Rescued

Chapter Ten

Sheridan may not have actually been walking the dreaded walk of shame, but she sort of felt like it as she let herself into the house. She was still wearing her dress from the night before although now it was wrinkled and smelled like Logan, but she had decided to carry her shoes. She dropped them, along with her purse and keys on the side table as she entered.

Sheridan propped her back against the door and glanced around the room. The quiet room that looked the same as it did the day before and the day before that, but felt lonelier each time she was there. She closed her eyes for a minute, picturing the last time Payton had been there with her.

How could she have been so blind to his turmoil? She wasn't, she had just turned a blind eye to it. But why? She knew the answer, but admitting it made her hate herself all the more. She had resented him for getting her into this mess. She had hoped that this would be the game to break him. To make him realize he needed more; something better - that he deserved something better. They both did.

Sheridan pushed herself away from the door and drifted toward the kitchen in search of caffeine. She didn't care if it was hot or cold - she just needed it. Her head was pounding. She settled on pouring some Coke over ice and tossing back two Tylenol when she noticed her machine blinking.

It was old school, but she and Payton kept it for work purposes. "You have two messages..." Ugh. Sheridan hated listening to the robotic voice on the machine - it was like scratching nails down a chalkboard to her, but she waited for the first one.

"Sher, this is Foster - just checking in - call me."

She cringed again when she heard, "Next message..." Then almost dropped her glass at the sound of Payton's voice. "Sher? Sher? Are you there?" There was some background noise and someone talking but she couldn't tell if the person was male or female. "Ok! Ok - I got to go. I'm okay." And then the line disconnected.

Why had he called the house phone and not her cell? Sheridan set the glass on the counter and ran to her purse, digging for her phone. She groaned when she realized it was on silent and she had three missed calls - two from Foster and one from a blocked number. She scrolled through her voicemails but only had one from Foster. The other was just a hang up.

"Damn it," she cursed to no one at all.

Her phone vibrated in her hand, startling her and giving her hope for a second that Payton was calling back. When she looked at the screen it was Logan.

"Hello?"

He must have been able to tell by the sound of her voice she was shaken up. "You okay? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah - I'm fine. I had a message from Payton this morning on our machine at home. I had a missed call from a blocked number on my cell too. He sounded fine, but rushed."

"Listen, think of it in positive terms - he's alive. I could put a call into a buddy of mine about doing a trace and trying to recover the number but we will be playing poker before he could likely get it."

"Yeah, no, that's not necessary. I mean, I want to do everything we can, but there's no sense wasting time and efforts on things that will probably not pay out."

Pay out. Isn't that what everyone wanted?

"What time do you want me to pick you up for rehearsal?"

"It's at two today, but we will need to go by the garage to get the car. Around one okay?"

"That works." Logan was quiet for a heartbeat. "It's going to be okay, Sheridan."

She smiled to herself and thanked him before disconnecting.

In her bedroom, Sheridan stripped off her clothes, dumped them in the hamper and then dove head first into bed. She just needed a little more sleep before getting ready to face the day and whatever it may bring.

***

Logan took a bite of the burnt toast then spit it out in the trash. It did taste as bad as it looked. He dumped the rest and tossed the plate in the sink before reaching in an upper cabinet to grab a box of cereal. He was hungry but not for Fruit Loops.

He wanted her. And that scared him a bit because no woman had gotten under his skin this way. Ever. It was more than just attraction; he wanted to protect her, to make her laugh, to comfort her, just to be. To be anything and everything she could or would need.

Logan found his bowl empty when he finally got out of his own damn head. In what he considered a total chick move he had eaten without even thinking about it; his mind trying to come to terms with what the hell was going on and what to do about it.

What did he want to do about it?

Part of him wanted to find Payton Ramsey as quickly as possible so that Sheridan Ramsey could get the hell out of his life. Then he could go back to his normal, but the other part wanted her no matter what and worried about what would happen when the case closed.