“Thanks. You’re a better cook than you own up to,” she said.
“Don’t tell people. They’ll want me to do it for them too.”
“How about finding a nice girl to cook for?”
Logan rolled his eyes. “Don’t you ever get tired of that, lady?”
“What, hoping you find someone special?” Annmarie huffed out a breath. “No chance. It’s what I want for you more than anything.”
“I know, Mom,” he murmured. He hated to disappoint her, but having been married once, brief as it’d been, was all the evidence he needed that he wasn’t cut out for it.
They reached the front doors of the hospital, and the wide panes of glass parted with a swooshing sound. God, Logan hated the smell of hospitals. That piercingly antiseptic scent always brought back so many bad memories, and bringing his mom in for chemo and radiation had only added to them. He unzipped his jacket as Annmarie slowly pulled off her soft green hat. Making their way across the lobby to the elevators, his attention was so focused on her that he didn’t hear the voice calling him at first.
“Logan,” his mother said, “I think that man is trying to get your attention.”
Logan turned to see a man in a wheelchair being pushed toward the doors. “Hey, you!” he was saying loudly. “Tess’s friend! Tall blond guy!”
It took Logan a few seconds before he realized it was the man from the hotel floor the day before. “Hey, Terrence! How’re you doing? You look okay to me.”
“Eh, I’m fine,” Terrence said. “I didn’t catch your name yesterday, I’m sorry. Tall blond guy—how rude.” He laughed at himself.
“Logan,” he said, reaching out to shake the man’s hand. “So they’re springing you? You’re okay, then?”
“Well, Tess was right, I do have a concussion,” Terrence said. “They kept me overnight but they’re releasing me now.”
“If they’re releasing you, you must be all right.” Logan looked him over. Terrence had color in his cheeks, and seemed okay. “Is someone coming to get you?”
“I called a car service. I’m waiting,” Terrence said. “Going back to the hotel to take it easy for a few days, then I’ll go home. Why are you here? You okay?”
“I’m fine,” Logan said as his mother joined them. “This is my mother, Annmarie Carter. Mom, this is Terrence. Met him yesterday.”
They exchanged pleasantries, then Terrence asked, “So how do you know Tess?”
“I’m a house manager,” Logan said. “Her house—or her family, rather—is one of my clients. She had a mishap the night before, so she had to stay at the hotel. I was there to give her a ride home.”
“She’s an extraordinary woman,” Terrence declared. “And oh boy, is she nice to look at.”
Logan had to chuckle as he admitted, “Yeah, she is.”
“You have a girlfriend, Logan?” Terrence asked.
Logan blinked at the forward question as his mother quipped, “I wish.”
Terrence laughed, then said, “I talked to her briefly last night. You know she’s staying home by herself tonight? A woman that beautiful should be taken out on New Year’s Eve. I’d ask her myself, but I know I’m too out of it to even make it through dinner. You should take her out.”
“You don’t say,” Logan muttered.
“Who’s Tess?” Annmarie asked her son.
Oh great, here we go. Inside, Logan stifled a groan. “One of my Red Mountain clients, Mom. Stress on the word client.”
“Oh, don’t you give me that ‘I don’t date clientele’ malarkey,” Annmarie scoffed. She looked down to Terrence. “Nice woman?”
“I fell yesterday and hit my head,” he said. “She lay on the floor with me to keep my spirits up ’til the medics showed up. Perfect stranger.”
Annmarie turned her assessing stare back to her son.
“Don’t even,” he warned.
“Does she have a boyfriend?” Annmarie asked.
“Not that it’s any of your business, or mine,” Logan said, “but no, as far as I know.”