Loving Logan - Sammi Cee Page 0,2

him as I walked into the room next door to lay him in his pirate toddler bed. Memories swamped me again as I smoothed his hair back on his head. Haley had been so excited when she’d found the bed constructed inside the frame of a wooden boat. Jakey had been obsessed with anything and everything that had to do with the sea since the first time we’d taken him to the aquarium. I remembered how he’d clutched his parents’ hands and bounced between them the first time they opened the door of his room to reveal what his father and I had been working on for days. The walls had a fresh coat of blue paint, and his father had painted murals around the room. At least I’d already been living with them and had been able to keep the house. Changing Jakey’s living arrangements in the midst of his loss may have had an even worse effect than what we were already dealing with.

My mood plummeted even further. Bending down, I kissed Jakey’s forehead, turned on his whale nightlight and the starlight projector for the ceiling, and made my way back into the bathroom to drain the tub and mop up the water around the tub. Bath time had always been one of Jakey’s favorite parts of the day, and it warmed my heart that after months of not enjoying it any more than he did anything else, his joy of playing in the tub had returned.

Ugh. I really was in a mood tonight. Work had been fine today other than the jackass, but then I’d gone to my parents’ to pick up Jakey. Mom had been watching him during the day since Haley first went back to work, and I appreciated that he still had that consistency. What I was finding overwhelming was her constant harping. Not that her prodding that I needed to find a nice man and settle down was a new thing—it definitely wasn’t. Which was one of the reasons I’d only gone to my parents’ once a week for the last couple of years. In the last month, she’d added running commentary about how hard it would be to find someone if I had Jakey, or if I didn’t at least move back in with her and my father so they could help me with him.

If it wasn’t for the fact that she really functioned as Jakey’s grandmother and they adored each other, her nagging would send me looking for someone else to watch him. Sighing, I sat down on the closed toilet seat warily. My mom missed J.J. and Haley, too. J.J. had lived with us since he was eleven and his own parents had checked out on him. My mom’s fussing came from a place of love. My own frustration with life drove my mood tonight. The one thing Mom didn’t have right was that I had searched for a good man—and given up long before I got custody of Jakey. The men who wanted me were seeking the same thing I was; someone to hold them close and protect them. While they were looking for physical protection, I craved someone to wrap my heart up in their embrace and guard it with care. With or without Jakey, I hadn’t hit the jackpot yet, and I wasn’t holding my breath.

Chapter Two

Creed

“Well, hello, good looking,” a woman said as I strolled around the bar in the restaurant where I was meeting my brother, his two boyfriends—one of whom was my best friend—and some of the guys that they were friends with.

The restaurant had a nice open floor plan, while still having the atmosphere of a more intimate bar and grill. I stopped when I found an open spot between customers and ordered a grand margarita—a margarita with a shot of Grand Marnier. The bartender, a bouncy little guy, set it before me with a flourish. “Can I start a tab for you, or will you be joining someone at a table?”

Before I answered, a gruff-looking giant of a man with a nice thick brown beard, and tattoos running all the way down his arms, from under where his sleeves stop on his polo shirt to his hands, said, “I’m so sorry I’m late, Bobby. It’s not our usual schedule so my nephew had a meltdown which upset my mom, so I had to—”

The bartender who’d waited on me, whose name was apparently Bobby, grabbed the larger man’s biceps and gave a little