Choosing Happily Ever After - Elena Aitken Page 0,47
it at all.
“Let me help you with that.” He bent and started collecting the totes and lids before she could object.
“I’ve got it.” Faith tried to take a lid from his hand, but he held fast. “Logan! I said, I’ve—”
She tugged as she spoke and when Logan released his grip, she toppled backward, landing hard on her ass on the sidewalk. “Got it,” she finished lamely.
“Faith, I’m sorry.” Logan stood over her, a genuine look of apology on his face as he offered her his hand. “Are you—”
“I’m fine, Logan.” She pushed past his hand and got to her feet. “I don’t need your help.” Her words came out even more harshly than she’d intended and immediately she felt badly. That was, until he spoke again.
“You never did, did you, Faith.”
His words bit through her, but he’d turned to walk away before she could retaliate.
“What does that even mean?” she called after him but he didn’t turn around. “Logan!” she yelled, hating herself even as she did it. “What does that mean?”
If Levi spent any more time sulking around the house, his aunt was going to sit him down with a big bowl of her homemade soup and not let him up until he’d confessed everything. And if she didn’t get to him, Katie would get there first.
The problem was, Levi didn’t know what he would confess to. Or what he’d even say.
Hope had cancer.
Hope wanted to have a baby.
Hope didn’t want his baby.
He had no idea where to start or what to say, or hell, even what to feel.
After he’d left her house two nights earlier, he’d gotten in his truck and driven in a state of shock. It was over ten minutes and many miles before he noticed he’d missed the turn to the Langdon ranch. Uncaring, he’d pulled to the edge of the logging road and scrambled down the bank to the river below. The water soothed him. It always had. When he’d been a kid, it had been the creeks, streams, and rivers that he’d be drawn to. As well as the lake down the highway, of course, but only when it wasn’t full of tourists or boatloads of people partying. It was the solitude he craved. The sound of the water, and the ability to think and let his mind grow still.
It’s what drew him to the coast and ultimately the fishing boats where he’d spent his years. The work was hard. Very hard. Even after a lifetime mostly growing up on a ranch, Levi hadn’t been fully prepared for how physically challenging the work would be. For days, every muscle in his body ached and protested against the work. He might have quit, too, like so many of the new recruits did, but Levi found he actually liked the strain on his muscles. The aches and pains reminded him that he was alive when every other part of him felt lost and dead to the life he’d had back on the ranch.
And then there was the lure of the sea. When everything else was lost—his dreams, his love, the ranch, his cousins, his aunt, and the life he’d had—he had the roll of the ocean beneath his feet, the smell of the salty air, and the gentle lap of the waves as they washed up on the dock when they were in port. Those years had cleared his head in a way that he’d never expected. In that time away, he’d gained perspective, grown up, learned a lot. Mostly about himself. But the world, too.
But all of the learning and growing he’d done could never have prepared him for the heartache that ripped through his body now. Never in his life, not when he’d left Glacier Falls and Hope behind the first time, not when he’d watched a crew member succumb to his injuries after a terrible fishing accident, and not even when his mother had died when he was only a boy had Levi experienced the type of full body pain that could only be caused by a broken heart.
The type of pain he was experiencing now and, for the first time, being near the water didn’t calm him. It didn’t soothe him or clear his head or relieve any of the pressure that was building in his head. It made it worse.
Which was why he’d spent the last few days shuffling between his bed and the couch. And also why his auntie and cousin were about ready to drag him into reality