Love Realized (4 page)

Focusing, she looked Logan in the eye and the sound of his voice began to slowly register through the fog.
Getting clearer. Come on, just a little more.
“Gilly, baby, talk to me …”
There!
She was back. Logan continued, “Gilly, baby, you’re scaring me. Please talk to me. Are you okay?”

“Did you know?” was all Gillian could get out. Logan’s eyes went wide, but he remained silent. She repeated herself, this time through gritted teeth as her body began to respond to the adrenaline that it was producing. “Did. You. Know?” she implored again, emphasizing every word. The deer in the headlights look remained, and she knew the answer … he did know she was in town. The mistress now lived in close proximity to her husband, and he was fully aware of it. Rage and fury started to churn in her stomach, causing bile to rise. Fortunately, she hadn’t eaten yet, so there was nothing to bring up. But rage and fury were good; she could handle them, it was far better than humiliation and shame she felt three minutes ago, that’s for sure.

“Are you still seeing her?” she snarled at him. But her question was once again met by silence.
Okay, take a deep breath—in through the nose, out the mouth. Just breathe.
The skeletons must have picked up on her fury because they decided to stop dancing and just stood in the corner quietly.

“Are you going to respond to any of my questions? Don’t you have the balls to answer my questions Logan? Or should I go ask her?” Once again, it came out through gritted teeth. Her jaw was beginning to hurt, but that got his attention.

“Yes, I did know she was living here now, baby. I'm sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“That’s one way to avoid the other question. Your evasion of it, though, can only lead me to assume that you are, still in fact,
involved
with her!”

“Gillian, please, let’s not get all worked up over this. We have guests here, and this is something we can talk about later.”

He really had some nerve! Where did he get off counseling her on how to act? She was about to pounce on him, to take out her rage on his clueless expression, when Jason rushed into the room.

Jason Michaels was Jake’s slightly older brother, but more importantly, Logan’s business partner and best friend. A tall, broad-shouldered, brooding, Alpha male, he could command the attention of everyone when walking into a room, simply with his size. Brooding aside, he was certainly a good-looking male specimen. In fact, the brooding might even enhance his attractiveness. He looked intimidating, and could probably glare a weaker man into submission, but to those of us who knew him, he was a total marshmallow on the inside. Especially when it came to anybody important in his life needing his support or attention, it was clearly a family trait.

“Logan what the hell is going on?” Jason growled at Logan as he proceeded to sit next to Gillian and put his arm around her. He was glaring at Logan expectantly, while awaiting an answer, but he remained silent. Well, at least Logan was being consistent with his lack of answers. The shocked look on his face was priceless as he stared back at Jason. Jason then turned and looked at Gillian, his face softened and asked, “Are you okay, Gilly? What do you need me to do for you? Should I ask her to leave the party?”

That was when she realized that Jason knew who Jody was. Of course he did! Why wouldn’t he, he was Logan’s best friend? But for some reason, just knowing that Jason knew what was happening, and that he was supporting her in the matter, brought more tears to her eyes. She turned and quickly threw her arms around his neck, taking in the comfort of a friend’s support. Jason, of course, hugged her back affirming that she could lean on him if she needed. She could hear the muffled sound of Logan grumbling at Jason over the big shoulder and chest muscles that seemed to be drowning him out. “Jason what the hell are doing? I'm trying to talk to my wife here. Get the fuck out!”

“I don’t think so, man! What the hell is that woman doing here?”

“I didn’t invite her here! Gillian works with her husband, apparently, and
she
invited
him
!”

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it! What the hell is she doing in California?” Jason growled at Logan while still holding firmly onto Gillian. She just smiled inwardly as she let Jason do all of the questioning. Unfortunately, Jason’s questions were once again met by silence.

Gillian pulled her head back and looked up at Jason, who relaxed his hold, but still held onto her. “Thanks Jason, I appreciate you asking. Obviously you know exactly who Jody is, but does anyone else know?”

