Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [24]
“Oh, leave him be. Maybe he’s the strong, silent type,” Pepper said. “Is that right, Megan?”
Megan, who was seated on the stool to his right, darted a glance in his direction. Not a nervous I’m-embarrassed-by-the-question glance, but more of an evaluating glance as if sizing him up. Whoa, that had unexpected connotations, he thought as he got hard. Apparently not all parts of his body were too tired to party.
“So, Megan, what do you say?” Logan raised an eyebrow. “Am I the strong, silent type?”
“I don’t really know you well enough to say.”
“How did you two meet?” Pepper asked.
“At my cousin’s wedding,” Megan said. “That’s why I’m wearing this dress.”
“You wore black to a wedding?”
“It was a black-and-white wedding with red roses.”
“Sounds striking. So you ran off together. How romantic. Logan clearly had time to change out of his suit into jeans. But he couldn’t wait for you to change your clothes before sweeping you off.”
“To Last Resort? Who in their right mind would want to be swept off to this place?” Chuck said.
Pepper smacked Chuck’s arm hard enough to make him wince. “Don’t you go insulting our fine town.”
“How many people actually live here?” Logan asked. There went his damn curiosity again.
“Not many,” Chuck said vaguely.
“How about some breakfast to go with that coffee?” Rowdy suggested. “You’re looking at one of the best short-order cooks in the West. One of the fastest too. How do you want your eggs?” Without waiting for an answer he said, “Over-easy sounds good. I can do that with one hand tied behind my back.”
“Now, Rowdy, you know what happened the last time you tried that,” Pepper said. “You made a mess. You need both hands.”
“The magic is all in the fingers.”
“Cappy isn’t going to like you cooking in his kitchen.”
“Cappy isn’t here right now.”
“Where is he?” Logan asked. He was starting to feel like he’d stepped into a Twilight Zoneepisode or something. Were these three seniors the only inhabitants of this ghost town?
“Sleeping off a hangover.” Rowdy moved into the kitchen, though Logan still had a clear view from his seat at the counter. “Okay, people, stand back and observe the master at work.”
To Logan’s surprise, Rowdy was as good as his word. Using one hand, he cracked eggs and deftly dropped them on the grill before tossing the shells over his shoulder into the garbage with Michael Jordan precision.
“Show-off,” Pepper said fondly.
Rowdy beamed. “I told you I hadn’t lost my touch.”
Something about the guy reminded Logan of his granddad. At least Logan had been able to briefly touch base with Buddy while Megan had used the rest room at the pancake house back in Las Vegas. The truth of the matter was Logan never thought he’d be gone this long.
Checking his watch, he realized it was almost nine in the morning. Okay, they hadn’t been gone twelve hours yet. But it seemed like a lot longer than that.
He glanced over at Megan and wondered if she felt the same way. She’d been through a hell of a lot in a short period of time. Finding out your mom wasn’t dead had to be rough. His own mom was very much alive and kicking, still furious with Logan’s dad even though they’d been divorced for years now.
His mother lived in one of Chicago’s famous brick bungalows on the South Side with his Polish grandmother, who made the best pierogies on the planet. Chicago had a huge Polish population—which his grandmother, who’d been born in Warsaw, took great pleasure in reminding him of every time he saw her for dinner on the first Sunday of every month.
He used to be joined at the family dinners by his two younger brothers, Aidan and Connor, but Aidan was now on the Seattle police force and Connor was a sheriff in a small town in Ohio.
Logan had added another brother his first day on the job when he’d met Will Riley. Logan rubbed a clenched fist across his forehead. No, he couldn’t think of that now. He had to block out the grim memories.
“There you go,” Rowdy said, sliding plates across the counter to him and Megan.
Logan started eating automatically.
“It’s good,” Megan said, daintily