Blame It on the Cowboy (13 page)

Especially sex.

It was her mouth, he decided. Full and kissable. The rest of her body, though, was kissable, too. So that's what he did. Nothing long and deep. Just a taste of her mouth that he'd hoped would tamp down this little fire that was starting to simmer in his body. It didn't. The one kiss only made him want more.

More of something he really didn't have time for.

“Sorry about all of this,” Logan said, moving away from her and getting up. “Both the half-assed kiss and the half-assed night. Last night qualifies as the worst dinner date ever.”

Reese smiled. “Sadly, I've had worse.”

She was probably being nice again, and because the niceness was making him want to pull her back to him, Logan headed to the bathroom for that shower. He didn't take long, mainly because his head was still sensitive, and it actually hurt to have the water hit his scalp. Also because he wanted a chance to say goodbye to Reese before he ate and headed downstairs for the meeting.

His dressing room was off the bathroom, which was a plus. Best not to run around half-naked with Reese still in his house. Well, best not to do that when he had someplace else to be.

Logan finished dressing and hurried back out to find breakfast sitting on the table. Scrambled eggs, and a glass of OJ next to the plate.

But no Reese.

“Reese had to leave,” someone said. “She said something about having to go to work.”

Maybe it was the fog in his head, but it actually took Logan a moment to recognize the voice. Another moment to pick through the dimly lit room and see the woman standing by the door.

Helene.

CHAPTER TWELVE

S
HIT
.
A
ND
BECAUSE
Reese didn't know what else to say, she repeated that a couple more times as she hurried out of the McCord building.

Helene was back.

And Reese didn't know who'd been more surprised about that—Helene or her—when Reese had opened the loft doors. Reese had expected Greg to be standing there when she heard someone knock, and her stomach had landed near her ankles after she saw Logan's visitor.

His
perfect
visitor.

Reese had heard that Helene was beautiful, and it hadn't been an exaggeration. The woman looked like a pageant contestant, moved like a ballerina and smiled like the
Mona Lisa
.

Reese hated her.

But even more than that, Reese hated that she hated her.

She had always known Helene could come back. After all, the woman owned several businesses in town, but Reese hadn't thought her homecoming would have happened with Reese looking and feeling like a piece of gutter trash.

It hadn't helped, either, that Helene had turned that
Mona Lisa
smile on Reese. If Helene had been angry about finding another woman in her ex's loft, she had shown no traces of it. Helene had merely introduced herself and politely asked to see Logan.

Reese had exchanged introductions, shaken Helene's hand and then had somehow managed to rattle off an excuse of needing to get to work. Part of her, the part with a spine, wanted to hold her ground and stay until she could at least say goodbye to Logan. Maybe even kiss him in front of Helene. But Reese had been afraid that any kisses he might have given would have landed on Helene's mouth, not hers.

“Reese?” someone called out.

Lucky.

Definitely someone she didn't want to see right now. Of course, she could say that about anyone. The tears were threatening, and if Reese did disgrace herself by crying, she didn't want a witness. But this was one witness she couldn't avoid because Lucky was running to catch up with her.

“You okay?” he asked.

He stepped in front of her, blocking her path. The question alone meant he no doubt knew about Helene's return, but the look in his eyes let her know that he was also aware that Helene was with Logan right now.

“I'm fine.” The lie just sort of stuck in her throat. “You knew she was back?”

“I just found out. Greg told me when I came in for the meeting, and he said you'd left in a hurry.”

Reese shrugged.
Don't cry. Don't cry.
Better yet, she told her heart to knock it off. That crushing feeling in her chest was making it hard to breathe.

“I knew she was coming home, though,” Lucky continued a moment later. “Her mother, Mary, called me last night to give me a heads-up. She said she tried to call Logan, but he didn't answer.”

“Logan wasn't feeling well,” she settled for saying.

“Migraine?”

Since Logan had told her not to tell anyone, Reese only shrugged. “For the record, nothing happened between Logan and me last night.”

Lucky shrugged, too. Probably because he didn't believe her, and then he huffed. “Look, there's no easy way to say this, but I think you should know. Helene is planning to stay.
Really
stay,” he added. “Her mother said Helene is organizing several big charity events and that she's going to donate money to build an addition onto the civic center.”

“She's trying to mend her reputation,” Reese concluded.

“You bet she is. But Helene's good at this sort of thing, and if anyone can make this shit stink less, it's Helene.”

Reese didn't doubt that for a minute. Nor did she doubt something else. “Helene is planning to reconcile with Logan, too.”

“She'll try.” Lucky pinched his eyes together a moment. “And she might succeed. That'll suck for Logan.”

It took some more blinking to stave off those tears. Reese gave up on coaxing her heart out of the crushing feeling and just went with it. After all, she'd known it was coming.

“Helene's perfect,” she said. “I mean, I kept hearing people say that, but I didn't know they actually meant it.”

“She's not perfect,” Lucky argued.

“She certainly looks it. Please tell me she had a boob job because, in all the gossip, no one mentioned those huge breasts of hers.” The porcelain bookends hadn't been to scale at all.

“Funny, it's what most people mention about her first. Guys, anyway,” he added in a mumble. “Still, big boobs don't equal perfect.”

“She's beautiful, and that outfit she was wearing probably cost more than I've made in a lifetime. Plus, she used a word I didn't even understand. I'll have to look it up to see if she insulted me or not.”

“It wouldn't have been an obvious insult. Helene doesn't work that way. She's more the ‘silently put a curse on you while conniving to make your life miserable' type.”

Reese stared at him. “Did you start to feel that way about her before or after you saw her with the clown?”

“Before.” He held up his hands in defense. “But hey, I kept my mouth shut because I thought she was what Logan wanted. God knows Logan never approved of any woman I dated before Cassie.”

