"Sorry! Sorrysorrysorrysorry!" Logan cries out in embarrassment, covering his face with his hands and Kendall swats smoke out of the way. "I've never used a gas range before."

"It's fine, really. Don't worry about it," Kendall chuckles a bit and flips on the fan over the stove.

"I guess I didn't realize how quickly it would get hot."

"Don't worry," Kendall pats Logan's shoulder, still smiling quite broad. Logan nods though his face is quite red. "We'll just have cereal."

Feeling incompetent, Logan takes the frying pan that's now crusted with burnt pancake and puts it into the sink. He sulks but Kendall keeps telling him not to worry. "You'll adjust."

"Yes, I suppose that's right." The young man takes a scouring pad to the pan and scrubs at it, humming sadly.

Just at that moment, Zoe comes bounding down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Morning daddy!" she cheers.

"There's my big girl! You got out of bed all on your own?" Kendall asks as he takes his daughter in his arms. He sits her up at the table and pats her head.

"Yeah," Zoe says. "All on my own."

Logan looks over his shoulder at the girl and waves. "Good morning, Zoe," he says.

"Morning Miss'r Logan! Did you ruin breakfast?"

"Umm, kind of," Logan sighs.

"No silly, he didn't ruin breakfast," Kendall says. He sits down next to his daughter and puts an elbow on the table. "It just didn't go the way it was supposed to. But it's alright."

"The way it was supposed to," Zoe repeats to herself.

"Logan has a lot of adjusting to do," Kendall tells the girl. "But we're gonna do everything we can to make him feel comfortable, right?"

"Right!" Zoe says.

Breakfast goes well, even though it wasn't what Logan had hoped for. They chat over cold cereal, then Zoe goes to her play room and Kendall gets changed. As Logan is cleaning the bowls, Kendall comes back downstairs in a green satin robe. Logan sees him then quickly looks away.

"I do laps every morning," Kendall says.

"Laps?"

"Yeah. There's a pool downstairs."

"Really?" Logan's eyes widen. He shuts off the tap and leaves the last bowl in the drainer.

"Mhmm. Follow me, I'll show you."

The stairs that go to the upper floor also go down, and Logan follows Kendall as they descend them. The blond man's figure shimmies behind the robe, showing off the sleek curves and angles of his body. Logan tries not to stare.

Downstairs opens up to a large room with a bar, billiards table, sofa and television. Off to the side is a broad glass door that leads to an indoor swimming pool. Logan is blow away.

"This is amazing," he gasps, looking around the room. "And I thought that just upstairs was so huge!"

"Yeah, it was mostly Jo who wanted the big house," Kendall says with a tiny sigh. He passes through the glass door and into the swimming area. Logan follows. "But the pool is a great way to stay in shape," Kendall continues, his voice now echoing off the tile. "I do it every morning. But I sometimes worry about Zoe being alone like that."

"I can get back to her if you want," Logan says.

"Sure," Kendall nods. He drops the robe to the floor and exposes most of his body, save for a thin pair of light blue swim trunks. They hug his waist and are probably a little lower than they could be. Logan does his best to look Kendall in the eyes. The eyes.

"I'll get you if I need anything," Logan says quickly.

"Sounds good." Kendall springs off of the side and dives right into the water with a splash. He comes up to the surface and pokes his head out. "If you ever wanna swim just let me know. You're welcome to it. The gym, too."

"There's a gym?" Logan asks in astonishment.

"Yeah, through the door next to the bathroom down here."

"Amazing. Thank you." Logan smiles shyly and leaves. He passes through the big game room and back upstairs. It's incredible how just three people lived in that house. Did it ever feel lonely? Hearing his own footsteps echo so loud through the staircase as he goes to Zoe's room is enough to make him realize how small he is.

"Hi Miss'r Logan," Zoe says when he comes inside. She's fixated on a coloring book that she draws big awkward circles in with a broad red crayon.

"Hey there Zoe, how are you doing?"

"Good! Daddy is swimming."

"Yes, he certainly is." Logan plops down on the floor beside her.

"Daddy loves swimming," Zoe says. Her face is serious as she makes a big loop around the outline of a cat.

"It seems like it. Do you ever swim with him?"

"I swim with mama," the girl says. She drops the crayon and looks up at Logan with sad eyes. "I did swim with mama."

