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Chapter 44
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The Misfit Inn Chapter 45
Logan jolted awake to "Carry On Wayward Son." The book he'd been reading fell to the floor with a thud, and his border collies rose from their spots on the rug at his feet to give a pair of short, sharp barks, as if to say "We're ready, Dad."Scrubbing a hand over his face, he grabbed for the phone skittering across the table and thumbed the screen to accept the call. "Hello?""Logan."The sound of Athena's voice on the other end of the line had him straightening in the chair. "Hey." He wasn't about to tell her he'd been sleeping at - he checked his watch - nine-thirty. She'd probably saved him from a kink in his back."I nnneed a faaaavor." Her words were slurred, and he could hear the faint sound of voices and indistinct music in the background. Was she drunk dialing him?"Yeah? What's that?""Need a ride."He bit back the myriad of questions he wanted to ask and zeroed in on the most important. "Where are you?""The Right Attitude."He went brows up. That place was pretty r
The Misfit Inn Chapter 46
Logan toed off his muddy boots at the door and went into the house in search of coffee. He'd downed a cup before heading out for morning chores, but it hadn't been high-octane enough to make up for the restless night from having Athena under his roof and not in his bed. His brain had been all too happy to keep him awake with alternate scenarios in which he hadn't clung to his status as a gentleman. Alternate scenarios that would've left them both extremely satisfied. But he wasn't an asshole who'd take advantage of an inebriated woman. And as much as he wanted to revisit things with Athena, he didn't have any interest in being her rebound guy.The dogs bumped at his knees in their haste to race over and assume the position beside the treat bucket. "Yeah, yeah. I got it. Morning treats." He lifted the lid and dug a couple of biscuits out. "Wait," he ordered. They both sat, perfectly still but for the swishing of their synchronized tails, as he carefully balanced the biscuits on the
The Misfit Inn Chapter 47
Spring planting was finally finished.Thank Christ.Filthy, tired, and starving, Logan came in from the fields, thrilled to be done before dark. He'd earned a beer. And a shower. Maybe a beer in the shower. Yeah. That'd be a fitting reward for his accomplishment. Maybe he'd haul his ass into town to the tavern for a meal he didn't have to wrangle himself. He checked his watch. It was early yet. Maybe he could convince Athena to join him. He hadn't seen her since she'd stopped by the farm a few days ago, but they'd been texting and had had a few more of those late-night conversations they'd managed in the wake of the wedding. Well, late for him. His farmer's hours and her chef's hours didn't have a ton of overlap. She still hadn't shared any details about the whole exploding career thing. He'd considered hitting up Google to see if it was a newsworthy kind of explosion. But if it was, he didn't want to be one more yahoo invading her privacy. And he could admit to himself, he wanted
The Misfit Inn Chapter 48
Are you still up for that distraction?Logan stared at Athena's text for ten full seconds before responding. Was she serious? She'd been pretty firm when she'd said no to that last week, so what had changed her mind?"Only one way to find out."He thumbed back a reply. Any time.The message showed as read, but though he waited, there were no little dots showing her typing a response. Had he scared her off?Bo and Peep bolted up, barking, just before the knock sounded. A blur of black and white fur, they raced to the door. He waded through them and opened it to find Athena on the other side. Well, that explained the lack of a follow-up text."That was fast.""I was at the end of the driveway." She bent, dropping her arms from where they'd been folded across her middle to give the dogs a rub. When she straightened, she had on what he thought of as her defiant mask. Shoulders back, chin lifted. It was a posture of confidence, yet it couldn't hide that her cheeks looked pale and the
The Misfit Inn Chapter 49
The sight of Athena's little sedan rolling down his gravel drive had Logan straightening from the tractor with a smile. She hadn't called or texted since their dinner, which he'd wondered about. But he understood she needed space to process stuff. She'd opened up more to him that night than she'd probably been comfortable with. So he'd been waiting her out, waiting until she was ready to come to him - and he hadn't expected it to be this soon. He hoped that meant she was getting more comfortable with him and the farm and not that there was more bad news. Either way, he had a proposal he hoped would intrigue her and help mitigate all the career crap she'd been dealing with. Perhaps more than any of it, he hoped he could get his mouth on her again. He'd been thinking about that kiss, about the way she'd gone so soft and pliant in his arms, and how she'd tasted like everything that had been missing in his life. Part of him regretted stopping because he well remembered how combustible th
The Misfit Inn Chapter 50
After Athena and Sean left, Logan spent the rest of the afternoon second-guessing himself, thinking about all the ways he could've handled - well, everything - better. He'd tipped his hand and showed far too much with that outburst about her ex. Not that it wasn't a hundred percent truth, but she'd said she wasn't up for anything serious. Maybe he'd been nudging her in that direction, but he'd been taking his time about it, letting her warm up to the idea. Maybe that plan would've worked in the long game. But that, in combination with the whole cooking school idea, might as well have been an announcement of, "Hey, I want you to stay and I figured out exactly how you can." Which it was. But Athena wasn't a woman who liked being told what to do. He knew that about her. And if he hadn't been so rattled by thinking she'd taken her ex back, he probably could've - would've - waited until he could just slip it into the conversation more casually, so she thought the whole thing was her idea.
The Misfit Inn Chapter 51
On the Friday before Memorial Day, the long, wooded drive down to The Misfit Inn was already lined with vehicles. People were headed toward the house with coolers hauled between them, camp chairs over shoulders, and picnic blankets tucked under arms. Logan could already hear the musicians tuning up out back for the inaugural performance of the season. For something that had been impromptu entertainment last summer during Flynn's initial stay, Jam Night had become The Place To Be on Friday night in Eden's Ridge as soon as the evenings turned warm. Local musicians from near and far gathered together for a few hours of improvised music, and the townsfolk and guests made a party of it. Logan had enjoyed the hell out of the ones he'd attended. But as he made his way down the crushed-gravel drive, unfamiliar nerves skated over his skin, like that time during his sophomore year of high school, when he showed up at Homecoming with Anna Beth Alton in the wake of her dumping the most popular g
The Misfit Inn Chapter 52
As she paced in front of her last class, Athena was surprised at the pang she felt. Many of these people had come to every single class. She'd seen them learn and grow and embrace the joy of food, and that was a bigger high than she'd expected. It had been a long time since cooking had been entirely about the food. But while the whole thing had gone better than she'd anticipated, her relief that it was almost over outweighed the pang."Over the past few weeks, we've talked about how all cooking is really, at the root, about the interplay between fat, salt, heat, and acid. We've discussed how to choose the freshest produce, the best cuts of meat. You've practiced your knife skills. You've addressed the challenges of substitutions when you've got limited availability of ingredients. In each class, you've expanded your palate and focused on the food - no distractions - learning to appreciate the taste and quality of your component ingredients and how they interact to create a sum that's
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