The Billionaire's Kiss (Scandal, Inc) (27 page)

If he was hiding something from her, the whole girlfriend question could have been a way of masking his deceit, or maybe he felt forced to put a label on their relationship. Either way, why in the hell had he left in the middle of the night? It had barely been more than a day and half since she had admitted what was going on to Logan, and it hadn’t even been a day since she had pledged to be completely honest with him, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she should check up on him to see if he was telling the truth about where he was going. After all, she did have access to his calendar and his emails. If he really had an appointment, she’d be able to see so right away, and then she could rest easy.

She looked over at the clock. It was well past three in the morning, and she wondered if Charlotte was still awake. She needed someone to talk to, and she couldn’t think of anyone else. Callie couldn’t bring herself to call, though. She already knew that Charlotte say something about
Pride and Prejudice
or
Wuthering Heights
and how she would kill for a chance to spend any amount of time with a guy like Logan. Callie played through the rest of the pretend conversation in her head, all of the positives and negatives about taking Logan at his word or snooping on him and violating whatever trust he had left.

Why couldn’t he have just stayed? She wished that could be by her side again. What she had felt with him that night was more intense than anything she had ever felt before. Sure, the sex was incredible, mind-bending even, but it was more than that, there was an emotional connection, an openness that she had never had with anyone before. It had started long before the sex, much earlier in the day when Logan decided they needed to clear the air. How was it possible for him to run out into the night after feeling what they felt together? What would happen to that openness if she went ahead and spied on him? It just felt so wrong.

If Logan’s disappearing act had anything to do with Veronica, Callie had to know. She did’t want to be jealous or overprotective, but it was her job to keep him away from trouble in general and Veronica in particular. It drove her crazy to think that he had ever slept with a woman like that. It drove her crazy to think that Logan had ever slept with any other woman. What the hell was happening to her? Everything had been light and fun, and now it was something else entirely. Callie crawled out of bed and found her laptop. This would be the last time she snooped on Logan. Once she knew everything was fine, she’d tell Rich to cut the cord and forget all about Logan’s laptop.

She fired up the computer and waited for it to start. She still had time to go back. She still had time to do the right thing and respect his privacy, but she couldn’t. She had to know. Callie opened up her email and found the link from Rich, a spreadsheet listing the passwords to Logan’s accounts, and a link to access a backup of all the files on his computer. A few clicks later, she was staring at his calendar and combing through his emails for any hint of what he was doing. Her heart sank. His schedule for the next morning was blank. Either Logan was lying to her about having a meeting or the meeting was off the books. Either way, she couldn’t confront him about it without admitting what she had done.

She closed out the window and composed a new message to Rich. “All set with L. Please close out.” In the morning, she wouldn’t let herself have access to Logan’s computer. She wouldn’t have access to his calendar or his emails or any of it. She’d have to trust him. She just hoped she was doing the right thing.

Maybe this had nothing to do with Veronica, she thought. Maybe Logan was just freaked out by how fast everything was moving between them. Yeah, he was saying all the right things, but how quickly could a guy like Logan change? He had spent the past decade avoiding serious relationships, bailing on women after no time at all. Now Callie wanted him to go to the opposite extreme and never leave her side. Maybe she was putting too much pressure on him. What did she expect from him? A ring? A lifetime of comforting in-jokes and scorching kisses?

Whatever Logan’s reasons for leaving, the safety and security she had felt with him had left as soon as he stepped foot outside the guesthouse.
 
Callie tossed and turned as she tried to fall back to sleep. The bed seemed enormous, and the air in the room seemed stiflingly still. The moon was out over the water, and she opened a window to let the sound of the surf drown out some of her worries, but she couldn’t help herself. She didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know what she wanted from Logan. Yeah, she wanted something more than a fling, but what? How serious could she expect him to be?
 

