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Mmmnnhh…Logan shifted and fidgeted amidst the tangle of covers and squinted at the bright morning glare shining in through the bedroom window. The navy blue tab-top curtains gave the whole bedroom a calming, grayish cast, but that didn’t help the light that was burning into his eyeballs. He passed his hand over his eyes and gave his face a thorough wake-up rub, wincing at the aftertaste of rum and cotton coating his tongue. His first inclination was to stretch and let his joints crack and pop their way awake…until he felt the press of something heavy and soft against his chest. No, that wasn’t it. It was bigger, and it occupied more of his space than that. Something…wait, it dawned on him, someone was pressed up along his side, warming him, steaming his collarbones with morning breath almost identical to his. He suppressed a startled jerk as a slender hand languidly stroked his chest, grazing his nipple. The nickel-sized bud stiffened into a tingling peak, making him suck in his breath. Logan’s free hand “ his other arm was wrapped around his overnight guest at the moment, and his fingers were just regaining feeling from having fallen asleep “ reached out to still the questing hand, laying it flat against his chest. The events of the previous night were trickling into his consciousness, and he wanted to savor them one by one. Ororo’s soft, sleep-warmed skin was proving a distraction.

Ororo had been married. And she was a widow. Her husband’s name was Jonathan. Talking about him, albeit briefly, had left a slightly haunted look in her blue eyes. She’d loved him, that he could tell. He sensed there had been trouble in paradise. He was no stranger to that, either.

Her hair color hadn’t come out of a bottle, he mused, stifling a chuckle.

She played a mean game of shuffleboard. And she was a Clapton fan, that was a plus.

There was a spot behind her ear that made her whimper and arch against him when he tasted it. She was addicted to Starbuck’s coffee and she spoiled her dog.

She was a heavy sleeper, but incredibly responsive to touch. She talked in her sleep. And occasionally kissed in her sleep.

My husband’s not in this room, and I won’t bring him between us to taint this, Logan. So it meant something to her, more than just a one-night stand. Logan pondered this as he lightly stroked her arm. She sighed and snuggled up, her breasts burrowing into his ribs.

What did it mean to him? He turned his face slightly, rubbing his cheek over her tousled waves of hair, letting them tickle his lips.

What could SHE mean to him?

Logan steeled himself and delicately, painstakingly detached her from his body, tucking her back in as he slid out of bed. He was naked, but felt thoroughly vulnerable and exposed once he was separated from the sheltering sweetness of her body. Ororo moaned and twisted in the covers, flinging her arms over her head. “Mmmm.” Logan broke away, even though it physically pained him, and retrieved his discarded boxer shorts. He hopped into them as he made his way down the hall.

First things first. He dialed Yukio’s number.

“Hey. It’s me.” Logan could hear the sounds of MTV blasting in the background and commotion in her kitchen. Jubilee must be up, most likely ransacking the refrigerator.

“Nice of you to join the land of the living,” she scolded, but her voice held no rancor.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Long night. Ain’t had any coffee yet.”

“I already did inventory this morning and put the out to lunch sign on the door. You’ve got another forty minutes to get your sweet tail behind the counter. I’ll bring Jubes back in a little while. She has a change of clothes, already, and she can shower here.”

“Good. Sounds like a plan. I hafta take care of some business in the meantime. Gotta call a tow truck.”

“Something happen to the bike?” Yukio sounded horrified.

“No, no. Not the bike. Ororo’s Jeep. She had ta leave it at Mac’s last night. Alternator went out.”

“Ororo’s Jeep? Whooaaaa…hold on, now. Back it up. Her Jeep went out, and she left it at Mac’s? So you took her home, or, what?”

“Or what,” he repeated, bracing himself for the inevitable…

“You DOG! Holeeeeee shit! YESSSSS! I want details, graphic, gory details without leaving anything out! BOOOO-YAAHHHH!” Logan could hear Jubilee in the background, asking Yukio if she’d lost her freakin’ mind as he shook his head, shoulders jerking with his attempts not to laugh.

“Gotta call the truck. Gotta go. I’ll see you an’ Jubes in a bit.” Yukio held him a couple of minutes longer, busting his chops, filling his ears with I-told-you-sos, and chanting “Ororo and Logan, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…” but she stopped short of the part about the baby carriage, knowing when not to go too far. Logan hung up the phone and rummaged through his cabinets for the coffee. Not Starbucks, but it would do. He loaded the filter and set the timer, then retrieved the phone book. Ten minutes later, he had a pot of hot, fresh joe, bread popping out of the toaster, and eggs sizzling in the pan. A loud knock almost made him drop the jar of strawberry jam, which he hastily set down before jerking open the door.

“LeBeau’s Towing and Hauling. We got that Jeep; where do ya want us ta leave her?” Logan chuckled at the use of “her.”

