I protested. Logan paid me no attention as he guided me into the bedroom.

“At least let me use the bathroom,” I insisted. “I want to brush my teeth. I can feel myself getting cavities from all the sugar I ate.”

“Okay, but don’t take too long.”

I suppressed rolling my eyes and went into the bathroom off the bedroom. After I finished brushing my teeth, I opened the small box I kept on the counter to store my jewelry in for safekeeping while I showered. I froze, looking at the box disbelievingly. I had put my heart pendant in there earlier today after I had taken it off to wipe down since I had gotten some food on it while cooking. I had intended to put it back on after showering, but in my hurry to get ready before Mack and Kristina arrived, I had left it in the box. And now it was gone.

I checked the counter and scoured the floor, thinking maybe I had dropped it, although I clearly remembered putting it in the box and closing the lid. Panic began to rise as I checked and rechecked every crevice in the bathroom. Where the hell was my necklace?

“You’ve officially taken too long,” Logan called out from the bedroom. “I’m not opposed to carrying you out and throwing you onto the bed.”

I opened the door and Logan’s grin vanished when he saw my face. “What’s wrong?”

“My necklace. My heart pendant. It’s not in the bathroom where I left it.”

Logan got up from the bed and came into the bathroom. “Are you sure? Where did you put it?”

I pointed to the jewelry box. “In there. I know I put it in there, but now it’s gone.” I shook my head, confused. “Where could it have gone? It’s not like it just walked off on its own.”