Insider (Exodus End #1)(119)
Author: Olivia Cunning

“There’s a book?”

Toni laughed and picked up her phone, dusting off a few crumbs.

Birdie smiled when her face came back into view. “I thought you was lost.”

“It was a book before it was a movie,” Toni said to Logan. “Don’t you read?”

“All the time. Menus. Road signs. Text messages.”

Toni picked up the used book she’d purchased at a truck stop and shook it at him. “I meant books.”

“Is that Logan?” Birdie asked.

“Yep. He didn’t knock, did he?” Toni turned her phone so that Logan came into view in the corner of the screen.

Birdie beamed. “Hi, Logan! Mom let me use her phone. Now Toni can read to me and I can see her.”

“Awesome. She can read to me too.”

“No, she cannot,” Toni said, her cheeks blazing again. There was no way she was letting Logan see her acting like a complete fool on purpose. He got to see her acting like one accidentally far too often as it was.

“Please, Toni,” Birdie said.

“Please, Toni,” Logan mimicked as he slid a hand up her thigh out of view of the camera. She caught his hand before it disappeared under the leg of her sleep shorts.

“Sit over there.” Toni shoved him so he’d move out of reach. She didn’t want to become an inferno of insatiable need in front of her little sister. After she hung up? Well, that was another matter entirely.

“Only if you promise to read to me.”

Mr. Grabby Hands reached for her boob, and she smacked his hands away.

“Fine!” Toni said. “But you can’t laugh at me.”

“Can I laugh with you?”

“Birdie, it’s time for bed,” Mom said from out of sight on the other end of the line.

“Not yet,” Birdie complained. “Toni is still reading to me.”

“Five minutes.”

“Hurry, Toni!”

Toni wasn’t sure if she could do this in front of Logan. She took a deep breath and said in her best Cheech Marin impression, “My name is Meee-ster Featherface. You keeled my cheeek-ken, prepare to die.”

A strange snorting sound came from Logan’s general direction as he tried to swallow a laugh. No good. He cackled with glee until Toni gave him her death stare, and he stiffened, releasing an occasional snort as he tried to contain his mirth.

“I don’t think that’s how it goes,” he said. “I’ve seen the movie dozens of times.”

“The book is better,” Birdie said wisely.

“I don’t recall a chicken or a Mr. Featherface,” Logan said.

“Mr. Featherface is our rooster,” Birdie said.

“You have a rooster?”

Toni nodded. “They’re kind of necessary on a chicken farm.”

“I still can’t picture you as a chicken farmer,” Logan said, shaking his head at her. “Do you wear overalls?”

She laughed. “On occasion. Actually, Birdie is in charge of the chickens. Isn’t that right, Buttercup?”

“Yep!” The chirp came loudly out of the phone’s speaker.

“So your rooster plays the part of Inigo?” Logan asked.

“Yep. I’m Princess Buttercup and my dog Jonesy is Prince Hump-and-stink,” Birdie said. “And Toni is Tozinni.”

Logan lifted his brows at her. “Tozinni?”

“Vizzini, the mad Sicilian,” she clarified. “There aren’t many female characters in the book.”

“Do the funnest part, Tozinni!”

Oh, what the hell. If Logan could handle her many quirks, surely he could tolerate her reinventing parts of a book to keep herself entertained as she reread it for the billionth time.

“Do you know that sound, Highness?” Toni asked with a lisp that rivaled Daffy Duck’s. “It’s the shrieking peels.”

“Shrieking banana peels!” Birdie yelled. “They’re going to attack the princess. Oh help. Help meeeeee!”

“Inconceivable,” Logan said, shaking his head grimly.

Birdie giggled, and Toni couldn’t help but laugh with her.

“Your five minutes are up,” Mom said, taking the phone from Birdie.

“But, Mom . . .”

“I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon, Buttercup,” Toni said.

“We’re going to the dunes tomorrow,” Logan reminded her.

Toni wasn’t sure if she’d like racing dune buggies through the desert, but Logan was keen on getting her involved in all his insane hobbies.

“Make that tomorrow night,” Toni amended, smiling when Birdie’s face came back on screen.

“I miss you so much,” Birdie said, her eyes watery with tears.

Toni blinked back a few tears of her own. “I miss you too. Good night, Buttercup.”

“Good night, Princess,” Logan said. Toni turned the screen in his direction so Birdie could catch his wave.

“Will you be Westley next time?” Birdie asked him. “Please!”

Logan bowed his head graciously. “As you wish.”

Birdie was still grinning when Mom disconnected the call.

“Thanks for humoring her,” Toni said, setting the phone aside. “She’ll love you forever.”

“It’s hard not to love her in return.”

Toni smiled. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“And it’s impossible not to love you.”

Toni’s heart thudded as their eyes met. “I know exactly what you mean,” she whispered.

Logan grinned. “I like this newfound confidence in you.”

“Huh?” It eventually dawned on her that he thought she meant it was impossible not to love her. She still had a hard time accepting that he did, so she wasn’t yet capable of bragging about it. “I meant it’s impossible not to love you.”

He shrugged, looking devilishly irresistible as usual. “Improbable, maybe, but not inconceivable,” he said with a pronounced lisp.

She smacked him in the face with a pillow, and he tackled her to the sofa. He kissed her, chasing all teasing thoughts from her mind and replacing them with X-rated versions. He shifted his hips between her legs, and she could feel him hardening and lengthening through his jeans and her shorts. He pulled her glasses off and set them on the coffee table. He was close enough that his gorgeous face appeared perfectly clear, and for once she was glad for her myopia. It gave her an excuse to make him stay so close she could feel his warm breath against her sensitive lips.