Moonlight on Nightingale Way(52)

Chloe made a face. “I didn’t friend her to friend her. I friended her for the purpose of snooping, and it paid off.”

“Ed really needs to get a job closer to home,” I murmured.

She ignored my dig. “Maia posted a selfie of her and Logan.”

I perked up. The thought of Logan posing for a selfie with his daughter made me feel all warm inside. “Let me see.”

Grinning, Chloe reached into her clutch and pulled out her phone. She played around with it for a few seconds and then passed it to me. She had brought up Maia’s profile on Facebook, and sure enough, her profile pic was a selfie of her and Logan.

It was adorable.

Maia was grinning widely into the camera, her cheek pressed to Logan’s as he gave that little smirk of his that was sexy even when he didn’t mean it to be. I scrolled through the comments and started to frown. “Look what these children are saying about Logan.”

“They’re fifteen and he’s hot.”

“It’s Maia’s father, not…” My mouth hung open. I pushed the phone in Chloe’s face, pointing to a comment. “Where did she learn about that? That is inappropriate. That… Bloody hell, that’s Layla.” I was aghast. “Okay, I think I need to curb how much time Maia is spending with that little dirty-mouthed… girl.”

“Ooh nice, Grace. You really got vicious there.”

“I’m not going to be vicious about a fifteen-year-old, even if she is cruder than porn.”

“Is it possible to be cruder than porn?”

“Depends on the porn,” the bartender said with a cheeky smile as he put my whisky in front of me. “Tab?”

I thought about Logan and Sharon. “Yes, please.”

“Back to the subject at hand,” Chloe said. “I don’t want to stop you from falling for this guy. Personally, I think he’s good for you.”

“How can you possibly think that? You haven’t even met him.”

“I know that you have this fire about you that I’ve never seen before. You have these new people in your life. You have Maia, whom you clearly adore.”

I decided it was time to tell her about Sharon the American.

“Och, that’s nothing.” Chloe dismissed it with a wave of her hand as soon as I was finished telling her about the events of the evening.

I was affronted by the dismissal. “You’re clearly not listening. I am not Logan’s type. At all. And he’s not even my type. I don’t know how this happened. But I do know that he’s never going to see me as anything but a friend, and I’m going to end up getting my heart broken if I don’t do something quickly.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow. “Did you hear what you just said? He’s not your type. And yet here we are discussing how you have feelings for him. Who is to say that he hasn’t developed feelings for you?”

I shook my head, frustrated by her attempts at encouragement rather than discouragement. “He flirts with women he finds attractive. I’ve witnessed it. He has never flirted with me. Ever. Chloe, all of his women look the same. And they don’t look like me. If he’s not looking to get serious with his type, he is definitely not looking to get serious with me. He’s just going to have shady hookups on the side with women he doesn’t want to bring home to his daughter. I’m not going to be a shady hookup, and I wouldn’t want to be.”

Chloe scowled. “What the hell is it you want me to say?”

“I want you to help me get over him. Before all of this I’d been on one bad date after another. A few of those you sent me out on. I’m asking you to dig deep and search hard and find me the best bloody date you’ve ever found anyone. It’s time to remake the magic of Aidan and Juno.”

My friend did not look happy. “But —”

“But nothing. Logan is a dead end. Find me a through road!”

Her eyes widened with amusement. “Fine. I’ll find you the most perfect date ever.”

“That’s what I’m talking about.” I clinked my glass against hers, feeling better already.

As Maia helped me load the dishwasher a few days later, she turned to Logan, who was sipping a beer at my counter. We’d just finished dinner together. Again. “Since it’s Friday, can we watch a movie tonight?”

“Have you done all your homework?”