He tensed further. “I’ve already seen them. The night at the bar when I met you.”
I squeezed him closer. “That doesn’t count. You have to meet them properly. And they can’t wait to meet Jakey. A lot of our friends have children, but Shane’s excited he’ll have a kid around to play with.”
“Really?” Logan mumbled.
“Yep. I told them to give us a couple of weeks for Jakey to get used to me, and then we’ll set something up.”
Logan didn’t respond right away, but I felt the tension in him melting under my hands. “That…sounds nice. Thank you for thinking of Jakey. It might be a lot.”
I rubbed up and down his back reassuringly. “I know. And you let me know if I start coming over too much. As much as I want to spend every minute I can with you, I don’t want Jakey to feel uncomfortable or worry that I’m trying to take you away from him. I want my presence to benefit you guys, not be a hindrance.”
Logan took his time answering. I could almost hear him mulling over my words in his brain. “I’ll tell you, but…if you really want to work on this, I think we should let him get used to you being around.”
“Okay, baby. But just remember, you can let me know. I won’t get offended.”
“Is this really happening?” he asked, softly.
Cupping my hand under his chin, I tilted his face up toward me. Davis had said he respected where I was coming from about not wanting Logan to feel like a secret booty-call, but he’d also cautioned not to let Logan think that it had been so long since I was with a man, that I was hesitant to get physical. Unless I planned to tell him how much I’d been jacking off imagining what he looked like under his clothes, I needed to make my intentions clear.
We gazed into each other’s eyes. His gray orbs became even more beautiful as they slowly clouded over. Not being able to help myself any longer, I leaned down and licked across the seam of his lips. He sighed, so I did it again. When his tongue peeked out between his lips to tentatively touch mine, I pressed our mouths together completely, toying with his tongue playfully.
I’m not sure who groaned, him or me, but suddenly we were kissing each other hungrily. Logan let me devour him as I pushed him back so that I could half hover over him, running my hands down his sides and up his chest. Lord have mercy, his bulky body turned me on more than anyone else’s ever had. Logan’s large hands gripped my ass—which I had to admit was perfection after years in the gym—as he drew me in closer. I had never been so glad someone had a big couch as we situated and I crawled up his body to continue my onslaught, peppering kisses across his face and rubbing my own against his beard, enjoying the soft texture against my cheek. But when I realized I was grinding down into him, as he humped up, I slowed us down.
When I finally disconnected with a peck, he whined. Laughing softly, I reached up and tugged on his beard. “What about Jakey?”
Logan huffed. “Jakey’s always going to be in the house,” he said hesitantly.
I pressed a firm kiss to his lips. “I know that. I’m saying I was ten seconds from starting to whip your clothes off, and I wouldn’t want the little guy to wander out and catch us like that.”
“Oh.” He worried his bottom lip between his teeth, until I gently pulled it out. Then he scrunched his nose. “I left him in my bed, too. I usually take him to his room, but…” His cheeks colored as he stared up at me shyly.
“I couldn’t wait for you to get back out here, either,” I said honestly, to dispel any notion that it was just him.
He still looked slightly embarrassed, but he grinned.
“Let’s watch a movie,” I said, lifting myself off of him.
“Seriously?” he asked.
The disappointment coloring that one word made me want to do a happy dance, and then pull him into the bathroom to get off somehow, but I wanted this to work. I’d never been with anyone with a kid, and this was a first for him, too. Slow and steady, that was what Davis had advised, and I was determined not to mess this up.
Chapter Nine
Logan
“So where’s your man today?” Vonda asked. “It’s almost two o’clock. He’s late.”
A warm feeling nestled in the region of my heart. Through the years, I’d worked with plenty of people whose “person” had been in the restaurant to just kind of hang out. As long as they weren’t too distracting, and we did our job, Vonda really didn’t care. Especially with us bartenders. I’d had family come in, but this was the first time I’d had a man. Her noticing Creed’s absence today made our new relationship feel even more real. “His boss needed someone to meet with clients today, and their meetings were going right through lunch,” I said.
“Aw, poor Creed. How will he ever make it through the day?” She held her hand over her heart and batted her lashes.
I snickered. She wasn’t wrong to tease. Since we’d officially started dating over the weekend, Creed had acted like coming in to have lunch was the highlight of his day. Maybe I should’ve been embarrassed, but having someone—especially someone as good looking and outgoing as Creed—treat me like I mattered was intoxicating. “He’s coming over tonight for dinner, so I’m sure he’ll live.”
Vonda waited while I made a new customer a drink and handed them a menu. Since she obviously had something on her mind, I went back and asked, “What?”
With narrowed eyes, she asked, “Does he come over for dinner often?”
Fighting to keep the grin off of my face, I said, “Well, he came over Saturday, Monday, and last night. He doesn’t want to overwhelm Jakey, so he’d probably skip tonight too, but he said he couldn't go the whole day without me.”
Vonda beamed at me like I’d just told her she won the lottery. “Good. I’m happy to hear that things are going so well, and that he’s making an effort to be conscientious of Jakey’s needs.”
I shrugged nonchalantly; although, judging by Vonda’s knowing smile, I didn’t quite pull it off. “It’s new. We’ll see how it goes.”
“Uh-huh.” She patted my arm, then whistled as she walked away.
“Wow, Logan. What did you do right?”
I turned to find the hostess standing on the other side of the bar with a covered black platter in her hands. “What’re you talking about?”
She set the container on the bartop. “This was just delivered for you.”
“I didn’t order anything.” She stood there expectantly, so I left where I’d been going through receipts at the register and walked over. Under the plastic domed lid was an arrangement of fruit. The outer ring alternated chocolate-covered pineapples cut into flowers and chocolate-covered strawberries. Inside of that were sliced apples covered in a white and milk chocolate drizzle, and in the center was a pile of blueberries. “This was for me?” I asked with confusion.
“Yeah.” She pulled the small white envelope off the side of the lid and handed it to me. “Who’s it from?”
Quickly I ran through special dates, and I couldn’t come up with one significant enough for my parents to have a fruit platter delivered to my job.