In the kitchen, Penny scooped Logan up and set him in a chair high enough to reach the island. “Are you okay to sit here?”
“Yes!” He chirped. “On my bottom.”
“That’s right.”
Logan’s swung his little legs as she met Drew over by the fridge. “Logan, do you like strawberries?” Penny asked over her shoulder.
“Berries! Yeah!”
With a confident smile at Drew, she took the plate he offered and made a smiley face out of strawberry slices, which she put in front of Logan with a flourish. The boy chortled at the happy face, then picked one of the slices between his fingers.
“Strawberries,” Penny raised a single finger. “We need two more things. What’ll they be, Logan? Bagel? Toast? Egg?”
“Toast!” he cried, three fingers in the air.
“That’s two. Strawberries, toast…yogurt?”
“I like chocolate yogurt.”
She cut a glance at Drew, who looked…impressed. He gave her a discreet nod.
“Chocolate yogurt it is. Strawberries, toast, chocolate yogurt.” Penny set about finding the bread and the toaster.
“You have a knack for this,” said Drew.
She flashed him her most winning smile. “I read an article about supply chain management that I think applies here.” Bam. Insider info, casual conversation. “Planning is the most important step. I’ve found that’s true for small kids too.”
“Ah, so you have a business mind, too.” Those blue eyes lingered on hers. “You won’t have to worry much about business here. I keep things separate. Very separate.”
Sigh.
“Got it,” Penny said.
“I’m headed out.” Drew stepped closer, and she got a whiff of his skin, his scent. Sunscreen and a hint of cologne. God, he even smelled all-American. “Call if you need anything.”
“I will.”
Of course she would, if she did need anything. But Penny had a new plan—find a better job, and fast.
3
“And I said, if it means I get to eat at this restaurant every time I head west, then there’s no way this town is getting left off the map.” Jack Holloway laughed at the ending of his own story, a deep and delighted belly laugh that made it impossible not to join in.
“Well, you got that route, Mr. Holloway.”
“He did,” chimed in Jack’s wife, who sat next to him on the couch, hand on his knee. “He got that route and then some. You know, we’ve had a wonderful life because of all that hard work you did in the beginning.”
“It’s not just a collection of southwestern shipping routes for me. It’s my legacy.”
“I completely understand.” Maybe it sounded cheesy, but it was true on more than one level for Drew. Getting Preston Logistics back to its former glory would finally close the chapter in which he’d been totally screwed over by Susan, and it would help secure a comfortable future for Logan, not to mention Drew’s brothers. They counted on him to pull this off, too. He felt the weight of that responsibility even now, out on his back deck in the light from another glorious California sunset. It bathed everything in red and orange and made it seem like the three of them were already celebrating the deal…though it wasn’t closed.
The sound of the sliding door stole his next thoughts completely.
Drew turned his head toward the sound of running footsteps, and Logan came into view a moment later, his hair wet from the bath, wearing fresh pajamas. A moment after that…Penny.
“Hi, everybody.” She wore a proud smile on her face, and Drew reveled in it. What had made her smile that way? He had a flash of Penny leaning close in his kitchen, grinning over a funny anecdote from her day with Logan. “We’d have come out earlier, but this one insisted on an extra trip to the playground.” And Logan wasn’t a huge fan of salmon, but Penny didn’t say that.
“I wanted to show you my book.” Logan tipped the book over the arm of Drew’s chair. “It has trucks.”
Logan scrambled into Drew’s lap. He hauled the book into place in front of the two of them and opened it to a random page. “This is the red truck.” Logan pointed. “And this—”
Penny came around to the loveseat where Jack and Lisa sat. “Hi. I’m Penny.” She shook hands with both of them. “It’s great to meet you.” In a lower voice, she added, “I think Logan here wants to impress everybody with his book.”
“As he should,” said Jack. He left his own seat and planted himself in a chair next to Drew. “Do you mind if I read along with you, Logan?
“I’m reading the book,” Logan told him with a charming grin. “It has cars and trucks.”
Logan flipped the page. This one showed a family climbing into a car—a mom, dad, and two kids, all with matching dark hair. “This is a car, and that’s mama and daddy.”
Lisa stood up to talk to Penny, and the two women stepped closer. Penny chuckled at something Lisa said, then she reached out and touched Lisa’s arm, giving the men a little side-eye.
“And a blue car,” Logan said. “And mama and daddy ride in there, and daddy drives.”
“We’ve been talking about cars and trucks all afternoon.” Penny said, that pride shining from her face again. “Logan was matching the pictures in the book to cars we saw outside.”
Logan flipped through the book, and Lisa and Penny gathered around the chair, Lisa with Jack and Penny at Drew’s right hand. It felt…right, to have her stand there next to him as the sun sank closer to the horizon. Drew resisted the urge to put his hand on the small of her back and pull her closer to the chair. Totally inappropriate. Not now, not ever…
“I can’t tell you,” Jack said quietly, “how much I appreciate that you’re a family man yourself. It means you understand the business like I do. You know what it means here.” He tapped his chest. “It’s not only an intellectual game when you’re providing for your wife and child.”
Wife. And. Child.
The words hit him like three bricks breaking the surface of still water. The hairs on the back of his neck leapt to attention, and Drew shifted Logan on his legs—anything to shake the feeling of being under a microscope.
Penny had heard. There was no way she’d missed it. He glanced up at her. She still smiled down at them, but she’d frozen in place. The only thing that moved in the breeze were some wisps of hair that had escaped her shining ponytail.
“The three of you have something very special together, I hope you know that.” Jack’s voice had shorted out like a radio losing contact, but it came back with a laugh. “Oh, of course you do. Family life…” He trailed off. “You get it, son.”
Penny opened her mouth, and Drew raised his hand to the book and flipped to the next page. The movement caught her attention. He had never looked at anyone with such intensity in his life. Please play along, he begged with his eyes, or at least he hoped that’s what he was communicating. Was his heart even beating? He couldn’t feel it any longer.
Then she smiled a little wider and gave him the tiniest nod.