Chapter 24

Logan

I step into The Wounded Caribou and shake some of the rainwater from my head. I take my jacket off and hang it on a hook by the door. It had started raining a bit ago and I’ve always felt carrying an umbrella was a bit of a sissy move for a man. Sadly, I didn’t have a hat in my truck, so even though I pulled up the lapels of my jacket to give me a bit of protection against the rain, it left my hair quite wet. I run a hand through it, slicking it back from my forehead. It will dry in short time and fall back forward again.

A tiny jab of pain hits me in my gut, as I remember how Valentine would always push my hair back when I was hovering over her. Usually while in bed while I was fucking her, but sometimes if we were just standing face to face, and I was bending down to kiss her. She’d take her hand and brush that lock of hair back, and—

Fuck…stop thinking about her for Christ’s sake, Burke. She’s been gone for three fucking weeks. It’s time to move on.

The restaurant seems crowded, which is odd because rain normally keeps people indoors. I see Sarah in a booth having dinner with Leslie. April and Jorgen in a different booth, holding hands across the table and laughing. Most of the tables are full and there’s only a few barstools left. There’s one on the end, and three in the middle.

I choose the one on the end so I can eat in peace.

Ted meets me with a beer before I can even sit down, and gives me one of his sad looks. He’s been watching me closely the last few weeks like I might do something crazy.

“Know what you want to eat?” he asks softly.

“Just a burger,” I tell him. “Fries on the side.”

“Got it, buddy,” he says, and the overtly soft affection on the word buddy grates on my damn nerves.

“Will you just fucking cut it out?” I snap at Ted. He blinks at me in surprise but doesn’t respond. “I’m fine. She was just a girl. It’s over. Can everyone stop walking on eggshells around me, okay?”

Ted grimaces but nods his head. His voice is apologetic. “Yeah…sure, Logan. You’re good. I’m good.”

“I’m good,” I reassure him, and then give him a smile that is so fucking forced my jaw hurts. “And hungry. So hurry up on that burger.”

Ted leaves to put the order in but doesn’t come back to chat with me like he normally would. I think I may have hurt his feelings, but so fucking what. Got my own issues to deal with.

So I huddle over my beer and try to process where everything went wrong for me.

At first, when I started trying to analyze this shit with Valentine, I placed the blame right on her shoulders. The minute she wrote that first article after coming to East Merritt, that’s when things went wrong. Of course, Tabby told me I was full of shit when I floated that theory by her, but what the fuck does she know. She wasn’t the subject of those blogs, nor was she betrayed.

But sometimes…like now at the end of a long day when I’m lonely and I know my bed is cold, I think about it some more. Perhaps there was something else that I missed that could have averted all of this. I search my brain, consider every angle, map out options.

I come up with fucking nothing, other than what is meant to be will be.

I’m halfway through my beer when Ted slides the burger before me. He’s gone before I can say thanks. I pick up a fry, nibble on it, and look down the bar. Most of the stools are filled with my friends and residents that I protect. I used to come in here and be deep in discussion with any one of these guys, but now we hardly talk.

Probably because I’ve been a bit of a closed-off asshole.

At least that’s what Ted suggested to me, and Sarah also confirmed that when I snapped at her one day.

I pick up my burger, open my mouth, and prepare to take a bite when I hear a woman—April, I think—exclaim in an excited sort of shriek, “Valley!”

Then several people are calling out, “Hey…it’s Val.”

Or, “Look who dragged herself back into town.”

Then I hear Sarah say, “Get your butt over here, honey, and give me a hug.”

I set the burger down and twist on my stool, and fuck me ten different ways…Valentine French is standing inside The Wounded Caribou. I totally disregard the sudden and overwhelming feeling of elation that courses through me, stuffing it down deep as I watch her make the rounds. She hugs people, pauses at tables to say a few words. She hugs Jorgen when he comes to stand beside April, and then I watch as she walks up to the middle of the bar and plops down on an empty stool. Ted is there in a nanosecond, leaning across the bar to kiss her cheek.

She hasn’t looked down the bar at me once.

And, God, she looks perfect.

Utterly fucking perfect.

She’s not wearing her designer clothes and her face is free of makeup. In fact, she’s got on a pair of faded jeans, hiking boots, and a thick gray sweater. I assume she must have ditched a rain jacket at the door. Her hair is pulled back into a high ponytail and she looks absolutely fucking edible.

My burger goes ignored, my fries get cold, and my beer goes flat.

I watch Valentine down the bar and she doesn’t look at me once.

A few guys come up to talk to her, some I can tell in a flirty way. Monte Plume pushes his way in beside her stool and leans an elbow on the bar. Now why the fuck would he be talking with her? She wasn’t kind to him in her blog. I watch as he says something to her with a smarmy grin, and she laughs while shaking her head no. He shrugs with a good-natured smile and ambles off.

April comes up to sit beside her, and they bend their heads close together to talk. Ted stays on the other side of the bar, and they include him in the conversation. Valentine does most of the talking, her hands animated. Ted nods along with serious eyes, but April seems really excited by what she’s hearing.

And I have no idea what in the fuck is going on.

Then to my surprise, Valentine stands from the stool. She blows a kiss at Ted, gives April a hard hug, and walks over to the booth where Sarah is. Sarah reaches into her pocket and hands Valentine a set of keys, so I’m guessing that’s where she’ll be staying. I’m also guessing Sarah knew she was coming back to town and didn’t say a fucking word to me about it.

Again, without even looking down the bar at me, Valentine makes her way through the restaurant, waving goodbyes, handing out a few hugs. She grabs a brown jacket from a hook right next to mine, and also an umbrella leaning up against the wall.

And then she opens the door and she’s gone.

I watch the closed door for all of two seconds before I’m scrambling off my stool and running out the door after her.

When I hit the concrete sidewalk, I vaguely note it’s still raining, but it’s tapered off to more of just a mist. I immediately look in the direction of Sarah’s place, and sure enough, Valentine’s walking that way.

“Hey,” I call out, not able to even say her name.

She freezes in place, and then turns around to look at me. She doesn’t seem surprised to see me there, but she doesn’t look happy either.

Doesn’t look sad or pissed.

In fact, she looks at me with a polite smile, her head tilted to the side. “Hi.”

Just…hi.

How nice.

“What are you doing here?” I ask impolitely, feeling like my entire insides are vibrating with some weird urgency.

Valentine’s gaze sweeps back and forth along Main Street, and then she looks back to me with a shrug. “Guess I just missed this place.”

“Missed this place?” I ask in disbelief.

“Yeah,” she says with a bright smile. “It grew on me. And so I decided to come back and try to make a go of it here.”

A mix of emotions slam around inside of me. Incredible, giddy happiness Valentine is here and going to stay, to extreme anger that she’d dare come back to this place to rub my nose in her duplicity, to absolute confusion over what any of this means.

My feelings are so fucking discombobulated I can’t help but attack. “Let me guess…going to start dating all the men around here again and write about it?”

Valentine just looks at me…almost with sympathy. A knowledge that I’m fucked up in the head over her, and she feels bad about it. But she just shakes her head and says, “Nope. That’s not what I’m going to do.”

Then she turns away from me and walks off toward Sarah’s. I fight the urge to go after her.

Not any of my business really why she’s here.