It was his turn to give a huff of incredulous laughter. “For everything.”
Just like that I found myself locked in his gaze. The air around us seemed to thicken until I was feeling a little breathless. My skin was flushed and I felt a shiver skate down my neck, following a tingling path around my back to my breasts.
Logan’s eyes darkened with heat.
“Unfortunately” – our waitress appeared at our booth, and I practically jumped out of my skin – “we don’t have any more of the…”
I wasn’t listening to whatever she was saying to Logan. I was too busy wondering what the hell had just happened.
The waitress broke the moment between Logan and me, and right away he jumped into asking me about my work, and if I’d spoken to the author who had tried to plagiarize Blade Runner. From there we chatted and joked about our work, about Maia, and avoided anything too personal.
After our supermarket run, we dropped by Mr. Jenner’s to give him his shopping and then Logan disappeared into his flat to start work on decorating Maia’s room, and I darted into my flat to start my own work.
I think I reread the same chapter ten times.
Before I knew it, Maia was home from school.
I immediately called Logan over.
“What?” Maia stared at us as all three of us stood in the living room. She’d come in, dropped her book bag in the living room, sauntered into the kitchen, and then reappeared in the sitting room with a glass of orange juice in her hand. She looked very smart in her uniform – a black blazer with the Muirhead badge on the left chest pocket, a black shirt, a green and black striped tie, black skinny trousers, and black boots.
“Well?” Logan said, sounding impatient. “How was it?”
She shrugged. “It was fine.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve got to give us more than that. How were classes? How were the teachers? Your peers?”
“I’m taking mostly the same classes I was taking back in Glasgow, except for media, which they let me take here. The teachers were teachers, and everyone was fine. I think I made a friend. What’s for dinner?”
I narrowed my eyes at how blasé Maia was being. I knew for a fact after our conversation about her friendless history that making a friend was a big deal. Why wasn’t she acting like it was?
“That all sounds great.” Logan looked at me, pleased, and I didn’t want to burst his bubble by suggesting there was something fishy going on, so I grinned back.
“Great.” Maia shrugged again. “What’s for dinner?”
“My shift change to days starts tomorrow, so I’m not working tonight. I was thinking – but only if you’re up for it – in honor of your first day at school, you might want to eat out? Shannon and Cole invited us out to a restaurant with them and Cam and Jo. What do you think?”
Her eyes lit up, and I saw that sparkle I’d been hoping to see when she was talking about school. “Okay. Sure. Grace, you’re coming, right?”
I almost blushed, wondering if Logan was groaning inside at the thought. I was sure he’d seen enough of me for one day. “Oh no. You go and have dinner with your family.”
“I want you to come,” she insisted with this mulish expression on her face. That was new.
“Maia,” I began, “I’m s—”
“You should come,” Logan interrupted me. “You should be there to celebrate with us.”
“Yay!” Maia clapped happily, and Logan’s whole face brightened at the sight of her excitement. “We’ll get ready.”
He chuckled. “Okay, then. I’ll be back at six o clock to pick you up.”
As soon as the door closed behind him, I turned to Maia. “One, you can’t keep inviting me along to things with your father. Two, what really happened at school today?”
“Oh my God, it was amazing!” She rushed toward me, her whole face glowing. “These two girls started talking to me right away in my first class. They’re so nice and we’re, like, into the same music and have the same taste in films and actors and everything. They don’t like all that stupid boy-band stuff, you know? They like real music. They’ve even been to live gigs. They’re so cool!”
I was relieved that she’d met people she clicked with, but I was still confused as to why she hadn’t shared this with Logan. “Why on earth didn’t you say so when Logan was here?”
Her smile died a little. “I don’t want him to think I’m a silly wee girl who gets excited over stupid stuff like this. I don’t want him to be bored with me.”
“Maia.” I shook my head in wonder at how muddled her mind was right now. “Logan wants to hear this stuff. He wants to know how happy you are. He doesn’t think it’s stupid girlie stuff. You don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not because you think it will impress your father. He’s proud of you, especially when you’re being yourself.”
She chewed her lower lip with her teeth for a bit and then cocked her head to the side and said, “Yeah?”
“Yes. Now, you must promise to tell him all about…”