Jason smiled down at her. “No Gilly-girl, I don’t think anyone else knows who she is. Your secret is safe with me. What do you want me to do?”

“Could you please knee your best friend and business partner in the nuts?”

Jason flinched. “Ouch! I am sure that shit-head you’re married to deserves that, but it’s against the guy code to do that unless under the most dire of circumstances, sweetheart. But I could deliver a right hook to the jaw, if it would make you feel better.”

“Thanks, but no, that would just earn him sympathy. It’s his boy-parts that keep causing me pain.”

“How about a direct blow to the gut, would that help a little bit?” he asked with a teasing tone, but Gillian knew that Jason would do it for her.

Logan decided to chime in with a disgruntled bark. “What the hell man, I’m sitting right here! Quit talking shit!”

Jason turned his mean glare on his best friend once again and growled at him. “Can it Logan! It’s complete bullshit that your goddamn mistress is crashing your son’s Eighth birthday party and that your wife has to deal with this. This is not about you, so I suggest you shut the hell up!”

Even though it was nice to have someone else in the know, it still didn’t change the fact that there needed to be some form of action here. Glancing between the two of them, she knew it appeared that things could definitely escalate from verbal to physical quickly. “Stop, please, both of you.” Gillian turned toward Jason. “Thank you for your offers, but you really have no idea how much of a help you have been just by knowing.” She hugged him again.

“I'm sorry, Gillian. I didn’t realize what was going on ‘til it was too late.” When she pulled back to look at him, the look in his eyes was pained and sympathetic. He knew everything. He was confessing that he knew what Logan had done and was silently begging her to accept his apology. It surprised her how strangely comforting it was that he knew. She didn’t have to explain anything to him.

Logan interrupted her thoughts and was obviously trying to take her attention off Jason and what he was saying. “Gilly, baby, we need to talk.” She turned to face her husband of sixteen years and was slightly startled at how panicked he looked. This was not the usual Logan Baxter. He was always so put together. This realization just further confirmed the fact that he knew he was caught, and that he had, in fact, still been involved with another woman. She shook her head at him. Jason still had his arm around her, and it made her stronger. “No Logan, now is not the time. Clearly, you have some explaining to do … but as you already pointed out to me, we are supposed to be celebrating our son’s birthday. And that is exactly what I plan to do. I strongly suggest you suck it up and put on a happy face, for his sake. You will not mar his birthday with your inability to control yourself.” With that, she stood up to leave the room.

“Dad, are you gonna come in the pool with us?” Ryan yelled to Jake from the water. “Yeah buddy, I will in just a little while. I haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast, so I want to grab some food first.”

“Okay, Dad.” Ryan proceeded to duck under the water and swim away. Well, Jake assumed he was dismissed to get some food. He strolled over to the new bar Logan had built to see what he could find. The bar looked good; Logan always had the ability to craft up crap like that. It was almost like the guy had everything.
Talent, skills, the girl of his dreams
.
Oh wait; he did have everything!
Damn, where the hell did that bitterness come from? Okay, so he knew exactly where it came from, but he just wasn’t prepared for it. It had been a while since he felt that jealousy toward Logan, but when he came out the back door and saw Gillian standing there, just smiling at the kids, she was as beautiful as ever, and it kind of took his breath away.

Gillian was the kind of person people gravitated toward. She cared about everyone around her, always put herself last, and never hesitated when she felt someone needed her.
He supposed that these were all traits that made her such a good nurse. But those were just her inner beauties. She was both attractive on the inside and the outside. They had been friends since junior year in high school, and she has only become more beautiful over time.

She was of average height and build for a woman, coming in somewhere around five-foot five-inches, with bright green eyes and long, golden brown hair. There was a slight wave to her hair, and some women would probably use an iron to straighten it, which Jake didn’t understand, but hey he had a penis, what did he know? He did know that he loved her hair and the way she let hang over her shoulders and down her back. And even though there was a lot of hair, she didn’t hide her face behind it.

