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Logan sat across the table from Adam and his father feeling like a complete and utter fraud. The OK Corral wasn’t exactly what he’d been expecting when Adam told him they were going out for a drink. It was a bar for the locals, clean and efficient, but not fancy. The woman behind the bar was short and curvy, with black hair shot with silver all piled up on her head, a ready smile, and mischief in her eyes.

He thought he might really like this place, if he wasn’t sitting across the table from his best friend, who was trying to work out who had got his baby sister pregnant.

Adam took a slow pull from his long necked brown bottle. “We can figure this out,” he said. “She might not want us to know, but it’s a small town, and we know everybody in it.”

His father didn’t look convinced, a fact that made Logan feel a whole lot better. “Your sister’s stubborn. If she doesn’t want to tell us, she’s not going to.”

“You can’t be serious, Dad. She needs help. She might be twenty-four, but on the inside, she’s still a kid. She has no idea what’s in store and there’s no way she can get through this on her own. You know that. Remember the dog?”

David nodded with a sad expression on his face. “I remember.”

“What dog?” Logan could not possibly not ask.

The men exchanged a look. David leaned back in his chair, and pointed at Adam with the neck of his beer bottle.

“It was a few years ago,” Adam said. “Allie was still living at home. One day, Mom and Dad came home and there she was with this giant, filthy dog sitting in the middle of the living room. The thing must have weighed two hundred pounds. I don’t know where she got it, but she was completely unprepared. She didn’t have food or a leash or dog dishes. When I got to the house, she was feeding the thing hamburger out of one of Mom’s casserole pans.”

“Your mother was livid,” David said, smiling at the memory.

Logan could picture it in his mind. Allie cooking up a gourmet dinner for a mutt she’d found on the street. She had a big, soft heart. “What happened to the dog?”

Adam shrugged. “It tore the house apart every time she left it alone. I don’t know what happened to it, but after a week it was gone.” He sighed. “She thought she could handle that one on her own, too.”

Logan tried not to cringe, imagining Allie dropping the dog off at a shelter or leaving it on the side of the road. She didn’t seem like the type of person who would do that. Her heart was too big. But he didn’t really know anything about her.

“How’s she gonna raise a child if she couldn’t even handle a dog?” Adam asked, shaking his head and sipping his beer.

“People can change, Adam.” Logan said it without thinking first. “

David nodded. “Allie might not be the most level-headed girl, but she’s come a long way, Adam. She was only nineteen when she brought that dog home. She’s grown up. You haven’t been around enough to see it, but she has. That studio of hers is doing all right.”

Why was Logan feeling all puffed up with pride on hearing that?

“Besides,” David went on. “Your mother made me promise I wouldn’t get into the middle of this, and that I wouldn’t let you, either. I gave her my word. And you know better than to cross her.” He shrugged. “Besides, it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it anyway. She’s an adult. What are we going to do if we do find the guy? Force her to get married?”

“That’d be a start. Right after I beat him into the dirt for getting my baby sister pregnant and then deserting her.”

Logan cringed. He wanted to come clean. At the same time, the part of him driven by the instinct of self-preservation wanted to make sure Adam never found out the truth. “Maybe the guy has a good excuse.”

“Like what?”

“Maybe he doesn’t know.”

Adam sighed and tossed back the rest of his beer. “You don’t understand small-town life. Everyone in this town knows everyone else’s business. There are no secrets here.”

“There’s been a lot of gossip and speculation, but no one in town has any idea who the father is,” David interjected.

“What was the speculation?”

“Nothing worth mentioning.”

“Come on, Dad. I just want to know what people are saying. Small-town gossip can hurt. Allie’s going through enough.”

David sighed. “A few people mentioned Ethan Wyatt. He went on a few dates with your sister last winter, but it didn’t amount to anything. Carter Avery’s name came up, too. He spent some time at the studio getting pictures of his boys done. Nothing romantic happened between them, but people saw his car at your sister’s a few times right before she let the cat out of the bag.” David shrugged. “Like I said, it’s nothing worth mentioning. Best if we just leave it alone.”

Adam scratched his chin, looking like he wasn’t entirely convinced. “Maybe I need to have a talk with Ethan and Carter.”

