Bad Boys of Red Hook [2] You're the One Read Free

away from him. “I’m not coming on to you, but if you don’t know if you love your fiancée—the woman you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with—then, I’m sorry to say, the answer is no. So why, pray tell, are you marrying her?”
    “Payton is nice, beautiful, she’s well connected, we get along well, and we’re good together. It’s a smart decision.”
    “Sounds like a match made in hell. Sorry.” She patted his chest. “But without love, you got nothin’. Just ask Storm and Bree—they’ve got the real deal.”
    He was used to nothin’. He was comfortable with nothin’. He’d never known anything but. “Love doesn’t happen to people like me.”
    Rocki looked as if she was fighting tears.
    “What did I say?”
    She blinked her blue eyes and sniffed. “Just the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.”
    “It’s not sad—it’s just the way it is. Some people are not meant to love or be loved. I’m one of them.”
    “Love happens to everyone if you let it. Pete loves you. Storm and Slater do too. And Bree, hell, Bree loves everyone. But the kind of love we’re talking about, the kind that grabs you by the balls and won’t let go, that doesn’t happen if you go around marrying people you don’t love because it’s a good business decision. I never thought I’d say this, but I feel sorry for you.”
    Rocki dropped his hand, turned, and left him standing alone in the middle of the dance floor, staring after her.
    “You made Rocki sad.”
    He blinked and cursed his luck. “Nicki, I thought you’d gone to bed. Aren’t ten-year-olds supposed to be asleep by now?” He looked at his watch and wondered if Bree had recorded Nicki’s bedtime in the annals of her handwritten encyclopedia of child rearing. “What’s your bedtime?”
    Nicki planted her hands on what would someday be her hips and dug her foot into the wood floor. “I don’t have one. I’m not a baby.”
    That was a lie. “In Bree’s book, everyone has a bedtime.”
    “Ten o’clock?”
    “Is that a question or a statement?”
    “Fine, it’s nine, but I don’t want to go to bed until after Storm and Bree leave. Please, Logan, let me stay up. I want to say good-bye. They’re going away for, like, forever.”
    “Only if you don’t tell Bree I let you. If she finds out I’m screwing up already, she might never leave. Onsecond thought, maybe she’ll rethink this whole honeymoon thing.”
    “Yeah, nice try. Believe me, it’s not gonna work. I’ve done everything I can to make them want to stay. I even got into trouble at school.”
    “You did?”
    Nicki shrugged. “Bree didn’t fall for it. She saw right through me. She always does.”
    “Is the thought of staying with me and Pop that much of a nightmare?” Damn, he’d done it again. Nicki had that same sad look on her face Rocki did moments before, and she blinked too frequently for it to be anything but something in her eye or the onset of tears. He patted her shoulder. “It’ll be okay.” He lied through his teeth. “I’m not so bad. You’ll see.” Logan scanned the restaurant searching for Bree’s telltale white dress. A little girl’s tears were enough to unman him. He didn’t know how to handle them. What the hell was Bree thinking leaving him in charge of Nicki and Pop?
    Nicki rested her cheek against the back of his hand and slid her arm around his waist. “That’s what Bree said. That and she’ll only be gone a month. We even made a calendar to cross off the days. She said she’d send me postcards and everything.”
    Something trickled against his hand. Damn, either Nicki was crying or she spit on him. He’d been hoping for the latter but no such luck—the angle was all wrong. What the hell was he supposed to do now?
    “Logan?”
    “Yeah, kid?”
    “Who’s gonna tuck me in after Storm and Bree leave?”
    “I guess I will. But you’ll have to tell me what to do.”
    “Do you give kisses too?”
    “Is it part of the whole