5

Four days later, Claire was still struggling to decide whether she should accept Logan’s invitation to travel with him, or not. They were places she’d never been before, and had always wanted to see. If nothing else, the time spent with him over the past three days had shown her he was someone whose company she enjoyed, and who she could have fun with.

She also discovered that he was a good listener, and they’d had a lot to talk about. He’d stood by her side at the memorial services at the Pentagon that had been given for all the government officials killed in the Algiers bombing, silently supporting her, offering her his strength.

It had been so comforting to have him with her when she’d said her final goodbyes to her friends and saw their families again, all in one place. She was still sometimes overwhelmed by her feelings of guilt, but Logan was even helping her with that. At least he was trying to, by reminding her she was still living for a reason. She wanted to believe that and hoped that, at some point, the reason would be revealed to her. What was her purpose in life? She had to have one. If not, why hadn’t she died with her friends?

The sound of her cell phone almost startled her. She smiled when she recognized the ring tone. It was Asia. At least her sister had given her six days before calling. Claire was actually surprised she’d gotten that much. She clicked on her phone. “Yes, Asia?”

“Are you ready to fly to Paradise yet?”

Claire couldn’t help but grin. “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t bother me for at least a week.”

“Umm, did we?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Well, what’s one day? I would think that by now, you’d want to hear your nephew make some noise.”

Claire chuckled at the sound of Leland jabbering in the background. “Ohh, I love it! And I love him.”

“And you’re ready to see him, right? So, when can we expect you?”

Claire didn’t say anything for a moment, then admitted, “I’m not sure. I still have a few issues to deal with, Asia. The memorial services were held yesterday.”

“I know. Lance and I watched it on television. It was hard for us to see, so I can only imagine how heartbreaking it was for you.”

“I got through it…thanks to Logan.”

“Logan?”

“Yes, and don’t pretend you didn’t know he was here.”

“I have no reason to pretend anything. He told me and Lance he planned to stop in to check on you. I just didn’t know he was still there.”

“Yes, he’s still here.” There was no need to tell her sister that they’d spent the last six days enjoying each other’s company, as friends. She wasn’t worried about Asia thinking there was more to it than that. Her sister knew how traumatic losing Walter had been for her. Even though it had been almost ten years ago, Claire still hadn’t been able to move beyond it.

“Logan even asked me to join him for the rest of his vacation.” She rattled off all the places Logan had mentioned.

“Hey, aren’t a number of those on your bucket list?” Asia asked.

“Yes, they are.” She paused for a moment. Her sister was right. She hadn’t made that connection, although it was obvious. “I thought maybe I would introduce Logan to Mindy Highgrove.”

“Why?”

“Logan mentioned that he’s ready to settle down and Mindy has been looking for Mr. Right for a while now. I thought they might hit it off.”

“But you don’t now?”

“I still do, but Mindy has already met someone. It sounds serious.”

“I’m glad,” Asia said.

“Why?”

“Because there is someone I want Logan to meet.”

Claire wasn’t prepared for the sudden sharp pounding in her chest. “Who?”

“The sister of one of my clients. She accompanied her sister here last week and I liked her immediately. Both Lance and I did.”

Claire knew just what type of clients the Montgomery Marriage Institute catered to. “You would introduce Logan to one of your clients?”

“Susan isn’t one of my clients. She’s the sister of one of them. She flew here with her sister for support. Susan’s sister and her husband are trying to work out a difficult marriage.”

“But do you think it’s a good idea to get Logan involved in the situation?”

“What situation? Susan isn’t the client. In fact, she’s never been married. I figured they had something in common, since they both know how to fly a plane. She’s an active-duty military pilot.”

A military pilot? Active duty? That was the last type of woman Logan needed to get involved with, especially while the country was still at war. What if he met this Susan and fell in love with her. She could be deployed, and he might get notification, the same way she had, that Susan wasn’t coming back. The pain would almost be unbearable. It wouldn’t be fair for him to have waited all this time to meet someone, only to lose that person, the way she had.

“Claire, are you still there?”

She blinked, realizing she hadn’t been listening to whatever else Asia had been saying. “Yes, I’m still here.”

“So, when are you coming?”

Claire frowned. “Coming where?”

“To Paradise Island, silly. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. But I’m not sure when I’m coming. Like I said, Logan asked me to go on vacation with him.”

“But you haven’t decided if you will or not.”

“Yes, I have. I’m going. I’ll tell him when I see him later. He’s taking me to dinner.” No need to tell Asia that sitting in a restaurant was another hurdle Logan was helping her get over.

“Oh, okay. Well, if you change your mind, let me know so we can get one of the guest cottages ready for you.”

“Okay.”

“Oh, and by the way, I talked to Mom this morning. She and Timothy are taking a short cruise to the Bahamas.”

“Again?”

“Yes, again. I have a feeling that they’re going to look for land to build on while they are there.”

“Whatever makes them happy,” Claire said.

“Yes, whatever makes them happy,” Asia agreed.

Once Claire ended the call with her sister, she sat down and rubbed a hand down her face. She hoped she hadn’t lost her mind in deciding to go traveling with Logan. Maybe she was doing him a favor. Sure, she was keeping him company. Nobody wanted to go on vacation alone. But she was also, possibly saving him from the heartbreak he’d told her he’d never had to endure. And she wanted to keep it that way.