“Absolutely not,” David said. “Listen to me, son. I want to know who fathered my grandchild as much as you do. I want to find out why he hasn’t been here. But interrogating half the town is only going to embarrass your sister. She doesn’t need that stress. You know better than anyone how dangerous that can be. Keep your mouth shut and leave Allie alone.” He tossed some cash on the table, squeezed his son’s shoulder and headed for the door. “See you at the house later,” he said on his way out. “Afternoon, Vidalia,” he called before he left.

“Afternoon, Dave. You have a baby yet?”

“Not yet. Due date’s today.”

“First ones are always late,” she told him “Don’t hold your breath.”

He left and she went back to wiping down the bar.

The look on Adam’s face had changed. He didn’t look angry anymore; he looked ashamed and Logan wondered what had just happened between father and son. You know better than anyone how dangerous that can be. Had he had a baby? Had he lost one? There weren’t too many other ways to interpret David’s words.

Adam drained his beer and ordered another one. For the next hour, Allie’s big brother drank like someone with a reason to. He didn’t do much talking, and Logan spent most of the time in his own head, trying to figure out the best time to tell his friend the truth. Now was definitely not it. Not while Adam was slowly getting wasted. Not in the middle of a very public place. And not in a place where everything they said and did would immediately be reported back to Allie.

That comment about stress had made Logan think. He had no experience with pregnant women, but if stress was dangerous, didn’t he owe it to Allie to make her life as stress-free as he could until the baby came? There wasn’t much else he could think of to do for her, but that, at least, should be easy.

 “See that guy out there?” Adam suddenly broke his silence, pointing to a tall, lanky fellow standing outside the bar’s wide windows. “That’s Ethan Wyatt.”

Logan shook his head. “You heard what your dad said. Allie only dated him a couple times.”

“Allie doesn’t tell Mom and Dad everything. It wouldn’t be the first time she dated someone without them knowing. In high school she dated a kid for six months after telling us all they had broken up. The guy was a loser. And Ethan’s no better. I always hated him.”

Logan considered that for a second. He stared at the tall man with the easy smile, who stood outside the bar, and wondered if Allie’d had some kind of relationship with him. The thought made his stomach roll and he recognized the feeling as pure, green jealousy. He shouldn’t feel it, he didn’t know why he was feeling it, but he didn’t have time to ponder it, because Adam was out of his seat and crossing the barroom towards the door.

Logan caught up fast, catching the door before it had time to swing closed.

“Hey, Adam. Welcome home,” Ethan Wyatt said. “How’s your sister?”

Adam didn’t even respond. Instead he swung a big fist at Ethan and knocked him flat to the ground.

Logan’s jaw dropped. In the five years he’d known Adam, he’d never seen him start a fight. Sure, he was a soldier and he did his job. And yeah, he’d jump into a brawl if he felt it was warranted, but this was something else altogether.

Logan grabbed his friend and kept him from hitting the guy again.

“What the hell, man?” Ethan pushed himself to his feet. “I thought we were friends. What the hell?” He wiped the blood from his lip.

Something about the way he said it made Logan think he knew exactly what this was about.

“Guess I just figured you had it coming,” Adam said. He stopped straining against Logan’s hold and after a second, Logan let him go.

The bartender peeked her head out the door. “Everything all right out here, Adam?”  she asked.

“Fine, Vidalia. Go ahead inside.”

The guy, Ethan, brushed himself off. “So, is this about Allie? Or Riley?”

Adam lunged forward again, and Logan grabbed his shoulders. Ethan ducked backwards, just out of reach.  “I can tell you for a fact, I’m not responsible for Allie’s situation. I took her out exactly two times and didn’t get farther than a g-rated kiss at the door.”

“And what about Riley?” Adam asked.

“Not my story to tell. You’ll have to take that up with your wife.”

“Ex-wife.”

Logan hadn’t seen the woman approach. He’d been too focused on keeping Adam from decking the stranger again. But he did see the expression on Adam’s face change. His anger disappeared, and the tension in his body left, like he’d gone weak.

“What the hell are you doing here, Riley?” he asked, his voice quiet, but kind of quivering underneath.

“One of the benefits of divorce is that I don’t have to explain my actions to you anymore,” she replied with ice in her voice.

“Not like you ever did,” Adam muttered.

The woman—Riley— placed a hand on Ethan’s jaw, and looked at the blood dripping from his chin. She was small, slender, pretty, and wearing a high-end suit that didn’t really fit the dusty streets of this small Oklahoma town. She had dark brown hair as sleek as a mink, and sparking green eyes that narrowed on Adam. She was at least a foot shorter than him, but didn’t look one bit intimidated. “You hit him?”

