All of Me: A Small Town Romance (The Bridesmaids Club Book 1)

Chapter 4

Logan sat outside Tess' café for over half an hour. He knew she lived in the apartment above her store. He'd overheard her telling one of her friends about the color she'd painted her living room. He also knew she liked hot chocolate, raspberry muffins, and going to the movies. What she didn't like were reporters. Or more specifically, reporters with runaway mouths and limited amounts of common sense.

His sister and niece had gone back to Seattle. He felt like an idiot, making Tess out to be something she wasn't. It had started as fun, but soon fell into bad joke status.

He should have known better.

Sitting in his truck wouldn't change what he needed to do. It was getting late and he didn't even know if Tess was home. With nothing but his pride left to lose, he walked across the sidewalk and looked at the wall beside the front door. No bell.

Stepping off the sidewalk, he stared at the windows above the café. He might have to find a stone, throw it at one of the glass panes, and hope like crazy that nothing broke. But before he did that, he'd try to find another entrance.

Angel Wings Café shared its Main Street location with a craft store, a florist, a bookstore, and a women's fashion boutique. Each of the buildings were old, maybe over a hundred years old. They were connected by a pale blue porch and matching hanging baskets full of flowers.

Walking past the fashion boutique, he turned right down a narrow driveway. The owners of the stores must use the area behind their businesses for parking but, right now, no one was coming and going.

Along the back wall of each building was a fire escape. Taking a deep breath, he headed up the metal staircase that led to Tess' apartment.

Her door opened on his second knock. Tess had her cell phone against her ear, talking to someone. When she saw him, her cheeks turned red and she frowned.

Yeah, he thought. She wanted him standing at her back door about as much as he wanted to be there.

"I'll call you back soon." She disconnected the call and stared at him.

Logan cleared his throat. "I want to apologize. I shouldn't have given my sister the impression you were my girlfriend."

The frown on Tess' face didn't disappear and he couldn't blame her. She probably had men dropping at her feet every day. At six-foot tall, she wasn't the type of person you could easily overlook. And with shoulder-length blond hair and cornflower-blue eyes, she was more beautiful than anyone he'd ever met.

Tess sighed. "Apology accepted. I hope you told your sister the truth."

"I told her we're friends."

Tess' frown deepened. "You know what she'll think, don't you?"

"That we're friends?" he said hopefully.

"Only if she doesn't care one way or the other, and I didn't get the feeling she was that type of person."

Tess was right. Jacqui cared about everyone in their family. Deeply. And sometimes, when life became too hard, his sister's love was the only thing that kept him sane.

"If you get a call from your mom, I refuse to wear a tulle wedding dress. It makes my hips look as wide as a bus."

His gaze dropped to Tess' hips. They could look like a lot of things, but a bus didn't come close. Then his brain caught up with his hormones. "Wedding?"

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "How old are you?"

"Thirty-two."

"Have you had a serious girlfriend in the last three or four years?"