Logan froze where he stood, every muscle locking into place.
“Well...hello?”
The hand on his shoulder tightened dramatically, as the man threw back his head with a raucous laugh—inadvertently shaking Logan from side to side in the process. Logan caught his breath with a silent gasp, trying his best to smile back. The man was either oblivious to his own strength, or he and Dylan had long ago come to some sort of ‘ragdoll’ understanding.
“Hello,” he chortled again, trying to calm himself down, “you’re hilarious.”
Logan flushed with a blind sort of panic, feeling his own smile freeze on his face. He had yet to recover his balance, and whether the man thought he was funny or not, he was still holding him casually prisoner. “You know me...I aim to please.”
“Always.” The man laughed again before growing suddenly serious, almost earnest in his anticipation. “But seriously, what did you think of it?”
Logan’s eyes widened in panic, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still.
“I thought it was...good?”
The man made a sort of squawking cheer, then deflated completely. Slumping over at the waist as his entire body relaxed with an enormous sigh of relief. “Thank God you said that. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do. I felt like my entire life was depending on this.”
Logan’s face paled the color of sour milk, as a wave of nausea joined the panic roiling around in his stomach. “Surely it’s not...surely it’s not that big a deal?”
“Are you kidding?!” The man let out another breathless laugh, as if Logan had made yet another joke. “I swear, I thought Cindy was going to leave me if this thing went south!”
Logan took a faltering step back, feeling a little sick.
“Like...metaphorically?”
Fortunately, the man was too preoccupied to notice that his young friend was unraveling before his very eyes. The second Logan said the word good, he’d pulled out his phone and started texting at the speed of light. A wild sort of triumph flickered in his eyes as he finished his message and sent it off with a victorious ding.
“Well—I did it!” he declared proudly. “I bought the boat!”
Whatever color was left in Logan’s face drained right out. His teeth clamped down hard upon his lip as he swayed on the spot, feeling like he was trapped in some kind of bad dream.
“A boat?” He barely had the strength to repeat it. “Like...a little boat? The returnable kind of boat? Or more like a—”
The man laughed and clapped Logan on the shoulder with the force of a mammoth, half-collapsing his knees. “You should know! You were the one who checked it out for me! And thanks for that—by the way! I just didn’t have any time, what with the new baby.”
...new baby?
This time, it was Logan who bent over at the waist—putting his hands on his knees as he pulled in deep steadying breaths. That sunshiny mood of his vanished on the spot, as he found himself suddenly wishing he had a boat as well. To sail straight back to Florida.
This giant had just leveraged his home, his marriage, and the future of his new child to buy a boat?! All based on Logan’s bullshit recommendation that it was good?!
How the fuck could you buy a boat via text message anyway?!
“Listen...” In an act of desperation, Logan actually took a step forward—trying to mitigate whatever damages he could. “Whoever you just texted, you should probably text them back. This is a big decision, right? Something you should do in person? And yeah, I thought that boat was just fine, but you should definitely get a second opinion—”
“Why would I do that?” The man looked confused, like there was a chance Logan was pulling his leg. “Who the hell in Cleveland knows more about boats than you?”
What the fuck?! How does Dylan know ANYTHING about boats?! My PI didn’
t say anything about maritime hobbies! I thought the guy worked in construction!
Logan froze on the spot, doing some quick thinking.
“Uh...I don’t really—”
“Besides, all I needed was for you to check the strakes and remove the cowling. You did that, didn’t you? And it was all good?”
“Yeah, I...I cowled the strakes.” Logan wiped a drip of sweat from his forehead, feeling like the temperature just jumped about fifty degrees. “I’m just saying, you should probably talk to someone who actually works on the water. Like...some kind of fisherman—”