Adam gave her a wry smile. “I don’t need to explain myself to you, either.”

“I was wrong about you a lot of times, Adam, but I never thought you were a bully. Guess it’s a good thing I got out when I did.”

Adam’s jaw tightened. “Guess so.” Without another word, he turned and walked slowly back into the bar. And Logan was pretty sure he wasn’t going to get him out of there anytime soon.

Allie stirred the bowl of cookie dough in front of her, longing for a cup of something with a lot of caffeine. The decaf she’d been sipping wasn’t doing the trick.

She yawned and pushed the mug away from her in disgust. It had been a long night, followed by a long day. Logan had retreated to the living room after breakfast, and she had tried hard to ignore him, but it wasn’t easy.

He had spent most of the morning playing with Jack and Cassie, talking football with her dad and charming her mother with the funnier stories about his time with Adam in Afghanistan.

Her family loved him. He fit right in, and she knew that if any of them found out he was the father of her baby, they’d be browbeating her to marry the man before he changed his mind.

For all she knew, he’d already changed his mind. He hadn’t mentioned his ludicrous proposal again.

It had been a relief when Adam suggested they go to the OK Corral to watch football and grab a beer, even though the idea of Adam and Logan and her father spending time together made her nervous. She could only hope that Logan would keep their secret a little bit longer.

She stirred the cookie dough with more force than was necessary, thinking about the infuriating man. She should be happy. She knew that. He had stood up for her with her family. It was sweet in an overbearing kind of way.

But she thought about how he had told her that marriage was her best option. She thought about how her family had fawned over him, and she felt the need to use his head for batting practice. The man was frustrating, and what was worse, she found it hard to concentrate on anything else when he was around.

She’d been so focused on Logan that she had somehow volunteered to babysit without even realizing it. Angie and her mom had decided to finish their last-minute Christmas shopping and she’d offered before she could think it over. And to her surprise, her sister agreed.

Allie didn't mind sitting with the kids. She was happy she could help Angie. Her sister hadn’t left the kids much at all since Jeff’s death, and not ever with Allie. Allie had done her fair share of helping in other ways. She picked Jack up every day after school, and filled Angie’s grocery list at least once a week. She cooked meals in the evening. But every time Allie volunteered to watch the kids, Angie had found a reason to say no.

So when Angie finally let her babysit, she couldn’t refuse. Her sister had finally decided to trust her. This was major. So she agreed happily, even though she really could have used an afternoon to herself. She had to figure out what she was going to do about Logan wanting to be in the baby’s life and wanting to tell her brother the truth.

God, it was a lot.

The television in the next room was playing some animated movie about dragons, and from her spot at the kitchen island, she could see Jack watching from the couch, bouncing with excitement as the dragons took flight. His sister lay next to him, curled up and napping.

Allie finally had a few quiet moments to herself, and as it turned out, the last thing she wanted to think about was Logan Edwards. She wanted to think about Christmas. She grabbed her phone off the counter, clicked through to her favorite Christmas playlist and let holiday classics calm her nerves and fill her with that magical feeling.

She relaxed and sang along while she scooped the cookie dough into balls and placed them on the baking sheet. It was working. She was already feeling a little calmer.

The front door opened and she jumped. Her eyes scanned the living room, thinking first that one of her small wards was escaping. Angie had made a point of telling her what a handful Cassie could be.

She glanced into the living room, but couldn’t see the front door from there. Cassie was still asleep, and Jack was now zooming through the room with his arms outstretched, pretending to fly. Then he stopped, and said, “Hey! What’s wrong with Uncle Adam?”

That brought Allie into the living room in time to see Logan with Adam’s arm around his shoulders, walking him into the den.  “He’s really sleepy, Jack. Nothing to worry about,” Logan said.

They vanished into the den, and in a second, Logan came back out and pulled the door closed behind him.

She sighed and returned to her cookies, but a second later, a tingle on her spine told her that Logan had come into the kitchen.

 “Where’s Dad?” Allie asked. She could feel the tension creeping back into her body. He was a walking, talking stress trigger and she wondered why she’d ever agreed to let him stay.

“Your dad went home, and I just deposited Adam in his bed.”

“Yes, I saw that.”

 “He …might have had a little too much to drink.”

“Because of me? Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve driven one of the Wakeland men to drink.”

