Chapter 0360
I’ve been in this game for too long,” Senior said. “When I first got the news, I could only think about my legacy. I became obsessed with it. I’m not like you, Walter. I didn’t think about my family, or anyone else. Only myself.
“It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks,” Mr. Hudgens said. He laughed slightly at his own joke, but even that ended quickly.
A weight seemed to fall over the room, after the reveal of Mr. Hatfield’s diagnosis. Everyone in this room. hated Senior to a varying degree, but I suspected that no one wanted him actually dead.
“I’m sorry,” I told him, stepping forward. Releasing Logen’s hand, I placed my hand on Senior’s arm instead, right near the elbow. “I’m so sorry you have to lace something like that. And do it alone.”
“I pushed everyone else away. Who would I even think to have stand by me?” Senior said. He shook his head. “You are kinder to me than I would be to you, Hazel. Not all that long ago – perhaps even earlier today – 1 would have mistaken that kindness for weakness.”
“And now?” I asked him.
still do,” he said bluntly.
If this man wasn’t dying, I would have rolled my eyes in his face..
“But,” he added quickly. “I suppose I can see some of the merits as well. Admittedly, I don’t believe I will ever warm up to you, Hazel. Especially not with the time I have left. But… I suppose.. if even Walter Hudgens is willing to speak for you… you might not be the worst thing that ever happened to Logan.”
That, honestly, seemed like the best kind of almost–compliment I could expect.
A not–quite insult.
When I glanced back at Logan, he motioned toward his side, as if indicating that I should return there. Removing my hand from Senior’s arm, I did so at once
Senior sighed loud and low. “Logan.”
“Yes?”
“I’ll never fully approve, but… I can recognize that you completed good work at your time as CEO of the company. Much better than that yes–man I have planted there now. If you would be willing to return, I would be willing to pass the reins over to you. Fully this time. I would rather spend my final months on a beach somewhere.”
“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day,” Mr. Hudgens said.
“Mr. Smith,” Senior said. “If you could please draw up the paperwork.”
“Of course, Sir.”
It wasn’t a perfect resolution, though Senior did agree to back up on his attacking of me, and Logan. He still had a lot of atoning to do for the wrongs he had committed against everyone else in the room.
Six months didn’t seem like enough to fix everything.
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Chapter 0360
But maybe he could start…
The next day, with the paperwork signed, life returned to some kind of normal for Logan and I. We moved together into his house. Logan started working at again as CEO of Hatfield Supply.
As I couldn’t return with him, ethically, with the world now knowing I was his wife, not just his assistant, Logan sat me down that night and asked me.
“I’m making enough money to support us both. You don’t have to work for pay. So the question is, Hazel, if you could be anything in the world, what would it be?
For so long, I’d been working to live and had to push all my passions to the backburner. But, thinking on it, if I had the opportunity to pursue any of my dreams…
“I want to try to be an actress,” I said.
Natalie had stolen that dream from me, and she’d had some successes in her own right. But I still wanted to try my hand.
Good or bad, I wanted to know that I gave it everything had.
“Well, there you go,” Logan said, wrapping his arms around me. “You should go for it.”
“You think?”
“I do. And when your name is up on the marquee in big letters and flashing lights, I’ll hope you remember
me.”
I smiled. “Like I’d ever forget my husband.”
“I don’t know,” he teased. “When you reach the top, you’ll be surrounded by many handsome leading men
“The only handsome leading man I need in my life is the one right here in this room with me.”
Logan made a show of looking around. I lightly, playfully smacked his arm.
He laughed as he looked back at me. “In that case, I guess there’s only one thing left to do…”
I hitched my head toward the bedroom.
His eyes sparkled. “That’s not what I was going to say, but I’m up for that. Or I will be, with a little help…” He waggled his eyebrows at me.
I rolled my eyes. “Tell me what you wanted to say first,
“No,
- no. It can definitely wait now.”
Grabbing my hands, he pulled me toward the bedroom As soon as we crossed the threshold, he pulled me against him and, kissing, we stumbled onto the bed
Our clothes were shed as we touched and kissed the whole time, laughing and enjoying every second.
Pleasure found us both easily, lost in the feel of one another.
After we’d both found our climax – when we were sweaty, wrapped tangled in each other and the sheets, I asked one more time. “What were you going to say earlier?”
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Chapter 0360
He pressed his forehead to mine and said, “Marry me, Hazel. Uh, again.”
I kissed him in answer.
Three months later, we held a ceremony in the spacious backyard grounds of Logan and my
The gardens were in full bloom with brilliant flowers. Color, everywhere you looked.
The sun was bright. The sky, perfect. Not a raincloud in sight.
In a stunning, white lace bridal dress, I walked up an alsle of rose petals and soft grass, meeting Logan in his white suit. He stretched out his hand when I came close enough, and it was so easy to slide mine in
his.
Our hands fit together like they were made for one another. Maybe they were.
Frank Christopher filled out the necessary paperwork to perform the wedding ceremony In the audience were all of our friends: Dylan, Maria and Mike, Rachel, Megan, Mr. Hudgens and several of the others we met of the course of the debacle with Senior, Rosa, Tammy Christopher, and several others who one or both of us had met over the years.
Under that bright shining sky and in front of the people we loved who loved us in return, Logan held my hands and repeated the words of matrimony.
www
“I, Logan Hatfield, take you, Hazel Whitaker, to be my lawfully wedded wife… To have and to hold… To honor and to cherish… In sickness and in health… So long as we both should live.”
Frank turned to me, ready for my part, but Logan wasn’t done.
“And much longer,” Logan said.
“My heart melted at once.
How in the world could I have been so lucky to land this perfect man, first as my accidental husband, now husband for real?
“I, Hazel Whitaker, take you, Logan Hatfield, to be my lawfully wedded husband…” I repeated the same vow, adding at the end, as he had, “And much longer.”
Then, both surrounded by and filled with love, Logan and I kissed.
“I know pronounce you, husband and wife. Again.”
Everything was perfect.
End.
