Sweet Resolve (The Lucky #2) (15 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

There was little time for them to talk the next morning before the party. She’d rushed over to pick Kristen up so they could go shoe shopping, since Amy didn’t have a pair that went with her dress. She’d thought she’d had a teal pair of heels when she’d bought the dress, but couldn’t find them anywhere.

It was a sign, at least in her mind, that she was losing her focus. That was one of the reasons she’d flipped out the day before. She loved control and order. Lived for it actually. She didn’t like it when things weren’t orderly. So, in general, when she noticed in life that she’d started forgetting things, or misplacing items, she would freeze up and hit reverse as quickly as she could. Memories would surface of living in boxes while her parents decided what they wanted to do. She hated when she felt this way.

Thank goodness for Logan and those flowers. Without them, she would have probably freaked out. She’d stared at them for so long that her mind had finally settled down and relaxed.

After an uneventful ride, she parked outside Kristen and Aiden’s building in downtown Denver to wait for her friend to come rushing out.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Kristen said, jumping into her Jeep.

“You’re not.” She smiled over at her. “I’m late.”

Kristen’s looked at her in utter disbelief.

“What?” Amy frowned. “I can be late every now and then.”

Kristen shook her head slowly. “Who are you?” she joked.

Amy laughed. “It’s Logan’s fault. He bought me flowers.”

“As in . . .”

“Delivered. Then he showed up with even more.”

Kristen giggled as Amy pulled onto the street. “You’ve got it bad. So, do you think he’s the one?”

Amy almost swerved as she quickly glanced over at her friend. “No!”

“Well,” Kristen pouted. “Why not? After all, Aiden isn’t exactly who I pictured falling for when we were kids either.” She looked out her window, daydreaming. “But, I wouldn’t want to be marrying any other man.”

“I know, it’s just . . .” She didn’t know what to say. Actually, she was completely speechless. She’d done nothing but think about their relationship for the last few days. One thing was clear after last night, she knew she wanted to enjoy him for as long as she could. Shaking, she turned and parked in the mall lot. When she turned off her car, she looked at her friend. “Logan is . . . Our relationship is . . .”

“Ha!” Kristen pointed her finger at her. “When you can’t define it, it is beyond definition.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

Kristen shrugged. “It will when you least expect it.” Her friend got out of the Jeep. “Now, let’s go find you some shoes and get pedicures.” Kristen linked her arm through Amy’s as they started walking toward the mall entrance.

Logan glanced at himself one last time in Amy’s guest bathroom mirror. He didn’t mind wearing a tux, especially since a few years back he’d paid to have his very own made. It fit like a glove, or fit like he’d imagined James Bond’s tux fit.

He’d slicked his hair back and twisted his head one way, then the other to make sure his barber had evened out his sides. Nothing was out of place.

When Amy had told him that she’d never had flowers delivered, he’d arranged for even more of them to be delivered. They would arrive any minute. He glanced at his watch. They had less than an hour before they were to be in downtown Denver.

Walking out of the bathroom, he was just about to head toward the front door, when the doorbell chimed. Daisy darted from Amy’s room barking madly.

“Yes, Daisy, we all heard the door . . .” His words fell away when he spotted Amy standing in her doorway. The light teal dress clung to her curves. The skirt was fluffed and short, showing off the best pair of legs he’d ever had the pleasure of seeing. Her open-toe heels were the same color as her dress, as were her earrings and necklace. There was even a small bracelet around her left wrist that sparkled with teal.

Her long hair was piled on top of her head as small ringlets hung around her face and down her back.

“Well, are you going to answer it?” she asked as she started walking toward him.

He could only shake his head no.

She chuckled and glided past him to open the door. That’s when he noticed that most of the back of the dress was missing. He could see all the way to the curve of her lower back, which only made his tux pants tighter on him.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, causing his eyes to rush to her face as she spun around. “More flowers?”

He smiled and started to wonder if he was going to be stricken mute all night while in her presence.

He’d ordered white flowers this time and watched her bury her face into their softness. He must have moaned, because her eyes moved back up to him.

“Are you okay?” She frowned.

He started to walk toward her, a slow smile forming on his lips. “You look amazing.” His fingers gently touched her hips, since he didn’t want to mess her up anywhere.

He thought he saw her cheeks blush as she looked up at him. “Thank you. You look very sexy.” Her fingers went to his neck as she straightened the already straight tie. “We’d better get going if we plan on being there on time.”

He leaned down and brushed a soft kiss on her check. He watched her set the flowers down on the kitchen table then walk over to grab a small silver purse from the chair.

“I’m ready,” she said.

When they walked into the Four Seasons’ lobby, they ran into Kristen and Aiden. The pair looked amazing as they made their way across the floor toward them.

“Evening.” He nodded toward Aiden.

“How’s it going?” He shook his hand firmly. “So, we’re up on the third floor.”

He walked shoulder to shoulder with Aiden as the women walked in front of them, whispering.

“Are they always like this?” he asked Aiden right before they stepped into the elevator.

Aiden glanced at the pair, then back at him. “Always,” he said with a smile.

When they stepped out of the elevator, it was onto an open terrace with a swimming pool. Since they were there an hour before sunset, the colors of the sky were breathtaking. There were already over a hundred people standing around, drinking, and talking as they signed in.

Logan immediately saw his uncle across the bar with Leah close by his side. The larger woman looked nice in a very long, flowing blue dress. Her hair was arranged softly around her face, making her look younger.

“There’s my uncle.” He touched Amy’s arm and pointed toward the bar.

“Shall we go say hello?” She smiled as the group made their way toward the bar area. Logan ordered drinks for them, then leaned against the bar to listen to his uncle tell one of his crazy stories to another Realtor.