Gillian exuded confidence with her body and her looks, and she could make sweats look attractive, mainly because she really didn’t care what people thought about how she looked. She possessed a woman’s body and wasn’t rail thin like culture implied men desired, rather, she was curvy in all the right spots, and flat in all the others. She was beautiful and perfect in every way.
Wow! Way to sound creepy, man. Damn, I must really need to get laid.

Sometimes he couldn’t stand the fact that Logan had a treasure like Gillian. He loved Logan like a brother, and had seen him just that way, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to kick his ass sometimes. And it definitely didn’t mean that he didn’t covet what Logan had. But he conceded to Logan back in high school when he had clearly won Gillian’s heart before Jake even had a chance at trying.

God, he really sounded like a love sick stalker today. It’s not like he’d been pining over her for the past eighteen years. He just always had a soft spot in his heart for her. Gillian was one of his best friends. He only wanted her to be happy … and Logan made her happy.
Now ain’t that just fucking fantastic!

Jake thought he had found his “Gillian” quite a few years back, even married her and had Ryan. But Wendy was nothing like Gillian. He found that out the hard way when he came home early to his ten-month old son crying in his crib while his wife entertained her boyfriend in their bedroom. Now that was a great day! Thankfully, Wendy packed up and followed what’s-his-name to Florida, and Jake was happy to see her go—thankful that she signed over full custody of Ryan to him. There was no way he was going to let a woman, who apparently cared more about her next orgasm than her baby in the next room, be able to claim any rights to his boy.

Well fuck! Was it take-a-trip-down-shitty-memory-lane-day
? He needed a beer. He made it to the bar and saw that there was a keg … cool! Jake guessed when Logan did it, he did it right. As he reached behind the bar to get a cup, he saw his brother Jason get up and grumpily make his way into the house.
Wonder what’s wrong with him?
Shrugging, he filled his cup and took up the seat across from Sean, Gillian’s brother.

“Hey Sean, got the whole day off?” Sean glared at Jake, and he knew it was because of the favorite uncle comment. Jake couldn’t help but smile back; it was so easy to get under Sean’s skin. He was like a grumpy bear: fun to poke a stick at, but once you got him riled up you better haul ass before he got his hands on you. Although Sean was technically Dylan’s only uncle by blood, the Baxter kids had plenty of men they called uncle in their lives. There was not a lacking of male role models for them, that’s for sure.

Once he was done glaring, Sean replied, “Yeah, my schedule just changed. I'm working ten-hour shifts for four days then have three days off. I finished my first week on it yesterday so I have the next three days off. I can definitely go for that.” He reached over and squeezed his wife, Morgan’s, hand as she rubbed her very swollen belly. “Morgan needs me around more and more lately to take care of her.”

Morgan then smiled indulgently at her husband and said, “Don’t you think you’ve done enough? I already feel ‘taken care of,’” she said, making air quotes and gesturing to her belly. They all laughed at that. Jake leaned over and kissed Morgan on the cheek, and she was all smiles.

“Hey, go get your own girl, that one’s mine,” Sean growled at Jake. This, of course, made Jake and Morgan laugh more.

“Well, duh, everyone knows she’s yours. You keep knocking her up! Give the poor girl a rest.” Jake sat back down, but didn’t miss how Sean scooted his chair closer to Morgan. “How are you feeling, Morgan?”

“Oh, I'm great, just busy gestating these days. Got six weeks left to go, and I'm counting the days.”

“I bet. I don’t know how you women can do that. There is clearly a reason why women were chosen to have the babies. If it were up to us men, the race would have died out long ago.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” Morgan agreed.

“Where did my brother stomp off to? He looked angry or something.”

Morgan gave him a quizzical look and replied, “I'm not sure, but I didn’t think he stormed off. I guess there did appear to be a purpose in his stride.” She pondered silently for a moment before continuing, “Maybe he followed Logan and Gillian inside … I think she got stung by a bee or something. I saw Logan hustle her inside after she dropped the tray of food.”