walk-up counter, but Logan picked up the subject of family again when they found seats near the back of the restaurant. Sam nodded and followed him when he pointed to the booth against the wall.
“So, is your family nearby?” he asked. The restaurant was on a corner, with two entrances, one on either of the facing streets. He popped the top on his bottled iced tea and took a large gulp, letting his gaze take in the people surrounding them.
A family with two young kids at the table next to them; four men in suits on the other side; a few tables with only one person, all looking like they came from the surrounding office buildings. Two police officers in uniforms in the far corner.
From his position, Logan could watch the two doors, but he wasn’t so close to either entrance that people caught him off guard when opening the door. As Samantha began to talk, he found the churning in his gut slowing. He could almost pretend he was normal in her presence. She sure as hell did a good job of acting like he was, even though he was pretty sure nothing was getting by her.
Sam nodded. “My parents are in Massachusetts, an easy drive on the weekends, and most of my siblings are spread out in this area. Two in New York City, another in New Jersey, and two in Philly.”
“So you guys are all close?”
She gave a funny tilt of her head back and forth and a little shrug of a shoulder. “As close as one can be to a family of jocks and prom queens when you skipped three grades and were more focused on writing code than you were on fitting in.”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “You hardly seem like a black sheep.”
She shrugged a shoulder again, mumbled something about not quite fitting the mold and quickly changed the subject. He let her.
“What about you? Do you have family nearby?”
Logan shook his head no. “Only my dad and he’s up in New Hampshire.”
“No sisters and brothers?”
“Nope.”
There was an uncomfortable lull and he felt like a jackass for being so short. Family wasn’t something he had fond memories of. His dad was an alcoholic who served as little more than an embarrassment to Logan growing up. They didn’t have a relationship. After Logan’s mother had died when he was seven, he’d essentially raised himself.
Logan had been a bit of an outcast in school as well. He was more into computers and books than a lot of the kids in his school, and he’d been scrawny growing up.
When he’d started getting his ass kicked on the playground every day, he’d signed himself up for karate lessons. And that was how he and Zach met and became best friends. Zach was a brother to him now. They’d taken care of each other. Still did.
Sam cut into his thoughts, and into the stiff silence. “So, Jack has you looking at Kleintech? Is he thinking of pulling the plug on their funding?”
“Maybe not pulling it altogether, but at least sending some of us in to oversee things for a while. It looks like Arty Klein is a brilliant scientist, but not exactly a crack businessman. Jack is pretty sure if we straighten things out on the business side, the technology is still worth the investment. I’m planning to send Jaxon down there next week so he can go over the books and streamline things.”
“Jaxon Cutter.” She looked like she was running through a computer in her head, and from what he’d heard about Sam from Jack and Zach, that made sense. If what they’d told him was true, Sam was easily the smartest woman he’d ever met and he’d worked with some crazy intelligent women in the military.
Sam could hack just about any program and he wouldn’t be surprised to hear she had an eidetic memory.
She began to spout off what sounded like a summary of Jaxon’s military service record. “Honorable discharge two years ago, Navy Corpsman to the Marines, a couple of bullets took his spleen, a piece of one lung, and his left leg below the knee. A lot of his record is redacted. I thought about hacking it, but Jennie has told me I shouldn’t dig into the personal lives of people I know. Apparently, it’s rude.”
Logan found himself squirming now, realizing Sam had probably read about each of his injuries as well. She might even be aware of the struggle he had even walking some days,