ALPHA(13)

“Well, hey Miss Laura!” He waved at me, before pulling me in to a bone crushing hug which surprised me considering I’d only met the guy yesterday. Although a handsome man, I had no thoughts but friendly thoughts towards Logan - in fact the feelings I had towards him were almost fatherly, as strange as that sounded.

“Hey Logan!” I said, as he placed me back on my feet in front of him.

“You deciding to hang around here for a little while then?”

“I think so. I wanted a fresh start, and this seems like the perfect place. No-one knows me here, and it really is a beautiful town.”

“That it is. My mate always said that the beauty of this place was worth waking up for every morning.”

His face suddenly turned so sad, that I was taken aback, until the oddness of his words intrigued me.

“Your mate?”

“Oh,” he stiffened and was suddenly back to his normal self. “I mean, my wife.”

“You have a wife? What’s her name?”

“Well, I had a wife. Her name was Eva. She’d have loved you; she always said she wanted more visitors to the town. Said it was a damn shame to be hiding such beauty from the world. I always laughed at her, saying she was silly for thinking this place was beautiful when she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.” The wistful look on his face made me smile, but saddened me at the same time.

“What happened to her, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“She passed away.”

“Oh god, I’m so sorry.” I reached out to touch his arm in what I hoped was a comforting gesture. Logan seemed like one of those guys who had a constant optimism about them, and it made me sad that he had been through such heartache.

“Ah, it was a long time ago. Bastard drunk driver ran her car off the road. She probably would have been okay, but the whole thing exploded when the car hit a tree.” Jesus, it was worse than I thought.

I pulled him towards me for another hug, and he squeezed me once before pulling away and looking at me with a small smile on his face.

“Eva was the most positive person I ever met. After she died I spent so many months in my own bubble of grief that I didn’t even know what was going on around me. Once I got my head out of my arse I realised how disappointed she would have been with me. I made it my mission to be as optimistic as possible, and try and share that with other people. If you need anything at all you just let me know, okay? I’m pretty much at the pub most of the time, I’m a bit old to be out much anymore. Eva loved people, and she never did understand the narrow-mindedness of some of the people around here, so if you need anything just say the word.”

I smiled and felt saddened at the thought I’d never be able to meet the woman who had stolen Logan’s heart. He seemed like a wonderful man, and I was sure she had been the same. Sometimes you need to get to know someone for a while before you understand them, or even like them. I found it difficult to explain but there was just something about Logan that made me feel at ease and safe. I had no idea if I was using him to fill the dad-shaped hole in my life, but somehow I didn’t think that was true. He just seemed to be one of those warm characters that people gravitate to, and I just knew in my heart that we would end up being the best of friends. It certainly made me feel better to have an ally in this town, and my eagerness to stay was increasing each hour I spent there. After ten minutes more of general chit chat, Logan excused himself to get back to the pub and I walked away with his phone number in my hand; promising to call him if I ever needed anything.

I was sitting outside on a bench, enjoying the sunshine with a million questions running through my head, when a shadow fell across me, and I looked up to see Isaac standing over me with a scowl on his face. Maybe that grumpy scowl ran in the family?

“So, Jackson just let you wander around town all by yourself?”

“I’ve been old enough to walk around alone for a while now, Mum.” I joked, before standing up so he didn’t tower over me quite so much.

“Why do the people around here react so badly when they see me?”

“You’re different.”

“Well, that’s what I don’t understand! How am I different? Just because I wasn’t born and raised in this weird town?”

He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and looked around him, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation.

“Look, just listen to whatever Jackson tells you to do and you’ll be okay. It will just take a while for people to trust you, but once they do you’ll be fine.”

I raised my arms in exasperation, and struggled not to punch him square in the face.