“Out back. In the private parking lot.” Logan reached for the clipboard and signed his John Hancock by the ‘X.’ He padded to the kitchen table and opened up his wallet, digging into the billfold and prying out a handful of twenties. The slender man with brown hair measured Logan as he took the cash. “Shame for something ta happen ta a Jeep that sweet. Hope it ain’t hard ta fix, homme.” He tucked his pen into his coverall pocket. Logan thought back to the sleeping angel tangled in his sheets in back, remembering what she’d confessed to him last night.

“Some things are worth trying fix, even if it takes a little effort,” he grunted. They exchanged nods and Logan gently shut the door. He turned off the eggs, hoping Ororo liked hers hard scrambled; Logan wasn’t a runny yoke man. He liked ta eat his eggs, not drink ‘em. He opened up the fridge and pulled out a loaf of ham, and then began slicing off thin pieces. He dropped these into the pan once he’d transferred the eggs onto the plate. The maple-cured ham filled the kitchen with its rich scent.

Mariko wasn’t much for ham. She’d often shaken her head at his “taste for swine.”

Logan turned the ham deftly with a fork, satisfied when the edges curled and crackled, nice and crisp. He turned off the burner and removed the pan from the heat, covered it with a lid. Time to see if Ororo was ready to get up. Logan braced himself for the possible awkward greetings as he nudged the bedroom door open.

She was still asleep, but her breathing was shallow, less of a snore. Damn, she was beautiful. All long, graceful limbs and smooth mocha skin. Her lower lip was caught between her even white teeth as she emitted a small sigh, and something in Logan stirred, something that had lain dormant even since his wife was lowered into the ground. He approached the bed and knelt beside it, reaching out to stroke her hair off of her cheek. She smacked her lips and leaned into his touch, turning onto her side and instinctively clutching his wrist. Logan took this as a positive sign. His free hand caressed her bare, silky shoulder, making her quiver. “Mmmmph.” He restrained a laugh at her stubborn determination to stay asleep.

He’d just have to persuade her how good an idea waking up would be…

He reached up with the index finger of his captive hand and skimmed it along her full, soft lips, stroking it experimentally. There, it worked, she puckered it, nipping the tip. Even that subtle little nip sent arousal into his loins. Her dark, curling lashes fluttered against her cheeks as she nibbled him again, her fingers tightening around his wrist, drawing him closer. Logan caressed her hair, letting the strands sift through his fingers, massaging her scalp. She rewarded him with an appreciative moan; Logan watched her back arch beneath the covers as they slipped loose, exposing her.

Breakfast was about to get really, really cold.

Logan lowered his lips to her forehead, tracing her hairline with feather-light kisses. He felt the suction of her lips around his fingertip increase as she drew him in another centimeter. His mouth nibbled a path across her forehead, teasing her arched brows, before he gently gripped her jaw and tilted her face to better allow him to lave her eyelids with his tongue.

“Ohhhhnnggh.” His fingertip slipped loose from her lips as they dropped open on a gasp. He licked a hot and sultry path down her cheekbone, trailing over her jaw, reveling in the taste of her skin. He nibbled her chin, encouraging her to show him her throat. Attagirl. Ororo came awake with a full-bodied cry as her hands clutched at his crisp, thick waves of hair, desire pooling between her legs at the insistent, firm mouth latching onto her neck. “Sssshit…” she hissed, shocking them both with her profanity before her eyes shuttered, and she surrendered fully to the havoc he wreaked. The sheets were peeled away, and Ororo felt the cool air wash over her skin for a brief moment before he covered her body with his. She savored the warm, solid bulk of him enveloping her as he claimed her mouth for a proper good morning kiss. He took his sweet time about it, she realized, and he was very thorough. She moaned her approval into his mouth, returning the greeting. Their limbs tangled together sinuously as she revisited the past night’s revelations. He has a tiny scar here. There’s that tiny mole on his ribcage that I liked so much…

“We ain’t got much time ta loaf around, darlin’, but…oh, God! Don’t stop, that feels so damned good, yer makin’ it hard ta start the day!” She writhed beneath him; he could feel the friction from her curls rubbing over his bulge, even though the thin cotton of his boxers. “Aw, hell!” He broke away, rearing up to yank off his boxers. They landed back onto the heap of their clothes with a soft plop as he joined her again with every intention of enveloping himself in her sweet heat. Her legs wrapped around his waist as though they had been partners for years as he pressed himself into her, swallowing her cry, their groans mingling as he reassured her that she was by no means overstaying her welcome.

I want to make love to you. With everything that I have. Her words rushed back to him as he mentally accepted her gift. Yes, yes. He wanted it. Wanted her, everything that she had to give, but the words to express this were lost in the tide of passion that swept them both away. So he let his body, his hands, his mouth describe more eloquently what he was feeling toward this sensuous woman who had slipped past his defenses the moment he’d looked into her eyes. Logan made a mental note to remind Yukio to order another supply of frappacino…

“Oh, God!” he panted, thrusting into her for all that he was worth. She met him with every stroke as waves and ripples of pleasure spread through her womb.

