He should probably talk to Craig, though. When Malcolm came back, Logan was going to have a lot to talk to him about, and it would be good if he had all the information possible. Then he and Malcolm could figure out what to do about it, and Logan wouldn’t have to feel so damn alone all the time.
A bit calmer, though still seething inside, Logan walked through the yard and into the house, refusing to look back. Anything that he saw, anyone walking out of the barn, was only going to threaten the fragile sense of peace that he had managed to pull around himself.
It was better to have a plan, though. He would talk to Craig as soon as he could. It might be a while, since whatever Craig was up to had taken him away most of the time, but even just knowing that that was the plan helped him to stabilize himself enough to get to the house and through the door.
That was the better option since the other one was to go back, punch Wyatt in his smug, smirking face, and demand that Derrick tell him why he had treated Logan as he had. But he had his own pride, and even he knew that would be crazy.
* * *
Craig wasn’t at dinner that night. That wasn’t unusual, though. Neither was Wyatt, but he rarely showed his face outside of his room, which had honestly been just fine with Logan. Tonight, though, Jessica and Derrick also weren’t there, which meant that it was a pretty lonely meal, just himself and Mary Anne and Skyler. John, Derrick’s father, wasn’t feeling the best, and he had chosen to have his meal in his room.
“Have either of you seen Craig around?” Logan asked randomly, not actually thinking that they would have but who knew? It wouldn’t hurt to ask.
“No. Why would I have seen Craig?” Skyler answered, and for some reason, his voice came out quickly and his wide eyes looked alarmed. Logan frowned, tilting his head to the side, some of his own troubles going out of his mind for just a few moments as he looked at Skyler.
The guy was an enigma to him, even though they had been living in the same house for quite a while now. Logan took a second just to look at him, wondering where that particular, half-panicky tone of voice had come from.
“Well, you live in the same house as him,” Logan finally replied, when Skyler dropped his gaze down to his nearly empty plate. “Just thought there was the off chance that you would have …”
“I haven’t,” Skyler denied and then rose to his feet and picked up his plate, though he still had food on it and could put away a fairly incredible amount of food for someone so small. “I have no idea where Craig is.”
Before Logan could figure out whatthathad been about, Skyler left the room. No, that wasn’t quite accurate. He morescurriedout of the room, looking furtive and guilty.
“What the hell?” Logan asked, forgetting about Mary Anne’s presence until she cleared her throat and got his attention. With that particularly eloquent roll of her eyes that only teenagers could fully project, she shook her head at him as though disappointed.
“It’s pretty obvious if you would get your head out of your butt for ten seconds,” she informed him cheekily, but before he could process that, she was gathering up her plate and heading to the kitchen as well.
She stopped halfway there and spoke again.
“I saw Craig. He said he would be back tomorrow morning.”
Then she was gone, and Logan watched the door through which she’d disappeared with a bemused look on his face. What had she seen there that he hadn’t? He could be sort of oblivious sometimes, and he had definitely had his mind on other things, he would be the first to admit that.
He had the answer he needed, though, about Craig. It would be good to talk to the other man, the only Hart brother, as far as Logan knew, anyway, who hadn’t declared himself one way or the other. It was going to be messy, this fallout, Derrick and Wyatt against Malcolm and whatever help Logan could give, but it would be a little bit less messy, perhaps, if Craig either sat the whole thing out or maybe even took Malcolm’s side.
The whole thing was disgusting, anyway. John Hart, who owned the ranch, wasn’t even dead, and already Wyatt was scrabbling around for whatever he could get. Which reminded him, he should bring up some food to the man who had been like a father to him, far more than his actual biological father ever had been.
It would be good to see him. If John felt well enough, Logan thought he might pull out the chess board or a deck of cards. Spend some time with the guy. It would be good for both of them. It might even take Logan’s mind off of things that he could neither control nor handle thinking about.
He could definitely use some time just relaxing, spending time with someone that he had always liked, and who had always been calm and non-judgemental and supportive toward him. The next day, he would talk to Craig, and then he would see what he saw.
