Mirin, Christelle - Emma's Heart (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (2 page)

Chapter Two

Logan Walker sat at the bar, wondering exactly what he was doing there.

He had gone to the park on impulse and sat looking out at the lake, missing Christi. It had been a year and a half since Christi had fallen down the stairs. Logan had recently begun to feel his life wasn’t over, even if Christi’s was. For some odd reason, he had left the dealership early today and took a walk in the park, and that was what had placed him on the bench looking at the lake. He didn’t know why he’d gone there, only that he had an unrelenting urge to go. He had fought it all morning and finally gave up around three o’clock and jumped in his car and ended up at the park.

He took a sip from the glass of water that sat on the bar in front of him. Was fate involved in his life today? To have met Emma there in the park had to have been fate. He didn’t know the woman, but there was something about her that seemed…familiar. Especially when he had glanced over at her and Emma was rubbing her earlobe with her thumb and forefinger. Christi used to do that when she was thinking.

Logan shrugged, trying to loosen the tight muscles in his shoulders. Being only four thirty in the afternoon, the pub was literally empty. Logan glanced toward the booths, wondering if he should have sat there instead of here at the bar. The booths would have been more private. But then, he didn’t know if he wanted to be more private at this point. Emma looked like a nice girl, but he never knew, did he? He checked his watch. Emma should have been here by now. The traffic wasn’t bad just yet, and it was only six blocks.

Swiveling on his barstool, Logan turned just in time to see Emma walk through the door.

Not-too-tight jeans, worn in all the right places, with a stark white shirt tucked into the waistband beneath the faded jean jacket, Emma looked like a rough-edged girl, her look younger than she probably was. Her chestnut hair, ruffled from the breeze, flowed over her collar in tousled waves, and her large brown eyes held the look of calm that Logan rarely saw in a woman’s eyes. Emma raised one hand and threaded her fingers through her hair as she looked around the pub. A smile broke on her full lips when she saw Logan at the bar.

Logan swallowed, intrigued and attracted at the same time. He watched Emma walk toward him and wondered just where this drink would lead. Emma didn’t look easy, but then, Logan knew from experience, he couldn’t tell if a woman was easy by just looking.

“Hey, sorry it took me so long. I swear I caught every light.” Emma slid onto a barstool beside him. “What are you drinking?”

Logan cleared his throat, feeling a strange tightness there. “Water right now. But I’m open to something stronger if you are.”

Emma shrugged out of her coat, tossing it onto the barstool on the other side of her. She began to roll up the sleeves of her shirt, which was unbuttoned down to the curve of her cleavage. “I’m going to have something a bit tamer.” She raised one hand to get the bartender’s attention.

Logan couldn’t help but notice how Emma’s hands looked. No fancy manicure, nails trimmed short. Funny, the jeans and jean jacket fit the impression she was a working girl, but the white button-down shirt didn’t.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked from the other side of the bar.

Emma looked at Logan and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, I guess I’ll have a diet cola.” Logan smiled and glanced at Emma. “Little early for something stronger.”

Emma nodded. “Agreed.” She looked at the bartender. “I’ll have a ginger ale with five cherries.”

Logan’s heart skipped a beat.
Ginger ale with five cherries. Christi’s favorite drink when she wasn’t drinking alcohol.
Logan picked up his glass of water and shakily took a sip.

“Everything okay?” Emma asked.

Swallowing quickly, Logan smiled at her. “Yeah, I mean, yes. Everything’s fine. Why do you ask?”

“You had the funniest look on your face. Like you’d seen a ghost or something.”

The bartender placed their drinks in front of them. Emma leaned sideways and reached for her purse and took her wallet out. She took a few bills out and slid them across the bar. “Keep the change.”

“Thanks.” The bartender nodded and returned to the other end of the bar where he had been going through receipts.

Emma took a sip of her ginger ale, the cherries floating in the center of the liquid, blocked from coming to the top by the ice cubes. “Mmm, good.” She turned to Logan. “So, Logan, what do you do for a living?”

Logan blinked, trying to focus on what Emma was saying. The glass of ginger all glimmered like champagne in the dim light of the pub. “Sorry, I was…never mind. I work at Baker’s. The Jaguar dealership over on the south side.”

“Jaguar. Hmph. Nice cars. Don’t know if I’d ever feel right driving one, but I wouldn’t mind giving it a try.” Emma parked one elbow on the bar. “I wondered why you were dressed so nice, too nice to be sitting on a park bench in the middle of the afternoon.”

“Yes, that.” Logan turned toward her. “Have you ever had a strong calling to go somewhere? Somewhere you don’t usually go at a time you are normally doing something else, like working?” Logan liked the way Emma looked him in the eye when he spoke. It showed she was truly interested in what he was saying. He wished he would have offered to buy the drinks. It didn’t feel right that a woman should be buying when it was their first drink together, even if it wasn’t alcohol.

“As a matter of fact, I have. What was your feeling today?” Emma took a sip of her ginger ale.

“I felt the need to go to the park. I don’t know why.”

“Well, I’m glad you did.” Emma ran her fingers through her hair again. “It seems like I haven’t just sat down and had a conversation with someone in a long time.”

