Beautifully Knight (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #5)

Fantasies and Fundraisers

-LOGAN-

A sigh of both relief and frustration escaped my lips as I hit send on yet another email and watched my unread count go down by one. I still had way too many emails left, but at least I was finally more than halfway through responding to my long list of construction questions, business inquiries, and timeline adjustments.

Of course, I wasn't actually sending the emails out yet—they were all scheduled to be auto-delivered sometime during working hours in the morning so that I could appear to be a sane business person instead of a nocturnal maniac conducting administrative affairs at almost 2 AM in a back corner booth of a hole-in-the-wall bar.

My customer base didn't need to know that I was crafting my responses about multimillion-dollar projects in between watching Red Sox highlights and chugging down cheap beer. Thanks to technology, I could keep that little secret to myself.

"Refill before last call?"

I pulled my eyes away from my screen as my fingers typed Regards, Logan Knight for the millionth time and trained them on the bouncy redhead that had been not-so-subtly hovering around me all night.

Business at the Beantown Tavern was understandably slow—it was a Monday night in the middle of the summer in a corridor of the city that primarily consisted of college kids. The area was relatively vacant and all the landlords and shop owners were counting down the days 'till late August rolled around again. Still, for some reason, I got the sense her lingering went a little beyond fishing for tips as she leaned in just enough for me to catch a glimpse down the deep v-neck of her Celtics t-shirt.

I cleared my throat and put on a smile, "I think I've drunk a little too much already, but thank you."

"It's on the house," she insisted as our eyes met and she held up the condensation-covered pitcher in her hand. "Well it's on the house for you, hon," she winked and reached for my glass.

"I appreciate it, but—"

"You're here for Hail, I know," she aptly plopped down in the booth opposite me and leaned in once again. "I was just testing you. It's Landon, right?"

I arched an eyebrow, surprised, "Logan."

"Oh, right! Logan. Sorry. I'm horrible with names," she stuck her hand over my laptop and grinned. "I'm Molly Kinkirk, Hailey's best friend. I just want to say, I'm really, really glad to see you here tonight. I was starting to worry about her. I mean, I get law school is demanding, but we all need to get laid sometime, right?"

My face burned as I moved my eyes from Molly and over to the bar where Hailey was moving about and wiping off the countertop. As if she could feel my gaze from all the way across the room, she looked up and her eyes locked with mine for the millionth time that night.

The thunderous pounding of my heartbeat filled my ears and for a second, I forgot how to breathe.

I wasn't even supposed to still be here.

Originally, I'd planned to drop Hailey off at home, but after we'd gotten our needed items from the office building, she'd asked if I could drop her off at the bar where she worked because we'd gotten stuck in traffic and she didn't want to be late. Of course, I had agreed—it made no difference to me one way or the other.

After we arrived at the bar, I'd climbed out of my driver's seat and gone around to help her down from the truck and walk her to the door. That should've been the end of our interaction for the day, but she offered me dinner as repayment for the ride and after my stomach growled at the worst possible moment, she wouldn't take no for an answer.