Free Bedeviled Angel by Annette Blair Page A

and Logan weren't a toxic combo, who was?
    Logan's motto was "plan, work, prosper, invest wisely." He embraced routine, while she liked to change course on a whim.
    So, why the sizzle every time he got close? Why listen for his step, crave his smile?
    Because she was an idiot, that's why.
    Her philosophy had always been "live, love, enjoy, grab life by the cajones and make it sparkle," because really, if you didn't do that for yourself, who would?
    Never mind that her life usually turned out more like "get a job, get fired, get a new job."
    She had followed the same pattern with boarding schools. Like clockwork, as Daddy predicted, she'd screw up, clean up, and try again. Good thing she liked change, because change seemed to find her at every tum. Her job at the station was the biggest and best change ever, she thought, wondering how long it would last before she screwed that up, too.
    For half a beat she thought the job might actually impress her father—as in make him proud of her—then she shook her head on a derisive snicker and picked up her cheesecake.
    Logan was a lot like her father—though Logan not only played with his child, he had now lived in the same house with Shane for two full months in a row. That would have been a record for her father.
    Nevertheless, she and Logan were incompatible, unsuitable opposites, and they didn't have much in common, either. Bad, bad, bad.
    Just like her parents. For the short duration of their marriage, Daddy had traveled in one direction, Mom in the other, until Mom's fatal diving accident when Melody was six.
    If she was ever foolish enough to have children, Melody wanted more for them.

    She supposed she wanted them to have a dad like the easy-going Logan, the free spirit she sometimes glimpsed behind the briefcase. She wasn't surprised she was attracted to a man who read to and played with his child, even sometimes sang him to sleep, according to Shane.
    Hey, a man who didn't abandon ship under fire of heavy lingerie couldn't be a total tight ass. Also in Logan's favor there was that totally cute, tight ass to consider.
    Melody smiled, picked up her chunky doodle dessert, crossed her ankles on the coffee table, and savored her first creamy bite. Logan Kilgarven was surely not for her, and she could take that fact to the bank.
    On the other hand, she could still picture him in her mind's eye, stuffing her garment bag into his trunk this morning. Nothing wrong with appreciating the view.
    ON Saturday, the tall ships were due to start arriving at two, and Logan had said to come upstairs around one-thirty.
    At one, Melody was still cleaning the mess she'd made while sorting through her clothes the morning before. She was also trying to find the strapless bra and seamless bikinis she usually wore under her two-piece playsuit, which was perfect for the pirate cave picnic, though she might have taken them to work by mistake. As she dialed Logan's number, she gazed out the kitchen window in time to see Shane dash across the backyard. Logan picked up on the first ring.
    "Did you see my yellow bra and bikinis in the bag I left in the bathroom?" Melody asked.
    "I assume you want Logan," a woman said. "This is his mother. Do you want me to look?"
    Melody lowered her brow to the wall near her phone, shook her head, and felt the blaze on her cheeks. After a warm minute, she told herself that someday she might actually see the humor in this. Maybe. "Mrs. Kilgarven. Hi. This is Melody Seabright from downstairs."
    "You just missed Logan," the woman said. "He went to get the ice cream he forgot to buy."
    "Just like a man."
    "I'd be happy to help you find what you're looking for," Logan's mother said, amusement lacing her voice.
    "Shane went with his father, didn't he?" Melody asked, though she knew the answer.
    "Of course."
    Melody sighed. She had seen a shadow precede Shane's dash through the yard.
    "Why don't you come downstairs for a cup of coffee, Mrs. Kilgarven, and let me explain my