Feeding the Fire Read Free Page B

room to eat. Technically, it was the formal dining room, but it had a long table with rolling executive chairs, the far wall had a screen, and overhead, instead of a light fixture, there was a computer projector.
    Logan joined her a few minutes later, clean and with damp hair. “Thanks for bringing food. I’ve had nothing but coffee and chips all day.”
    “This is a nice setup,” she said, gesturing around the room. “Did you bring this with you?”
    “No, it came with the house. They left this stuff, the chairs and coffee table in the lobby, and a big desk in the room I’ll use for my office.”
    “That’s nice.”
    “Yeah. A few less things I need to buy.” Logan lifted a piece of pizza onto a plate and sat down. “Starting your own business isn’t for sissies. It’s hard to justify buying a flat-screen television for the lobby when I have no clients.”
    Pepper passed him a soda. “You’ll get clients. You just have to open.”
    Logan shrugged, taking a bite of his food instead of arguing with her. Pepper knew he was worried. Moving back to Rosewood and going out on his own was a big deal. Especially going up against competition like the Chamberlains’ firm. It was a risk, but she knew he did it for the family. He couldn’t sit idle in Huntsville while everything was falling apart at home.
    “I went to see Dad today,” Logan said, changing the subject.
    “How was he?” she asked. “The last time I was over there, he seemed a little sluggish. He was getting around okay, but you could tell it was a lot of work for him.”
    “He was better,” Logan said. “That cane the doctor gave him helps. He came to the door to let me in, then walked with me to the garage to help me find some tools to work on the house.”
    “I’m worried he won’t get the use of his left hand back,” Pepper said with a shake of her head. “He can barely hold a spoon without dropping it. I just don’t see him working on cars and handling heavy tools anytime soon.”
    “It’s only been a couple of months. He’s going to therapy and he said that’s helping. You never know. We’ve got to take this one day at a time. He could be in there tinkering under the hood with Sean by summer.”
    “You’re right,” Pepper said, trying to stay positive. She was usually an upbeat person, but it was hard to do when she was watching her family struggle. “On the bright side, now that Dad can stay home alone during the day, Mom’s able to go back to run the shop. It’s taken a lot of pressure off Sean. Now he can focus on fixing the cars and Mom can handle the customers and the phones.”
    “I’m sure she’s happy to get out of the house. Of course, now I have to worry about her sneaking across the street to check on me all the time.”
    “Ah, the downside to renting a house so close to the garage,” Pepper replied with a smile. “I’m sure she’d be glad to help you decorate.”
    Logan groaned and rolled his eyes. “She’d want to cover everything with those doilies she crochets.”
    Pepper chuckled, knowing he was right. She had a box with about fifteen doilies her mother gave her for her new house. It was currently collecting dust in the corner of the dining room, but so were most things.
    “All right,” Logan said, pushing back from the table, “enough eating. It’s time to get some work done.”
    “Fine.” Pepper sipped the last of her drink and followed Logan into the kitchen to throw out their trash. “I’ll start on the kitchen. Then you can spend all day tomorrow trying to figure out where I put things.”
    Logan laughed. “Okay. Just don’t hide the K-Cups or you’ll get a desperate call from me at dawn.”

Chapter Two
    Pepper finally got ready to leave around nine thirty. It took more time than she expected to wipe out the cabinets, line them, and put away all of Logan’s things. The kitchen was small and the layout was a little awkward, so it took some time to figure out what should go where. She