‘You might not be laughing when those two colleagues tell the hospital that they saw us together,’ he pointed out instead.
Not that there was anything they could do about it now. He waited for the stab of regret to hit him. But it didn’t come.
‘You’re very much about being ordered and correct, I think.’ She tilted her head at him. ‘About protocol.’
He hadn’t really considered it like that before, Logan realised. But it made sense. First in the military, then as a bodyguard, his life had been about keeping things neat and squared away, whether it was his kit or the separation of his personal and private lives.
‘I suppose I am,’ he conceded eventually.
Except he’d been breaking his own rules ever since Kat had come into his life. And he could pretend it was about the way she had clicked with Jamie, but that would be pretending there hadn’t been that...frisson between them that first day when she had examined him.
‘At least, that’s the way I usually prefer it,’ he amended.
‘So it bugs you that colleagues have seen us together?’
He knew it ought to. But he found he felt remarkably, uncharacteristically, carefree.
‘Actually, no.’ Logan leaned on the doorframe and folded his arms over his chest as Jamie and Kat stopped to admire a Christmas-themed model train set in a window. ‘People love a good gossip, whether it’s those two or someone else.’
‘Those three, actually.’ She wrinkled her nose as though in apology. ‘There was someone you probably didn’t recognise in the last shop we went into. I just didn’t like to say anything.’
‘I guess that’s a new supply chain for the rumour mill, then.’
And even then he didn’t care, he was having so good an evening with Kat. Plus, it had turned out that her presence was helping him to connect a little better with his son.
He’d always thought he and Jamie had a good bond, but Kat had a knack of being able to interact with him on topics he’d never before considered but which seemed so obviously perfect for a four-year-old once she’d highlighted them.
‘You’re really good with him.’ The words tumbled out as the stood at the crossing and Kat entertained Jamie by singing funny kids’ Christmas tunes.
It had been intended as a throwaway remark, but something flitted across her features, too fast for him to read, reminding him of that night at his house when she’d mentioned the child she used to mind. Carrie or something.
Now, like then, she made a point of deflecting, putting it down to her nursing skills, and Logan nodded, as though he agreed.
But he filed it away for another time.
If he wanted to get to know Kat Steel a little better, then he had a hunch that the key lay somewhere in that.
For now he just watched her, and how happy Jamie was to have her around, and he felt more relaxed that he had in a long time.
Clearly Jamie was crying out for a younger female in his life, and he’d fallen for Kat’s charms—he couldn’t fault his son’s choice. And, all right, Kat might not be a long-term solution, but it was working for Jamie, and bringing him out of the shell he’d started to retreat into. When he weighed everything up, Logan calculated it could be good for his son—just as long as he kept some distance from Kat and kept reminding Jamie that she was just a temporary person in their lives,
And if that was also his own take-home message, then so what?
‘Daddy, Kat, look at all the trees,’ Jamie enthused a few moments later as they turned the corner to see the square full of Christmas trees—at least one hundred of them—all decorated differently.
Logan grinned as Kat allowed herself to be dragged along by the little boy as he—carrying the bags—merely lengthened his stride to keep up. They had enjoyed the sleigh ride, been to Santa’s grotto, and wandered through a snow village with little wooden sheds decorated to look like life-size gingerbread houses. Jamie had been thrilled and awestruck in equal measure.
But even Logan had to admit that the waves of trees, all decorated in their own unique way—some quirky, some traditional, and some absolutely breathtaking—looked pretty damned spectacular.
‘It’s the Christmas tree parade,’ Kat realised. ‘The public can judge them. Gemma told me about it—her niece entered a tree this year. You can buy tickets and there are several categories you can judge, like Most Beautiful, Most Fun, Most Original, et cetera, and you get to choose your favourites.’
‘Can we choose, Daddy? Please?’
‘It’s good fun,’ Kat encouraged, not even attempting to hide her bias.
‘Oh, it’s like that, is it?’ Logan laughed, and she nodded so preposterously that all he wanted to do was cup her face and kiss her.
‘It’s like that,’ she told him blithely, completely oblivious to his less than platonic thoughts.