“Me, also.” Logan had a good feeling about Emma. She could be a friend if it didn’t lead to something else, something more. Logan could use a friend. All he had done for the past year was go to work, sell a few cars, and go home to an empty apartment. “Would you like to have dinner?” he asked, hoping for once he’d have a dinner companion. His friends had tried to fix him up with other women, but he didn’t want anything to do with that. He hated being invited to a dinner party only to find out he was being matched up with another single girl who was on the rebound from a bad relationship. That was the last thing he needed, to listen to someone regaling him with a former lover’s bad traits. This was different. Meeting Emma in the park felt right somehow. It would be interesting to know if they got along well. At least well enough to be friends. After all, Logan didn’t know if Emma was single, married, or in a relationship, yet.

“What do you have in mind?” Emma asked, smiling.

Logan noticed how the smile went all the way to her eyes. A true smile, the corners of Emma’s eyes crinkling invitingly. “I’ll leave that up to you. We could get a bite here, or somewhere else. Or I could make dinner. Do you like Italian?”

Emma laughed, the sound rolling over Logan like a roller coaster of happiness. Again, Logan had the sense that meeting Emma was so very
right
.

“I love Italian,” Emma said when she finally stopped laughing. She glanced toward the bartender, who was still at the far end of the bar, head tilted down, working on his paperwork. Emma looked back at Logan. “I have to ask you something, and please don’t take me the wrong way.”

“Ask.” Logan leaned forward, leaning his elbow on the bar. “I’ll try not to take it wrong.”

Emma met his gaze, his brown eyes narrowing ever so slightly. “Are you…married?”

Logan’s stomach tightened. Here was the moment of truth, so to speak. “No. Is that a problem?”

A smile slowly bloomed on Emma’s mouth. “No. Most definitely not.”

“Are you…?”

Emma shook her head and grinned mischievously. He picked up his glass of ginger ale and raised it. “To a chance meeting.”

Logan smiled, feeling more right than ever in this meeting. He picked up his glass of diet cola and touched it against Emma’s glass. “To a chance meeting.”

They both took a sip of their beverage then placed their glasses back on the bar. “So,” Logan began. “Since we’re both on the same single, let me ask you a question.”

“Shoot.” Emma tilted her head invitingly.

“Are you in a relationship?” Logan fought the urge to hold his breath. This chance meeting held the implication it could be much more than what it seemed.

“No. I’ve been single for, well, over a year now. You?”

Logan wasn’t sure how much he wanted to reveal at this point. He definitely didn’t want to dampen the rapport they had with the details of Christi’s death and his loneliness since that day. Maybe once they got to know each other better. “I’ve been single for a while now.”

Emma nodded, obviously pleased. “Then I don’t have to worry about a jealous lover at home, right?”

“No, you don’t have to worry about that.” Logan chuckled.

“Then I wouldn’t mind having Italian tonight now that I don’t have to worry about defending myself or getting caught having dinner with such a handsome man.”

Logan’s face grew hot. He turned away for a moment, shielding the blush he knew flushed his cheeks by taking a long drink of his cola.

“Did I say something wrong?” Emma asked, touching him lightly on the arm.

Warmth flooded through Logan, up his arm, and straight to his heart. The touch was light, but he felt the heat of Emma’s fingertips through the fabric of his shirt. A gentle touch, but a caring one. Logan could use more of that. With a deep breath, Logan shook off the sensations he was having, chalking it up to being without another’s touch for so long, and turned back to Emma. “No, of course not. It’s just—”

“Been a long time,” Emma finished for him. “I got cha. Same here.” She removed her hand and picked up her glass, downing the rest of his ginger ale. Then she reached into the glass and plucked out one of the cherries, popping it into her mouth. She pulled the stem from between her lips and dropped it back in the glass.

Trying to lighten the moment, Logan asked, “What sort of sauce do you prefer? Marinara or Alfredo?”

“Alfredo, most definitely. I never was one for red sauce.”

Just like Christi.
“Alfredo it is then. I can make a fairly decent pollo carbonera. Can you do garlic bread?”

“I can.” She rubbed her palms together as if getting ready to begin a project. “I take it we’re cooking at your place?”

“Would that be okay?”

“I don’t have anywhere else to go today. I think it would be great. The two of us can cook, talk, and get to know each other.” She grinned widely. “Do you have everything for dinner, or do we need to stop for supplies?”

Logan was getting excited about how this day was ending when a few hours ago it had seemed so dismal. “I have all the staples we need for dinner, but if you wouldn’t mind, you could stop and pick up a nice bottle of wine.”

Emma reached over and grabbed her jacket and purse off the bar stool beside her and stood. “That I can do. Red or white?” She slipped his jacket on and flipped her hair out of the collar.

“White, it will go better with the Alfredo.”

Emma nodded. “Tell me where I need to be when and we’re on.”

Chapter Three

After asking the bartender for a scrap of paper and a pen, Emma jotted down Logan’s address and agreed to meet him there in half an hour. Finally, she was beginning to live her life again, and it felt damn good. She quickly stopped at the corner grocery, picked up two bottles of wine, and typed in Logan’s address in her GPS.

Though she wouldn’t be able to drink more than one glass of wine, and she was taking a chance doing even that, having dinner with Logan felt like she was getting on the right track, and she was looking forward to eating, talking, and just spending time with a man. True, it felt a little weird that she had bought the first drinks and he was cooking dinner, but what the heck? It was almost a date, and she wasn’t going to turn down having dinner and some nice conversation with a handsome man.