There were so many other questions: How much time did they really have left together? What would happen when the bill passed or Amy gave birth, and she had to go back to DC to take the reigns of the company? She couldn’t expect Logan to just pack up and follow her. Even if she wanted him to, it just didn’t seem fair. He’d hate DC. He’d hate all the dumb formality of it, the self-importance of everyone on every corner. The ego and the intensity. She couldn’t blame him. Those were the things that had driven her to ask for a vacation in the first place. That was settled. She couldn’t ask Logan to follow her, but a new question rose in her mind: Did she really want to go back?

***

Callie sat down on the dock and dangled her legs over the edge. The morning sun hung just over the horizon. The tide was out, exposing the jagged contours of the coastline. The shadows of the rocks receded back along the shoreline as the sun slowly lifted itself higher. The humid morning air was thick with the smell of low tide, a heavy, salty smell. Callie had never liked that smell, but this morning couldn’t care less about it. She had tossed and turned in the night. When the first traces of dawn had brightened her room, she pulled on some clothes and decided to head outside. She made it as far as the dock before sitting down.
 

The whole shoreline, as far as Callie could see, looked completely different than it had the night before. The low tide had opened up a new geography, a new and temporary place between the comfort of land and the freedom of the water, a place of constant flux, a landscape of sandbars and mudflats. In a few hours, it would be gone, reclaimed by the ocean, but for now, it was beautiful. Callie pulled herself up and walked back down the dock. She walked along the edge of the grass until reaching a large outcropping of rocks, and then she climbed down. She stopped for a moment and rolled her pants up to her knees, and then she stepped forward, sinking her feet into the mud and setting forward toward the water. She didn’t know exactly where she was headed, and that felt good. Maybe it was time to plan a little less and live a little more.
 

She walked out around the bend of the property and pushed onward, occasionally stopping to chart a course along the rocky coast. As she walked, her mind wandered. She tried not to think about Logan and why he had left in the middle of the night, but she couldn’t help herself. Everything had felt so right with him, like the stars had clicked into place, and then he had left. She wanted to trust him, but she couldn’t. After all, her job was dealing with situations just like this. If Logan had been her client, would she have believed his excuse for leaving? Or would she have pressed him to reveal the truth? She knew the answer to that question. It was one of the prerequisites of the job. The client had to tell her the truth, the whole truth, or she wouldn’t take the job. So why was she letting it slip in her personal life? Why was she letting Logan lie about what he was doing? And, more importantly, why did she care so much?
 

It wasn’t because she worried about a scandal. Hell, they were already in the middle of a minor scandal already, and she had barely spent any time thinking about it. No, she had to admit that she had feelings for Logan, true feelings, deep feelings, and now she didn’t know what to do about them. It had been so easy before. All she had to do was take care of the job. If she had a little fun with Logan, that was good too, but now, everything felt so important, like the rest of her life depended on her every choice.
 

 
If she had learned one thing from being with Logan, it was that she still had a few things to learn about herself. She still didn’t know how she could trust him or herself. She needed advice. She needed someone to talk to, but she only really wanted to talk with Logan. She pulled out her phone and dialed.

“Is this my long lost niece?” Vi asked. Upon hearing her voice, Callie remembered how much she missed home. She felt a little tickle in the back of her throat and her eyes welled up.

“Hi Vi,” Callie said, “I was just calling to see how everyone is.”

“I’m sure everyone’s fine. Amy has taken your absence as an excuse to take on even more work before the baby gets here. Ethan’s convinced that she’ll end up giving birth in some board room somewhere. The two of them are so good for each other.”
 

“And how are you?” Callie asked.

“I’m lovely. I’ve missed my little Calliebug. How is Newport? Has Logan behaved himself?”

“I think so,” Callie said. She smiled as she tried to think of a diplomatic way to explain what was going on between them.

“That’s too bad,” Vi said. “Men like him are always more fun when they misbehave.”

Callie laughed. “He’s not how everyone made him out to be.”

