The Billionaire's Kiss(75)

There were so many other questions: How much time did they really have left together? What would happen when the bill passed or Amy gave birth, and she had to go back to DC to take the reigns of the company? She couldn’t expect Logan to just pack up and follow her. Even if she wanted him to, it just didn’t seem fair. He’d hate DC. He’d hate all the dumb formality of it, the self-importance of everyone on every corner. The ego and the intensity. She couldn’t blame him. Those were the things that had driven her to ask for a vacation in the first place. That was settled. She couldn’t ask Logan to follow her, but a new question rose in her mind: Did she really want to go back?





***

Callie sat down on the dock and dangled her legs over the edge. The morning sun hung just over the horizon. The tide was out, exposing the jagged contours of the coastline. The shadows of the rocks receded back along the shoreline as the sun slowly lifted itself higher. The humid morning air was thick with the smell of low tide, a heavy, salty smell. Callie had never liked that smell, but this morning couldn’t care less about it. She had tossed and turned in the night. When the first traces of dawn had brightened her room, she pulled on some clothes and decided to head outside. She made it as far as the dock before sitting down.

The whole shoreline, as far as Callie could see, looked completely different than it had the night before. The low tide had opened up a new geography, a new and temporary place between the comfort of land and the freedom of the water, a place of constant flux, a landscape of sandbars and mudflats. In a few hours, it would be gone, reclaimed by the ocean, but for now, it was beautiful. Callie pulled herself up and walked back down the dock. She walked along the edge of the grass until reaching a large outcropping of rocks, and then she climbed down. She stopped for a moment and rolled her pants up to her knees, and then she stepped forward, sinking her feet into the mud and setting forward toward the water. She didn’t know exactly where she was headed, and that felt good. Maybe it was time to plan a little less and live a little more.

She walked out around the bend of the property and pushed onward, occasionally stopping to chart a course along the rocky coast. As she walked, her mind wandered. She tried not to think about Logan and why he had left in the middle of the night, but she couldn’t help herself. Everything had felt so right with him, like the stars had clicked into place, and then he had left. She wanted to trust him, but she couldn’t. After all, her job was dealing with situations just like this. If Logan had been her client, would she have believed his excuse for leaving? Or would she have pressed him to reveal the truth? She knew the answer to that question. It was one of the prerequisites of the job. The client had to tell her the truth, the whole truth, or she wouldn’t take the job. So why was she letting it slip in her personal life? Why was she letting Logan lie about what he was doing? And, more importantly, why did she care so much?

It wasn’t because she worried about a scandal. Hell, they were already in the middle of a minor scandal already, and she had barely spent any time thinking about it. No, she had to admit that she had feelings for Logan, true feelings, deep feelings, and now she didn’t know what to do about them. It had been so easy before. All she had to do was take care of the job. If she had a little fun with Logan, that was good too, but now, everything felt so important, like the rest of her life depended on her every choice.

If she had learned one thing from being with Logan, it was that she still had a few things to learn about herself. She still didn’t know how she could trust him or herself. She needed advice. She needed someone to talk to, but she only really wanted to talk with Logan. She pulled out her phone and dialed.

“Is this my long lost niece?” Vi asked. Upon hearing her voice, Callie remembered how much she missed home. She felt a little tickle in the back of her throat and her eyes welled up.

“Hi Vi,” Callie said, “I was just calling to see how everyone is.”

“I’m sure everyone’s fine. Amy has taken your absence as an excuse to take on even more work before the baby gets here. Ethan’s convinced that she’ll end up giving birth in some board room somewhere. The two of them are so good for each other.”

“And how are you?” Callie asked.

“I’m lovely. I’ve missed my little Calliebug. How is Newport? Has Logan behaved himself?”

“I think so,” Callie said. She smiled as she tried to think of a diplomatic way to explain what was going on between them.

“That’s too bad,” Vi said. “Men like him are always more fun when they misbehave.”