Chapter 29

ChapterTwenty-Nine

‘All right, where is he?’ Annie’s voice filled the house before she did.

‘Kitchen.’ His grandmother didn’t even hesitate before she threw him under the bus.

‘How bad is it?’ Another voice. Hazel was here, too. Wonderful.

‘Pretty bad. He’s cleaned the house from top to bottom and rebuilt the chicken coop.’

Logan frowned. Was it so bad that he cleaned when he was upset? There were worse things he could do. And he’d been meaning to fix that coop. He just happened to have time now that the Fall Festival was over. And he had no beautiful new café owners to help.

His stomach turned like it did every time he thought about the festival and Jeanie and everything that happened after it. It had been a week since he’d seen her.

And since he’d had a decent cup of coffee.

It was killing him.

But he knew it would hurt worse if he let himself get in any deeper with her, only for her to decide she was done with her little experiment here. He couldn’t do it.

‘Okay, Mr. Clean. Drop the rag,’ Annie said, coming into the kitchen with a basket of muffins in her hands.

‘Actually, he has more of a Bounty Man vibe going on,’ Hazel added, cocking her head to the side and taking in his signature beard and flannel shirt.

‘Ha. Ha.’

Annie didn’t waste time making herself at home – this was her second home, after all; had been since they were kids. Annie was one of six and she fell somewhere in the middle. In a family so big, it was hard not to get lost in the mix. Annie loved the attention of Nana and Grandpa, and Logan liked having an occasional pretend sister around.

Not that he would admit that right now when she was hustling around his kitchen making tea and sticking her nose in his business.

Hazel sat at the table and grabbed a muffin, but Logan caught her stealing sad glances at him out of the corner of her eye. The exact type of look he’d been trying to avoid. Annie set down a cup of tea in front of Hazel and slid into a seat at the table. She grabbed a muffin and slowly peeled the wrapper, staring at him with that damn disappointed look on her face. He couldn’t take it.

‘Jesus, Annie. Just get on with it.’

She pursed her lips in displeasure. ‘What did you do?’

‘Why do you assume I did something?’ He tossed the dirty rag in the sink and crossed his arms over his chest.

Hazel’s gaze tracked his movements. His body language was defensive. That’s what she’d say if she wasn’t letting Annie do all the talking. For now.

‘Well, for one thing, you and Jeanie were all cute and cozy at the festival, and then, poof, you disappeared.’

‘I didn’t disappear. I’m right here.’

Annie frowned. ‘And for another thing, Jeanie has been significantly less perky than usual, but she won’t talk about it.’

His heart twisted. ‘What do you mean?’

She blew out a sigh, like it was difficult to talk to someone so stupid, which was probably true. ‘I mean, that Jeanie has been working her butt off this past week since Norman left but she—’

‘Wait a sec, Norman left?’

‘He quit,’ Hazel piped in.

‘Why would Norman quit?’

Hazel shrugged. ‘All Jeanie would say is that he decided to explore other options. It was weird.’

Logan shook his head, sinking into a seat at the table. Annie slid him a banana chocolate-chip muffin. His favorite. At least she brought snacks on this harassment mission.

‘I don’t get it. Why would Norman quit and leave Jeanie in the lurch like that?’

‘Seems obvious to me,’ Annie said. ‘He didn’t like the new management.’

‘Everyone likes her,’ Logan growled, hearing exactly how unhinged he sounded but not able to stop it.

Annie raised an eyebrow. ‘Some more than others.’

‘She’s not gonna stay, Annie. I didn’t feel like dragging it out this time.’

‘What makes you so sure?’ Annie looked like she might snatch his muffin back to punish him. He pulled it closer.

‘She’s considering selling. She could make a lot of money, too.’ He shrugged. ‘This whole thing was just an experiment for her. Eventually, she’ll get tired of it and go back to her real life.’

For a small bookish woman, Hazel moved like a freaking ninja. He didn’t see the slap to the side of his head coming until her hand made contact with his skull.

‘Ow! Haze, what the hell!’

Annie stifled a laugh.

‘This is her real life! Why would she be killing herself to keep the café open all week – even though they’re crazy short-staffed – if she was leaving? Why would she be joining the book club and signing up for baking classes, if she didn’t like it here? Why would she be falling in love with you, if she didn’t plan on staying?’

Logan choked on the muffin he had been shoving in his mouth while Hazel delivered her gut punch of a speech. Muffin crumbs spewed out of his mouth. Annie brushed them off the table onto his newly swept floor.

‘She doesn’t love me,’ he rasped between coughs.

‘Maybe not yet,’ Hazel said with a shrug. ‘But I’ve seen the way she looks at you – and the way you look at her, by the way – and it’s not nothing. It’s not the way someone looks at a passing fling.’

He swallowed hard.

‘At some point, you’re going to have to try again,’ Annie added. ‘Take the risk. Jeanie’s worth it.’

‘You need to deal with your abandonment issues,’ Hazel added, sipping her tea.

‘My what?’ Logan sputtered, and Annie smacked him hard on the back, causing more muffin crumbs to spray across the table.

‘Logan, your dad left when you were a baby, your mother died when you were a child, and your one serious, adult relationship ended when she left you. I think it’s pretty clear what’s going on here.’ Hazel pushed her glasses up her nose while Logan stared at her in disbelief.

‘That sounds right,’ Annie piped in. ‘Been reading a lot in the self-help section again, Haze?’

Hazel shrugged. ‘I thought we all already knew this.’

Logan ran a hand down his beard. ‘Jeez, Hazel. You’re not pulling any punches today.’

‘Just trying to be helpful.’

He nearly laughed. Hazel’s version of helpful was to lay all his bullshit out on the table and show him no mercy. But she wasn’t wrong. Seeing those still-packed boxes and realtor listings shouldn’t have pushed him over the edge like they had. He should have at least talked to Jeanie before bolting from her apartment. Abandonment issues. It sounded complicated, but it was simple. He was afraid. Afraid of Jeanie leaving. Afraid of failing again. Afraid of getting hurt.

And he’d let that fear guide every interaction he’d had with Jeanie. It made him want to deny his attraction to her. It made him want to hide what was going on between them. And it made him freak out and jump to conclusions instead of talking to her.

To top it off, he’d retreated to the safety of the farm and had been hiding out ever since. Just like his grandfather had warned him about.

And with that string of unsettling realizations, his friends stood from their seats to leave. Annie put their mugs in the sink and Hazel planted a kiss on the top of his head.

‘Good luck,’ she said with a surprisingly hard pat on the arm. When the hell had Hazel gotten so strong? ‘I’m sure you can fix things with her. And at the very least, you should stop in for a cup of coffee. There are rumors around town that you left on either some kind of meditation retreat or mountain climbing in Peru.’

Logan shook his head. ‘Why?’

‘My dad had a dream about you and a llama on some sort of high peak or something. He wasn’t totally clear.’

‘This damn town.’

Annie grinned on her way out of the kitchen. ‘You love it. See you soon!’

He was sure his groan followed them down the hall, but they didn’t look back. They’d said their piece and left their muffins. Nothing left to do now but let him stew in the information they’d laid at his feet.

Norman had quit.

Jeanie was still fighting for the café.

He apparently had abandonment issues.

And what the hell was he doing? Running scared. Giving up on something good before it even started? All because of, what? One failed relationship with the wrong person?

It was time to finally let that shit go.