Chapter Four

LOGAN

I offered Emily a bright smile. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but she would easily be considered beautiful by most men, including me, with her stunning hazel eyes. Her long brown hair fell past her shoulders. She was younger than I’d expected, or at least she was younger looking. Mother told me she was thirty-two, but she looked younger by several years.

Annoyingly enough, my mother was right. She was rather curvy, and I could tell that even with the loose white work shirt and blue jacket she wore as part of her work ensemble. Disappointment filled me, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she’d have looked like in a nice, elegant, if a bit revealing, evening dress.

My lower half stirred a bit, and I was glad I was already sitting. One problem with not dating was that I wasn’t exactly getting regular sex either. Having this beautiful woman right in front of me, even dressed so prim and proper, was like throwing a bottle of water to a man who just finished a hike through the desert.

I resisted the urge to shake out the thought. This was some lunchtime meeting forced on both of us by our mothers. Of course, Emily wasn’t going to show up in some slinky, sexy dress. It was stupid of me even to be thinking that way, even if I couldn’t force my mind off the thought.

Emily gave me a slight smile and glanced down at her watch before sitting down. I resisted a little witty barb asking if she had somewhere better to be. I didn’t know her that well yet, and she might not be able to understand my cutting sense of humor.

The waitress popped by before Emily could speak.

“Did you need anything, hon?” the waitress asked.

“Some sweet tea, please,” Emily said.

The waitress looked at me. “Need more coffee?”

“I’m good.”

She hurried off.

I smiled again at Emily now that we were alone. “It’s nice to meet you.” It was true. For one thing, I didn’t expect her to be so attractive. Maybe that was unfair, but I assumed that a woman who needed her mother to set her up might have issues, but given her job at a bank doing risk analysis, she had to be reasonably intelligent, and even buttoned-down for work, I had no complaints about the way she looked.

There had to be something else I didn’t know about, something not clear yet. I was sure it’d come up soon enough, but until then I’d keep an open mind.

“Nice to meet you as well,” she said.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” I said after taking a sip of coffee.

Emily nodded. “Me neither.” She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. “Well, I kind of did, I guess.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“My mother has been trying to push you on me for a while. It’s been hard to go a day without hearing about Logan Hawkins.” She slapped a hand over her mouth and gasped. Her face grew scarlet. I found it kind of cute. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Really now? I’ll admit my mother has been pushing to date, but pushing me toward you is a more recent thing.”

Her face still red, Emily nodded. “I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s nothing against you. It’s just hard to not to be suspicious.”

Fair enough. Given what I was thinking about her, she must have been thinking the same thing or even worse, especially given our near decade age difference.

I gave her a lopsided smile. “It’s hard not to be suspicious of a man who needs his mother to set him up on dates?”

She shrugged, an uncomfortable look on her face. She glanced down at her watch.

Again, I barely resisted asking if she needed to be somewhere.

I chuckled quietly instead. “To set you at ease, I should make it clear it’s not that I need my mother to set me up on dates; it’s more that she’s concerned I don’t date enough.”

“Oh. I see. And do you?”

“Date enough?”

Emily nodded, curiosity rather than unease now in those pretty hazel eyes. I could see myself easily getting lost in those eyes. That set a slight unease in my stomach.

“I suppose it depends on who you ask,” I said. “I’m…”

“Yes?” Emily peered at me.

I thought over my next few words carefully. I didn’t want to come off like I was bragging. I wasn’t sure how much Emily knew about my job, so I decided to tack more toward humility. It was hard to go wrong being humble.

“My work keeps me busy, and I have to make a lot of management decisions,” I said. “I don’t have a lot of time to date. My mother would like me with someone sooner than later, and so I agreed to this to—”

“To get her off your back for a while,” Emily said.

I grinned. “That must seem horrible to you. I’m so sorry.”

Emily shook her head, her expression turning thoughtful for a moment. “I can’t be mad at you for being here for the same reason I am. I guess we both have at least one major thing in common: busybody mothers.”

We shared a laugh, but then she glanced at her watch for the third time.

