Seventeen
Callie had planned out every detail of her day with Logan. For the first half of their date, she had picked a vineyard halfway up Aquidneck Island just outside of Newport. It seemed like the perfect choice. And so, in the early afternoon, Callie and Logan toured the vineyard under the bright summer sun, walking up and down the rows of vines, listening to the husband and wife tour guides explain each step in the winemaking process. By the time they got to drink the wine, Callie could feel the sheen of sweat beginning to form on her skin. She listened to the wind rustling through the vines. Everything felt just right, everything except for Logan. He just seemed off somehow. Again and again, Callie tried to gauge whether he was enjoying himself, but she just couldn’t tell. He had been affectionate through the date. He kept his arm around her, he laughed at her jokes, but something was missing, something was off about him, and she could tell. There were still unresolved issues. She should have known that their roll in the grass hadn’t solved their deeper issues.
After they got out of the tasting, Callie took Logan’s hand and led him over to a shady hill. Before the tour, Callie had convinced one of the tour guides to lay out the blanket and set up the picnic basket for her and Logan. From the blanket, she could see the entire vineyard as it sloped down toward toward the broad blue width of the Sakonnet River, and she could hear all the sounds of the vineyard and the water beyond it. Speedboats off in the distance, birds squawking overhead, and the leaves in the tree rustling in the wind, yet she and Logan sat in silence.
“Is everything alright?” Callie asked. “Was this a bad idea?”
“No, I mean, yes, everything’s fine,” he said. “I’m sorry, Callie. I like you. I like you a lot, but if there’s going to be anything between us, we have to be honest. Do you think we can do that?”
“Of course. I’m an open book. Ask whatever you want,” she said.
“Ok, why did you come here?” he asked.
“I came across a tape of you while working on another case for another client. That case got to me. I put myself in a really bad situation with an even worse guy. It rattled me. I decided I needed some time off. When I asked for it, I got sent here instead. In a funny way, I think I’ve gotten exactly what I needed.”
“Bad guy like what, some criminal mastermind? The mafia? Drug cartel?” Logan asked.
“A Congressional staffer who was looking to accumulate power for himself and his boss,” she said.
“Ugh, the worst,” Logan said, “Evil and boring. Let’s get back to something more interesting. Did you do research on me before you got here? Do I have a file?”
Callie nodded. “Yes. Also I was given explicit instructions not to fall for you.”
“Is that right? I thought you were joking when you said that earlier. Have you fallen for me?”
“I wasn’t. And I think you know how I feel about you.”
“But it’s nice to hear anyway,” Logan said.
“What else did you want to know?” she asked.
“I’m making note that you didn’t answer the question. Let’s try it another way. What did you think when you first saw me?”
“Outside the guesthouse?”
“Yeah. Well, we did meet once before that at your sister’s wedding. It was only in passing, but let’s talk about the guesthouse instead.”
Callie blushed a bit as she thought of the rush of emotions Logan had evoked. “I thought you were a jerk. A cute jerk, but definitely a jerk.”
“You thought I was cute?” he said. “That’s good to know.”
“What did you think of me?” Callie asked.
“I didn’t think anything,” he replied.
“I thought we were being honest here. You’re telling me that when you saw me, you didn’t have a single impression?”
“As soon as our eyes met, my mind went blank, and I still have no idea what I said or did for the rest of that conversation.” Logan smiled as he looked at Callie’s face. His expression softened. “But I do remember that after standing there, stunned by you, I thought you were beautiful.”
Callie leaned over the picnic basket and kissed Logan, a warm, soft kiss, short and to the point. She smiled as she savored the warmth of his lips, but Logan pulled back and cleared his throat.
“Hey, I’m not done with the questions yet. I don’t want you thinking you can kiss me into submission.” He paused for a moment and looked around before adding, “Ok, I’m actually alright with you thinking that.”
Callie straightened her posture and crossed her arms. “If you’d rather play twenty questions, I understand.”
Logan looked around again. “You know what I’d really like to do?” he asked. Callie knew exactly what he wanted.
“No, absolutely not. We’re in public.”
“Why not?” he asked. “I don’t see anyone around.”
“I think we’d be better off if we waited until we were somewhere a little more private.” Callie reached for her glass of wine and took a long, slow sip. “Let’s try to enjoy this beautiful day.”
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.”
Callie shook her head. “I meant with our clothes on.”
Logan winked. “I’m sure we can find a way.”
“Back to the questions it is,” she said.
“Yeah? Ok. I can keep going. Why does it matter if I get in the press? How does anything I do have any impact on what Congress does? I mean I know guys in Congress, they have their own problems to deal with without worrying about mine.”