“LOGAN.” His head reared back as she felt him clench and tighten within her depths, throbbing for release. She squeezed him one last time and he roared his satisfaction into the stillness of the room as he came, spasming and bucking as he filled her. His climax triggered her own fulfillment as she held him close, her own ragged cry mingling with his. Logan shuddered as her teeth sank into her shoulder, but the pain enhanced the sensations flooding every nerve ending of his body. He soothed her, stroking her hair, his lips brushing her temples, whispering against the corner that it was all right, that he was here, that he wouldn’t let go. Gradually the tremors eased, and Logan basked in her limp but tender embrace.

“I may never get out of bed now, you realize that, right?” she prodded, kissing the bridge of his nose as he settled himself comfortably against the swell of her breasts.

“The thought had crossed my mind,” he admitted. “Hungry?”

“I could eat anything that’s not nailed down,” she confessed. “Smells good.”

“Made coffee already. Called for a tow, too. Yer Jeep’s out back.”

“Oh, Logan, that’s sweet; thank you,” she gushed, touched by his thoughtfulness.

“Ororo?” he inquired, raising his face to hers, staring fondly into her eyes.

“Yeah?” His throat suddenly felt tight.

“I was…kinda worried what it would be like. What waking up would be like. With you. How things’d look in the light of day.” He felt like an idiot. “Darlin’, are ya okay with this?” He’d fretted for a moment when she’d tensed up at his admission of being worried, but was instantly relieved when she relaxed at his closing words. Her fingers crept up and traced his cheek. Her eyes were full of an emotion he couldn’t name quite yet as she studied him.

“I’m very okay with it. There’s still…some things we need to talk about, Logan.” She swallowed around a lump in her throat. “But I’d like that opportunity, when we have more time.” As if reading his thoughts, she kissed him soundly, then leaned her forehead against his, murmuring, “So, what that means is, no lame promises to ‘call each other sometime.’ I want to see you again. Badly.” His grin nearly split his face.

“Works fer me. In the meantime, let’s eat.”

Now they knew that she was a real princess because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds.
*****

Ororo and Logan made their way to the kitchen, hand in hand once she made herself decent in the flannel shirt from last night. She added the shorts to her ensemble, seating herself on the couch to slip them on. Shame to cover up such a pretty sight, Logan mused, unscrewing the lid from the jam. She paused a moment, wriggling her covered backside into the cushion, bouncing on it experimentally. Logan quirked his brow, wondering how she suddenly developed a case of ants in her pants…or his pants, for that matter...

“What’s up?” He divided the eggs into equal portions on two mismatched plates. He hesitated in the task as he noticed the cobalt blue border with its dainty sprays of cabbage roses.

It was one of the last remaining dinner plates of their wedding china set. He didn’t have the heart to put it back now. Ororo had to be pretty hungry.

“There’s something lumpy under here.”

“Hunh. Let me know if there’s any loose change,” he joked as he brought their plates to the table. Ororo grinned at him and slid to the floor, flipping the cushion up.

“Hey…were you missing this?” She replaced the cushion and rose, pulling up a chair at the cozy table. She handed Logan an object that fit neatly into her hand, and her smile faltered as she noticed the tension that whitened his knuckles, and the turbulent emotions that flitted across his face. She cleared her throat. “It’s beautiful, Logan. Where did you get that?”

“Japan.” He turned it over, letting the sunlight dance over its shiny surface. Mariko had been a voracious reader. They’d stopped at a street fair and browsed the vendor’s carts for curios and antiques to send home. The figurines and other fluffy, useless items like wineglass charms and candle snuffers held no charm for him, but Mariko exclaimed over the sterling silver bookmarks. The one she chose had a round jade stone set into the head. The design was simple but elegant. She had to have it.

It was one of the rare items that he never packed away. “Jubilee must’ve been using it; probably slipped out of something she was reading.”

“Good thing it’s safe. Especially if it’s something you cherish.” He laid it on the table and fetched two mugs from the cup hooks over the stove. “What, no Spongebob?” Ororo observed. That lightened some of the the pall over his features. He smiled as he filled their cups.

“Probably would be, if Jubilee drank coffee.”

“Mm-hm.” She sipped the steaming brew. “Mmm. Perfect. I needed that.” She sampled the eggs next, eyes brightening with surprise. “You’re a man of many talents. This is wonderful.”

“I like ta eat. Jubes eats like a truck driver,” he offered, biting into his ham.

“Yeah, teenagers’ll do that. I’m not much of a cook.” Ororo had a vision of her nearly bare pantry, mentally counting two boxes of mac and cheese, some crackers, and a can of olives. She needed to go shopping soon.

“Don’t like to?”

“No time to learn anything fancier than ‘add one can of water and stir.’ My husband liked to cook, every now and again.”

“I learned a little from my wife. Her family owned a catering business. She also picked up different recipes from other servicemen’s wives when I was stationed on different bases.”

“Was the constant moving and traveling hard?” Ororo bit into her toast after spreading it generously with jam.

