When he returned to the kitchen, every pair of eyes was on him.
“You’re all going to pretend you were the last to know?” he asked blithely.
“I’m guessing I was,” Cloe said under her breath in what would have been a solid joke in this crowd, but they were all still trying to figure her out.
She wasn’t in a position to adopt Storm. That was good. Right?
She dropped her gaze from looking at Logan and stared into her cup.
Logan helped himself to a coffee mug and Reid moved out of his way so he could pour. “What did I miss?” Logan asked.
“Not much,” Reid said. “Cloe was going to explain why she couldn’t come sooner, but Storm got hungry. We decided we all wanted coffee, then you and Sophie came up to neck in the living room.”
“If he thinks that was necking, then I’m sorry, Em,” Logan said with mock concern. “I’ll have The Talk with him later and explain special hugs.”
“No need,” Em said firmly. “Reid has all the bases covered. All of them,” she added in a deliberately throaty voice.
“Thanks, babe. You too,” Reid said with a slow wink at his wife.
“Ugh. Okay, you win,” Logan groused. “It’s like thinking about my parents having sex.”
There was another snort of amusement from Cloe. A wistful smile played around her lips, but she kept her attention on her coffee.
“Seriously, Logan,” Reid said more gravely. “I had to leave because of my mom. You know that, right? I could have handled things better back then. We all could have. And I definitely could have come back for a visit before you left, but I didn’t have much choice about leaving when I did.”
“I know. Don’t worry about it.” He would rather pull his own teeth than admit he had missed that lunkhead after he had left for university, but at least Reid wasn’t mocking him for his outburst earlier.
“I kept trying to do an Everglades episode,” Trystan said. “Producers never went for it, but I could have pushed harder.”
“You guys have lives. It’s fine,” Logan insisted. “I wasn’t suggesting you didn’t care, just because you had other things to do.”
“This has been a rough year,” Reid said. “None of this has been easy on any of us, but we’re not going back to the way it was. I don’t intend to, at least. I can’t speak for Trys. Remember Em reading us the riot act because we hadn’t seen each other in years?” He smirked and glanced over at Trystan.
“Which lecture was that?” Trystan asked, eyeing Emma. “There’ve been so many, they all blend into one.”
“You’re about to hear another one,” Emma warned tartly. “And you”—she pinned Logan with a stare—“can expect a thorough interrogation about your intentions before I sign off.”
“I’ll pass.” He plucked one of the folded face cloths from where she left a stack on the counter and wet it. “I mean, I’ll pass the test.” He wrung it out and brought it to the high chair. “Is she done?”
“Yeah, she’s lost interest. Thanks.” Emma took the dirty dishes to the sink.
“Here it comes, kid.” Logan started with her hand.
Storm was already turning her face away, squawking her displeasure.
He got the job done as quickly and gently as he could, but she was still mad at him, reaching for Trystan as soon as her bib was off and the dirty tray removed.
“How long are you staying, Cloe?” Logan asked as he wiped down the tray. “Where are you staying?”
“I was so intent on getting here, I haven’t planned beyond this moment,” she said with an unsteady smile. “I’d like to stay a few days and see a little more of Storm while I work some things out, but I wasn’t able to find anything to book ahead. I was hoping one of you would know of something that isn’t too expensive?”
They all looked at each other. The decent thing would be to offer to let her stay here. She was Storm’s aunt, but Logan didn’t expect Reid to put her up in this house. They didn’t know yet how far they could trust her.
“She can stay aboard the Storm Ridge until I leave on Wednesday. It’s my day with Storm tomorrow anyway. We can spend the day with her.” He directed that at Cloe.
“Really?” Cloe lit up like a Christmas tree. “Thank you. I’d love that. Would it be possible to shower there before dinner? I’ve been traveling.”
“Use the shower here. I’ll show you.” Trystan rose to lead her downstairs, handing Storm to Reid on his way, saying, “She needs a change.”
“Of course she does.” He wrinkled his nose at whatever perfume was coming off the kid.
“So,” Emma said to Logan as footsteps traveled up and down the different sets of stairs. “Let’s talk about Sophie.”
“Look at the time.” He consulted his bare wrist. “I have to meet Biyen. I’ll see you at dinner.”
*
“Hey, Biyen.”
“Hi, Logan”—Biyen halted as his feet hit the wharf—“where’s Mom?”
Shit. It struck Logan that the last time he’d come to the wharf for Biyen, it had been because his grandfather had died.
“She’s totally fine,” he hurried to assure him. “She’s in the office. We’ll go see her in a sec. I wanted to talk to you about something, first. You got a minute?”
“It’s summer vacation. I have nothing but time.”
“Live it up, kid,” Logan said with amusement. “You want to ruin your dinner with an ice cream?”
