The Promise of Us (Sanctuary Sound #2) - Jamie Beck Page 0,97
them, where Steffi, Ryan, Ben, and their parents were gathered and laughing. What she’d now give for comfortable conversation without subtext and tension.
She swigged more champagne, counting the minutes until others finished their chicken piccata so that dessert could be served. It’d better be chocolate. If the portions were tiny, she might steal Logan’s, too.
Logan didn’t know what had changed this evening, but he noted a shift in Claire’s attitude from when they’d first arrived. Had he left her alone too long? Had Karina said something to upset her? Was it Peyton?
“Take a walk with me,” he whispered.
“Now?” She polished off his chocolate mousse cake, having already wolfed down her own.
“Is that a problem?”
“Well, I don’t want to miss the end of the auction.”
“We’ll walk by the items you want and make a final bid.”
“Okay.” She stood, wobbling slightly. He handed her Rosie and took her other arm until he was certain she was steady.
When they got to the auction tables, they wandered to the two she’d most wanted, while he stole a glance at those US Open tickets. The bid was up to twelve seventy-five. After making sure she wasn’t looking, he bid sixteen hundred, hoping that would be enough to keep others from outbidding him.
He went to her side. “Let’s go outside for a minute. I could use some fresh air, after all that time with my dad.” And she’d had a lot to drink, so the chill might sober her up a bit.
“I thought you two formed a truce.”
“We did, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy.” He opened the French doors where he’d been photographing Peyton.
“It’s chilly out here.” She shivered.
He wrapped his arms around her. “Did my family make you uncomfortable?”
“No.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Did Karina?”
“No. Why?” Her brows pinched together.
“You drank a lot tonight. I sense something is off now, but I don’t know what. Is it because I disappeared for a while?”
“I already told you, no. I can survive thirty minutes on my own, especially here. I’ve more friends and family in there than you do.” Her defensiveness suggested she’d overstated her case, but he still didn’t know why.
“Okay.” He wanted things to return to how they’d been for the past few weeks, so he kissed her. Unlike every other time, she pursed her lips and pulled away. He released her with a huff. “Claire. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She glanced at the door. “Won’t they be announcing the auction winners soon?”
“Yes, but I want to settle this tension first.”
She sighed and spun away, walking to the edge of the patio and grabbing hold of a pillar. “I’ve realized some things tonight, and one of them is that this”—she gestured between them—“has to end.”
He hadn’t known what to expect, but it wasn’t that. “Right now?”
“I wasn’t going to say anything until we got home, but I guess there’s no point in putting it off. You’re leaving for Greece in another week—a fact you failed to mention. Not that it matters, because you’ll always be going off on assignments, often with women with whom you have a ‘fluid’ relationship, like Karina.
“After speaking with her and thinking about things, it struck me. The truth is . . . the truth is that I’m not good at being fluid. I’ve tried it your way, but I disagree that a happy life is one lived only in the moment. I also disagree that goals and expectations make me too rigid to enjoy life. Being loved, having real friends, starting a family . . . these things matter to me. They do make me happy.
“You—let’s be honest—you’ve meant so much more to me throughout our lives than I ever meant to you. We came into this thing on unequal footing—something I should be used to by now.” She wryly nodded at Rosie. “I have nothing but love for you, Logan. You’re exciting and charming and, at heart, a good guy. These past couple of weeks have been like a dream, but it’s time to wake up. Our needs are incompatible, so you should stick to women like Karina, and I’ll keep searching for someone more like me.”
Love. She’d said she loved him. Not exactly in a declarative sense, but that word shimmered between them like the beautiful last bits of glitter before a firework extinguishes. He’d never used that word, not really. Not the way she meant it.
He crossed to her and reached for her hands. “But I don’t want Karina, or women like her. I want you.”