I shifted uncomfortably, hating to be the bearer of bad news. Even if it was to Logan. “I’m afraid Mr. Jenner made the mistake of mentioning Logan’s time in prison to Janice. Mr. Jenner is so nice, you see. He doesn’t realize that people like Janice… well… aren’t.”
The news caused Logan’s whole body to tense. Even his facial features tightened.
Shannon paled. “We thought everyone knew already. Are you saying now they know?”
For some reason I could not fathom, I felt an unpleasant sensation in my stomach and suddenly realized I felt bad for Logan.
Who would have thought?
“It makes no difference,” I hurried to assure them both. “Janice… well, we all know how unfriendly she can be. I wouldn’t worry. Everyone else will be fine.” I shrugged, not knowing what else to say. “It was lovely to meet you, Shannon.” I turned toward my door and then stopped. I glanced over my shoulder at Logan, who was staring at me in a way that made my breath catch.
He looked… disarmed.
I shook off my reaction to his reaction and said in what I hoped was a diplomatic tone, “If you could try to be a little more quiet, I’d appreciate it.”
Logan gave me a sharp nod. “Party noise I can lower. However, how loud women are in my bed is out of my control.”
“Oh, Logan.” Shannon made a comically disgusted face at his arrogance, and her brother broke out into a massive grin.
Once more I felt breathless at the sight of him smiling widely down at his sister. It was the first time I’d ever seen Logan MacLeod smile in a way that was pure and real and not tainted by mockery.
What a sight it was to behold.
Suddenly he looked at me, and our gazes locked.
Frantically I searched for a way to release myself.
Breathe, Grace. Breathe!
I blew out air between my lips and forced myself to lower my gaze. I opened my door and stepped inside. “As always, I’m charmed, Mr. MacLeod,” I said, wishing I’d injected more sarcasm into it.
I closed my door before he could say or do anything to throw me off-balance again.
CHAPTER 4
Just as I expected, Logan’s past became a nonissue once Janice moved out of our building. It seemed everyone, like me, was reassured by Mr. Carmichael that we were in no danger with Logan in the building. Despite my aggravation with my neighbor, I couldn’t help but wonder what it must be like for him in everyday society as an ex-convict. It would seem he’d fallen on his feet regarding a job – Mr. Carmichael owned Fire and had obviously offered Logan a position there. But surely that was about knowing the right person. Not everyone was a Mr. Carmichael. Janice was a great example. So whenever Logan had to fill out a form or explain absences for whenever it was he did his time, he had to face judgment.
In a way he was still doing his time.
I knew how deep the cut was when people refused to see beyond their own perceptions and judgments of you.
Despite myself, I think I really did feel bad for him. However, and I would never admit it out loud, I was incredibly curious to know what it was he’d been sentenced for. Clearly, it was a misdemeanor in conviction terms, right? Or Mr. Carmichael wouldn’t be so assured of his stability. Maybe that was naive of me, but I was blissfully ignorant in my naïveté and quite happy to be.
It helped that, as promised, Logan attempted to be more considerate with his noise levels. There was one instance over the next few weeks of loud sex, but there was no music or partying. When we passed each other in the stairwell, we offered a polite nod of acknowledgment, mostly because ignoring each other would be bad manners.
Life was returning to a sense of normality and I was even working at night again.
What I wasn’t doing was getting out much.
After the disastrous date with Bryan, which was really the fifth in a long line of disastrous dates, I felt more than a little gun-shy, but I was also bored. Chloe’s fiancé was home for a bit and Aidan was in focused “training mode.”
So when Chloe called me up at the beginning of the week to ask me if I fancied getting fixed up with a colleague of hers, I reluctantly said yes.
To my pleasant surprise, John was handsome in an old-fashioned kind of way and nervous upon meeting me in a way that was endearing. Half an hour into our dinner date, however, I was growing concerned by the quick rate at which he was consuming wine. It seemed he needed the alcohol as fortification to converse with me, and it also seemed he just didn’t know when to stop.
And John and alcohol apparently weren’t a good mix.
His dark eyes had been friendly and kind when he approached me in the restaurant. They were warm, even if his gaze did dart around the room anxiously as we chitchatted while deciding what to eat.