Chapter 4

He pulled on a clean t-shirt from the pile he found neatly stacked on top of his dresser, inhaling the sweet smell of fabric softener that he loved but was always too lazy to use. The sound of plates scraping together and silverware jingling came from the kitchen and he was surprised when he rounded the corner into the kitchen. Maxie pulled toast out of from the toaster oven and scraped butter over the hot bread, while bacon sizzled in a frying pan on top of the stove.

"How do you like your eggs?" she asked as she pulled them out of the refrigerator.

"The same way I like my women, over easy." He answered as he straddled the stool at the breakfast bar to watch her.

Her cool blue eyes flicked up to meet his. "Don't make me wish you were still in a coma."

He hid a smirk as he ignored her meaningless threat and took a sip of the orange juice she had poured. The juice burned on the way down his throat and he grimaced sliding the glass closer to her. "I didn't know you knew how to cook."

"Like that's a surprise." She bristled as she turned her attention back to the stove to flip the bacon and start on his eggs . Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper, "There is a lot about me you don't know."

He didn't respond to her statement, opting instead to watch her as she skillfully moved about his kitchen. Her short blonde hair hid the majority of her face, as she expertly drained the bacon grease into an old can and placed the hot bacon onto papertowels.

She reached for the empty plate that she had pulled out of the cabinet earlier and piled bacon and toast onto it for him. She made a quick stop at the stove to flip his eggs onto it before placing the plate in front of him.

She leaned against the counter opposite him resting her elbows on the countertop and watched him take his first bite.

He groaned at the first burst of flavor hit his tongue and swallowed."Perfect." he answered to her unasked question.

She snagged a piece of bacon off his plate and he looked up at her. "Aren't you eating?"

She took a bite out of bacon strip as a pained expression crossed her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked putting his fork down.

"Nothing. It's just that Georgie and I used to do this all the time." She paused before continuing. " I would come home really late from some date and she would be in the kitchen. We'd end up making breakfast at 4 am before I would crash until noon. I don't know how she always knew when I was going to be home. It is one of the things I miss the most, the times we would share giggling over scrambled eggs and burnt toast."

"I'm sorry Maxie." was the only response that even seemed possible to give her.

"It's fine." she stood up an wiped the countertop with a dishtowel he didn't even know he owned."It wasn't you fault, everyone knows that now."

He jammed his fork into his egg continuing, "It doesn't make it any easier to swallow now does it? You thought I did it, hell even Lulu believed I did."

Logan noticed that at the mention of Lulu's name, Maxie visibly flinched as she looked away. "You know I don't blame you right?" he added.

Maxie's gaze lifted out of whatever memory she was re-living to look at him."You don't?"

"No, I probably would have thought the same thing in your position. Except I know that I loved Coop like a brother, he was the only family I had for the longest time I never would have hurt him like that." He added and looked back into his plate.

She looked conflicted at his answer and when he looked up again he watched as she built a wall between them one brick at a time. "So you don't think sleeping with me all those months ago didn't hurt him?" she mocked.

"As I remember it you were the one that blackmailed me into that." He responded unfazed by the snarky tone that had suddenly laced her voice.

"Yeah well I didn't hear you complaining when it happened. But it's okay, I understand how you needed a real woman after you had to put on training wheels so you wouldn't scare off Lulu." She answered taking a sip out of the orange juice she had poured for him. She looked over the glass before continuing, "I can't imagine that she saw or could handle that freaky side of you."

Logan shook his head and broke out into a grin as memories of that night on his living room floor replayed. "Maxie Jones, you certainly are something else, but I really don't want to talk about Lulu right now."

"Well I guess that would be my cue to tell you that she stopped by earlier." She replied, passing the glass along between the palms of her hands.

"She did?" he asked looking up from his food.

She placed the empty glass into the sink. "Yeah but I sent her packing."

"What did she want?" he asked finally pushing away his empty plate.

Her brilliant blue eyes twinkled in the way they did when Maxie was up to no good. "I 'm not sure I exactly gave her much of an opportunity to speak. "she said taking his plate away.

"Did you leave claw marks?" he joked as he made his way around the kitchen island to where Maxie had lined up his prescription bottles.

"You just wish you could have watched." She quipped back turning to him. "I'm gonna run home for a little bit, you gonna be able to stay out of trouble while I'm gone?"

He glared at her, "I don't need a baby sitter Maxie."

"Yes you do, for a few days at least. So just pretend I'm some ditzy nurse practicing my bedside manner with you and it will be over before you know it. I'm sure there is some twisted fantasy like that buried in that head of yours."

He laughed and read the labels on the bottles, "So Nurse Jones, when am I supposed to take these again?"

She checked her watch. "You can take one blue and two white ones now. The green one is every twelve hours so you're good until noon, but I'll be back by then."

"I'll only let you back in if you have on a little white nurses outfit with one of those little hats." he teased.

"Keep dreaming buddy." She replied as she grabbed her handbag and his keys on the way out the door.