“Sometimes.” He swirled his coffee in his cup. “Makes it hard to establish roots. That’s why I got out. Jubes was the daughter of one of my best friends.” He knew it was almost time to bring the meal to a close; she had to get her car to a mechanic, and he had a store to run. But it was easy to talk to her. “We were overseas. Afghanistan. He was about a meter away from me when he stepped on a landmine.” His voice was steady, but the revelation had an immediate effect on Ororo. He felt her soft hand covering his and met her eyes.

“I’m sorry. How horrible. Both for you, to have been so close, seeing it happen, and for Jubilee.” He turned his hand and squeezed hers back, basking in the simple comfort of her gesture.

“I still dream about it.”

“You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t, When something that traumatic happens to you, you’re never quite the same again.” I wasn’t. “How did Jubilee come to live with you?”

“M’iko an’ I were her godparents. We’d always kept in touch. But Doc’s wife was in a bad way after he was killed. M’iko used ta take her a hot dish once in a while and would take Jubes off her hands for the afternoon when she needed a break. Her doctor had prescribed sleeping pills and an antidepressant.” Ororo felt a wave of dread wash over her at what she knew was coming. “She swallowed ‘em all one weekend when M’iko took Jubes on a camping trip with her friends. One of the other parents called to see when Patti was going to be home so M’iko could drop her off. When she wouldn’t answer the phone all day, she peeked in the windows, and saw Patti lying on the floor. She’d been there for a few hours.” Logan looked up from their joined hands at the sounds of a loud sniffle.

“Sorry, don’t mind me, it’s…it’s just…” She waved away her overreaction at first, attempting to regain her composure. “It’s hard to think of that young of a girl not having her mom.” She mopped away the tears welling up in her lashes with the sleeve of his shirt, before they could fall. “She’s lucky to have you.” She doesn’t know how lucky.

“The jury’s still out on that,” he sighed. “We drive each other crazy, but she’s grown on me. I love her ta death an’ can’t imagine life without her. Someone has ta keep me current on music, fashion, and teenager-ese.”

“It’s a dirty job…’ Ororo let the phrase dangle. They finished their meal in relative silence. Ororo cleared the table, ordering him “Sit!” when he moved to take the dishes from her hands. “You cooked, I’ll clean up. You saved me the trip to pick up something that wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good as this was.” She ran the water for the dishes and soaped the sponge. “I’ll be out of your hair soon. Promise.” Ororo felt a shiver as she spoke her fears aloud, albeit jokingly.

“I ain’t givin’ ya the bum’s rush out the door, darlin’, not ta worry.” Unexpectedly, Ororo felt his arms wrap around her waist from behind, enveloping her in a bear hug. “It’s hard fer a guy who’s his own boss ta take the day off.”

“Mmm. I have to head home and feed my puppy and take him out for a run.” Logan kissed the spot where her neck connected to her shoulder, then released her.

“I’ll get ya something else ta wear. It’s too hot outside for flannel.” Ororo finished up the dishes as Logan rooted through his bureau for something suitable for them both, before he stepped into the shower and took the shortest shower in history. Yukio would read him the riot act for keeping her on duty unrelieved for so long. He retrieved her little dress, still slightly damp, but thankfully not too much the worse for wear. Her shoes were a lost cause, which was a damn shame. Those sexy little sandals made him imagine her in those and nothing else. He smoothed the wrinkles from the satiny fabric and gently folded it on his way back to the kitchen. “Looks like yer wearin’ my stuff home, darlin’,” he announced. “Left it on the bathroom counter for ya.”

“Can’t say that I mind.” His shirts smelled like him. A few minutes later found Ororo stepping into his sneakers, chuckling at the fact that despite his shorter stature, his feet were still a size or two bigger than hers. Logan tucked her dress into a plastic bag and handed Ororo her denim jacket. He grabbed his keys from the hook and opened the door, stopping Ororo for one last kiss for the road that turned into several.

“What time (mmm) do you close (kiss) tonight?”

“Yukio’s gonna (smooch) do the honors.” Hmm, there’s a dab of jam right there, almost missed it… “Jubilee’ll be home tonight, though.” Smooch.

“Mmm. Darn it. (kiss) I’m on the early shift tomorrow, too.” It should be illegal for a man to taste this good. “I have to get up at the crack of dawn.”

“So do I,” he admitted, nudging her hair aside for one last taste of her neck. Sometimes it sucked being an adult. Except when you got to break curfew.

A short while later, Ororo unlocked her front door after checking her mail, sifting through it as she crossed the threshold. The sound of claws scratching along her hardwood floors came closer as Chuckles came panting and wagging his way into the hall to greet her. “Oooo, how’s mommy’s snookums? Come here, baby, give mama some sugar!” She knelt to give him a thorough scratching and belly rub and accepted his enthusiastic kisses, puppy breath and all. Chuckles lingered longer at his canine greeting, taking the time to snuffle and examine all of the strange, unfamiliar scents she carried in with her. He paid extra close attention to the well-worn men’s Adidas sneakers on her feet. What was it about dogs and shoes?

