“Was it bad?” I asked, running a finger across his bottom lip.
He dropped his forehead against mine but didn’t answer.
“Do you always sleep this late?” I tried to lighten the mood, since it was clear he wasn’t ready to speak about his loss.
He didn’t move his head away from mine when he shook his head. It was intimate the way he wanted to keep contact with me from head to toe, so I tightened my arms around his neck and held on.
“I fell back to sleep about an hour ago. There was a fire last night.”
“Frank’s place.” I swallowed nervously before asking. “Is he okay?”
He shook his head against mine and I closed my eyes to block out the pain. Tears formed for the sweet man who never hurt a soul. His family had been in Ennis for over a hundred years and beloved by everyone. Frank was in his late thirties but hadn’t married because owning a mortuary tended to creep women out. Now he was gone. The last remaining Wells. A family that helped found our tiny town.
I couldn’t control the tears for my sweet friend and my body began to shake with grief. Ennis was family. A single death rocked us to our core, even when age caught up with one of us. Each life was precious in our small community and left a hole.
Logan pulled me tighter into his body and rolled to the side, holding on while I silently cried for my friend, placing tender kisses on my forehead and neck to ease the pain. But the contact, though comforting, streaked across my nerve endings, causing a different type of sensation. One that woke me up in a different way. In a way I’d never had with a man.
They say that loss has a way of bringing what’s important into focus, and they’re right. It happened with my father. I hadn’t cared if I went back to school when my father passed away. The only thing that mattered was taking care of my brothers. Keeping us together. However, Frank’s loss hit me differently. His life was cut short by an accident, before he’d had a chance to find love or have a family. It brought into perfect clarity how fleeting life can be in the blink of an eye. I could die tomorrow, and everyone would say, “Oh, she was such a sweet girl. She tried so hard, but never got a chance to live. Such a shame.” And that scared the hell out of me.
When my father died, I was a kid on the cusp of adulthood, even though I’d been practicing for it since my mother died. But I’d been holding back on experiencing sex until I found the man who would hold my heart.
Ty had been my high school boyfriend. The kind who took you to dances and movies on Friday night. We’d been friends for so long, it just seemed natural to date. To practice with him until the right man came along. Deep down I knew he wasn’t my forever, and I think if he were honest, he’d say the same thing. Why else had he protected me for so long, yet never pushed our relationship past what it was now once I returned home. To me he acted more like an annoying older brother. One who would punch any guy who dared to touch his little sister, rather than a man in love.
When I ended things with Ty, it was for one reason. I was determined to find what my parents had. Determined to find a man who completed me so thoroughly, we didn’t know where one ended and the other began. I wanted a man who felt like coming home, who made me feel like my feet barely touched the ground when he was near. One who made the beat of my heart skip when he looked my direction. Like the one holding me right now while I cried for a friend.
Opening my eyes slowly, I stared at the man in front of me. Logan didn’t feel like practice. Hadn’t felt temporary from the moment we’d locked eyes. Even in those few hours when I was jealous of Kenzie, I still knew I could trust him without question. But it was more than trust now. We’d both felt it. He’d grounded me in a way no one else ever had, and in return I chased his ghosts away. We calmed demons for the other like two puzzle pieces