“Sounds like the two of you are getting along. I think you’d make a beautiful couple.”

“We’re not like that,” Callie protested. She didn’t want Vi mentioning any of this to Amy.

“Ah, to be young and in love,” Vi said. Her voice swelled as if she was about to begin a long story of dubious authenticity. Such stories were Vi’s forte. She seemed to have one for every occasion. If Callie had scraped her knee, Vi would have had some story about injuring her leg in the Pyrenees and healing the wound by drinking a bottle of wine and eating a wedge of brie.
 

“I never said I was in love,” Callie said, a little too eagerly. She wondered if Vi had caught her slip. What was the use? Vi was going to think whatever she wanted to think
.
“I don’t know what to do,” Callie admitted.

“Don’t worry,” Vi said. “Your secret is safe with me. Did your mother ever tell you the story of how she met your father?”

“I don’t know,” Callie said. “I was only eight when she died.”
 

“Well, let me tell you the story. Maybe it will help you. The day your mother met your father, we were at the beach. I must have been twenty years old. Oh, it was a terribly hot day, and I still remember the terrible pink bathing suit your mother was wearing. I, of course, was wearing a bikini. I insisted on jumping into the water first thing on account of how hot it was. Your mother treated me the same way your sister treats you. She followed me in and yelled at me about riptide. Somehow, she got caught up in the current, and the water started pulling her out. I was so frightened, but she was calm. In my mind. I can still see her floating farther out. She was so calm about it. She was always the level-headed one of us. Anyway, before I knew what had happened, a lifeguard pushed past my and swam out to save her.”

“Dad was a lifeguard?” Callie asked.
 

“Heavens no,” Vi replied. “You father could barely swim. I snatched up the lifeguard as soon as he brought your mother back to shore, but she met your father that night.”
 

Callie laughed. “I’m not sure what this has to do with my situation.”

“Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. If you’re afraid, don’t be. Maybe you’ve been overthinking things. “So you didn’t think you’d end up liking Logan, or you thought he’d be someone else. Forget about all of that. Go with the flow. See where it takes you. Now I have to run. I’m sure we’ll talk soon. After all, your sister is due next week.”
 

“Bye, Vi. Send Amy and Ethan my love,” Callie said.

“Send Logan mine,” Vi said.

Callie laughed. “I’ll make sure to do that.” She walked along the water’s edge for a little while longer. Maybe she should go with the flow. She just doubted that the flow would ever bring her back to DC. This would all be so much easier if she even had an idea where Logan was or what he was doing.

Nineteen

Congressman Jack Coburn stood up behind his broad mahogany desk and held his hand out. Even when they were in college, he always looked like he was posing for a photo-op. Now, wearing a striped tie and a blue blazer, he looked even more so. With his neat side part, every hair on his head was perfectly in place. His smile filled the room with warmth. Like Logan, he had this way of looking right at you like you were the only person in the world.

Jack had been born to run for office. Logan used to joke that when Jack was born his parents wrapped him in an American flag instead of a blanket. And, as Logan looked at him, he knew there was a reason that Jack, despite being the youngest son in his family, was the one given the nod to run for the Congressional seat his father once held. The desk, which he stepped out from behind, had belonged to his father, and his father's father. It was enormous and ornate, and it took up nearly a quarter of his tiny office across the street from the Capitol Building. Behind it was a whole array of pictures of Jack's family over the years. There photos of his father shaking hands with LBJ, his grandfather standing next to Truman, and family shots from their compound on the Cape.

"With all your family's influence, I thought you'd be able to swing a better office than this," Logan said as he took Jack's extended hand. "Is this a converted closet or something?"

Jack tightened his grip on Logan's hand and held it as a signal of his seriousness. "It's all seniority. I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. If I can last a few years, I'll have one of the good offices, but you didn't come all the way down here to talk architecture." He let go of Logan's hand. "What's up?"
 

“I need help with something," Logan said, "and you're the only one who can help me."