“Come on, Soph,” Logan chided. “I believe in you. Apply yourself.”
“Don’t tempt me.” The saucy phrase turned their easy banter into something more like flirting. Which made her blush so she shut up and spun back to the computer and got back to billing out her day. She thought she could feel Logan continuing to watch her, but she ignored him.
When she started to unlace her boots, Logan closed the folder of invoices.
“Pub, then?”
“No, thanks.” She waved off his offer. “I have too much to do.”
“I’m bringing beer home, anyway. You can have one there, when your day is done.” He worked an elastic band around the folder.
“You’re funny. My day is never done. But you don’t have to get beer.” She skimmed out of her coveralls and shook them, then stepped outside the door to hang them. “I bought some and gave it to Gramps to take home in his Gator.” She came back to put on her shoes.
“Why?” Logan looked up from pushing his chair into place under the desk. He was ridiculously tidy. “I said I’d do it.”
“You might have forgotten. Gramps likes to have one before dinner so…” She shrugged. “Buy some more. It doesn’t go bad. Not at the rate you drink it.”
“Are you serious? You didn’t trust me to buy beer?”
“Oh my God, Logan. Are you serious?” His affront lit her temper. “I’m not three men and a nanny looking after one baby. Between work, Biyen, and Gramps, I’m going flat out at all times. I don’t have the luxury of trusting that someone else is doing anything. If it needs doing, I do it. It’s done. Happy day for you. Go home and have a cold one.”
“Wow.” His head had recoiled at her outburst. “You really do owe me a lot of beer.”
She pinched her mouth flat, refusing to take back that diss against him and his brothers. She hooked Biyen’s backpack over her shoulder and looked around for anything else she had to do before she left.
“I’ll make dinner,” Logan offered. “What else can I help with tonight?”
“I wasn’t complaining. I was stating a fact.”
“Sophie—”
“Fine. Look at the fan in the bathroom if you want to. It sounds like it has a bent blade. Gramps will get on a chair and try to pull it down himself if he notices so I can’t leave it, but I have to water the garden, get gas for the lawnmower, and mow; otherwise Gramps gets hay fever. Then I have to shower and check the delivery on Biyen’s birthday present. Also, I was supposed to reorder one of Gramps’s prescriptions today and forgot, damn it. Let me make a note of that.”
She came to the desk and found the sticky notes in the drawer. She scrawled the reminder and stuck it to the black screen of the monitor.
The phone rang.
Fuck. This was how her life had been going even before Wilf died, but she was only one person.
Logan snatched up the receiver.
“Hi, Kenneth.” He listened. “Uh-huh. Yeah. No, she’s gone for the day.” He jerked his head at her, telling her to leave. “I’ll come down.” He hung up. “The drunk says you’re a shitty mechanic, but also, he made it worse.”
“Shocking,” she muttered and headed for her coveralls.
“I’m going.”
“You don’t have to. But if you could call Emma and tell her to send Biyen home—”
“Sophie. Go. I’ll make sure his boat stays tied up.”
“Really?” She kind of hated him more when he wasn’t being an asshole than when he was. “Thank you.”
Chapter Six
Logan finished the repair, told the skipper he had warned the coast guard about him, then went to the grocery store. He picked up a call from his mother while he was walking home.
“Hi, Mom. What’s up?”
“I’m just wondering how everything is going with Emma’s family.”
If that was true, she would have called Emma, but he played along.
“Good. Reid drove them around the island today.” There were only a handful of logging roads so it hadn’t taken more than an hour.
“When do they leave on their cruise with Trystan?”
“Wednesday, back Sunday.” The tours were staggered so the other one left Saturday and returned Wednesday.
“Have they decided whether they’ll take Storm?”
“They’re not.” Emma was reluctant to leave her again, but everyone agreed that an infant on a boat could be less than ideal. Storm wasn’t crawling, but she would still need a life preserver. “In a small space like that, if she isn’t happy, everyone will know it. Reid offered to stay home with her, but I told him to go. It’s not exactly a honeymoon, but it’s the best we can do for now.”
“I agree. And Emma’s mother will want to get to know him.”
“Exactly.” Also, Emma could use a wingman. She hadn’t said anything, but she had looked relieved when Reid had agreed to come with her. Logan only knew a little about the way her family had walked all over her in the past but wasn’t prepared to let it happen again if he could help it.
“That leaves you with Storm and work, though. How will you manage that?”
