patting Logan’s knee under the table. “I see our breakfast coming this way.”
He didn’t feel much like eating. Not even the plate of fluffy biscuits set before him. Daniel returned just as the waitress set his meal in his empty spot. He flopped down into the bench like a petulant toddler.
“Logan has decided to loan you the money,” Mom said, “but not charge you any interest. Isn’t that nice of him?”
“Oh, yeah, that’s swell,” Daniel said, his tone thick with sarcasm. “I hope he agreed to give me fifty years to pay it off.”
“Is that acceptable?” Mom lifted her eyebrows at Logan.
“Works for me,” Logan said. “I’ll have my accountant send you a check and whatever documents are required. I figure a year’s grace period ought to give you time to get your feet beneath you before you have to start paying me back.”
Daniel sagged into his seat. “That’s fair,” he said. He began digging into his breakfast like a man who hadn’t eaten for days. And maybe he hadn’t. Logan was relieved to see a bit of color return to his brother’s cheeks. And he was oddly satisfied knowing he’d been able to help him out.
Normally Logan would have enjoyed his nostalgic biscuits drizzled with honey and the congenial chit-chat he shared with his family, but the idea of Toni thinking he was being entertained by another woman had him entirely distracted.
Holding his phone beneath the table, he started sending her a string of text messages. Maybe she was too upset to talk but would still read his texts.
Toni, the woman who answered my phone this morning was my mother.
She was just joking with you.
She didn’t know you were my girlfriend.
Please answer your phone.
You’re killing me.
I know I once said I didn’t know if I could be faithful to one woman.
But I can.
I can if that one woman is you.
Toni.
Please respond.
Please.
Toni.
He might as well stop typing his guts out to her. The messages weren’t going through as delivered anyway.
“Are you feeling okay?” his mom asked, even checking his forehead for fever.
“Just worried about Toni. Can you take me back to the hotel? Maybe she’ll answer if I call her from a landline.”
“I’m sorry I messed things up for you,” Mom said.
“I’m sure it’ll work out. She’s a reasonable person. I just really need to talk to her and explain things.”
“Of course.”
When they pulled up to the hotel lobby about twenty minutes later, Mom grabbed Logan’s arm to keep him in the car a moment longer.
“I don’t want to hear any excuses out of you when I invite you to our Labor Day barbecue this year. You’re coming.”
“I’ll have to check my schedule. If I remember correctly, we’ll be touring in Indonesia in September.”
“You can’t keep blowing me off. I need to see you more often,” she insisted.
He smiled. He never thought he’d hear her say that and believe that she meant it. “Definitely.”
“And I need to meet this girl who has you out of your head.”
Logan laughed at his transparency. “Definitely.” He leaned over and kissed his mother’s cheek and hugged her the best he could given the hindrance of her seat belt.
“Please offer Toni my apologies for upsetting her.”
Staring into his eyes, Mom pet his curls as if he were her favorite lap dog. He didn’t mind in the least.
“You’ll have to do that yourself when you meet her.”
If Mom ever got to meet her. First he had to set things straight and if Toni didn’t answer her phone or read his texts, he was going to have to hunt the woman down and reassure her—and himself—that everything was all right between them.
On the elevator, he checked his phone, praying he’d somehow missed a text or an email or a call. Nothing.
The elevator stopped on the third floor and the door slid open. Logan had never been more happy to see Butch in his entire life, and the man had gotten him out of some real jams in the past.
“Butch! Are you busy?”
“Never too busy for you.” He grinned crookedly beneath his mustache. Logan wondered how quickly the band would fall apart if this man ever left them to their own devices.
“I need to use the jet after the show tonight,” Logan said.
“Let me guess,” Butch said with a wry grin. “You want to go to Seattle. And you want a car waiting with gifts of chocolates and flowers and sex toys and socks.”
Logan laughed, not even caring that he was so easy to read. “Actually, I thought