Chapter 61
Maria’s words echoed in my head as I drove back to the hospital. I didn’t have an answer to that. I really wanted the universe or anyone else to decide for me.
Although part of me felt like none of this was even real, still, and there was no choice to be made because this all had to be my imagination, right? No way were two incredibly handsome, rich, smart, amazing men interested in me.
Right?
I pulled into the parking lot and looked around for Dylan’s car. I was hoping he had left by now, I didn’t really want to be in a room with both of them at the same time.
I didn’t see it. I wished I had paid attention earlier to see where it was parked before I had left for the diner, but I was not in my right mind at that point. I sighed and decided if I saw Dylan in there, I would just say hi to the both of them and leave again.
I walked inside and up to the door of Logan’s room. I peeked through the small window on the door. It looked like Logan was alone. I knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Logan said. His voice sounded much stronger than it had this morning.
“Hey,” I said when I walked inside. I set my purse down and sat in the chair next to his bed. “You sound better.”
“Yeah, I’m feeling much better,” he smiled.
“Good,” I said.
I looked down at my hands and picked at my nails. I cleared my throat a couple times, just to fill the awkward silence that had descended on the room. I snuck a peek at Logan. He was looking way too interested in the TV remote.
I looked up. I started to say something about the kiss, but decided against it. What if he didn’t want to talk about it? What if I had been a bad kisser and now he hated me? What if…
I shook my head to stop the train of thoughts.
Logan cleared his throat. “Maybe we should talk about what happened earlier,” he said. He set down the TV remote.
Oh my god, yes please. “Yeah, maybe so,” I said meekly. What if he was going to fire me now? What if…
“How are you feeling about the ki…about what happened?” He asked.
“You answer that first,” I said. No way was I going first in this conversation.
A small smile crossed his lips and he let out a small laugh. “Okay,” he said. “Well, first of all, hats off to you, you are an amazing kisser.”
My heart skipped a beat. I looked down and grinned, a blush spreading over my cheeks.
“But…” he sighed. “Hazel, you’re great, but that kiss just left me feeling like I had done something wrong.” He looked down at his hands. “I did do something wrong. I am your boss, that was way out of line. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize,” I said. “I could have pulled away, but I didn’t. Whatever you were feeling that made you kiss me, I assure you we were both feeling it.” My turn to sigh. “But I do agree, it didn’t feel right. Maybe because you’re my boss, maybe because you’re married to my sister…I’m still not sure. I just know it left me feeling…weird and confused.”
He nodded and thought for a moment. “I understand if you would like to request a transfer, I’ll put in a good word for you. Or if you feel we need to go to HR about it…”
“No, I don’t want either of those things. I don’t feel like either is necessary.”
“Well I can assure you it will never happen again. If you’d like, we could just act like it never happened. I’ll never bring it up again,” he said.
That was fine by me. “Deal,” I said.
“Are you ready for this?” Dylan asked.
Logan nodded. Dylan rang the door bell at the Whitaker home. After a moment, they heard footsteps approaching, then the door opened a crack.
An older gentleman peered out from inside. “Can I help you?” He asked.
“Yes, sir. My name is Dylan, and this is my client. You may know him, his name is Logan Hatfield, he is married to your daughter.”
Mr. Whitaker’s face paled. “What do you want? Why are you here?”
“We’re looking for Natalie. We just want to talk,” Dylan said.
Mr. Whitaker hesitated. “Wait here,” he said and shut the door, leaving them on the porch.
“I need Hazel to take a DNA test,” Dylan said. “There’s no way she’s related to these human beings.”
Logan laughed, but the mention of Hazel made his heart sink. He thought back to their kiss, and the discussion after. He didn’t want to forget that it happened, but Hazel was right. Something about it felt wrong. As amazing as it felt to finally take her in his arms and kiss her like that.
He closed his eyes and remembered what it felt like. What she tasted like. Her soft lips on his, pressing gently and sweetly, then matching his passionate intensity on the second kiss. The way her arms wrapped around his neck. Every part of her was soft and felt so good on his skin.
“Uh, earth to Logan?” Dylan said.
Logan’s eyes flew open. He could feel the tips of his ears growing hot.
“What were you thinking about so hard?” Dylan asked.
“Uh, nothing,” Logan cleared his throat.
“That was a lot of smiling for nothing,” Dylan said, raising an eyebrow.
The front door flew open. Mr. Whitaker peeked out from behind it. “Please, won’t you come in?”
Logan and Dylan stepped into the front entryway. Mr. Whitaker pointed to the living room, “Follow me.”
He led them to the living room and gestured to the two open recliners. Natalie and both of her parents sat on the couch.
“Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker, I assume?” Dylan asked. The parents nodded without a word. “My name is Dylan, I am Logan’s divorce attorney.”
“Divorce attorney?” Mrs. Whitaker said, looking at Logan. “But you just got married!”
“How could you do this to our little girl?” Mr. Whitaker said.
Natalie sat quietly, her legs crossed at the ankles, her hands primly in her lap. She was looking down at her hands, clearly nervous.
“If you want a list of Natalie’s offenses, I’ll be happy to provide one,” Dylan said. “I think the most recent one will suffice for this conversation, however. My client would rather not stay married to someone who willingly and maliciously put sleeping pills in his wine.”
“What proof do you have? Hmm?” Mr. Whitaker said angrily.
“Besides witnesses to the confession of the deed? A whole lot of doctors and nurses who are willing to take the stand about it,” Dylan said. “Now, we did not come here to discuss details. We came to ask Natalie to willingly agree to divorce Logan without any retaliation. And in return, Logan will let the drug overdose thing go.”
Natalie finally looked up. “No. You can’t make me divorce him.”
“No?” Dylan said. “Fine. But you can probably kiss your acting career goodbye when it becomes public knowledge that you did in fact drug your husband in order to manipulate him.”
Natalie looked helplessly at her parents. “Do something!” She screamed at them.
“Honey, I don’t think there’s any other way out of this one,” Mrs. Whitaker said gently.
“Daddy?” Natalie looked over at Mr. Whitaker. He just shrugged.
She looked at Logan, then Dylan, who both shook their heads. She dropped her head in defeat.
“Fine,” she said bitterly. “I’ll give you your stupid divorce.”
