Page 18 of Twisted Fate

“No, it’s not. It’s yours. Merry Christmas or happy birthday, as that’s tomorrow. Take your pick.” He laughed as her jaw dropped and she looked back at him.

“What? Christmas is two days away.” She still held the plate out to him, but her eyes were on the car, taking it in. “I can’t accept that, shouldn’t, but I’m going to because I’m pregnant and hate my car right now.”

She took the keys from him, and with the plate still in her hand, walked out to the car.

“Let me take that,” Logan said with a pleased smirk, taking the plate from as she opened the door.

“It’s so…new!” She breathed and slid into the seat. “Oh, Logan, that was so easy.”

“It’s got heated seats, which move in all kinds of directions by the way, and all the features this model can have, and that’s a lot. I don’t know all of them yet because I just bought it and came here.”

“And picked up dinner.” She made a motion to ask him to give her the plate back and ate carefully while she looked around the car. “I really shouldn’t take it…”

“You really should. Those are my babies, their momma needs a good car that she’s comfortable in, and I’ll drive it when you can’t.”

“I guess.” She replied then stuck a forkful of rice and sesame chicken into her mouth, making sure not to drop rice on the seat. “It’s wonderful, thank you, Logan.”

“My pleasure, Keily.” He answered and watched her slide out of the car.

“I’ll finish eating, then we’ll come back out and look it over.” She smiled and sighed as she stepped out of the car. “That was so easy to get out of. That’s such a relief. I love it, thanks.”

“Good, that’s all that matters.” He answered and followed her into the trailer.

“I’m still not sure I should take it, but I do need something I can get in and out of.” She went on, but then took another bite of food as she sat down.

Logan picked up the other plate she’d filled and went to sit on the couch with her. He watched her as they ate together, silent except for the sound of music playing from the television. She wasn’t the same woman he’d left all those months ago.

Since then, she’d learned self-reliance and how determined she could be when she wanted something. She was still working, though he didn’t want her to. She’d even learned how to say no and mean it, he thought, with a rueful smirk he hid from her.

When they were finished eating, he got up to clean their plates and forks, threw the empty boxes away, and turned the kitchen light off. He was a man that lived in houses he’d have called mansions as a child, wore tailored suits, bought cars on a whim, and could have anything he wanted. As long as that wasn’t Keily, he thought as he looked around the trailer.

What bothered him wasn’t that the best she could afford was a trailer, it was that she was alone here. Okay, she had two helpful neighbors, but they were old ladies and he lived too far away if she needed help. And he wanted to help, he wanted to be in her life as more than the man that had fathered her children.

Shame filled him every time he thought about that night that he’d left her, pain tugged at his heart when he remembered how she’d looked at him. Not because the truth had been revealed, at last, but because he’d hurt her. He’d spent months wondering how she was, and now he knew. She was pregnant, that’s how she was.

One of his biggest regrets was that he hadn’t been there for her when she first found out. She’d been so hurt by him that she’d left the apartment, left him behind. He wanted another chance but didn’t want to add to her stress right now. She was…fragile.

It wasn’t a term he’d have ever used for Keily when he first hired her to work for him, but since then a lot had changed. They had both changed, but Keily had changed the most, perhaps. Physically, emotionally, mentally, it was a different Keily that he sat beside now.

“Are you going to stare at me all night or are you going to tell me why you’re here? Other than the car. You were on your way over here before the car scenario cropped up.” She put her feet up on the coffee table and looked over at him, relaxed, happy, calm.

“I just wanted to check on you and the babies.” He brushed the question off as if his being there wasn’t important. As if he didn’t want to beg her to move into his house with him so he could sleep beside her again.

He’d slept better since the trial ended and Joe ended up in prison. He still had the nightmares occasionally, but they were tapering off. He might actually get to do some sleeping beside her, if she’d just move in with him. There was still the worry that sleeping beside her would bring the memories and the nightmares back, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t be so bad.

The few hours a day he spent with her now reminded him of why it had been so hard to leave her in the first place. He’d wonder if he loved her, but he wasn’t sure he was capable of things like that. His parents might as well have been cold scientists, they’d been so standoffish with him. It was clear from the moment he was old enough to know what it meant, that he was an accident they’d come to regret.

He didn’t really know any of his extended family, and friends had been few and far between over the years. Keily might just be the first person he’d ever felt anything for. That wasn’t as uncomfortable a thought as it used to be. Months of regret and anger had dulled that discomfort, turned it into a need to have her back with him.

He’d played it cool, acted like leaving her hadn’t torn him up inside, but now? He was almost certain that they could build something together, if they tried.

“You’re not getting a present as expensive as that car, Logan.” She broke into his thoughts and he blinked before he realized what she meant.

“Oh, that’s fine, Keily, really. You agreed to come to dinner, that’s good enough.”

“Hardly.” She drawled and looked over at him. “I really shouldn’t take it.”

“Stop, it’s yours and that’s all there is to it.” He sat up a little straighter and glared at her. That usually worked on people that wanted to argue with him, but it never really did work on Keily, not really.