18. Crew

18

Crew

I never thought waking up in Logan's tiny bed would feel this good. I've been staring at the ceiling for over an hour with her curled into my side, wondering when this became my new normal; when this all started to feel…right.

The more time I spend with her away from the ranch, the more it feels less and less like my home. I run my fingers along the ridges of her spine and glance down at her as she stirs against me.

"Morning," I say, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

Logan looks up at me, her eyes barely open and a sleepy smile on her face that makes my stomach do summersaults. I have seen a lot of breathtaking sunrises in my life, but nothing rivals how pretty Logan Shepard looks first thing in the morning. My breath hitches in my chest as she stares up at me.

"Morning."

She stretches her legs out, pressing her naked body against mine before hooking her leg over my own. If I could I would stay here all day but a knock at the door pops the blissful bubble we're snuggling in and Logan's brows pinch together in worry.

"I'll get it." I brush back some of her messy hair and attempt to slip from her grasp but she tightens her hold with a scowl.

"What if—" She pauses and I can see the gears turning behind her eyes.

I could tell what she was thinking. We had been spending so much time together, away from the ranch. She's afraid someone is coming looking.

"Pretty girl." I kiss her slowly, cupping my hand around her face and pull her bottom lip between my teeth. "Doesn't matter who's on the other side of that door, it's gonna take a lot more than a few ranch hands to drag me out of here."

"You make it sound like I'm the devil to them." She rolls those big glassy eyes at me and I have to stop myself short of ignoring every knock until the end of time.

"You are. Now let me out of this bed so I can answer the door." I kiss the corner of her scowl. " Pretty please ?" I rumble quietly against her ear when she doesn't budge.

"Only ‘cause you asked nicely." She unlinks herself and rolls back against the bed.

I grin back at her as I climb from the bed and slip into my jeans and shirt. I've gotten used to knowing how to angle myself down the narrow hallway without knocking off anything she has hanging on the walls; and by anything I mean the one picture of her and Ash from his first day of Preschool.

Another trio of knocks hit the door, shaking the rickety thing as I tug it open and am met with a small blond and a squeal.

"Crew!" Ash yells, slamming his tiny little body into my legs. I chuckle and glance up at Julie.

"Hi buddy," I say with a grin as he tries to climb up my body. I lift him the rest of the way, shifting him to my hip. "Did you have a good time with Miss Julie?"

"We had hot chocolate after dinner." He cups his mouth like he's trying to tell me a secret but his voice carries through the entire trailer making me laugh.

"Ash!" Julie laughs, giving me a raised eyebrow. "I take it Logan is…"

"Getting dressed," I say as she gives me a knowing look. "You wanna come in for some breakfast?" I ask her.

Julie shakes her head. "No, I have a shift at the diner." She takes a step towards me, combing back Ash's long hair from his face. "You be good for your mama and Crew okay?"

"Always Miss Julie," Ash says with a shy grin before burying his face into my neck.

"And you—," she says, turning her attention to me. It's stern and serious as she drops her chin and warns me. "Take care of them."

The implication is there and I'm a smart enough man to read between the lines.

"Always, ma'am."

"Crew, can we make pancakes again?"

I hear the soft padding of her footsteps before I see her but her hand trails down my back as she peeks her head around my bicep. "Thanks for bringing him home, Julie."

"Anytime," Julie says as she steps off the porch giving us a wave as she makes her way to the car.

"I'm going to hear about that later," Logan groans, hiding her face in my arm.

Chuckling I lift it, pulling her into my side, and press a kiss to her temple. "She'll get used to me being here."

Logan lifts her head, those perfect brows pulled together again for the second time that morning. Ash leans towards her, wrapping his arms around her neck as she takes him from me. As she whispers to him, burying kisses into his hair and sitting on the couch across from the kitchen I can feel the shift happen before I have the chance to stop it.

Take care of them .

It's all I ever wanna do.

"Hey," I call out, navigating the narrow space between the recliner and wall. "I was supposed to go out with Bode and his brother fishing today, but I know nothing about fishing and could really use the help of a master angler. What do you say, Ash?"

"What's an angler?" The kids' confusion cracks both of us up.

"A fisherman buddy," Logan explained with a smile on her face.

"Can we go mom?" Ash turned in her lap and I could see the hesitation on her face. Going on a field trip outside of the ranch with other people meant what's going on between us is real.

"Just the Walker boys?" She asks.

