Logan Chapter 114

-Emory-

It wasn’t until Logan walked out the door that I realized how he distracted me away from whatever issues he’s dealing with today and ran from me before I could call him on it. I texted him to let him know I wasn’t happy about it, but he only replied to tell me he’d be in meetings all day. I know he’s not excited about whatever he’s doing, so I decide to have the apprentices cook him something special for dinner tonight. He’s normally a steak and potatoes kind of guy, with an added acknowledgement of the importance of vegetables, so I just ask them to make a really nice steak with baked potato and asparagus. That done, I set aside a nearly-transparent nightie and make a plan for tonight. I’ll make sure his night is better than whatever he’s doing today.

Once I have all my plans for the night squared away, I realize I have the entire rest of the day to get through before I see him again. I’m not sure when I got to be so codependent, but I’m not a fan of it. I glare angrily in the general direction of “the stars” for making us spend every second together for a couple of months straight. That’s probably the cause of this feeling. All the frustration in the world doesn’t cancel out the fact that I have to learn how to be happy hanging out without Logan again.

I already have most of my plans tentatively set for the next seasonal moon party. I thought it would be the first full moon of spring, but that turned out to be our mating ceremony. I guess we’re already off to a good start? I’m not sure if it’s fortunate or unfortunate, but now I have two full months and some change to plan out a Summer Moon party, and I just have to hope that nobody pops up between now and then asking for a mating ceremony on the same night. I’m not sure I’d be able to plan around it with the food and the dancing that I can hopefully arrange for the pack. I’ve been waffling about whether or not to include games for the kids, but I can’t think of anything that doesn’t require anything to litter up the clearing we like to use. I suppose with my extra planning time, I can try and come up with a more private place to have the parties and let the wolves run.

Though I love New York, it’s a little hard to find anywhere besides Central Park for the wolves to run and play in. It’s a big park, for sure, but there are also a lot of people that habitually exist in it. I’m not sure what caused four different shifter packs to settle in this city, but it might be worth it to discuss moving to somewhere more rural. I’d miss the coffee shops and the feeling of walking through my city, but it would be a lot easier to hide wolves somewhere like the most isolated parts of Montana.

I’m in the middle of researching Summer foods when I get a text from Logan telling me he’s going to have to work later tonight than he planned. Apparently he had a lot of meetings that took up the time he was going to use catching up from our honeymoon. I was sad for a minute, but then I realized that his planning to be in office through dinner didn’t mean that I had to stay here. I text Silverson for a pickup and let the cooks know that they’ll need to make dinner to go. After I get all the arrangements set up, I text Logan that I’ve got dinner squared away for him so he doesn’t order anything. Now I just have to scrape enough courage together to complete the most important part of my plan.

If I’m going to go to the trouble of setting up a dinner date with Logan at work, I might as well drive the point home that I’ve been missing him all day. Looking at the little nightgown I was planning to wear for him tonight, in the privacy of our bedroom, I can feel myself faltering a little. I think wistfully for a minute of the kind of girlfriends I had in college- even Cora was nicer then, looking back on it. I would benefit so much with a hype woman to help me get through walking in public with this on, even underneath my coat. It takes me at least ten deep breaths to even convince myself to put it on, and then I have to sit for a minute because I hyperventilated and made myself dizzy.

One glance at the clock tells me that I’m already creeping up on the time I told the cooks to have our dinner ready, so I combat the anxiety about my body with the anxiety of making them wait for me. I adjust the neckline for the thousandth time even though it won’t matter, and then I toss my longest coat overtop. I fortunately have some soft suede heeled boots that pull the ensemble together without ruining the look of the nightie underneath my trench coat, and then I have no more excuses. I grab the thermal bags with dinner in them, run out to the car before Silverson has to come looking for me, and spend the whole ride ignoring his smirk.

One thing I didn’t anticipate in my prep is the fact that security would want me to have a badge or an appointment. It takes a long, embarrassing conversation, but I finally convince them that Logan’s dinner was a planned event. I have the feeling that they know exactly who I am by Logan’s caveman antics when we had to be connected at the hip, basically, and that they were just messing with me. I’m starting to think the trench coat over lingerie is cliche enough that everyone knows I’m not sporting much underneath my outerwear. If they were hoping to catch a glimpse, they’re sorely disappointed. Plus, if Logan cared to listen in, he’d know about it immediately and would probably fire them, anyway. Not worth it, for them, as they’d assume I would tattle. Even if I had a choice about it, I probably would.

With every last annoying hurdle cleared, I just have to ignore Anna’s eye roll and quick retreat for a “dinner break” of her own and I’m at Logan’s door. He looks up, pleased, before he even really sees me. He must have caught my scent at the door or heard me talking to Anna. When he gets a good look at me, though, his expression goes feral. Grinning, he walks up to me and tucks one finger under the lapel of my coat, buttoned high up on my neck.

“Why don’t you take your coat off and stay awhile, baby? What surprise are you working so hard to hide under here?” I’ve just opened my mouth to answer when he rips it open, buttons pinging off the walls and floor.