Chapter Four: Dinner is Served
Our hero begins to wonder what's afoot…
Dinner that evening was a formal affair for twenty-four. The guests were all personal friends of Nathan, carefully selected by Nathan and Annette for their daughter's first formal adult dinner party. With the exception of Logan, all of the men were married and their wives were as coolly elegant and poised as Annette. Most were of an age with Nathan and Annette, although there were two couples in their mid-thirties.
At cocktails before dinner, Nathan had steered Logan around the room with an arm around his shoulders, introducing him to his friends personally. Logan was amazed at the warmth and graciousness he encountered from these people, so different from the self absorbed, social climbing ways of the wealthy circles he had moved through in Seattle.
During cocktails, Max remained at her mother's side, and Logan had only glimpsed her briefly from across the room. He was thankful for that. His reaction to her earlier had shaken him more than he wanted to admit, and he had wondered afterwards if he was turning into some kind of a pervert. Max was only fifteen to his twenty-seven and he had never had any interest in, or attraction to, a girl so young before. On careful thought he had decided it had simply been an aberration. She had been trying out what were probably newly discovered skills at flirting, and he had simply reacted without thought. Probably because he was tired from his recent intense work schedule, and the flight to Coeur D'Alene. Max was sweet and young and beautiful and he would think of her as a younger sister.
At dinner Logan found himself seated at the right of his hostess. He was somewhat surprised to find that he was evidently the guest of honor. As the guests were seated he looked up to find that Max was sitting across the table from him. This was his first look at her up close and once again he was stunned by his reaction. The dress Max was wearing was simple, almost demure. It was made of a rich cream colored lace with a modest scooped neckline and small puff sleeves. The color set off her skin and dark hair and the soft fabric clung to Max's body as she shifted in her chair. Max wore very little makeup, just a touch of lip gloss and a faint hint of eye shadow, and her hair was loose and fell in soft shiny waves around her face. Logan thought once again that he had never seen such a beautiful girl in his life. He wondered what she would be like in a few years when she reached full womanhood, and could only surmise that she would be nothing short of stunning.
Logan realized that Annette was speaking to him, and he turned to answer her question. After speaking to her for a moment, he turned to the woman on his left and proceeded to charm her for some time. He deliberately kept from looking at Max again during the dinner, determined to banish the strange reaction he was having to her.
After dinner Nathan invited the men into his library where cigars and brandy were served, while Annette shepherded the women guests away with her to freshen up and relax for a bit before the men rejoined them. Logan felt once again like he had been transported to another world, a world long vanished, where grace and charm were the norm. A world that was a far cry from the dog eat dog world he lived and worked in every day. He was amazed that Nathan could shift so easily between the two worlds, since he knew from his own experience that Nathan was an extremely sharp and successful businessman in the broken post-Pulse world that was the reality they all lived in.
When the men rejoined the ladies, Logan excused himself and found his way outside to wander through the gardens for a while. Pleasant as all of this was, he couldn't shake the feeling that Nathan had a reason, other than his stated one of getting Logan to take a vacation, for inviting him here now. They had done business together for five years, and this was the first time Nathan had invited him into his personal world. Logan's thoughts drifted back to when he had first met Nathan Guevara…
Twenty one year old Logan Cale, newly graduated from Yale with a degree in journalism and an idealistic desire to use it to make the world a better place, had returned home to Seattle after the Pulse only to be met with disaster. After the Pulse, his father and uncle had not been able to keep Cale Industries, the source of the family's wealth, solvent. His uncle had retreated into the solace of the bottle while his world crumbled around him, but Logan's father had taken a more drastic step. He had blown his head off and left his body to be found by his wife. She had died shortly after, in an auto accident on a foggy night. The other driver had been drunk and had driven head-on into the car she was driving. Logan's only consolation had been the assurances of the medics on the scene that she had died instantly without any pain.
Desperate to keep some portion of the family business going, Logan had found himself waiting in the lobby of Guevara Inc. He had been surprised that he had gotten in to see the legendary Nathan Guevara and even more surprised when Nathan had readily agreed to back him. Over the years they had done various deals together and Logan had gradually brought Cale Industries back to a position where he could turn it over to his cousin Bennett, and the Cale family could be provided for. Logan himself took nothing from the company. He had an expensive penthouse that he had inherited from his grandmother and a trust fund that served his needs well enough…
Logan looked up to see that his walk had returned him back to the patio where he had lunched earlier with Nathan and his family. One of the doors to the house stood open and he decided that he had better rejoin the party.
End of Chapter Four…TBC…