Mild annoyance bubbled up. I understood that neither of us had come there of our own free will, but now that we were here together, it wouldn’t hurt for her to at least show a little interest.

The waitress returned with Emily’s tea and took our orders. Emily ordered a chicken salad. I ordered a hummus and vegetable pita sandwich.

“Pita sandwich?” Emily asked after the waitress left.

“What about it?”

“Don’t know. Just thought you were more a steak and potatoes kind of guy.”

“I’m a vegetarian actually.”

I grinned and waited. I didn’t care if other people ate meat. I mostly did it for health reasons, which was only reinforced by my father dying from having heart and cholesterol problems for years. Mentioning being a vegetarian made a lot of people defensive, and I expected Emily to be the same.

“That’s interesting,” she said. “I don’t think I’d have the discipline to pull it off.”

Her lack of defensiveness was refreshing.

“It’s not that hard once you get used to it.”

She sipped her tea, watching me, her expression unreadable. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking.

“It’s weird,” she said.

“What?”

“Oh,” she said, blushing. “I’m sorry. I was thinking about how our mothers are friends and run in the same social circles, and we’re both Nashville born and raised, but we’ve never run into each other before.” She shrugged. “I guess it’s not such a small world.”

I sipped my coffee before responding. “The age difference. I’m guessing that about the time you started really being introduced to society events, I was probably heading off to college, and when I came back, I focused a lot more on business.”

“We’re only eight years apart,” she said. “You make it sound like a huge gap.”

“Just happened to work out that way.”

She glanced at her watch again.

A combination of curiosity and annoyance finally forced a question out. “Have another appointment?”

Emily winced, and I instantly regretted my tone. “A meeting went long earlier, and I have to get some stuff done before I leave work.”

“Oh. Can’t stay late?”

“I have to pick my daughter up from preschool.” She averted her eyes. “I’m sorry. I guess I should have made that clearer. It’s just this will be more a half-hour thing than an hour thing.”

Understanding blossomed in my mind, and I nodded once, feeling bad over my earlier irritation.

I waved a hand dismissively. “We’ve just met, but I’m assuming you want to keep a good relationship with your daughter.” I grinned, hoping she’d like the joke.

A smile spread across her face, and some relief spread through me at the same time.

Emily rubbed the back of her neck. “Actually, if it’s all right with you, I think I’m going to get this to go and eat at my desk. I’m so sorry. I know it’s rude, but the timing today really didn’t work out.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s the curse of working in an office.”

The waitress appeared with her salad and my sandwich.

“Can I get a to-go box?” Emily asked.

The waitressed bobbed her head. “Sure, hon.” She turned to head off before shooting me a dirty look as if I’d done something to run Emily off. I gave her a slight smile back.

I wasn’t mad. I could see why she might think something like that was going on.

It took less than a minute for the waitress to return with two to-go boxes.

“I don’t need one,” I said. “I’m going to eat here.”

“Suit yourself, hon.” She handed me the check with a forced smile before leaving.

“I’m very, very sorry about this,” Emily said, as she put her salad into her Styrofoam to-go container. “It’s hard when you’re a single parent.”

“I can imagine.”

She finished sealing up her to-go box and rose, an apologetic look still on her face. “It was nice to meet you, Logan.”

“Likewise,” I offered.

Emily walked over to me. I stood, and we shared a quick hug. She smiled one more time before picking up her container and hurrying out of the café.

I took a bite of my sandwich. Good flavor, really, so the whole lunch wasn’t a total waste of time. What I felt perhaps didn’t rise to the level of disappointment.

Emily seemed pleasant enough, if a bit on the boring side, and she certainly was beautiful.

In truth, we had a lot in common given our backgrounds and families. Most importantly, though, we had something fundamentally in common. We were both busy with things important to us. For me, it was my job. For her, it was her daughter, and I certainly couldn’t blame her.

I put down my sandwich and took a sip of my coffee. We didn’t have a connection, at least not one that could survive how busy we both were.

Maybe that was for the best, even if I couldn’t help wondering what it’d be like if I spent more time with the woman.

It didn’t matter. I was sure I would never see her again.