Chapter 299

Logan and I walk back into the kitchen. He sits at the island counter and watches me. I take a bottle of wine out of the cooler and pour us both a glass.

“I meant what I said,” he states. I smile a little and feel my phone vibrate in my leggings pocket. Taking it out, I see it’s a text from Mark. I sigh and ignore it before placing my phone on charge.

“Thank you, I have something for you,” I say and take the memory stick out of my pocket. I slide it over to him and then take a sip of my wine. “They’re videos and pictures, Carl started it, and Courtney and I continued it. They're Ella,” I say. “Her birth, her birthdays and all of her firsts, things like that,”

“You recorded it all for me?” he asks.

“Yeah, they’re just little things,” I say, and he smiles.

“Thank you,” he sighs and places the memory stick into his pocket. “I wish I’d come back earlier,” he says to me.

“Logan,”

“Just hear me out, please,” he looks sincere. “I wish I had. These past three hours have been the best three hours of my life,” he states. “And I’ve missed so much of her life, and yours,” he stands and walks towards me. “I left to be better for you, and I screwed up,”

“You didn’t, yes I was upset when you left and failed to understand why you would leave so abruptly, but l started to understand and looking at you now, I know it was the best thing for you,”

“It was selfish,”

“No, it wasn’t,” he sighs and moves his hand to my arm. He strokes up and down my arm, and I can’t shut out the butterflies that wake within me at just his touch.

Closing my eyes, I feel him move closer to me. This is not what needs to happen. Nothing can happen between us because he’s here for Ella. I don’t want to ruin his potential relationship with her because I don’t see us having a happy relationship. The logical part of me knows all of this, but my heart won’t listen. His hand moves to my chin, and he makes me look up at him.

“Logan,” I quietly say. He leans forward, and the part of me that wants this squashes the logical part of me, making me move my hands to his abdomen. Big mistake as it does nothing but make me want him more. I’m pretty sure he’s working out a lot more than he used to. His lips caress mine, and as they do, I hear my phone vibrate.

I’m not sure if I’m relieved or annoyed by it. He pulls away from me and leans against the counter, folding his arms, making his muscles bulge and his t-shirt tighten around his arms.

“It’s Mark,” he states. I sigh and silence the call. “Maybe I should leave,” he says.

“Yeah,” I say, and I feel ridiculously flushed.

“Can I come to see Ella tomorrow? He asks.

“Urm,” this is just perfect. If I say no, it’s going to look like I’m saying no because he nearly kissed me. If I say yes, it might give him the wrong idea. “Sure, I’m gonna take her to the park after school, so how about I meet you at the park around four?” I ask.

“Sounds good,” he says as he picks up his jacket. I watch him put it on, and I never knew watching someone put clothes on could be such a turn on. The t-shirt he’s wearing is definitely too small for him. He’s probably the only man to make a basic white t-shirt look sexy. Ok, I need to stop checking him out and focus, otherwise, he’s going to notice, or I’m going to start drooling.

“If you don’t have time, I know you’re probably working at the time,”

“It’s fine. I’ll make time for her whenever I need to,” he says, making me smile.

“Ok, well, I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say and walk him to the door.

Today has gone a lot better than expected, and I shouldn’t be surprised. Ella always takes things in her stride. She is honestly remarkable.

\---

“No,” Ella screams at me. I sigh and sit down on one of the chairs in the lobby.

This happens every morning before school. She is adamant not to go. For the past two weeks, I’ve had a battle every morning. She only has a couple of days left before she breaks for the summer. I look at her, and she pouts before folding her arms and sitting crossed leg on the floor. This is her idea of a tantrum.

The neighbours have stopped giving me sympathetic and disapproving looks. It’s gone on that long. Most of the time, they just roll their eyes. I heard someone say that my daughter’s tantrum is why she wasn’t a young mom. That I’m not old enough to discipline a child and something about her not having a father figure being the reason for her behaviour. The next day I heard the same woman say she would report me to the building owner if this carries on. Jokes on her because the building owner is Ella’s father.

“You have a choice, we can sit here all day in silence, or you can go to school and have fun,”

“No,” she says and turns, so her back is to me.

“Silence it is,” I say as I take my phone out. I can’t punish her like normal kids; she’d enjoy it being locked in her room with all her books to read and dolls to play with. “When we get upstairs, I’m taking all of your books,” I say.

“Noooo,” she says, turning to me and starts to cry. “That’s not fair,” she cries, “you bitch,” she snaps at me. I frown and put my phone in my pocket.

“What did you just call me?” I ask her as I stand up.

“You’re a bitch,” she repeats.

“Ella,” I snap and pull her onto her feet. “You don’t say things like that; where did you hear that word?” I ask her. She folds her arms and looks away from me. “That’s it, I’m done with this,” I say and pick her up. She screams and kicks her feet as I carry her towards the exit. Ella pulls on my hair as the doorman opens the door for me. “Thank you,” I say to him, and he just nods, not even acknowledging the screaming little girl in my arms.

Walking out of the building, I see Logan come out of the black Rolls Royce in front of me. He tilts his head and looks at us both, and a faint smile plays on his lips.

“Don’t even dare,” I threaten as I take in what he’s wearing. I know my cheeks are red with anger and frustration, and that will make him laugh. Why does this man continuously look like he’d just stepped out of a GQ cover? He’s wearing one of his many designer suits, and I don’t think I’ve seen him wear the same one twice. This one is a charcoal grey that he’s teamed with a midnight blue shirt that brings out his crystal blue eyes.

“Wasn’t going to say anything,” he says, and Ella stops screaming to look at him.

“Logan,” she cries and tries to wriggle out of my grasp.

“Stop it right now,” I tell her.

“What’s going on?”

“She’s refusing to go to school and had just called me a bitch,” I say.

“Because you are, let me go,” she cries.

“Ah, you’re the noise disruption,” he says. I frown at him. “A tenant made a noise complaint,”

“Oh, yeah, that is Ella,” I say. He sighs and steps forward to hold his hands out to take Ella from me. She reaches her arms out to him. I let her go to him.

“Why don’t we talk inside,” he says and carries her back into the apartment building. It’s a good job. I’ve phoned the school telling them she’ll be late.