“Oh.” She blinked. How was this happening to her? How was another man hitting on her in the space of a few days?
Well. She never went to bars. She didn’t actually know what she could expect from a normal evening out.
She was creeped out by him touching her like that, and she pulled away. “I… No.”
“I paid for all those rides for you.”
Anger rushed through her, hot and swift. “I was unaware that was transactional. You didn’t lay out your terms and conditions. I would have said no.”
“No need to be a bitch.”
She was about to do something, haul off and hit him, when suddenly a hand shot out from behind her and gripped the man by his arm. She turned and Logan was right behind her, his eyes icy, his lip curled. “Take your fucking hands off her.”
“Hey, buddy, I—”
“Shut your mouth,” said Logan. “Walk the other way.”
She stepped out of the space between them, and the older man lunged at Logan. Logan punched him. Once. Just once. And laid the guy out flat.
She looked at Logan and down at the floor. “Did you just… Is this a bar fight?”
He looked around the room. “Let’s go.”
No one was moving to help the guy, presumably because they’d all witnessed his behavior.
“Let’s. Go.” Then he took her hand in his and started to lead her from the bar, and the combination of things was too much for her to come up with a way to mount a resistance.
She still couldn’t believe any of that had happened—from the fight in the car, to the bull, to the punching—and now he had his hand wrapped around hers. Like he just could.
They got out into the parking lot. The air was dry and dusty and warm even with the sun long gone. She turned to him, all lit up in the neon and ready to say something, but he spoke first.
“That was just the dumbest shit. What the hell are you doing?”
“What…what?” she asked. “None of that was my fault, you victim-blaming asshole. What did I do?”
“You don’t know anything, do you? I’m not saying you owed the guy anything, but I am saying that if some dude is throwing dollar bills at you in a shithole dive bar, you maybe don’t keep taking the dollar bills.”
“You were being an asshole, so I needed something to do.”
“I was…” He shook his head and took a step back from her. “You’re incredible, do you know that?”
“What?”
“There it is,” he said. “The denial. The round eyes. The absolute picture of fucking manufactured innocence.”
Her heart stumbled over itself. “Logan…”
“You know what I mean. You might have tried to forget, but you know. The thing you’re in denial about is us.”
FOURTEEN
Hawaii Route 92
Rented Kia Sorento and Ford Mustang
Family vacation—three years ago
“Yes. Okay, that’s good to know.” She kept her eyes focused on the road ahead. They were in Hawaii, dammit. It was her dream come true. It was tropical. There were palm trees. The water was clear.
