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to Braxton to visit Jack had his brothers harboring more than a little resentment toward her.
Then again, Logan harbored his own fair share of that same emotion where Hope Dillan was concerned.
“It didn’t happen like that,” he heard himself saying in Hope’s defense. Though why he felt the need to stick up for her was beyond him.
“So you left before she got there?”
He probably should have. Then he wouldn’t be struggling over thoughts of the past and feeling things he’d spent years suppressing. But Hope had looked so lost when he’d looked up to see her standing in that hospital corridor. All he’d wanted to do at that moment was comfort her. Thankfully, he hadn’t followed through with what instinct had been pushing him to do. It would have undoubtedly ended up with her pushing him away—again. And he’d had more than his fill of Hope rejecting him.
“Neither of us ran,” Logan muttered as he stood fingering the brim of his hat. “We were both there for Jack. It had nothing to do with us.” That was how it had to be, because there was no “us” when it came to him and Hope.
Carter nodded. “I’ll be sure to say an extra prayer tonight asking for the Lord to help ease your way while Hope’s home.” He reached out to clap a hand over Logan’s shoulder, giving it a supportive squeeze. “Come on in to the kitchen with me and we’ll have us a cup of coffee.”
“I really should be going. It’s been a long day.”
“Audra made pecan pie...”
Logan hesitated a long moment before a smile quirked his lips. “Pecan pie, huh?”
“Complete with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel syrup,” his brother tempted even further, knowing Logan had the biggest sweet tooth of any of the Cooper boys.
Maybe he would stay. Just for a bit. And by the time he finished with his coffee and dessert he’d have his emotions, as far as Hope Dillan was concerned, corralled once more. Because there was no way he was gonna risk putting his heart on the line ever again. Not for Hope. Not for any woman.
* * *
Hope was startled awake by the familiar tune of “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” She sat upright in the chair next to her dad’s hospital bed. A quick glance assured the phone’s ringtone hadn’t awakened him as it had her. Hurriedly, she snatched the phone out of her purse, bringing it to her ear as she got to her feet and hurried from the cubicle. “Hello?” she answered in a hushed tone.
“Wasn’t sure you’d answer,” a voice far huskier than it had once been said at the other end of the line.
“Logan?” she said somewhat groggily.
A groan sounded. “I woke you.”
“I was only catnapping.”
“You probably needed it,” he replied. “Getting news like you got today tends to take a toll on a person. I’m sorry I woke you. Go back to bed.”
“Don’t apologize,” she said. “My back and neck thank you for waking me. But I’m not home. I’m still at the hospital. I guess I drifted off in the chair by Daddy’s hospital bed in a rather uncomfortable position.”
“How is Jack?”
“He’s doing well,” she replied, keeping her voice low as she stepped out of ICU and made her way to the family waiting area just around the corner. There she would be able to talk without waking her daddy, or disturbing the other patients. “If all goes well tonight, they’ll be moving him to a private room tomorrow.”
“Thank the Lord for that,” Logan breathed, his relief, as well as the faith he steadfastly clung to, evident in his voice. A faith she herself no longer looked to when times were bad. “I’m sorry to bother you on your cell phone again, but when I tried Jack’s it went straight to voice mail. I forgot that I had shut his phone off after calling you this morning.”
“You added my number to your contact list?”
“No. I would never presume to do that. It’s in my head,” he explained.
“You still have a knack for remembering things others would more easily forget,” she said with a wistful smile.
“You don’t have to worry about my calling you after you’ve gone back to California. For now, if need be, I know I’ll be able to reach you. The reason I called was to let Jack know that I’m gonna swing by Hope’s Garden on my way home from Carter’s to check on things. I didn’t want either of you to worry yourselves over it tonight.”
She started to tell him that his call wasn’t a bother, then decided it best that he believed that it was. Especially because the sound of his voice was something she could get far too used to hearing. So caught up in her thoughts of keeping a wall up with Logan, it took a moment longer than it should have for what he’d said to settle in. Hope shifted the cell to her other ear. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t mind.”
He had already done more than enough for her daddy. Now that she was home, it was her responsibility to step in and see to things until he was back on his feet again. “I know you don’t,” she said. “But as soon as I can round up a taxi, I’ll be able to head home and see to those things myself.”
“A taxi?”
How else did he expect her to get home? “While I could probably make the walk from here to Braxton, it might take a while, and doing so in the dark and in the pouring rain might be pushing it.”
A warm chuckle sounded at the other end of the line. “You’ve been living in the big city for a mite too long, little darlin’, if you think you’re gonna round up a taxi around these parts, with the exception of the airport, with any ease,” he said with an amused chuckle. “That’d be like trying to find an ocean of in the middle of the Sahara Desert.”
Those two words wrapped around her, making her heart ache—little darlin’. She had to wonder if Logan even realized that he’d called her that. The nickname he’d given her back in high school when he’d first started working for her daddy at Hope’s Garden. Not that she was all that little at five-foot six-inches tall. But to a boy well over six feet in height back then, and to the even taller man he’d grown up into, it was easy to see why Logan considered her little. But she was no longer his darlin’. No matter what her heart still longed for.
“I hadn’t given it much thought,” she answered honestly. Not with her focus centered for the most part on her daddy and the long road to recovery it sounded like he was going to have ahead of him.
“No, I suppose you wouldn’t,” came his muttered reply on the other end of the line.
What exactly did Logan mean by that? She opened her mouth to ask and then closed it, deciding it best to let it go. He had every right to be angry with her. Truth was she was surprised he’d been as cordial as he had been, considering how she’d ended things between them.
Logan wasn’t one to quit on those he cared about, and if things were different, they’d more than likely be married with a few little ones running around. But things weren’t different. And she’d had to break his heart to ensure he’d have those Cooper sons and daughters he’d always longed for.
“Hope? You still there?”
His voice pulled her back to the present. “Yes. I’m here.”
“Thought maybe we got cut off there for a second. Phone service can be iffy inside hospitals.”
She didn’t correct his assumption. It was better he think her silence was due to phone service issues rather than her troubled thoughts.
“If you’re ready to head back to your daddy’s place,” Logan said, saving her the need for any response, “I could run on over to Coopersville and pick you up. Then we can see to the nursery together before I head home for the