His brows rose. “Any chance of y’all getting back together?”
I swallowed hard.
He didn’t know, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked that question.
I shook my head resolutely.
“That was just the final nail in the coffin,” I admitted. “What Luca and I had was childhood stuff. It was sweet and innocent, but it wasn’t something that would be able to carry into adulthood.” I scrubbed my hands over my face. “But I…he went missing while deployed.”
“Fuck,” he said softly. “He’s still missing, isn’t he?”
I nodded once. “Yeah.”
“It’s really, really sucky when your sixth sense seems to come true,” he admitted. “I get those gut feelings all the time. Feelings that something is wrong, and I shouldn’t do something. That happened the day my dad died.”
My head jerked up. “It did?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I think that was what I was feeling that night. Something was wrong. Something had me out there, doing stupid shit. I hadn’t done anything that drastic at that point. Mostly I just stayed in my apartment and drank.”
She made a sound in the back of her throat.
“What did you do afterward?” I asked.
I squeezed my hands into fists.
“Not much, actually. I couldn’t make myself get close to him,” I said. “I saw it all….but Jesus. The person that hit him didn’t slow down. Didn’t swerve. Didn’t anything. Just ran right into him, and he wasn’t even in the road. Hit him so hard that it threw him thirty feet in the air. Killed him instantly, and the lady he was assisting on the side of the road.”
My face sank. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry, Logan.”
He shrugged. “But that day…I went by the police station on my way home. I stopped by and ate lunch with him. I’m not sure why. I never do. But that day, we got out of work early because the air conditioners stopped working, and I just had this voice in my head telling me to go see him.”
My hands went to my stinging nose. “Your sixth sense was telling you something was going to happen. God, that time you got to spend with him…I bet you both cherish it and hate it.”
“I wish I would’ve made him wait just a little bit longer,” he admitted. “He pulled me over, and God, he was so mad at me. He wanted to wrap his hands around my neck. I could tell he was pissed. So pissed, in fact, that he didn’t even look at me as he drove straight past me and went to offer that person assistance. But maybe if I’d made him talk to me…”
“Your dad sounds like the type of man to not let someone struggle if he could offer assistance,” I admitted. “With what you’ve told me about him so far. I highly doubt, even if you’d wanted him to, that he would’ve stayed when there was someone that needed help. And, if you hadn’t gone and eaten with him…you wouldn’t have had that time with him right before he died.”
“He told me he was proud of me,” Logan said. “That I was the best thing he’d ever been given in life.”
I swallowed hard. “Shit, that’s eerie. It’s like y’all both somehow knew.”
“I didn’t mean to start any shit with your dad,” he suddenly said. “I just…I don’t ignore those feelings anymore. If my mind says do something, and it’s one of those feelings, I do it.”Chapter 11Most women say they like a man’s jawline, his smile, possibly his eyes. Me? I’m more of a penis woman.
-Text from Katy to Logan
Logan
“Come here,” I said to her, holding my hand out to her.
She came without protest, scooting toward me until she was pressed against me from knee to shoulder.
I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her even closer.
“This missing man,” I said. “The ex-boyfriend. What was the feeling that you had? Why did you break up with him?”
She sighed.
“My mother was so pissed at me when I broke up with Luca. God. Like, no joke. She was mad. My dad was mad. Nobody could understand,” she explained. “But…every time I thought about him going over there, doing those dangerous things? I just…these shivers broke out all over my body, and I got really cold. I’ve had lots of friends and relatives join the military. Hell, even my own brother is in the military right now. But, saying that? I never once got scared about dropping my brother off at boot camp. I don’t freak out when he’s out of contact for more than a month when it was only supposed to be a week. I’m…okay. But with Luca? I was seriously scared to death.”
“That night that I followed you sleepwalking?” I asked. “I had this feeling that I needed to do something. That was why I followed you and stayed with you. I didn’t want to wake you up, either.”