“I think that’s the point. If you get in trouble, then a few key votes will disappear, and the bill won’t make it through. It’s being held up in Congress by the Natural Resources Committee anyway. So I never understood the point of coming here, aside from treating this like a vacation.”
“What was the committee again?” Logan asked.
“Natural Resources, why?” Why was Logan asking about Congressional Committees?
“Ha, I guess I know why any news about me could affect the vote. It really is a small world.”
“Care to share?” He definitely had Callie’s interest now.
“Ever heard of Jack Coburn?” he asked.
“The golden boy, the last great hope of the Coburn political dynasty? The one who happens to be sponsoring the bill?”
“Well, I don’t think Jack would say it exactly like that,” Logan said.
“You’re telling me that you’re on a first name basis with Jack Coburn? No offense, Logan but you two don’t exactly seem like you move in the same circles.”
“Not any more, but I still try to make it out to his family compound on the Cape for the 4th of July every year. Obviously I didn’t make it this year, but he was my college roommate and still is a good friend. Our families go way back. His father, John, and my father worked together opening up South American markets for oil exploration. After John left the Senate, they started a venture together, and both made a lot of money. They had a falling out years back, but our mothers remained close. I think it had all started at one of their famous parties. You know his family’s reputation for partying. Anyway, Jack was a wild man back in the day. It’s still strange hearing people call him Congressman. When I knew him, he wanted to be a poet or a professional tennis player. God, I should really give him a call. I’ve been meaning to touch base with him for ages.”
“You’re kidding, right? The fate of your father’s legislation, a bill that could help produce thousands of green jobs and help lay the groundwork for renewable energy up and down the East Coast, all lies in the hands of your college drinking buddy?”
“Small world, isn’t it?” Logan quipped.
“A little too small if you ask me,” Callie said. “So Jack’s afraid of looking like he’s playing favorites by passing a law that would benefit his family friend?”
“I don’t think so. I mean I know they’re grooming him for a run at higher office, Senate, President, you name it. There’s no lack of ambition in that family. If he’s the one holding it back, it’s for other reasons. It’s a green energy bill?”
“Yeah, windmills, solar, that kind of stuff.”
“You don’t think it’s because his family still has a vested interest in oil do you?” Callie asked.
Logan shook his head. “Oil was a side business, a hobby, one that didn’t make the family much money if I remember correctly. No, I think the reason is a lot more personal than that, and if my father didn’t even want his political fixers going near it, I definitely want to find out what it is. I swear if this has anything to do with me, I didn’t know.”
“Think you could arrange an off the record meeting between us?” Callie asked.
“No, but I can talk to him,” Logan said.
“You’re asking me to leave the fate of months of work in your hands?”
Logan grinned. “Yes.”
“What’s so funny?” Callie asked.
“I take back what I said earlier,” he said. “This is a wonderful date.”
“For you. I feel like I’ve just been bent over.”
“I thought we were saving that for later,” Logan said with a laugh. “Don’t worry. I’ll see what I can do. Maybe we can find a way to extend your stay here indefinitely.”
Callie tipped back her wine glass and finished off her drink in one large gulp. “Maybe you can hold off on talking to Jack until we have everything under control here. Anyway, I think I’m going to need something a little stronger than wine.”
Logan laughed and looked around. “Yeah, what were you thinking?”
Callie reached into the picnic basket and pulled out a blindfold. Logan perked up at the sight. “If you’re asking me to trust you, you’ll have to trust me too,” Callie said.
“A blindfold?” he asked.
She watched his excitement. He had no idea what she had in store. “Yeah, the rest is a surprise.”
“What’s next, handcuffs?” he asked.
He really did only think of one thing. “Play your cards right, and we’ll see.”
Without another word Logan took the blindfold from Callie and covered his eyes. “Let’s go,” he said.
“Easy there, killer. We still have some wine to drink, besides, the reservation isn’t for another hour and a half.”
“What am I supposed to do with the blindfold, then?” He slipped it back above his eyes like a headband.
Callie grinned. “I can think of a few things, but they’re probably best saved for later.”
Logan yawned and pulled out his phone. He kept looking over at Callie as he tapped away at a message.
“Talking to anyone good?” She asked.
“Just writing myself a little note,” Logan said.
In the bright afternoon light, Callie couldn’t see what he was writing, but she was fairly sure that it wasn’t a note to himself. Try to trust him, she thought, if even just for one day. See if you can do it. What’s the worst that can happen? It wasn’t like he could get into too much trouble on their date. Besides, she wasn’t planning on letting him out of her sight anytime soon.
***
Callie watched the smile spread across Logan’s face as soon as he stepped foot into The Independent. She stopped him in his tracks and adjusted his blindfold to make sure he wasn’t peeking from under it. But there was no way for him to have seen anything. She had been careful. She had even driven the car up and down every hopelessly quaint side street in Newport just to throw his sense of direction off before heading to the brewery. There was no way for him to have known where they were going. She had even gotten lost once or twice along the way herself. Maybe she didn’t give him enough credit for his perceptiveness.