“Mama made a new friend, Chuckles,” she murmured somewhat redundantly, in light of how complete a sniffing she was getting from her lab. His tail was still wagging, and he licked her tongue and jawline with renewed enthusiasm at the new scent.At least the dog and I are on the same page. Chuckles followed her into the kitchen, where she replaced his old water with fresh and poured him a dish of Science Diet kibble. “Time for breakfast, sweetie.” Ororo reflected on the relaxing meal she’d enjoyed at Logan’s table, wondering how she’d managed to feel so much at home.

It had taken weeks, even months for her own empty house to feel like a home again after Jonathan was gone. If she closed her eyes, she could sometimes still imagine him sitting at the kitchen table, reading the sports pages or working on his whittling, apologizing with a smile and little remorse for the leftover wood shavings that landed on her clean floor.

That’s when it hit her.

“I made love with Logan. Oh, Goddess, what have I done?” Ororo’s legs suddenly felt like nerveless noodles. She dropped into her kitchen chair and began fanning her face with one of the pieces of mail from her bundle, trying to dispel that flushed feeling rising into her cheeks. He’d felt so good. So right. And she’d let go of that unshakable pain, that dark shroud of mourning that had dogged her all these months within his arms, beneath his lips and knowing touch.

The guilt washed over her like a bucket of icy water, and Ororo cried, sobbing loudly and brokenly for the first time since the anniversary of Jonathan’s death. Chuckles padded over to her side, nudging her leg with his damp nose.

She’d told Logan that her husband wasn’t there when she’d given herself up to the passion that flared up between them. But he was still in her house, still lingering in her heart, occupying so much space that she nearly couldn’t breathe. More than anything, though, beneath the weight of that seeming betrayal flickered a ray of hope, glowing like a beacon, that maybe she could make room in her heart for the feisty store owner with his rusty laugh and sincere eyes. Only time would tell. Could they make that time? Would he want to, she wondered. Was it worth it?

Were they worth it?

Ororo ruminated over this under the pelting spray of warm water as she took her shower and planned out the rest of her Saturday. First on the list was taking Chuckles out for some fresh air. Might clear my thoughts, too. Or not. Next was getting a hold of Alex and Scott and pricing an alternator…

RRRRRIINNGGGGG…Ororo wrapped her dripping hair up in a thick Egyptian cotton towel and strolled, still naked, to answer the phone. “This is Ororo.”

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Munroe,” Scott growled, sounding remarkably like a parent demanding explanations.

“Oops…”

“Lady, where’ve you BEEN? We tried to call you last night after we lost track of you. You weren’t in the lot, you never came back, and Alex saw your Jeep still in the lot at Mac’s. I felt a few hairs go gray.”

“I’m fine, I’m home,” she hedged feebly, prickling with guilt, but appreciating his concern. She put the receiver down and pressed the speaker button so she could towel off her hair and body.

“Logan went rushing out after you. You didn’t even tell us you were leaving, and he looked pretty upset. You guys have a disagreement?”

“No, no. Nothing like that.” Ororo fumbled with her underwear and fished out biking shorts and a tank top from her vanity. “It was nothing. And definitely not anything he did. He gave me a ride back here after my Jeep wouldn’t start.” She purposely left out the missing ten hours or so between Logan stopping her in the lot and her arrival back at her house.

“HMMMMMM…a ride, huh? Why do I get the feeling that I should be worried about that?”

“You shouldn’t,” she reassured him. Her voice sounded entirely too sunny and innocent to Scott. She laughed when she very clearly heard Alex in the background demanding “Ask her what time she got in last night!!!”

“Tell Alex he’s on speaker,” she suggested blandly. Scott relayed that without missing a beat, eliciting an “Oh, shit!” from Alex. Ororo dissolved into giggles.

“You’d think you guys were my brothers, for crying out loud. I’m an adult.”

“We know. And you’re a great friend. Of course, you informing me that you’re an adult implies that you’re hiding some details…?”

“I don’t kiss and tell.” She said that with some finality as she yanked a wide-toothed comb through her hair.

“AHA! So there IS something to kiss and tell, Munroe!” Scott crowed triumphantly.

“Man, you guys are worse than a couple of high school girls. Next you’ll be asking me if I think Logan is cute and if I want to share your lip gloss and Tiger Beat magazines.”

“Ooooh. Low blow, ‘Roro.”

“I learned from the masters. Speaking of which…Jean and Lorna seemed nice.”

“We don’t kiss and tell, either.” Scott took a sip of his coffee as he neatly deflected her attempt at fishing.

“Darn. A woman can try, can’t she?”

“Fair enough. Just don’t get pissed at me for getting worried. You made me worry. We’re your buds, Ororo. We were Jon’s friends, too, obviously, but we don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“I’m allowed to move on, aren’t I? Can’t keep on collecting dust up on the shelf…” Her voice trailed off.

