Christmas in Lucky Harbor Read online

  “Ford,” Tara breathed. “Oh my God. Your leg.”

  He felt her drop to her knees and had the vague thought that he wished she was going into that position for a different reason altogether.

  “Is he dead?”

  This from Chloe, and Ford huffed out a laugh. “Not yet,” he assured her.

  Tara whipped out her cell phone, punched in 9-1-1, and glared at Chloe.

  “What?” Chloe asked innocently. “Look, some sisters help you move, but a real sister helps you move bodies.” She patted Ford’s shoulder. “Glad it’s not necessary, Big Guy.”

  “Me too,” he muttered.

  “Help,” came a whisper.

  Everyone looked over at Logan. He was sitting on the ground, hands clasped around his throat. His face was sweaty and beet red.

  “Logan, not now,” Tara said. “Ford’s hurt.”

  “I was… stung by a bee,” he rasped out and fell over.

  Tara gasped and abandoned Ford, crawling over to Logan. “He’s allergic!”

  Great, Ford thought. Fucking great. Even while passed out, Logan could upstage him.

  The ambulance came. Tara burned breakfast again. And within thirty minutes someone had already updated Facebook with:

  Tara nearly kills both of her men!

  Mia saved the day, coming up with pancakes that she’d learned to make in Home Ec class. She served the guests with Maddie’s help while Tara rode in the ambulance with both Ford and Logan.

  An hour and a half later, Tara was sitting in the hospital waiting room with Mia on one side, Chloe on the other. Maddie had taken over inn detail.

  They hadn’t had any news on either Logan or Ford, and Tara felt herself losing it. “What’s taking so long?” she asked for the tenth time.

  Chloe sat calmly reading Cosmo. She turned the page, eyed the very good-looking, half-naked guy there, and hummed her approval. “Maybe they’re surgically removing their In Love with Tara gene.”

  Tara narrowed her eyes. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I still don’t get it. How is it that you have those two guys falling for you? You’re grumpy and bossy and demanding and anal—not to mention slightly obsessive compulsive.” She paused. “No offense.”

  Tara looked over at a quiet Mia. “Still glad you found your parents?”

  A smile curved her lips. “I have my moments.”

  Chloe laughed. “I really, really like you.”

  Tara elbowed her, then turned to Mia again. “Thanks for your help in the kitchen during the fiasco.”

  “No problem. I’ve been wondering something.”

  Oh God. Another question, Tara thought.

  “Amy, the waitress at the diner, told me you never burned anything over there. Ever.”

  “That’s true,” Tara said over Chloe’s snort.

  “Why is that?” Mia asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  Finally, a doctor came out to talk to them. Logan had been treated for his severe allergic reaction to the bee sting and was going to be fine. Ford had a broken leg and had been drugged up to have it set. He was loopy, but would also be fine—in six to eight weeks.

  Mia went in to see Ford first. While she did, Tara called the B&B and checked in. According to Maddie, their guests were fine and out for the day. Two more people had checked in but all was well.

  Taking a deep breath, Tara walked down the hall, stopping to buy two balloons. Both the men in her life had acted like children today; so she figured what the hell.

  Logan’s room came first. He was sitting up in his bed, flirting with a pretty nurse who was hovering over him taking his pulse. “I’ve always wanted to meet a real-life NASCAR driver,” she was saying.

  Tara rolled her eyes and knocked on the jamb. “Am I interrupting?”

  The look on the nurse’s face said yes, she was absolutely interrupting, but she was professional enough to shake her head. “I just have to get the doctor to sign his forms and then he can be released.” With one last little longing glance in Logan’s direction, the woman was gone.

  Logan smiled at the balloons. “For me?”

  “One of them.” Tara handed it over and kissed his cheek. “You’re an idiot.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “But I love you anyway.”

  “Yeah.” His smiled faded. “But you’re not in love with me.”

  Tara sat at his hip and looked him in the eyes. “And you are, Logan? In love with me? Truth,” she said when he opened his mouth. “Are you in love with me, the me I am right now?”

  “Well not right now,” he said, brooding. “Right now you’re kinda mean.”

  “How about the me who has a life now separate from yours? The me who’s now involved in her sisters’ lives, the me who can no longer drop everything and travel the world to be your greatest cheerleader without a care to her own life? That me, Logan. Are you in love with that me?”

  Logan looked at her for a long beat, then expelled a breath. “I don’t know that you.”

  “No, you don’t.” Tara reached for his hand. “Which means you can’t love me.”

  He was quiet a minute. “I didn’t expect us to turn out this way,” he finally said. He brought their joined hands up to his mouth and brushed his lips across her knuckles. “I do see what you love about Lucky Harbor, though. It’s a cool place.”

  It wasn’t the place. Tara knew that now. It was the people in it, and the relationships she’d made here. It was… home.

  “So if you’re not coming back to me,” he said after a while, “what are your plans?”

  “I’m moving on.”

  “Moving on while staying in Lucky Harbor?”

  “Yes,” she said, admitting her newfound realization. “I’m staying.”

  “With Ford?”

  “I don’t know,” Tara said honestly.

  Logan laughed, and in it was a wistfulness and vulnerability she hadn’t expected. “I know,” he said softly.

  Chapter 26

  “Never do anything that you don’t want to have to explain to 9-1-1 personnel.”

  TARA DANIELS

  Tara left Logan’s hospital room and went looking for her next most pressing problem. When she heard Mia’s voice, she slowed her pace. Peeking in the door, she found Mia sitting in a chair by Ford’s bed.

  All she could see of Ford was a set of long legs, one casted. Still standing out of sight behind the curtain, Tara smiled in spite of herself. They were playing cards. Blackjack.

  “Hit me,” Ford said.

  Mia dealt him a card.

  “Hit me,” he said.

  Mia obliged again.

  “Hit me.”

  “Um,” Mia said hesitantly. “You have thirty-six.”

  Ford blinked blearily at his cards. “You sure?”

  “Wow.” Mia giggled. “They must have given you some good stuff, huh, Dad?”

  Ford went still and stared her. “Did you just—”

  “Yeah,” Mia said softly. “Weird?”

  “Yes.” He smiled at her dopily. “The absolutely best kind of weird. You should probably ask me all my secrets now. I’m mush and high. I’ll sing like a canary.”

  Mia grinned. “What kind of secrets do you have?”

  “Deep, dark ones.”

  “Like?”

  “Like how I watch Hell’s Kitchen. Shh,” he said, bringing a finger to his lips and nearly taking out an eye. “And I change the locks at the bar just to mess with Jax’s head. Oh, and I push Tara’s buttons cuz I like it when she gets all pissy.”

  Mia laughed. “You really are high. Make me understand why you two aren’t a thing again?”

  “Me and Jax? He’s engaged to someone else now, so…”

  “You know I mean Tara,” she said, still laughing.

  Ford looked at his cards as if they might hold the answer.

  “Come on, it’s not that tough a question.”

  “Yes, it is. And didn’t I tell you all this already?�€