“You chose well,” Logan said.
“You don’t even know where we are yet.”
Logan laughed. “I know the uneven pavement outside of the front door better than I know the path between my bedroom and the bathroom. I know the sound that front door makes when it opens, the feeling of the antique wood planks on the walls on the way in, and I know the smell of the brewery as well as almost any other, but the real giveaway was the sound, the people talking and laughing, the lull of the ocean outside the windows.”
“I figured you heard me make the reservation.” Logan turned away and tried to hide his grin, but Callie could tell something else was up. “Nice speech, but how did you know?”
“After the night when you kissed me at the bar and ran off, I had your name added to a list. Whenever you so much as step foot inside this restaurant, I know. I got a call earlier about your reservation for two. I had thought it was a joke.”
Callie pulled the blindfold off. “Way to ruin the surprise.”
“Oh come on, I thought it was great, the way you drove around for half an hour. To be honest, it took me a while to figure out what you were doing, I thought you were lost.”
Callie’s patience was growing thin. “If you keep this up, only one of us will be getting lost.”
Logan held his hands up in the air. “I’m done. I promise.”
“Good, because I’m starving,” Callie added. She made note that the hostess was the same one she had impersonated on her first trip to the microbrewery, and she felt nervous until she took her seat in a back corner of the restaurant. The table was hidden away from the main dining room. Above it, a dim filament bulb hung from a weathered brass fixture, casting a warm glow over the table. She had to give him credit. Logan sure did know how to set a mood.
After they had ordered dinner, their conversation turned back to more personal matters. And now that she felt more comfortable letting her guard down around him, Callie felt free to admit something she had barely even admitted to herself. “Sometimes I wish I were more adventurous. I’m always the one cleaning up messes, and I’m never the one making them. It would be fun for once to act with abandon the way you get to.” She surprised herself by saying it because she had always prided herself on being dependable and drama free, but it was true, every word of it, and she felt like Logan was the kind of person who could understand exactly what she meant.
“Well, you don’t need my permission. Just decide what you want to do and go do it,” he said.
“It’s not that easy. It’s never that easy. I have expectations to live up to. When this is over and the bill either passes or fails, I have to head back to DC and take the reins of one of the top crisis management firms in the country,” she said. “I have to be perfect at all times. I spend 15 hours a day fixing other people’s problems. I don’t have time to do things for myself.” Why was she getting so defensive about this? After all, she had been the one to bring it up.
“We all have expectations to live up to. Do you think my parents didn’t want me to make something of myself? My brother and I were supposed to be titans of industry, renaissance men, everything you could dream up. Now look at us. He’s out west playing forest ranger, and I’ve pissed away a decade of my life. I’ve bitterly disappointed my family, but I’m not going to let that get to me. Sometimes you have to decide what you want and go get it, regardless of the cost, regardless of what people think.”
Callie didn’t want to sound impertinent, but she couldn’t keep from pushing back a bit. “I know you lost your mother when you were in college, but I lost mine when I was just a kid. My father worked all day every day on Capitol Hill, my sister basically raised me. The people at Haven Communications are my family. I can’t let them down. They’re all I have.” Why was she saying this? She wanted to clap her hands over her mouth and just stop. She was ruining a perfectly nice evening for no apparent reason, but she couldn’t help it. She just felt like this was something she needed to tell him if they were going to have any chance of having a relationship beyond the week.
“You have me,” Logan said. The earnestness of his statement surprised her. He reached across the table and held her hand. “You have me, Callie. I will support whatever decision you make, but you should be whoever you want to be. You don’t need your sister telling you how to live your life. You don’t need anyone to make your decisions for you. Live a little. I promise, it won’t kill you.”
She let out a long breath and shrugged her shoulders. “You make it sound so easy.”
“Well, hang around drinking with me a little longer, and maybe it will be. I mean you’ve already got a blindfold. Like I said, I have a few ideas of how to use it.”
Callie laughed. Instead of killing the conversation, her admission had brought her closer to him. She reveled in each glance he gave her across the table, laughed at every joke. By the time the food arrived, she barely felt hungry. She just felt elated to be with Logan in the moment living for herself and no one else. By the time they were done, she wanted nothing more than to pull him into a back room and have her way with him. “Get me home,” she said, “Or I’ll be forced to take you here and now.”
Logan leaned over in his seat and looked across the rows of full tables. “As much as I support risk taking, I think we should probably hold off until we get back to the guesthouse or the yacht.” Of course, by the time they made it back to the guesthouse, they didn’t even wait for the door to close behind them before they threw themselves at each other.