He had been with her this whole week, spending all his time with her. For three straight days, they’d gone to the African-American Museum, and then in the afternoons they would hang out at her place, drinking wine, eating various meals and playing cards.

She glanced at her watch. Logan would soon be here. He was taking her to dinner, and that’s when she would tell him she’d sky-hop with him. In a way, she was looking forward to it. After yesterday’s memorial service, she wanted to get out of DC for a while.

Claire refused to admit she’d made the decision only after finding out her sister’s plans to introduce Logan to some woman named Susan. That had nothing to do with it. After all, she’d planned to introduce him to Mindy. She just wanted to spare him heartbreak. Nothing more. Hopefully, during their trip, she could advise him to steer clear of gorgeous women in the military—at least, when the country was at war. With that thought in mind, she headed to her bedroom to get dressed.

“I decided to join you on your vacation, Logan. That is, if you still want me to come.”

Logan glanced up from his meal to gaze across the table at Claire. He’d just been thinking how grateful he was that she’d decided to join him for dinner at this restaurant, instead of ordering in again. And now this. He couldn’t believe his twist of good luck. “You have?”

“Yes.”

He wouldn’t even ask what had changed her mind. It didn’t matter. “We can leave Friday morning, if that’s okay.”

“That’s fine with me.”

“I’ll text you a copy of the itinerary. If you’d like, you can select the places we’ll be staying.” That way she could choose the sleeping arrangements, whether they had separate quarters or shared quarters with two bedrooms.

“Okay, and I’ll be paying half of everything.”

No, she wouldn’t, but he didn’t intend to get into an argument with her about that now. “Where would you like to go first?” The itinerary he’d put together were the places he wanted to go, but they weren’t listed in any particular order. The only destination where the timing mattered was the Balloon Festival in Albuquerque.

She shrugged her beautiful shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll leave that up to the pilot.” She grinned. “I’m just going along to keep him company.”

He smiled. Whether she knew it or not, she was going along for more than that. “And he appreciates it.”

“Excuse me.”

Both Logan and Claire glanced up at the couple standing at their table, a man and woman who appeared to be in their mid-thirties. “Yes?” Logan said, studying the couple. For some reason, they seemed familiar.

“Are you Dr. Logan Montgomery?” the woman asked nervously.

Logan stood when he slowly recognized them. “Yes, I am. And you are the Stewarts,” he said, extending his hand. “I remember you.”

Huge grins appeared on both of their faces. “That’s us. Thanks for remembering. We thought it was you, but we weren’t sure,” the woman said.

“And this is Claire Fowler, a friend of mine,” he said, introducing Claire to the couple.

They shook hands. “We hate to interrupt your dinner, but we just had to come over and thank you again for what you did.”

“It was nothing,” Logan said, as the details of his involvement with the Stewarts came tumbling back in his mind.

“It was something and we will be forever grateful.” Lottie Stewart turned to Claire and said, “Our son was born sixteen years ago with a lower extremity defect. His legs were joined at the ankles. At the time, our insurance company refused to pay for any surgery to have it corrected and we didn’t have the money to do it ourselves. Dr. Montgomery offered to perform the surgery and wrote off his charges.”

“In other words,” Mr. Stewart said, taking up the story. “He did it for nothing. Even later, when we got on our feet and tried to pay him back, his office returned the check to us, with a note telling us to put it in our son’s college fund. Which we did.”

“That’s wonderful,” Logan said. “How is he doing?”

The woman quickly pulled her phone out of her purse and clicked on her photos. “This is our Roy, now,” she said proudly, first showing the picture on her phone to Logan then passing it over to Claire. “He’s sixteen and is the captain of his high school baseball team. He would not have been able to play ball if you hadn’t performed that surgery. He would have been confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.”

“They need more doctors like you, Dr. Montgomery. You have a heart,” her husband said. Then, after one last handshake—and many more thanks--the Stewarts went back to their table

Moments later, Logan sat back down and noticed Claire staring at him. “Something wrong?”

She took a sip of her wine and then shook her head. “No. All this time I thought the only thing plastic surgeons did were tummy tucks and breast enhancements.”

He couldn’t help chuckling as he took a sip of his own wine. “You would be surprised how many people think a plastic surgeon and a cosmetic surgeon are the same thing.”

“Aren’t they?”

“No. Although I’ve done several cosmetic surgeries in my day, my office mostly handles plastic surgeries. My field of concentration is similar to what I did for the Stewarts. Lately, I’ve had a lot of scar revisions, burn repairs and congenital defect type surgeries.”

She nodded. “I remember hearing that you were part of our government’s mercy mission in Haiti several years ago, too.”

“Yes, I was. That earthquake was a true humanitarian crisis. I did everything I could to help. Since then, I’ve spent more hours than I can count, trying to make things easier for victims of natural disasters. And we’ve had far too many of them lately.”

“Sounds like you’ve been quite busy,” she said.

“I have. That’s why I need this vacation. But then, I bet you need a real vacation, as well. When was the last time you just went somewhere to enjoy yourself?” he asked her.

He could tell she was thinking. “I have to admit, it’s been a while.”

“Then this is the time off we both need so badly. Let’s take it and enjoy it, okay.”

His heart began pounding deep in his chest when she smiled over at him. “Okay, let’s do it. I just hope you don’t regret inviting me along.”

He returned her smile. “Trust me, I won’t.”