Storm Damage - C.P. Smith Page 0,56

know what had happened in this room, but the memories assaulted me anyway, causing my heart to race.

“You ready?” I asked, while I pulled on my coat. Snow had been threatening all day and was now falling steadily. In Montana we didn’t call off football games for a mild snowfall. It took a blizzard to interrupt sports in Ennis.

Josh didn’t look up from the bed as I headed to the door. He leaned down and tugged at something in the bedsheets, then lifted his hand my direction with a funny look on his face. “I hope these are yours.”

My eyes dropped to his hand and I froze. Red silk panties hung from one of his fingers. And they weren’t mine. I blinked to make sure I was seeing correctly, then looked back at the bed. The sheets were tangled together, but I was positive I would have noticed another woman’s undergarments in bed with Logan and me.

I raised a shaking hand toward the red silk but dropped it when Rachel passed the door on her way to the stockroom and gasped, “Oh, my God. I thought . . . I thought I grabbed everything. I, um, changed in your, uh, office. I must have left them.”

Her eyes darted around the room but never met mine, giving the appearance she was lying, making up her story on the fly like a teen who’d been caught red-handed. But I knew better. If it had been anyone but Rachel who’d claimed the silk panties, I might have reacted differently, would have been crushed, but Jamie had mentioned Rachel used my office to change right before the doors opened. And the outfit she was wearing wasn’t the same as the one she’d arrived in. She’d just told the truth about changing but lied about grabbing everything, hoping I’d react to the lie and break things off with Logan. If I had, she could have sighed dramatically to Logan about my reaction and not lie when she admitted that she had, in fact, told me the truth. I’d have looked like a shrew if I accused him of sleeping with her and she would have been happy to comfort Logan when I walked out of his life. I may not have vast experience with men, but I’d watched Rachel for two years and knew how she operated. Her motto had always been ‘all’s fair in love and war.’

“No biggie. I knew you changed in here.”

Rachel blinked then looked at Josh, surprised I’d let it go. “Well, that’s good. I wouldn’t want you to think anything happened between Logan and me while you were gone last night.”

I smiled slowly because she was still trying to imply there’d been an opportunity the night before. “It would be hard for you to have slept with Logan last night when he was out until almost seven this morning helping with Frank’s death and then he was with me, in that bed, until an hour before opening.”

Josh choked on a cough at my reply then mumbled, “Christ, Skylar, fifteen-year-old in the room,” before leaving Rachel and me alone, chuckling as he went.

One brother down, one to go. Jake would be the hardest to accept my relationship with Logan. He was overprotective and still didn’t trust Logan fully.

Rachel raised an eyebrow and then scanned me from head to toe. “I misjudged you. I was certain Pollyanna would take the bait.”

“Pollyanna?”

“Yep. I thought for sure you would hold out for a wedding ring before you rode the sausage express, but I clearly misjudged you. Good for you.” She grinned, then raised her hand in a fist and waited for me to bump mine with hers.

I puzzled over her reaction then raised my fist and bumped hers. “Does this mean you’ll stop flirting with Logan?”

Rachel snorted. “I flirt in my sleep, so probably not. My rule is this, until there’s a wedding ring on a finger, anything can happen. I draw the line at going after a married man. However, making sure a hot specimen like Logan is aware of his options, is more of a public service. If he takes me up on my advances, I’m doing you a favor, right?”

It was my turn to blink. With friends like Rachel, who needed enemies?

“Then I’ll point out that firing any woman going after my man, or anyone else’s man, ring or not, is also a public service.”

She grinned slowly then inclined her head in defeat. “Man, I really had you pegged wrong. You’ve

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