Logan gave her a considering look. ‘Shouldn’t you have thought of that before you threw your ultimatum at him?’
‘I didn’t—’
‘Giving up your job with him here, moving out of the family home, isn’t issuing him with an ultimatum: her or me?’ Logan reasoned softly.
The flush in her cheeks faded until they were deathly white, her eyes, a dark smoky grey, the only colour left in her face. ‘I merely—merely—’ She broke off, her bottom lip trembling so badly she couldn’t speak any more. ‘If you’ll excuse me,’ she muttered, before getting up and making her way blindly back to the kitchen, relieved when she heard the door swing shut behind her, tears falling hotly down her cheeks now, waving away the concerned gestures of the other staff working in the kitchen.
But she didn’t feel quite so relieved when she felt strong arms move about her, pulling her in to the hardness of what she easily recognised as Logan’s chest. He had followed her!
‘This is becoming too much of a habit,’ he said ruefully a few seconds later as a white handkerchief appeared in front of her face.
Darcy took the handkerchief, her sobs subsiding as she mopped up the tears.
She had tried all evening not to think about her father, and the reason he had gone away, but when Logan had spoken of it just now she had known he was right. Her father hadn’t just gone away to escape from his heartbreak at his broken engagement, he had gone away to get away from her too!
And she had taken the easy option and turned her anger at herself round on Logan…
Okay, so he wasn’t exactly in favour of the marriage, either, but Darcy doubted very much that he was in a position to order his mother to break her engagement to Darcy’s father. No, Margaret Fraser had made that decision all on her own. Much as she hated to admit it, Darcy’s aversion to the marriage might just have had something to do with that decision…
‘Darcy—Oops!’ One of the waitresses stood awkwardly just inside the kitchen, grimacing slightly as she saw Darcy in Logan’s arms, and the way the kitchen staff studiously avoided looking at them. ‘I’m sorry for interrupting,’ the girl said uncomfortably. ‘Table number ten liked your creamed spinach so much they wondered if they could have some more,’ she explained.
Logan glared across the room at the poor girl. ‘Tell table number ten that—’
‘No, it’s all right, Logan,’ Darcy interrupted his angry reply, pulling out of his arms to turn and smile at the waitress. ‘Give me a couple of minutes, okay?’ she encouraged before turning back to Logan. ‘I really do have to get on with this now. I—’
‘I’ll go back and finish my meal,’ Logan told her. ‘Then I’ll wait and take you home afterwards,’ he stated determinedly.
She had to admit, she didn’t exactly relish returning to her father’s empty house, having moved back there earlier this evening, deciding it would be fairer to her grandmother, now that she was to take over at the restaurant, if she wasn’t arriving back at all hours of the day and night. But the alternative of having Logan accompany her home wasn’t exactly appealing either!
‘This isn’t a subject for negotiation, Darcy,’ he told her firmly as he obviously saw the doubt in her expression. ‘We still have things we need to talk about.’
She hadn’t intended negotiating; she had been going to say a very firm no thank you to his suggestion. But one look at his determinedly set features and she knew she would be wasting her time. And time wasn’t something she had to waste this evening!
She nodded. ‘I should be finished here by about twelve-thirty.’
‘Fine,’ he accepted briskly before turning on his heel and returning to the main restaurant.
Darcy drew in a deep breath before turning to smile at the four members of staff who helped out in the kitchen each evening. ‘The show’s over, folks,’ she told them. ‘And we have a restaurant to run,’ she added.
But she couldn’t exactly say her mind was on what she was doing for the rest of the evening, conscious of the fact that Logan was waiting to take her home. Her concentration wasn’t helped by the fact that, at eleven o’clock, Logan, his meal obviously over, came through to the kitchen, making himself comfortable on a stool at the back of the room.
Everyone else working in the kitchen had already gone home for the evening by this time, Darcy just dealing with late desserts, doing most of the clearing away herself too.
Logan didn’t say a word, but Darcy was conscious the whole time of his brooding presence at the back of the room.
‘I shouldn’t be much longer,’ she told him awkwardly, just after midnight, the last customers gone from the restaurant now, most of the staff too, just the night’s takings to deal with.
‘Take your time,’ he said. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’
Except back to her home with her! To talk, he’d said. But what else did they have to say to each other? She was coming to accept they weren’t exactly on different sides in this situation—but they certainly weren’t on the same side, either!
Much as she wished she didn’t, she still remembered the way he had kissed her three days ago.
More to the point, she remembered the way she had kissed him, too!
CHAPTER SEVEN
LOGAN remained deliberately silent during the drive to Darcy’s home, appreciating the fact that she was tired from her hectic evening’s work. He also didn’t like the fact that she looked so exhausted. In fact, he felt more than a little angry towards her father for leaving her in the lurch in this way. It was his restaurant; he had no right just going off like this and leaving everything to Darcy!
‘Can I get you a coffee?’ she offered once they had reached her home, switching on the lights as she led the way to the kitchen at the back of the house.
‘No, you can’t,’ Logan answered decisively. ‘You can sit there—’ he suited his actions to his words, gently pushing her down into one of the pine kitchen chairs that stood around the table ‘—while I make you a cup of coffee. You’ve waited on people enough already this evening,’ he told her as he began to search through the cupboards for the makings of the coffee. ‘I had no idea there was so much hard work involved in running a restaurant,’ he admitted, as he put the kettle on to boil.
Darcy gave a strained smile. ‘Normally there would be two chefs in the kitchen each evening, but it was David’s—the other chef—night off, and—’
‘With your father’s disappearing trick, you were left to carry the whole load,’ Logan finished for her.
‘Actually, I was going to say—and I didn’t feel it was fair to David to ask him to come in and do an extra evening,’ Darcy corrected.
‘I don’t think it fair of your father to just go away and leave everything to you like this, either,’ Logan told her crossly. ‘It’s a broken engagement, not the end of the world!’ He placed a steaming coffee in front of Darcy before sitting down at the table himself to sip at his own cup.
She looked across at him consideringly for several long seconds. ‘Have you ever been in love, Logan?’
He sat back, unable to hide his surprise at the intimacy of her question. No one had ever asked him a question as personal as this before, not even Fergus and Brice, and goodness knew, they were as close to him as two brothers!
‘Have you?’ he finally came back defensively.
Darcy smiled, a less tired smile this time, the respite from the pressures of cooking, and the warming coffee, obviously reviving her slightly. ‘Once,’ she said. ‘But I don’t think it counts.’
Logan