Player (A Secret Baby Sports Romance)(205)

His eyes flash for just a second as he looks into mine; “Quinn, it’s-”

“Complicated; right, yeah I think we’ve covered that,” I say, rolling my eyes at him before cupping his chin and pecking him on the lips; “I mean it’s not like I don’t already have you totally figured out anyways. I did date a Psychiatry student in med school, you know.”

“Sounds immensely unfulfilling.” Logan’s body tenses and bristles under me at the mention of the ex-boyfriend in this possessively reactive way that I have to admit is kind of hot.

I grin at him again, seeing the flash in his eyes again; “It’s not like you have to tell me everything, I just want to know where a guy like you comes fro-”

“Texas.”

I blink, actually shocked that I didn’t hit another deflection or another wall of humor or sarcasm; “Oh.”

He laughs at the look on my face; “What were you expecting, Mars?” He chuckles; “And Logan was my dog’s name.”

“Your parents named you after the dog?” I raise my eyebrows at him.

Logan shakes his head; “Nah, I took Logan later, because I loved that dog. My mom named me after the guy that got her pregnant, even though he took off faster than she could say ‘I’m late.’”

“You mean your Dad?”

His jaw tightens; “Wherever that prick is, he’s not my father.”

I nod, biting my lip and just taking this all in. There’s something that’s just so intimate about sitting here with him letting him tell me these things, and it’s not because I’m basically straddling his lap, or that his hand is stroking the skin of my back under my shirt, it’s that this is finally an open, unguarded, and armor-less Logan that I’m seeing for the very first time.

“What about your Mom?”

“Dead.” He says without emotion. His eyes quickly lock with mine as he feels me tense at the coarseness in his words; “OK, I don’t actually know; probably dead. And that only sounds harsh if you don’t know her. My mom was a crazy, manipulative, parasitic drunk who liked violent, angry men. And she blamed me for that asshole running off on her.”

His face clouds darkly, and I find myself snuggling against him even more, as if the contact of our bodies can erase and heal whatever pain he’s obviously still feeling. He looks out over the bay, his eyes searching deep; “That where I first learned to put my fist up, actually.”

I look at him in shock; “Your mother?”

“Nah,” He grins at me; “The assholes she liked to bring home until they got bored of her. There was this one guy, Rich, who liked two things; drinking, and hitting kids half his size.”

“Jesus Christ, Logan…” I trail off, shaking my head and not even knowing how to respond except with sympathy.

“I had to find her a few years ago for-” He trails off and shakes his head; “I just had to go home for this thing. She hadn’t seen or talked to me since before I enlisted, and the only thing she said to me after asking for money was to stop wasting her long distance points while her soap was on.”

I bite my lip as I feel my heart break a little inside for this man who’s somehow ended up the man he is today despite what sounds like a complete lack of love growing up in the world. I mean, I understand loss, with my mother dying when we were little and my dad always being off traveling the world for business even before he passed. But I know there’s nothing there that compares to what it must have been like to grow up as Logan. I might not have had my parents physically around, but I knew I had their love.

He sips on his rum and then darts his eyes back down to mine, where the hard look softens as he shrugs and grins at me; “Actually this might sound weird given the nature of our relationship, but your father was the only real parent I ever knew.”

I smile; “Not weird; my dad had that effect on people.”

“He saved us, you know.”

“From?”

Logan leans up and kisses me softly; “From nothing you ever need to worry about it.” I start to pull away in protest, not wanting him to close me out again, but he holds me still as he kisses me; “What he saved us from is the worst parts of ourselves, darlin. He saved me from a part of myself I don’t need to go back to; not ever.”

I nod slowly, understanding as he holds my gaze; “You’re not shutting me out?”

He laughs; “Just so you know, Doc, not even Bryce and Hudson know about my Dad.”

“Wait, seriously?” The full weight of just how open Logan’s just been with me almost takes my breath away.