“Maybe about you at first, but not the last few hours.” Logan crossed the room and took a seat at the kitchen island facing Allie.

“Riley?” Allie asked, not really needing the confirmation.

“Yeah. She showed up at the bar. I didn’t think she was still around. How’d you know?”

“Riley is the only woman who can make my brother crazier than I can. Is he okay?”

Logan sighed. “I guess. He got wasted and punched the guy she was with. He heard this Ethan character was the last man you were involved with, so…” Logan didn’t say more, but Allie felt the need to explain.

“Involved is a strong word. We went out a couple of times. It was before I met you. Anyway, I broke it off after two dates when he cajoled me into a goodnight kiss and then tried to ram his tongue down my throat. Jerk.

“Oh.”

“If there had been anything between Ethan and me, or anyone and me, I never would’ve invited you to my room that night.”

His eyes were sharp and discerning and Allie couldn’t look at them for long. It felt like he could see too much.

“Your brother punched the guy and it was my fault, Allie. If I had just told him the truth to begin with—”

“Adam has been looking for a reason to punch Ethan Wyatt for years. It has nothing to do with us.”

“That’s not what it felt like.”

“Well, there’s a reason. Riley served him with divorce papers the day he got home from a deployment. I was just a kid and I loved Riley, which is probably why no one told me any of this then. But I guess Adam tracked her down. He wanted to talk to her. They’d been through a lot and he wasn’t ready to give up. But when he knocked on the door, Ethan answered.”

“And you dated the guy?”

“If I had known that, I never would have gone out with him. Angie told me after I dumped him.” She thought of the two of them, seeing them in her mind’s eye, laughing together, crazy in love. “Riley and Adam were something special. We all thought it would last forever, and I don’t think he ever really got over her. He hasn’t been serious about a girl since. So him socking Ethan truly wasn’t about you. Or us.”

“That’s not the point. It’s not right.”

 “Did you tell him?” Allie asked, dreading his answer.

“Not yet. Adam probably wouldn’t remember even if I had.” Logan sighed and ran his hands through his short hair. “Your dad’s a great guy, Allie, and Adam’s my best friend. Every minute I spend with them without saying something feels like a lie.”

Relief washed over her. She wasn’t ready for them to know. She wasn't ready for the pressure that would put on her. She wasn’t ready for the meddling or the number of people who would be giving her their opinions on what she should do.

She needed to figure this out for herself and for her baby before she had everyone else’s opinions swirling around in her head. She grabbed the cookie sheet and turned to place it in the oven.

“What stopped you?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Your dad said something. About how stress wasn’t good for you. About how dangerous it could be. I don’t really know anything about pregnant women, but I figured telling them would probably be the most stressful thing I could do to you. And Adam was already so mad, I thought it would only make things worse.

“I want to figure this thing out, Allie. And I’m guessing that once they know, they’re gonna want me gone. I can’t blame them, but there’s a lot we still have to work through, and there’s not much time…” He trailed off. “I guess I just didn’t want you to have to deal with the fall-out on your own. I’ve got thirteen days left here. We might as well use them to solve this together.”

“Thanks for that.”

“I can’t keep it from them forever,” he said, looking tense. “I know you think it would be better if I took the easy way out, but I can’t do that. This is temporary. Just until we come up with a solution we can both live with.”

Logan’s hands were resting on the kitchen island and Allie placed a hand on top of one of his. Hers immediately tingled from the warmth of his skin. But she ignored that. “You’re a good guy, Logan. I know you’re trying to do the right thing. But you’re not thinking clearly. Let’s say we do tell everyone you’re the father. Then what?”

“Then I help raise my baby. It’s not that complicated.” She could see his pulse ticking in his throat, and his fist clenched under her hand. But she needed him to understand why this wouldn’t work.

“How many bases have you been stationed at?” Allie asked.

“A few. What’s your point?”

“Do you know how often military families move? The average is something like every three years.” Allie gentled her tone. “So the best-case scenario is that you’d be really involved with this baby for a few years. He or she would get attached, and then you’d be gone.”

He pulled his hand away from hers. “It wouldn’t have to be that way.” She could see his mind working. Trying to find other options.

“What then? We split the time? Send our baby back and forth across the country? And what about when school starts?” Allie had spent most of the night thinking about this. There was no good option. At least none that she’d come up with.

“Damn it, Allie. Why are we even discussing this? It’s not an issue now. When and if it is, we’ll figure it out.”

