Insider (Exodus End #1)(109)
Author: Olivia Cunning

Toni’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Is Susan in agreement?” She wasn’t sure why she cared. The woman’s opinions never meshed with Toni’s.

“Not exactly,” Mom said, “but let me worry about Susan. I’m impressed with how much you’ve accomplished already.”

“You are?” Mom didn’t hand out compliments regularly. Toni couldn’t help but smile.

“I am,” she said. Turning, she called out, “Birdie, how’s your nose?”

“It’s fine!” Birdie yelled. “Leave me alone.”

“She’s mad,” Toni said as she moved to the table to shut down her laptop and disconnect the projector, allowing it to cool down so she could stow it away again.

“Why is she mad?”

“Someone told her that if she rode on the plane, I’d come home.”

Mom bit her lip and rubbed at an eyebrow with one finger. “I did tell her that. I figured you’d be more useful at home than here. I was wrong. We’ll figure something out to make this work.”

“Are you coming with us to the track?” Logan would be almost as happy as she was that she was staying and completing the project as she envisioned it.

Mom laughed. “To watch your boyfriend play with his bike?” She shook her head. “I think I’ll pass. I can get some work done before we have to catch our plane.”

“Is it okay with you that Birdie comes with us?”

“Of course.”

“Birdie,” Toni called to her sister, who was sulking in the corner, “are you too mad at me to go watch Logan ride his dirt bike?”

“Yes!” Birdie said.

“Logan will be sad. He wanted you to see him do a trick. I thought you were his friend.”

It was probably wrong of her to manipulate her sister, but Birdie would get over her anger quickly if she was having fun. And who could be around Logan for more than ten seconds without having fun?

“I’ll go,” Birdie said. “But I’m not sitting by you.”

“Don’t be cross with Toni,” Mom said as she rose from her chair. “I’m the one who told you she was coming home.”

“I’m not sitting by you either!”

“This should make our flight home interesting,” Mom said under her breath as she walked toward the door. “Make sure you’re back here before three.”

Toni nodded and sent a text to Logan. Meeting is over. Went well. I’m bringing my equipment and my sister to our room. You might want to hide the toys.

His reply came a few seconds later. OK. Where am I supposed to hide them all?

IDK! Use your imagination.

I’ll meet you in the hallway. Just knock.

He was right; it probably wasn’t the best idea to allow Birdie into their suite. No telling what she might see. Still upset that she’d been lied to, Birdie followed begrudgingly. Her attitude changed entirely when Toni knocked on the suite door and Logan appeared with two long-stemmed white roses.

“For the pretty ladies,” he said.

He offered a flower to Birdie first, who lifted the blossom to her nose and sniffed. Toni was too busy ogling the gorgeous spectacle of Logan’s ass in his thin red race pants to give a fig about a flower.

“Thank you!” Birdie said. “It doesn’t smell good.”

“It stinks?” Logan asked, smelling the rose he was still holding.

“No.” Birdie laughed. “I mean you can’t smell it.”

“Well, that’s disappointing,” Logan said, tossing his rose on the floor.

“But I love it!” Birdie rescued the discarded flower from the hall carpet as Toni nudged her way into the suite and dropped off her bags.

While Logan occupied Birdie in “safe” territory, Toni grabbed a couple of sweatshirts. She had no idea what the weather would be like in Denver in May.

By the time they were settled in the waiting limousine outside the hotel’s front lobby, Birdie was too distracted with awe to hold on to her anger toward Toni. Birdie fiddled with the television and other various buttons, while Logan and Toni snuggled close together in the seat.

“Is it stupid that I missed you?” he murmured close to her ear.

She probably should force some distance between them when a young witness was in their midst—those pants of his left very little to the imagination and she knew what kind of effect she had on the man. But she found herself squirming to get closer and burying her face in his neck.

“Not stupid, flattering,” she assured him.

“Tell me about the meeting,” he said, and then whispered to her out of Birdie’s earshot, “to distract me from my desire to devour you.”

“My little sister is watching,” she reminded him.

“Which is the only reason I haven’t made you naked.”

If Birdie hadn’t been present, Toni was quite sure she’d be enjoying one of his fabulous lessons.

“Uh, the meeting,” she said. She placed a hand on his chest to steady herself, not finding the rapid beat of his heart steadying in the least. “Right.”

She told him what had happened—trying not to overstate what a bitch Susan had been to her—and he listened. Somewhere in the middle of her recap, she realized that she liked having him as a friend. And that if this relationship between them didn’t work out, she’d lose so much more than a fantastic lover. She’d lose a confidant, her champion, her partner. When had she started thinking of him like that? Probably in the wee hours of that morning when he’d been squinting blurry-eyed at video footage and searching for the perfect thirty-second segment from their record store signing.

“I’m glad you get to stay,” Logan said.

Looking up into his tender blue eyes, she was sure she’d have stayed with him for as long as possible even if her mother had given the job to Susan.

“I’m not,” Birdie said crossly. “I want Toni to come home.”

“Birdie . . .” Toni began.

“Aren’t you proud of your sister?” Logan asked Birdie. “She’s been working hard to make me look good.”

“That is a hard job,” Toni teased.

He poked her in the belly, but didn’t reply to her barb. “And no one believed she could do it. Not your Mom. Not Susan. Not the guys in the band.”

“Susan is mean!” Birdie said.

“But your big sister did an excellent job, and now everyone realizes how amazing she is. That’s good, isn’t it? She couldn’t do that if she was at home.”