"I think if they heard you calling them boys they'd kick up a fuss but, yeah, just them." I nod at her and the tension releases from her shoulders. "I can just take Ash if—"

"No." She shakes her head. "Pretty sure Bode already has me figured out and I'm not gonna sit around this trailer and sulk on my day off. Go find a sweater and your boots."

Ash takes off with an excited holler before the sound of his dresser drawers flinging open echoed through the trailer.

"Are you sure?" She asks me quietly and all I can do is assure her.

I close the gap between us and sink to my knees before her on the couch, wrapping my arms around her waist until she's tangled around me and our noses are practically touching.

"I've never been so sure in my whole life about anything, until I met you."

Her thumb brushes gently over my scruff covered jaw while she kisses me. "Alright, let's go fishing then," she sighs, seemingly convinced. "And Crew," she tugs on my fingers as I get up to help Ash find his boots. "You might be the stupidest cowboy I've ever met, betting on this."

"It's only betting when you don't know the outcome, Shepard." I don't bother looking back at her when I walk away this time cause I know she's fuming.

"You're so full of sh—" She stops short of swearing as Ash comes barreling back out of his room with his boots on the wrong feet and a sweater that he can barely get over his head impeding his vision. "Wrong feet!" She laughs, hopping up from the couch and giving me a dirty look in passing.

I take a moment, while she brushes her hair and gets herself dressed, to text Bode and let him know about the change in plans. He responds quickly with I'll grab another rod . I lift Ash into the truck, buckling him in, and wait for Logan as she locks up. She slips a key from beneath the flower pot beside the door and my breath catches in my throat from the sight of her long legs and perfect curved ass.

"Put your tongue back in your mouth, Huckleberry, before the neighbors get noisy." She barely looks over at me as she climbs into the truck, and before I close the door I notice a truck off to the side of the road I've never seen before.

As I walk around to the drivers side I notice that the cab is empty and brush it off as a visitor before pulling out of the trailer park to drive the forty five minutes up to the creek. When we get there Bode is already in a wrestling match with his brother. Levi, the younger, cockier version of Bode, is all muscle and dark, shaggy hair. He's not wearing a shirt and the necklace that hangs around his neck is caught between his ear and Bode's flexing bicep.

"Say it!" Bode huffs out in laughter.

"Hell no," Levi grunts and kicks at the dirt with his worn out cowboy boots trying to pry from his older brother's head lock. "I didn't-" his voice is muffled as he tries to squeeze free.

"We have guests," Bode laughs and pushes Levi away from him into a cloud of dirt. "Ash," he nods to the kid as Logan helps him from the truck. "This is Levi, he peed his pants in the fifth grade, and refuses to admit he walked home from school and balled them up under my bed for mom to find."

Levi tosses on a loose fitting blue tank top and runs his fingers through his dark hair as he rolls his eyes. "It's not good to lie, remember that." He points to Ash and then lifts a cooler from the back of Bode's old pick up truck.

The day is nice. It's quiet and, even between concerned, watchful glances from Bode, Logan seems relaxed. She sits against the tree watching Ash run back and forth up the creek line, splashing in the water as Levi tries to shush him long enough to stop scaring the fish.

"What are you looking at, pretty girl?" I sink down next to her and, to my surprise, even with Bode staring over his shoulder she leans into me and lets me put an arm around her.

She's got a worn out piece of paper in her hands that has been folded a bunch of times but she hands it to me, laughing in time with Bode when Ash nearly pushes Levi into the river. I look at the paper closer to realize it's a pamphlet. Logan glances up at me before handing it over. It's a flyer for Adult Education classes.

I knew that Bode hadn't finished high school, it was a topic that he tiptoed around. Avoiding it as though talking about it would make him feel like less of a man. But I hadn't realized that Logan hadn't finished either.

"That couldn't have been easy," I say, staring down at the paper. The classes aren't expensive but they would take a lot of time that she doesn't have to spare.

"We all have our reasons," she whispers. "It's not really like I had a choice between what happened to my daddy and this town's ability to gossip…it was better I didn't stay." Logan lets out a shaky breath. "I'd like to finish it though and now maybe, with Tommy gone, I can."

She turns away from me again, eyes always on Ash.

"Can I ask why you brought it today?" I dodge the eggshells with a quiet voice.

The corners of her mouth turn upwards slightly as Ash all but tries to tackle Levi to the ground. "I keep it with me," she says softly, "because whenever I see his smile it makes me want to be better, to do better for him, and it reminds me that I can."

"What can I do?" I say handing the papers back to her and the scowl forms on her face faster than I'm able to prevent it from happening. "I ain't trying to fix it, Shepard, promise."