“By then it will be too late. I don't want to see my baby hurting the way Jack and Cassie are hurting.” Allie pointed toward the living room where Jack sat on the couch, once again engrossed in his TV show.

“It’s been over a year, and Jack’s still waiting for his daddy to come home. No one can convince him that it’s not gonna happen. He goes to bed every night and tells his mom that tomorrow is going to be the day his father comes back. He can’t accept it. And that’s almost better than the alternative, because once it finally sinks in…once he gives up hope, that little boy is going to be a completely different person.”

“So what am I supposed to do, Allie? You want me to walk away like my parents did? To desert my own child and just assume that life will work out for him? I can’t do that. I won’t. I know better.”

His eyes were fiercely determined, and Allie ached for the little boy he’d been. “You know better…because it didn’t work out for you. Did it, Logan?”

“No. And my kid isn’t going to have to figure it out on his own like I did. I’m gonna be here for him.”

“Or her.”

“Or her,” he said. “People make it work, Allie. We could make it work. If we got married, you could come with me. We could raise our baby together and figure it out as we go.”

 “That’s not a real solution and you know it. I have a life here. My family is here, my work. And you don’t want to marry me, not really. It’s for the baby, and that’s sweet and noble and all that, but it’s not enough for me. It’s not enough to keep us together if things get tough, and then we’d be right back here trying to figure out what to do all over again. Only this time, our child’s heart would be breaking along with our marriage.”

“I’m not going to leave my child,” Logan said. His voice was sharp, the words, clipped.

Allie sighed. “You won’t have a choice. In two weeks, you’re gone.”

“For three months. But I’ll come back. And when I do, I’m going to want to see my baby.”

The kitchen timer beeped and broke the intense conversation.

Allie sighed. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to solve this tonight.” She turned to stop the timer. “Can we just keep this between us for now? Just until we’ve figured out how this is going to work?”

He stared at her. She put a hand on her belly and gazed into his eyes. “Please, Logan. Please keep this secret for me.”

Logan held her gaze for a long moment, and she saw his will collapse. “Okay. Okay, fine.”

She could see the exhaustion on his face. She knew this was taking a toll on him. Maybe if he had grown up differently, he’d be able to see things her way, but Logan Edwards wasn’t anyone else. It would take a lot to convince him that this was the right thing to do. But she’d do it. She’d bring him around for her baby.

She grabbed an oven mitt and pulled the hot cookie tray from the oven.

“I’ll give you time, Allie. But I’m not changing my mind.”

“Time’s all I asked for, Logan. And I’m not changing mine, either.”

Logan had retreated to his room after the conversation with Allie, but he couldn’t stop thinking about everything she’d said. Maybe she was right. It couldn't be easy for a kid to constantly have to say goodbye to a parent.

Even if they did split time, who would stay with the baby while he was at work? Daycare was fine during the day, but he couldn't very well send his kid back to Allie every time he was in the field or had to pull an overnight duty.

It would be difficult, but it wasn’t enough of a reason to keep him from acknowledging his flesh and blood, either.

The house had grown quiet. Eerily quiet, considering there were two small children and an annoyed pregnant woman downstairs.

He was hungry, and the smell of chocolate chip cookies filled the air. He didn't have the answers he needed, but he knew he wasn’t going to get any closer to finding them alone in his room.

He opened the door and walked down the short hallway and down the stairs. Frosty the Snowman was playing on the television. Allie sat on the couch with Jack snuggled beside her. They were both sound asleep.

Logan glanced at the other side of the couch where Cassie had been tucked in earlier. Her blanket lay discarded on the floor, but the little girl was nowhere in sight. Panic rising, he scanned the room. The door was still shut tight. She couldn't have got outside, could she?

Then there was a crack and then a sloshing sound, followed by Cassie’s giggles. He followed the sound to the kitchen. The room was mostly cast in shadow, but the refrigerator door was open and the glow from within provided enough light for him to see Cassie sitting on the kitchen floor.

Logan couldn’t say exactly how long she’d been awake. He only spent an hour in his room and Allie’s oven timer had beeped for the last time twenty minutes ago. But the mess around the child looked like it had taken hours to create.

