Tia

 

 I’m just out of the shower and dressed when I hear a woman’s voice. What the hell? Do I stay here and work out what’s going on, or do I go out and see? No option. I have to know. I take a quick look in the mirror and then go out.

“Tia, this is my sister, Emma.” I hope the relief doesn’t show too much on my face. For some reason, the way he talked about her I thought it might be Logan’s ex-wife making trouble. But the woman smiling at me is anything but hostile. She’s a female version of Logan with shoulder length hair. Easy to like. I smile back at her.

“Sorry to intrude,” she says. “I didn’t know you had company, Logan. I should have called, but I was just taking the girls to the winter market in Brampton, and Polly thought that Alice might be old enough to enjoy some of the stalls and rides this year. So I thought I’d stop by.”

“You do so much with her already, but if you’re sure she’d not be too much trouble…”

“You know I love to have her.”

“In that case, I’ll get her things.”

When Logan leaves to get Alice’s bag, Emma turns to me. “He looks happier than I’ve seen him in ages. Thanks for that. He’s had a hard time.” And there’s just a little warning edge to her voice, the kind of protective note I recognize from Dad.

“He told me what happened. I hope this is the end of that miserable time,” I say.

“I hope so too.” And she gives me a hug.

“Enjoy your day off,” she says when she goes, Alice holding her hand.

“You’re an angel,” Logan says.

“I know.” She laughs.

Once they leave, Alice excited by the day ahead with her cousins, we have the day to ourselves, the whole wonderful day—a day when we act like two kids ourselves.

But not always like kids.

We’re not like kids when Logan pleasures me so hard and so thoroughly I need another shower, and he joins me in it. Not like kids when he takes me against the shower wall, and under the spray, until I don’t know where I begin and he ends. And not like kids when, tired from the night and the morning, we “nap” after lunch, and he spoons me, making me come with his hands as he slides easily, oh so easily, in and out of me.

Yet the day also gives me a chance to find out he likes beaches and mountains just like me, that he did needlework at school so he can sew on a button. That he hoped to be an astronaut when he was five. That he is good at Scrabble and hopeless, completely hopeless, at sorting the laundry.

“Who has time for that?”

I fear for the white bedcover if he shoves everything in together. “The last one went gray after I washed it a few times,” he says. “I bought a new one.”

But he’s good at things that matter, especially at taking me so hard he makes me forget my own name, over and over again.

Dad is only sulking a little bit when I get back, exhausted, replete. I make the effort to chat as if everything is the same as it was a day ago, but I’m sure that he guesses it’s not.

He could always tell when my mood shifted from one day to the next, but he doesn’t make a big deal out of it. He doesn’t even comment, as if the whole situation will go away if he doesn’t.

I guess he’ll just get used to it. By the time I go to bed I’m ready to drop. I sleep good and long, dreaming about Logan.

*

I don’t get to spend New Year’s Eve with either of the men in my life. Both Logan and Dad have to work, but I don’t mind. It feels like there will be many other celebrations in the future. I feel positive about everything these days. Cassie tells me I’m turning into a real Pollyanna as she moans about her job at the bank. Then she laughs and gives me a hug. “Can’t say that I prefer you moping,” she says.

A few days into January, I have my interview at Smithson Marketing. It goes so well, I come out of their offices feeling like I could take a swim and not get wet. I can’t call Logan. He’ll be sleeping after his night shift, but I know he’ll be happy for me.

I go back to the station and tell Dad how I did. He’s pleased as punch, especially when I explain how working at the fire station helped. I showed the interviewers my designs, and they loved them. I cross my fingers that I’ve got my first job.

Cassie is ecstatic too. “Yay, we’ll be able to get a place if they offer you a position.”

“I know.” I guess Dad is not going to like that very much, but he’ll just have to deal with it. He has to let me grow up sometime.

He’s still annoying me by shooting off the odd warning about my relationship with Logan. I’m trying to ignore the remarks. Dad will come around in the end. He has to, because I’m not giving up something that makes me feel so good.

Dad worries too much. Can’t he see I’m happier than I’ve been in ages? I’m happier than I ever remember being. I’ve seen Logan a couple of times since we spent all day together, every time better than the last.

The afternoon of the interview, I can’t take any more of Dad’s jibes without saying something. “Look, is it just that he’s older and that he used to be married and has a daughter that you object to, or would it be anyone I went out with? I remember it took you ages to get used to me going out with Simon.”

“That was a mistake, too.”

“But I learned, didn’t I? I managed to get out of that myself. I wish you’d stop treating me like a child. I know you’re doing this because you care, but you’ve got to let me live my own life in my own way. What if your parents had forbidden you to go out with Mum before you got married?”

“It wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

“Exactly.”

He gives me a hug. “Okay, but I can’t say I like it.”

And I have to be content with that.