"You've done more than you know," she inhales and pushes off the ground, extinguishing the heaviness of her answer. "Now catch me a fish for dinner. Aren't you supposed to be a wilderness expert or something?" She kicks my boot with hers and grabs my hat before I can stop her, sinking it down over her brows and pulling her ponytail through the back. "This hat stinks."

"So give it back," I laugh and follow her toward the creek completely oblivious to the fact that it's not just my hat she's stolen.

The sun has completely disappeared behind the horizon by the time we make it back to the trailer park. Ash is fast asleep in his carseat behind her, curled up in one of my jackets, and the pride that I feel at the sight of it in my rearview mirror is interrupted by Logan sucking in a harsh breath.

"What the hell is he doing here?" She hisses, the cab filling with the unmistakable wave of anger that rolls off of her.

I glance towards her trailer to see whatever has set her on edge and see him. The shadowed silhouette of Tommy Henry daringly painting the word Whore in red on her home.

The tension between us grows even thicker with my own anger at his presence and his attempt to hurt her. Now I'm pissed. Every way I've forced myself to reign in these feelings goes out of the window while he gets ready to spray paint the last letter.

I throw the truck in park, wringing my hands over the steering wheel while I try to get my own emotions under control. Tommy glances back at the truck with a shit-eating sneer on his face and that's all it takes for me to unbuckle and throw the door open.

"Crew!" Logan snaps glaring at me.

"Stay in the truck, Logan." I slam the door shut and have to ignore that part of me that wants to turn around and apologize to her.

Tommy stares at me as I stalk up.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, fists clenched at my side.

"Came to see my son, Cassidy." He chucks that spray-can off to the side. The metal clang of it hitting the trailer settles between us like a ring bell.

"Really?" My eyes narrow at him for a brief second before the corner of my mouth turns up.

"Yeah, asshole. Really ."

He steps off the porch. A daring thing to do since I feel like throwing my fist through his gut. I have to tread carefully though and not do anything that could fuck up Logan's case.

"See, that was until I saw a truck parked in front of my house that wasn't mine."

"This isn't your house," I growl, snatching his collar and yanking him close enough that I can smell the whiskey and stale cigarettes on his breath. His dull blue eyes crinkle as he grins up at me like there's some joke that I'm not in on.

"You gonna hit me Cassidy? With my kid in the car?"

"You've been watching her."

He laughs. "Gotta make sure the little bitch doesn't skip town with my kid."

I don't think. My head whips forward, landing a blow straight to his nose that, for a second, makes him look like a bobble-head doll. Tommy groans as he gets his bearings back. At this point I'm holding him up by his shirt.

"You never deserved either of them," I hiss. "The only thing you're going to do is climb back into that piece of shit truck you failed to hide this morning and leave Ash and Logan the hell alone."

"Or what?" He sputters.

I pull him closer, nose to nose with me as I look him in those dead blue eyes. "She isn't on her own anymore, Tommy. You gotta get through me to get them."

"I don't give a shit about you, Cassidy, or that whore. She's used goods anyway, you can keep her."

Without a second thought my fist collides with his face, knocking him backwards to scramble through the dirt.

"Get the hell out of here, Tommy, and don't come back."

He recovers, climbing to his feet and walking backward as he rubs the dripping blood from his nose on the back of his hand.

"Fuck you, Cassidy, you're going to regret doing that!"

"Thomas Ashleigh Henry!" Logan's voice rips through the darkness as she stomps around the truck toward him. "I swear to all that is holy if that was a threat you're gonna wish you didn't say it!"

I turn to see her moving toward him like a storm just hoping that Tommy isn't stupid enough to retaliate anything she might throw at him.

"Shepard!" I call out to her but she doesn't stop as Tommy moves toward his truck.

"Eventually you'll run out of dick to suck and won't have anyone to protect you, Logan!" Tommy sneered at her.

"I'm not afraid of you!" Logan laughs, it's wild and filled with venom. "You're a coward! You couldn't even come here in the daylight! Go crawl back into whatever fucking hole you appeared from and leave us alone!"

"Sure," Tommy stops and I think maybe that's the fight draining from his voice but he smirks instead and says, "But I'll be taking my son with me."

Logan snaps, charging the truck as Tommy slams the door and puts it into drive, peeling from the loose gravel. Dust kicks up around Logan as I wrap my arm around her chest, digging my fingers into her shoulder and tugging her back against me.

"I'm going to kill him," she whispers gently, anger vibrating from her small frame.

Not if I get to him first.