A dozen eggs were broken in a circle around her. The pantry doors stood open and the bottom third of the shelves had been emptied. Flour, sugar and boxed pasta were dumped around the kitchen. Tiny footprints marked the floor from there to Cassie’s current location in front of the fridge. A gallon of milk lay on its side. Most of the bottle was spilled on the floor, but a tiny bit had landed in the plastic cup that Cassie held in front of her. She had a cookie in each hand and was dunking them carefully into her glass.

She looked up at Logan with big blue eyes and a toothy smile. Her blond curls were caked with egg and flour. “Cookie,” she said.

The little girl looked so pleased with herself that Logan couldn't help but laugh. Cassie held one of the cookies out to him, trying to get upright at the same time. “Cookie,” she said again. And then she slipped on an egg yolk. He reached for her, but missed, and she plopped face first into the flour and sugar pile in front of her.

Her outraged screech split his eardrums.

Logan scooped her up and she quieted, turning a happy grin in his direction. It was almost enough to make him forget about the dripping egg and milk that was soaking through his shirt where he cradled the little girl. Her tiny hand still clutched the cookie, although now it was covered in egg yolk and flour. She tried with all her might to shove it into his mouth. He twisted his face from one side to the other, but the little girl didn’t give up. And the cookie smashed into his face four times before it finally crumbled and fell in pieces to the floor.

“What am I going to do with you?” he asked, giving the girl a contemplative look. The obvious solution was a bath, but he’d never given a baby a bath, and he felt weird bathing someone else’s kid. He was contemplating his options when Allie hurried into the kitchen and stopped dead in her tracks, staring from the mess in front of her to the little girl in Logan’s arms.

“I nodded off for a minute. What happened?”

Cassie looked at Allie and smiled. “Cookie,” she said waving the remaining piece of cookie in the air like a trophy.

Allie looked heartbroken, which was an overreaction, in Logan’s opinion. “Angie will be home any minute.”

“Good. She can help clean up the mess her adorable little sweetheart created.”

“You don’t understand. This is the first time she’s left the kids with me since Jeff…. It’s the first time she’s left Cassie with me at all. She’ll never trust me with them again.”

Logan glanced at the destruction in the kitchen and thought that might not be such a bad thing, but he had the good sense to keep his opinion to himself. He didn't know why it was so important to Allie, but it obviously was.

“Okay, you take care of her,” he said shoving the batter-covered child into Allie’s arms. “I’ll do something with this.” He gestured towards the disaster area that had been a kitchen a short time ago.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“No time to argue. Just trust me. It’ll all be okay.”

Allie looked reluctant, but she nodded and hurried down the hall to the first-floor bathroom. Logan spent the next thirty minutes scrubbing every washable surface in the kitchen. He was just dumping the last bucket of water down the sink when Angie and Beth walked through the front door.

The strain and tension that had weighed down Angie’s face had eased a little, and Logan wondered if the day out had done her some good.

“What happened here?” she asked as she walked toward the kitchen. She took in the empty bucket, the mop, the sponges and cleaning supplies and then she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Logan.

He shrugged. “Just thought I’d help clean up a little since Allie was busy with the kids.”

“Uh-huh. And where are my children and my darling sister?”

Allie came out of the bathroom right on cue. She held the freshly bathed little girl in her arms.

“I thought I heard you,” Allie said. “Did you two have fun?”

“It was very productive,” her mother said. “I think Christmas is going to be a good one for the kids this year. I hope we weren’t gone too long, dear. You look tired.”

“Not at all.” Allie turned to her sister. “It’s good for you to get out once in a while, Angie.” Allie kissed Cassie’s forehead and handed the little girl back to her mother. “Jack’s sleeping on the couch.”

“How were my little monkeys?” Angie asked, rubbing noses with Cassie, who giggled.

“They were angels,” Allie said in a very convincing tone. Logan would have been convinced, too, if he hadn’t spent the last thirty minutes cleaning up after Hurricane Cassie.

“Really?” There was doubt in her voice.

“Of course,” Allie said.

“Then why is your houseguest covered in flour and chocolate?” All eyes turned to Logan. He glanced down at his jeans, which were still caked in egg. Puffs of flour clung to his shirt and he was pretty sure his face was still streaked with chocolate from the cookie Cassie had force-fed him.

“Cookie,” Cassie said.

“I’m a messy baker.” Logan rubbed a chocolate streak from his chin, with his thumb.

“Angels, huh?” Angie asked, raising an eyebrow in her sister’s direction.

“Complete angels,” Allie replied. “Aren’t they always?”