“Look at Gary,” Kristen whispered to Amy. “He was born for this.” She giggled as Logan’s uncle finished the story of how he’d persuaded an elderly couple to remove the close to four hundred gnomes that had inhabited their yard so their house would sell.

“He’s always had good stories.” Amy turned to Kristen. “Remember our tenth birthday party at your folks’ place? He had all the girls convinced that he was Prince Charming.” They laughed and Logan felt a pang of longing for a childhood that never happened. As he watched his uncle, he wished more than anything that his mother had chosen to remain close to her brother despite being married to her husband.

“Hey.” Amy broke into his thoughts of all the missed fun and family times as a child. “Are you okay?”

He blinked and glanced down at her, then ran a hand over her shoulder. “Yeah, fine.” He looked over and saw a few of his old coworkers. “I’m going to go say hello to some people.”

“Want me to tag along?” she asked.

He shook his head, not wanting to tell her he needed a moment alone. “I’ll be quick.” He left his drink at the bar and made his way toward Derrick and John, two of his old colleagues at CCR.

When he approached the two men, he was shocked to see Tiffany standing in front of them. She wore an almost sheer white gown and, in the dying light, the sparkles on her dress caused almost a glow around her. Her long blonde hair was down around her shoulders in soft waves. There were diamonds around her neck and in her ears, no doubt bought by her father, who had always given his only daughter anything she’d ever asked for.

Quickly, he thought about turning back around, but it was too late when she squealed loudly and rushed to hug him.

“There you are,” she purred. “I’ve been looking all over for you.” Her fingers dug into his hair, messing it up. “We were just talking about the good old days,” she said as she ran a manicured fingernail up his chest, stopping just below his chin.

“Tiff,” he said, then he nodded in Derrick and John’s direction.

“Tiffany was just telling us how her father has called off her wedding to Marcus,” Derrick said, waggling his eyebrows behind her back.

“Oh?” He felt the evening air start to warm.

“Yes, it was mean of Daddy to try and force me into that relationship.” She stuck out her full bottom lip in a pout.

His mind instantly raced to another lip he’d kissed that looked much better in that position. Trying to twist his body to see if Amy was still at the bar, he groaned when he noticed her walking their way. That sexy little frown was firmly in place on her lips as she watched Tiffany wrap her body around his.

“Listen, Tiff . . .” he started to say, just before she moved her body even closer to his. Now he felt like they were smashed together, and he was having a difficult time breathing as panic started to set in.

He felt Amy stop beside him.

“I believe you have your body wrapped around my boyfriend.” Amy’s voice sounded calm as she spoke.

He wasn’t given the opportunity to speak before Tiffany chuckled loudly and ran her eyes up and down Amy’s dress. “I highly doubt that,” she purred as her fingers dug into his hair, trying to pull him down for a kiss.

His entire body tensed as he tried to push the clinging woman away. He thought he heard Amy growl slightly, then knew he was in trouble before even seeing Amy’s reaction. He watched the reaction of Derrick and John and took the hint that he needed to duck, quickly.

Not even dislodging himself from Tiffany’s hold, he bent at the waist and missed the stream of liquid that would have hit him directly in the back. Spinning around, he watched a very angry Amy storm toward the elevators.

When the high-pitch screaming finally reached his mind, he turned back around to see Tiffany, soaking wet, glaring at Amy’s back.

“Who is that bitch?” she screamed and started storming toward Amy.

Logan ran after both women and beat Amy to the elevators. He spun her around. “It’s not what it looked like,” he started to say, only to be interrupted by a very pissed-off Tiffany.

“I don’t know who you think you are, but I’ll have you banned from . . .” Logan stepped between them quickly.

“Leave it to me,” he growled in Tiffany’s direction while he held Amy still so she wouldn’t jump into the waiting elevator.

He watched the fight leave Tiffany’s eyes, then she poured on the purr again and stepped closer to him until her soaking wet breasts were pushed up against his jacket. “Fine, I’ll just head upstairs and change into my backup dress. I’m in room number sixteen oh one.” She discreetly put a card in his jacket pocket.

“Listen, Tiff,” he started to say again, only to have Amy twist in his arms.

“Hold still,” he said, tightening his hold on her.

“This is Amy, I’m with her now,” he blurted out quickly, since he knew there wasn’t enough time to do it properly.

He watched Tiffany’s eyes zero in on Amy, then a slight smile curved on her lips. “Oh.” She chuckled. “Really Logan, you could do so much better . . .”

Now he was holding Amy back from scratching Tiffany’s eyes out as Tiffany laughed even more.

“Logan, you’d better cage your new bitch.” She walked toward the waiting elevators.

He tugged on Amy’s hand, but she didn’t budge. So he picked her up and carried her toward a private cabana area, securing the doors and locking them in.

“Would you like to tell me what all that was about?” He crossed his arms over his chest, blocking her escape from the door.

Instead of speaking, she crossed her arms over her chest and mimicked his stance. “Would you like to tell me what all that was about?” She finally repeated his question to him.

“That was Tiffany.”

“Yes, so I gathered,” she interrupted.

He prayed for patience. “Remember, I told you we used to go out.”

She waited.

“Well, it appears that her father has released her of her obligation to marry . . .”

“Yes, I heard that part. So did everyone else on the terrace.”

He leaned his shoulders back against the closed doors.

“I didn’t know she was over there. I swear. If I had I never would have . . .”

Her eyes narrowed and he chose that moment to shut his mouth. Instead of speaking, he walked over to her and took her by the hips. “I don’t want to be with anyone other than you,” he whispered into her hair. He could feel her anger vibrating within her. He pulled back and looked deep into her blue eyes then rested his forehead against hers. “Honest.”