Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [61]
“And you’re surprisingly good at flirting.”
She sat up straight. “You didn’t expect me to be a good flirt because I’m a librarian?”
“A hot librarian I want to kiss again. Does that surprises you?”
“I ... uh ... uhm.”
“Apparently it does. It shouldn’t.”
She reached for her water, but instead of reaching her glass, her fingers encountered his. He traced the top of her hand with his index finger. “I know I didn’t call you,” he said. He looked her in the eye and she couldn’t speak.
Damn, you’d think she’d be used to his brooding dark blue eyes, but no. They still had the power to get to her.
She licked her lips.
“You’re nervous,” he said. He lifted his finger to trace her lips. “You lick them when you’re nervous.”
They were interrupted by the arrival of their food, for which Megan was infinitely grateful. It gave her a chance to recover.
“This is really good,” Logan said after his first taste of his pot roast. “Just about as good as my mom makes.”
“If your mom is such a great cook, why do you need me to cook for you?”
He gave her a heated look. “Because you’re not my mom.”
Okay then. She took a quick bite of her mac and cheese.
“Speaking of family, I haven’t come up with anything new regarding your mother,” he said.
“Faith is going to help me with the search.”
“Does that mean you don’t need me anymore?”
“I didn’t say that.”
His beeper went off before she could elaborate. “It’s work. I’ve got to go.”
It was only after he was gone that she realized he’d hidden the check she’d given him beneath the money he’d left for his portion of the meal. Yet another example of how stubborn the man could be. She felt awkward being so indebted to him. Paying her portion of the motel bill from Last Resort was her way of maintaining her independence.
He’d said at the time that she could pay him back later. But when she tried to do so, he ignored her wishes. Cops were used to being in control, being the boss and being obeyed. All those traits made her leery about getting involved with Logan.
He hadn’t really displayed those more than any other guy, a little voice inside her said. Maybe his pride prevented him from accepting money from her.
Even so, she’d be wise not to forget that Logan was a cop first and foremost. Everything else came in second. It took a special kind of woman to deal with that kind of relationship. And Megan wasn’t at all sure she was that kind.
Chapter Thirteen
After careful consideration, Megan decided it was better to confront Gram about Buddy face-to-face rather than over the phone. With that approach in mind, Megan invited Gram to Saturday afternoon tea at her condo. “Or I could come to your place if you’d rather.”
“No, I need to get out,” Gram said. “I’ve been holed up here too long.”
“I’ll make up a pot of that tea you like and some chocolate chip scones.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
Megan tried not to feel guilty for not telling her grandmother that she also planned on talking to her about Buddy. It’s not like she was scamming her or anything.
Meanwhile, that gave her a few days to figure out what she was going to say to convince Gram. Megan reminded herself that she should also be trying to convince herself that getting involved with Logan was trouble in capital letters. The week passed by quickly with work taking up most of her time, both in the library and at home. She had to bring professional journals home to try and keep up.
The upcoming holidays were always crazy times at the library. They’d made it through Halloween okay. Next up was Thanksgiving. It didn’t escape Megan’s notice that this was a time for families, which made her situation with her mother all the more poignant. She’d lost track of how many times she’d stared at the photos of her mother at Woodstock. What was Astrid doing right now? Was she thinking about the holidays? Was she even in the country?
Thinking about it too much drove her crazy, so she instead concentrated on work. There was plenty of that to go around, especially regarding the ALA committee she