“Definitely. I know you’re lonely…” Scott continued.

“…we’re always here for you, Ororo, you know that,” Alex interjected from his perch on the couch as he bit into a cinnamon roll.

“I know. But you guys are there for me in the same vein that Chuckles here is. No offense meant,” she added, tying off her ponytail.

“None taken. Not much, anyway.” Ororo laughed again when she heard Scott muttering in the background to Alex, “Now she’s lumping us into the same category as her dog,” and Alex’s rejoinder of “Man, that’s cold, ‘Ro.”

“By the way, do either of you know how to replace an alternator? I just paid the registration and insurance on the car, and I don’t want to get ripped off on the cost of labor, if I can avoid it.”

“Promise us dinner at Mac’s, and Alex and I can take care of that. Here’s the number of the auto parts shop on Market Street, they’ll give you the most reasonable deal.”

“Thanks! I hate dumping this on you on your day off.”

“It’s called a favor. We’ll pick how you can repay it,” Scott said cheerfully. Alex pealed off a “MwaHAHAHAAAA!” from the couch that Ororo was certain was accompanied by maniacal hand rubbing and googly expressions.”

“Just give me a half-hour to go walk the dog.”

Ororo hung up, unsure of whether she was trying to convince her friends she was ready for something new, or herself. She dug around in the kitchen drawer for Chuckles’ leash.

An hour later, up in the hills:

“Logan?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“Why does Yukio keep calling you ‘whipped?’”

“Shaddap!” Logan folded up the newspaper that he was reading and brandished it as though he was about to swat Jubilee with it. “Don’tcha have some room ta clean?”

“Way to evade the question. And admit it, you do look whipped.”

“Sez you.”

“Wanna explain why you just stickered that case of Gatorade bottles twice?” Logan whipped his head back to the shelf he’d just finished pricing, and sure enough, there were two stickers decorating every damn bottle. Damn…

“Niiiice!” Jubilee hooted, cracking her gum. Her attention was diverted by the bark of a nearby dog. “Hm. No one around here has any pets,” she pointed out. She meandered off the front porch and rounded the corner. “Oh, wow! He’s so CUTE! What’s his name?” Logan frowned at Jubilee bugging strangers at random, cute dog or not, but his slight frown lifted when he heard a familiar voice say “He answers to Chuckles. Trust me, the name suits him. He’s caught his own tail a few times on the occasions where he chases it. He’s my baby.” Logan automatically strode back to the ice box and took out a frappaccino. “Yukio,” he murmured, remembering an earlier item on his to-do list, “order more of this stuff on the next shipment, ‘kay?” She eyed him quizzically as he stepped outside.

“Logan!” Ororo felt a flutter in her stomach and gratefully took the drink that he held out.

“Hey, you guys know each other? You never told me you had any friends with such a cool dog,” Jubilee accused, hugging and stroking the puppy, who was loving the attention.

“We met yesterday, after we took care of a fire at the campsite yesterday. Me and the guys over there,” Ororo indicated the two men bent over the hood of her car. Jubilee’s eyes grew round with admiration.

“Whoa!” She grinned like a girl who’d hit the jackpot.

“Eyes back in yer head, half-pint.”

“I can look,” she whined.

“Just making sure I have a ride to get back to work with tomorrow.”

“Makes sense. Now, have you got any dinner plans?” Jubilee continued to watch the hunky guys muttering back and forth and each other over the sweet little silver Jeep, impressed that the striking lady with white hair seemed to have it all. She missed Logan tickling the underside of Ororo’s pinky, making it curl around his fingers in response.

“Hmmm. Dinner…”

“It’s that thing that comes after lunch,” he suggested.

“Right, right. And no, I don’t have any plans.”

“Then maybe Jubes an’ I could fill in that gap. Ororo, this is Jubilee.” Ororo grinned from ear to ear as Jubilee paused in petting Chuckles long enough to crack her gum and shake her hand in an enthusiastic grip.

“Dude, your SO lucky to get to work with cute guys like that!”

“Don’t tell them that. Might go to their heads,” Ororo advised. She was right; she did like Jubilee. “Their lady friends that they went out with last night think so, too, so they don’t need any further reminding.”

“AWWWW!” She stomped her foot in mock indignation. “The good ones are always taken.”

“Or in this case, too old,” Ororo pointed out gently. She felt Logan squeeze her fingers again.

“Sez who?”

“Sez me,” Logan growled. He tugged Ororo closer and tweaked the tip of her nose. “So we’ll see you at dinner.”

“You got it.” Logan weighed the temptation to kiss Ororo in front of an audience. Reading his mind, she squeezed his hand one more time and said “I’ll let you get back to work.” She released him and watched him walk back, enjoying the view. Now that,she mused,is a butt. Hoo.Ororo and Jubilee watched Alex and Scott finish the repair and discussed the likely outcomes of who would win in a battle of the model with the biggest fake lips. They eventually agreed on Janice Dickinson and moved on to their favorite Spongebob Squarepants episode quotes.

Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.
*****

Several hours later:

Ororo maneuvered her Jeep into the rear parking and checked the contents of the passenger seat, hoping she remembered everything she meant to bring. Her Teva sandals scuffed in the gravel as she made her way to Logan’s staircase with the bags swinging from her wrist. Ororo braced herself and knocked. I want this to go well. Goddess help me.

She needn’t have worried. Much. The door was yanked open and Jubilee dragged her over the threshold. “C’mon in! I’m STARVED! Logan wanted to make sure we waited for you, but he’s making his barbecued chicken, and the smell’s been driving me crazy…what’d you bring me?” Jubilee hung from Ororo’s crooked arm and pointed to the bags in her hand. “Cool, you brought movies!” she cheered, noting the rental store logo on the smaller of the two bags. Ororo handed it to her and let her paw through the contents. “Anger Management. I LOVE this movie.”

“I was hoping you hadn’t seen it yet,” Ororo admitted. “I can never keep up with anything current, I never have the time.”

“You’ll love it,” Jubilee promised. She loaded the DVD into the deck and ran to find the TV trays. Logan turned off the oven and took out the foil-wrapped chicken and served their plates, nodding at the other plastic bag that Ororo had set under the dining room. “What’s that?”

“Something I didn’t want to get lost.” She’d said enough as Logan recognized the lumps of his shirt, shorts, and sneakers. He shot her a knowing look and left it at that. No sense in announcing to an impressionable teenager where she had spent the night.

Ororo and Logan spent the next hour and a half listening to Jubilee warning them “Ooo, this is the funny part, you can’t miss this!” They were just finishing the extra features and gag reel on the disc when Ororo turned around to ask Jubilee what other movies she recommended, when she was greeted with a light snore that was surprisingly close. Her elfin face was slightly upturned, lips open slightly as she dozed against Ororo’s shoulder, looking very vulnerable. She hadn’t noticed the faint weight against her up until then. Logan caught her amused, soft look from the kitchen as he put away the food.

“Kid conked out on ya, huh?”

“One moment she was talking a mile a minute, the next she’s out like a light! I almost hate to disturb her.” And she did. She wasn’t hurting a thing, and Ororo felt that funny little tickle in her insides that came over her whenever she saw mothers out in public, strolling with or carrying sleeping children. There was something peaceful and right about it that always made her ache.

“Jubes, bed.” Logan clasped her shoulder and almost laughed when she burrowed her face farther into Ororo’s warmth. Shit, I know how she feels… Logan roused her from the couch, and Jubilee stumbled back to bed, throwing “G’night, Ororo, it was cool hanging out with you tonight,” over her shoulder.

“Same here, sweetie.” Ororo turned off the DVD player and put the disc back into the case before entering the kitchenette.

“Pull up a chair, Sunshine.” This was it. “The Talk.” Ororo suppressed a shiver as she sat down, watching Logan carefully as he took the opposite seat. She exhaled and met his hazel eyes, full of questions. She hoped she had the right answers, whatever those could be. When she rested her folded hands on the table, Logan gently reached out and plucked one loose, cradling in it in his.

“’Roro, how long have ya been living on yer own since yer husband passed?”

“Over a year. It’ll be two this October. Everyone…everyone told me that the first year would be the worst. The second one hasn’t been a walk in the park,” she scoffed hollowly. Logan stroked her knuckles.

“No shit. It doesn’t get any better with age. Just a little less worse. That boulder that ya feel like someone dropped on ya just feels more like a sack of concrete blocks, instead, as the next few years go by.”

“It’s not just that I miss him, or just that I loved him. It’s just all of the things that I feel like I didn’t say or his needs that I didn’t meet before he was taken away.”

“What kinda needs were those, darlin’?”

“Our relationship got complicated. I know, marriage is complicated, that’s just me being redundant,” she admitted at the faint crinkling of his eyes. “Jonathan and I got a firsthand taste of ‘for better or for worse’ and ‘in sickness and in health’ after he was injured on duty. He went out on a call for a house fire on the outskirts of town, two-story home. Jonathan had already done a sweep of the top floor, but later, he told me something told him to check the master bedroom one more time. He opened the closet door and found a little girl hiding behind the clothes. Obviously she was petrified. She didn’t want to come out into all that smoke, and the room was already filled with it. He managed to get her out, and he called out for a ladder to bring her down. Scott met him halfway, and he’d just handed her down when a beam collapsed and fell on him.” Ororo cleared her throat, pushing down that pricking sensation behind her eyes. “I was home. It was late, and it wasn’t my turn to work the night shift. As soon as the phone rang, I knew something horrible had happened.” Ororo didn’t wipe away the tear that slipped down her cheek. She just stared down at their joined hands.

“Is that when…?”