"Oh, I'm sorry I asked," Logan apologizes timidly. He quickly tries to change the subject. "Do you uh, do you like ponies?"

"Yeah!" Zoe perks up. She suddenly gets to her feet and runs over to her bed, which is covered in various stuffed animals. She lifts a black and white horse. "This is Dasher. He is a pony. This one is Dasher."

"Dasher? He's very cute," Logan says.

"And this one is, ummm, this one is…" she drops Dasher and picks up a grey one. It's smaller and fancier looking. "I forget."

"They're very nice. They're all very, very nice."


"Alright," Logan tells himself. He stands over a pot filled with pork tenderloins, glancing over at a cookbook on the counter. "Two cups of sour cream. Alright. Alright! Hey, that looks pretty good."

He stirs the ingredients around and they begin to thicken, turning a nice orange color from the paprika. The first breakfast may have been a flop, but he's redeemed himself with dinner.

Kendall comes into the kitchen with Zoe in his arms. "Smells great!" Kendall says.

"Thank you," Logan replies with a tiny nod. He shuts off the flame beneath the pot and begins to plate the food.

"That's fantastic, Logan. It looks wonderful." Kendall puts Zoe in her chair then walks to the refrigerator. "Do you want anything to drink? I guess you aren't old enough for alcohol."

"Heheh, no," Logan says with a cute, shy chuckle. He takes two plates and brings them to the table. "I'm fine with water."

"Alright, easy enough."

They all get to the table and sit down. Kendall looks at the food with a big smile on his face. "I could get used to this," he teases. Logan doesn't answer and just smirks coyly.

"Mmm!" Zoe grins after taking her first tiny bite. "Miss'r Logan makes good food."

"Thank you, Zoe," Logan giggles. "I'm happy it turned out so well."

"Yeah, for sure," says Kendall. "Anyway, as I said earlier; if you ever want to swim just let me know. I can watch Zoe for a bit and I'll keep an eye on the camera."

"Camera?"

"I have cameras in every room in the house. Well, except for the bedrooms. Safety, you know."

"That makes sense. In a house this big, you really can't know what's happening without a little technology, right?" Logan smiles and takes a bite of pork. His face lights up when he tastes it.

"Exactly." Kendall sips on a beer and looks away.


Smooth lie, Kendall tells himself after dinner. He's back in his study and Logan is getting Zoe ready for bed without any help today. Of course Kendall has cameras in the bedrooms; he has to. Any room with windows has to have some monitoring like that, but it might make Logan uneasy if he knows Kendall can watch him at any moment.

"Mr. Knight?" Logan calls out, knocking on the study door.

"Yeah?"

"She's put down for the evening. It went real well."

"Great," Kendall says, looking at his computer. "Did you tell her that the intercom buzzes your room now, and now mine?"

"Yes, I did."

"Wonderful, thanks. She knows to only use it if it's an emergency though."

"Okay, that's fine. Goodnight, Mr. Knight."

"Night, Logan."

He listens to Logan's footsteps turn away from the door, then he pulls up his security camera program on his computer. He looks at Zoe's room; she's tucked in bed and nice and neat, hugging Dasher and sleeping peacefully already. Just for a second he flips to the guest room camera. Logan is down there already and he takes his shirt off. Kendall turns it off.

No, he thinks. That's totally wrong. It's so wrong. So beyond wrong.

The whole reason why Kendall hired a male nanny was that he wouldn't get caught up in any weird romance. He also didn't want Zoe to think it was a replacement mother. Okay, so the latter was the biggest reason. Kendall always had to put Zoe first, which was fine. Everything he did had to be analyzed with her in mind, especially since Jo passed away. Jo…

Kendall goes into the stored files of security footage. They remain in the system for only a week, but right after Jo died, he went in and saved a bunch of them.

Video of Jo making breakfast plays. She scrapes a pan clean of scrambled eggs and brings it to the dinner table, where a blissful Kendall meets her with a kiss. They smile at each other and the video ends.

Kendall plays the next video in line; the two of them playing pool in the basement while Zoe stands idly by with her Lady doll. Jo knocks accident knocks the 8 ball into a pocket and they both start laughing. The clip ends.

Another plays now. It's Jo alone in the bedroom. She's talking into her cellphone and carrying a prescription bottle. Kendall shuts the clip off before it can end and lays his head down on the table. He feels sick inside. How long can he deny himself the truth?