‘Right.’
‘I hope I didn’t put my foot in it but I asked about his mommy.’ She tried to sound discreet and jolly all at once. As though she wasn’t prying. ‘But he only said he didn’t have a mommy, he had a nana.’
Logan didn’t answer, but what did it say about her that she spotted a tiny tell-tale tightening of his jaw?
It says that you’re paying way too much attention to the guy.
She fought to shut down the reproachful voice but it was apparently on a roll.
And to his private life.
‘I’m sorry,’ she managed, her eyes sliding away in embarrassment, trying to focus on the little boy instead of his father. ‘It’s really none of my business.’
Out of her peripheral vision she could see him do that curt nod thing of his and then, suddenly he said, ‘Let’s just say that she isn’t around.’
Kat snapped her head up.
‘Oh, I saw the ring, I just thought...’
‘I keep it on because it deters interest.’
She wasn’t sure who seemed more astonished at the admission, but then those shutters came back down, just as they had back at the hospital.
Kat opened her mouth to convey her condolences then closed it again. If the boy—Jamie’s—mommy had died, wouldn’t Logan have just said that? Instead, he’d been guarded, as though he’d been about to say where she was but had decided against it. Because it revealed too much about him? Or about his boss?
Was it just more secrets and closed doors—like when his party had been brought into the ER earlier? Not that she cared. Seattle General had its fair share of VIPs, but as far as she was concerned patients were patients.
Not that the head of PR would likely agree.
Nonetheless, now she knew that when Logan had reacted, back in that cons
ultation room, to her comment about having someone to care for him, he’d meant his son. Not a woman. Not a wife. Not, apparently, even a girlfriend.
‘Anyway...’ he drew her back to the present ‘...thanks for looking after Jamie. We were lucky you were here.’
‘It’s fine.’ She waved her hand dismissively, unable to shake the idea that she needed to walk away now. Before she found she couldn’t. ‘Anyway...bye.’
There was no reason for that to be so hard to say. She thought he paused for a fraction longer than was necessary and her stomach somersaulted. Then Logan dipped his head instead.
‘Bye.’ He turned around to walk away. ‘Actually...’
She spun back around with shameless haste, not that Logan seemed to notice. He seemed to busy wrestling with his own thoughts.
‘Jamie and I were going to get an ice cream—can I buy you one? To say thanks, I mean.’
Vaguely, she could hear the dim voice inside her head warning her that it was a bad idea. Then another voice drowned the first one out. An ice cream wasn’t going to hurt, was it?
‘They sell coffee, if you’d prefer,’ Logan said, misinterpreting her hesitation.
She carefully ignored the first, logical voice. Instead, she wandered down the path towards them, and felt her mouth curve up into the most relaxed, genuine smile she’d managed all week.
‘An ice cream would be perfectly lovely. Thank you.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘SO, DID YOU sleep with him?’ Gemma asked a few days later.
Images of Logan whirled around Kat’s head as she spun around to see Gemma grinning at her.