She didn't know if Lucky was just trying to make her feel better. Reese couldn't imagine anyone disapproving of Helene. Well, not until after the clown incident, anyway.

“Did her mother happen to mention why Helene cheated on Logan?” Reese asked.

He shook his head. “I've got my own theory, though. High-end upbringing and she wanted to sample something down and dirty. Something a little perverse.”

“Perverse? I'm not sure you can call it that—”

“You don't know what the clown was doing with his big red nose,” Lucky interrupted.

Oh. So, maybe perverse, after all. Perhaps this was something akin to an heiress sleeping with the pool cleaner.

Or Logan sleeping with her.

Reese hadn't actually wanted to ask him if he'd been playing out a dirty fantasy that night with her at the hotel, but it was possible he had. Maybe Logan had wanted a pool cleaner experience, too.

Mercy. Had that been it?

“Fight for him,” Lucky insisted.

Reese wasn't sure she heard him correctly at first, but then Lucky repeated it.

“Fight?” she questioned.

“Not with your fists.” He shrugged again. “Though, if I thought it would work, I'd say go for it. I just don't want to see Logan hurt again.”

“Neither do I. But he's a grown man, and if he wants to get back with his ex, then it's his decision. I gotta go,” she said.

And Reese hurried away so she could get inside her room before the first tear rolled down her cheek. There was only one word she had for herself.

Idiot.

* * *

“H
ELLO
, L
OGAN
,” H
ELENE
SAID
.
She was smiling as if this were a normal visit. It wasn't. Far from it.

Logan felt as if a heavyweight boxer had just slugged him in the gut. Twice. Not just at the sight of Helene but because Reese wasn't there.

“What did you say to Reese to make her leave?” he asked. And he didn't bother to sound even a little friendly.

“Reese?” she repeated.

“Quit the innocent act. You know her name. You know who she is.”

No way would Helene not have heard the gossip, especially considering her mother still lived in Spring Hill. Logan didn't want to know the picture her mother had painted of the fry cook at the Fork and Spoon.

Helene's smile faded, and she flexed her eyebrows. “Yes. Reese is an interesting woman. People seem to love those lemon things she bakes. Have you been seeing her long?”

“You know the answer to that, too.” Logan would let Helene sort out fact from fiction all on her own.

“You're angry,” Helene said, sitting down at the table where his breakfast was waiting. “And you have every right to be.”

“You're damn right I do.” He hadn't meant to raise his voice and instantly regretted it because it let Helene know that what she'd done had put his heart through the shredder.

“I want you to know that what happened that night wasn't planned,” she explained.

“Various parts of a clown just happened to fall into your vagina?” Logan snapped.

Her mouth tightened a little but not for long. She quickly regained her cool composure. “It was a mistake. One I'll regret for the rest of my life, and I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you.”

Even that wouldn't be enough time, but Logan had something more important on his mind right now. “What did you say to Reese?” he repeated.

“I only introduced myself.”

Maybe that was true. Helene could intimidate with just a smile. It was one of the things that had actually attracted him to her in the first place. He'd wanted a woman who could hold her ground, go toe-to-toe with him. And Helene had done just that. Or rather had pretended to do it. Like the gossip, Logan didn't know what was fact and what was fiction when it came to his years with Helene.

“I didn't come here to spoil things with Reese,” she said, pausing right before Reese's name. There was some disdain in her voice. Maybe some jealousy. Or fake jealousy at least.

“Then why did you come?” he asked.

“Forgiveness.”

Logan would have laughed if he could have gotten his jaw unclenched. “Try something simpler. Something you actually stand a chance of getting from me.”

In that moment he wanted to ask her why she'd fucked a clown. Why she had betrayed him, but Logan figured there wasn't nearly enough time to get into that. He needed to go to the meeting and then find Reese and discover the truth behind what Helene had said to her while he'd been in the shower.

“All right,” Helene finally said. “I don't want you to stand in the way of my return. For the past month I've been in therapy to help me understand why I cheated, and I'm in a much better place in my life now. I want to come home.”

“It appears you're already here.”

“Yes, and I plan on staying.” She took a deep breath, patted her chest as if to steady her heart. Or maybe it was just to remind him of her huge breasts. “I know I have fences to mend, not just with you, but with the entire town. I've already gotten started on that.”

Logan didn't ask her how. “I have a meeting. I have to go.”

“Greg told me. I won't keep you, but I wanted you to know that I'll be hosting a fund-raiser reception this Friday at the civic center. I'm donating money for the building extension, and this will be a good first step to repairing my image.”

The only image Logan had was of a naked Helene on her desk, getting intimate with the red clown nose.

“I hired a publicist, and she's the one who suggested the civic center donation and reception,” Helene went on. “She specializes in human branding, which isn't as BDSM as it sounds.” She laughed.

Logan didn't.

“Anyway, I'm inviting the entire town to the reception, and I want you to come, as well,” she added.

Now he did manage a laugh. He also opened the door and headed out. Helene followed him down the stairs.

“Just think this through,” Helene said. “If you don't go, people will say you're too torn up to face me. They'll say your heart is broken.”

Hell. The woman knew just how to go after him. Had she always been this way, or had she honed her bitch skills in the past three months?

“Well?” she asked when they reached the bottom of the stairs. “Should I put you down as a yes for the reception?” And Helene made the mistake of smiling at him. An “I've got you by the balls” kind of smile.

But two could play this game. “Yes, plus one. I'll be bringing Reese as my date.”

Logan did enjoy the glimpse of Helene's bitch face to go along with her bitch skills. But it was only a glimpse. He didn't wait around to see what else Helene would do or say. He went up the hall to the meeting wondering just one thing.

How the hell was he going to talk Reese into going with him to his ex-girlfriend's party?