Command Control

Instead, a child who looked to be about ten quietly made her way through the crowd. The audience applauded, but the girl offered no sign of excitement. She simply walked up on stage and handed her ticket to Cindy.

“Congratulations, Charlotte!” Cindy said into the mic. She pointed off the other side of the stage. “He’s waiting for you right over there. Go claim your prize.”

She watched Charlotte march off the stage, still no signs of a smile. But even from a distance she could see the girl’s hands trembling slightly. Poor thing was probably nervous. Sadie shook her head. Logan had been so worried about the single women trying to cozy up to him, he’d forgotten about the people who saw him for what he was—a living, breathing hero.

* * *

LOGAN HAD SURVIVED the raffle. But he still had to face the winner. Judging from the grim expression on ten-year-old Charlotte Matthews’s face, she was on a mission. Logan had followed an Afghan warlord into battle, a man he wasn’t sure he could trust, while riding a horse for the first time, and he’d never flinched. But watching Charlotte march over to him, he felt a stab of panic. What if she was writing an article for her fourth-grade paper about his latest mission?

He’d gone to school with Charlotte’s mother. She’d been on the cheerleading squad with Jane. How was he going to get through lunch if he refused to answer the kid’s questions? Christ, just thinking about it made him feel like a jerk.

“Mr. Reed.” Charlotte stood in front of him, her hand extended.

Logan shook her small hand. “You can call me Logan.”

The little girl nodded solemnly and looked him straight in the eye. “Did you know my dad? He was a hero. Like you.”

Logan heard that one word—was—and he remembered. Charlotte Matthews’s father had died last year. Right around the same time Jane had passed away. He’d been hit by an IED while on patrol in Afghanistan. Before he’d bled out from his injuries, he’d pulled three men to safety. The man defined hero.

Standing in front of his little girl, Logan felt like a fraud. “I did.”

Charlotte nodded. “Did you work with him?”

“No. We served in different parts of the army.”

“Oh.”

That one word held a world of disappointment. This child had been hoping to learn more about her dad. She didn’t want to write about him or expose his failures. She craved a connection to someone she’d loved and lost. For months after Jane’s death, Logan had wanted the same thing.

But he was a grown man. And he’d lost his wife slowly to illness. A foreign war fought in a place Charlotte had never seen had claimed her father’s life. A war her father had entered willingly. That had to be a hard thing to understand, doubly so for a child.

“I’m sorry, Charlotte.” Logan knelt down on one knee so that he could look her in the eye. “You didn’t need to enter the raffle to ask me about your dad. I can ask Cindy for your dollar back.”

“No. I won,” she said stubbornly. “I want to go to lunch.”

If winning meant something to her, he wouldn’t be the one to take that away. He’d take her to lunch and answer her questions. He’d feel like an impostor trying to fill the shoes of the war hero Charlotte wanted to see, but he would not disappoint her.

“When do you go back?” she asked.

“I don’t know yet. Could be anytime. If you’re free tomorrow, I can meet you in town at noon. If that’s okay with your mom.” He saw a hint of relief in her blue eyes. “We can go anywhere you want.”

Charlotte nodded. “I’ll meet you in front of Abagail’s. Noon tomorrow.”

Logan nodded. “I’ll call your mom tonight to confirm, okay?”

He stood and watched Charlotte disappear into the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Sadie waiting patiently out of earshot. But as soon as Charlotte walked away, she came over.

The fabric of her sundress shifted around her legs, drawing attention to her smooth thighs. One look and he remembered what it felt like to run his hands over her skin. Logan welcomed the distraction, knowing he wasn’t in the mood to act on it.

She’d lost the raffle, but that didn’t change the fact that he was going to take her out on a date. He enjoyed her company, plain and simple. He’d never met a woman who could sit quietly while he repaired a fence, seemingly unconcerned by the silence. She drew out his secrets and still accepted him—wanted him.

She stopped by his side. “Sorry, I did my best.” Sadie held up her ticket-filled purse as evidence and Logan chuckled.

“Look on the bright side,” she said. “Charlotte probably won’t consider lunch with you a ‘date.’ She looks like a sensible girl. I’m sure she knows she is too young for you.”

“I don’t know about that. She talked me into having lunch at Abagail’s ice cream parlor tomorrow.” He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “I think I would have pref

erred a real date.”