Not Quite Married Read Free

his chest. It made her feel better, of course.
    “So how about this weekend?” he asked.
    She moved and felt a twinge in her back, her neck. Maybe she had pulled a face, as Logan was instantly alert.
    “Julia, you’re not okay,” he said.
    “I’m fine. Just stiffening, I guess, like you warned me. Maybe a hot bath would be good. Would you mind?”
    He slid off the bed, running his hand over her head. “Not at all…and the wedding? Come on, baby. Don’t keep me waiting.”
    Oh, she wanted to be his wife so badly, and inside she was jumping up and down—but she opened her mouth and said, “How about waiting a week? Would that be okay?”
    “Sure,” he replied. “Are you worried about something?”
    She could feel a wedge coming between them, a distance she had put there. She could also tell, by the way he’d asked, that he was wondering whether something was wrong. He read people well—she knew that—but right now Julia couldn’t make sense of her own hesitation. She met his gaze and said, “No, of course not.”

Chapter 4
    J ulia sliced up some raw veggies and chicken before stirring a sweet and sour sauce in. She was heating a pan to brown the chicken when she heard the front door clicking open.
    “Mom,” Trinity called out, echoed by Dawn. “Mom, where are you?”
    “In the kitchen,” she said as the girls walked in, Logan behind them. She turned and took in the horror on their faces.
    “Mom, your face!” Dawn cried with a gasp.
    “Are you okay?” Trinity chimed in.
    “I’m fine, really,” she said, turning to stir the chicken. She wondered for a moment how bad she looked, as Dawn was sliding her arms around her waist and hugging her. Julia put the wooden spoon on the counter to focus on her girls just as the doorbell rang. She glanced at Logan.
    “I’ll get it,” he said, but Trinity was already racing to the door.
    “Mom, are you sure you’re okay?” Dawn asked. “You have a big purple bruise right there.” She pointed up to Julia’s forehead.
    Julia turned off the burner and decided to take a look. She glanced in the chrome toaster, but it was hard to see, so she went to the mirror in the hallway. A strange man stood on the doorstep, speaking with Logan. Neither of them seemed pleased.
    “Julia,” Logan called just as she glimpsed her face in the mirror: the ugly stitched-up cut, her swollen brow, and a nice bruise around her eye. It was kind of scary.
    “You’re right, that looks bad,” she said to Dawn, who was standing beside her with her long hair pinned back by two barrettes, nodding in agreement.
    “Julia, come here,” Logan called again, this time reaching out his hand for her. When she took in his expression, her alarm bells started ringing.
    “What is it?” she asked, taking his hand as she stepped to the door, her legs starting to shake. Trinity was standing on the other side of Logan, staring up at the light-haired man at the door, who was a little round in the middle and was wearing dark glasses.
    “Julia Cooper?” he said.
    “Yes,” she replied, unsure whether he had been asking. Before she had to time to think, the man slapped papers into her hand.
    “You’ve been served,” he said.
    She stared at the folded papers, her heart kicking up as Logan took a step outside. The man who’d served her was, of course, hurrying the other way, and Logan was obviously making sure he left.
    “Mom, what is it?” Trinity asked.
    Both of her girls were beside her, and she just shook her head as she unfolded the papers, her heart in her throat. She could feel Logan watching, and he stepped closer and somehow ushered them back into the house, closing the front door. All Julia could see from the stark black ink on white paper was that her ex-husband, Kevin Cooper, wanted full custody of the twins. The man had cheated on her the entire time they had been married, and he now lived with his new wife down in California and saw the girls only twice a year. He had never once