All of Me: A Small Town Romance (The Bridesmaids Club Book 1)

Chapter 26

Later that night, Tess turned over in bed. She flipped her pillow and pulled the duvet high around her shoulders.

She'd tried counting sheep. She'd even visualized all her troubles going into a big vase and putting a lid on everything. Except her six-foot-five trouble wouldn't fit inside any vase she'd stored in her imagination.

It didn't matter how hard she tried. Logan jumped free of any container she found, grinning at her feeble attempts to get him out of her head. At least she was trying to get him out of her head and not out of her bed.

Tess groaned. She was at it again, putting Logan where he so obviously didn't want to go. Kicking off the duvet, she walked across to the picture window. She looked at the streetlights for a few minutes before heading toward the bathroom.

It wasn't Logan that was the problem, it was her and the king-size bar of chocolate she'd demolished. He'd been a perfect gentleman. He hadn't done anything wrong. He hadn't held her hand or whispered sweet nothings in her ear.

And he most definitely hadn't kissed her.

She turned on the light and opened her suitcase. She'd brought a book with her, a horror story that was bound to scare her witless and give her something to really keep her awake.

Turning to the first page, she settled in for the fright of her life.

Halfway through chapter four, she knew she was in trouble. She was bored. The latest blockbuster horror wasn't scary at all. It made her laugh at the worst possible moments and groan at the sheer stupidity of the characters.

She closed the book and glanced at her alarm clock. It was after midnight. In five hours she needed to be at the café. Instead of feeling the rush of pride she normally did when she thought about Angel Wings Café, she felt depressed.

She worked long hours and didn't know what she was doing with the rest of her life. She'd spent the last three years hiding inside more than one pair of faded jeans, telling herself she was better off leaving her modeling days behind.

What she hadn't realized until now, was that no one in Bozeman cared that she'd been a model. They didn't treat her any differently because she had a few extra zeroes on the end of her bank account balance. The only people in the whole town who cared either way were the reporters who'd staked out her apartment. And they probably weren't even local.

After wallowing in self-pity for another few minutes, she decided she needed to do something other than look at the ceiling. If she was having a pity party, she could at least follow a Williams' family tradition. Her grandma had always told her that warm milk with a sprinkle of chocolate could cure most heartaches and long nights. Until she lived with her grandparents, Tess didn't have much in the way of family traditions. So what she had learned she cherished.

She picked up her laptop and tiptoed downstairs. She hadn't heard a peep out of Logan, so she could only guess that he was sound asleep, enjoying whatever dreams were flitting through his head.

She closed the kitchen door and scrunched her eyes tight before flicking on the lights.

"Are you trying to blind me?"

She jumped. Forget her horror novel. Logan Allen had scared the bejeebers out of her without it costing her a cent. She clutched her laptop to her chest and turned around. He was sitting at the kitchen table with his arm over his eyes and a hot drink steaming in front of him.

Tess dimmed the lights and frowned. "What are you doing here?"

"It's my house."

"Very funny." She walked across to the counter and pulled a clean mug out of the dishwasher. "Are you okay?"