“No.” Her voice was cracked but determined. “He almost lost his hand and he’d burned is leg pretty badly, third degree burns from the knee down. All I can remember are his eyes, how they looked when I met him at the E/R. He gave me this look, while they were working on him, cutting him out of his gear. They had an oxygen mask over his mouth, and…he actually tried to smile at me! His eyes were so full of terror, and pain, and…and relief, Logan. Once they got him out of danger, he told me he was so damned glad it hadn’t been ME.” Her nose dripped a moment before she wiped it on the shoulder of her top. “And I would have given anything for it to have been me on that stretcher instead of him. It was hell watching him suffer like that. We spent so long in the hospital, admit took a long time for him to regain any use of his hand. Jonathan decided that returning to active duty was something he didn’t have the heart for. I respected his decision. There were other tings he could do. He was HAZMAT certified, he had a lot of experience in environmental safety. But it was still hard.”

“I bet.” Logan scooted his chair around the table next to hers and replaced her hand in his, clasping it in his lap. Her answering smile was wobbly.

“It wasn’t enough for him to want to leave fighting fires behind. He wanted me to give it up, too. Then things got ugly. He’d always been so open and gentle before his injury, and we always understood each other. We would fight, but before there was always a limit, boundaries that we both knew enough not to cross. Every time I suited up, he’d look at me like I ripped his heart out. One night I came home to an empty house.” Logan’s hand paused in stroking her hair; it had been instinctive to want to touch her, comfort her without stopping her from sharing her burden. “He actually left me a note. It said ‘I can’t watch you destroy yourself. I won’t stay and wait around for the day when you don’t make it home.’ Do you want to know why I became a firefighter?” He nodded, brushing away the tear that was snaking its way into the corner of her mouth. “I lost my parents in a fire. Our apartment building went up in a blaze due to a faulty furnace. I was six.”

“God, darlin’. How do you do it? What keeps you going, after something like that?” He looked flummoxed and awed.

“I remember the firewoman who wrapped me up in a blanket and took care of me until the ambulance came. My parents were gone, and I had no home, but she was like this…this angel that came to protect me. And after that, it wasn’t just that I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I wanted to save kids from ending up like me., and do my part to keep people’s lives and dreams from collapsing around their ears, and burning down to the ground. Jon used to understand that about me, and he hated my being so stubborn. After a while, he hated me, too.”

“No, he didn’t.” She stared into his face at his firm tone. “He would have been so pissed off it he didn’t love ya.”

“Sometimes I try to tell myself that,” she murmured weakly. “For a few months, he would come back once in a while to get more of his stuff. We’d fight. That make up. He never filed any paperwork for a divorce. But he had made some steps toward moving on. One day I found an unfamiliar number on his cell phone. And a couple of times I came out of the house to check the mail, and this tiny red car was parked across the street. This woman with black hair and olive skin was sitting there, watching me, but would drive off. Apparently she wasn’t happy that Jonathan had started moving himself back into our home, or back into my life. I caught him arguing into his cell phone with her one night when I went to get a glass of water. He told her cared about her, but that he wanted to give our marriage one more chance. I went from being his wife to being ‘one more chance.’ I screamed at him and knocked the phone from his hand. We scuffled, and before I could read her the riot act, she hung up.

We went through couples counseling for a while. Jonathan was still having some anxiety over his injuries, and he thought I wasn’t as attracted to him anymore. It wasn’t true. I wanted him so badly I ached. There were so many cracks in our relationship that we couldn’t patch them all. I would fill one, and another one would snap wide open. The last straw happened one night over dinner when he asked me about having kids. We had a home, we have two incomes, but mine was the ‘obstacle’ to starting a family. He yelled at me that I was too busy trying to kill myself to start a family with him. So the next morning, I let him kiss me goodbye on his way out to work. I was angry, and I didn’t kiss him back. Jonathan was outside, climbing the ladder to a large fuel drum at the power plant. He was halfway up when it exploded.” Ororo’s cheeks were tracked with tears now, and she didn’t resist when Logan pulled her into his lap. She leaned into his embrace that felt so much like a lifeline. He rocked her. It felt so different from cuddling M’iko, who’d been so petite and took up less space in his lap. But it also felt so right.

“I should have kissed him back,” she whispered into the crook of his neck.

“Don’t beat yerself up.”

“The last memory he had was me being a bitch to him.”

“Uh-uh. The last memory he had was kissing you goodbye.” She sighed and wiped away her tears.

“I had some dark months after he died. Scott and Alex fussed over me like a paid of hens and had to drag me out of the house. That’s how our boys’ nights out started.” Logan smiled at her description of the two big, strapping men as “hens.” She pulled back from him and stroked his stubbled jaw. “I bought Chuckles this year so I wouldn’t have to come home to an empty house. Best decision I ever made! It’s not like having a husband, but he keeps my feet warm at night.”

“Replacing a husband is a tall order to fill,” he remarked carefully. She shook her head.

“I don’t expect anyone to try.” There was nothing cruel in her tone or her eyes.

“Neither do I,” he concurred. He turned his lips into her palm, sealing their agreement.





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