Элла Франк - Try

Just as he was about to greet Rachel, Tate moved out from behind him, obviously realizing it was no one that they—

“Tate?” the woman beside Rachel questioned incredulously.

Logan turned to the man beside him who looked as though he’d seen a ghost and thought, Okay, scratch that. Apparently, it is someone Tate knows.

Tate stared at the two women standing in front of both him and Logan. He knew that he had to say something, but he found himself ironically incapable of speech. One minute, he’d been in the middle of the best kiss he had ever received, and the next, he was standing in front of—

My sister.

“Tate?” the all-too-familiar voice questioned again.

This time, Jill stepped around the other woman, who Tate didn’t know, and moved closer. “Oh my God! It is you.”

Tate swallowed several times and ordered himself to, Speak, speak. Open your mouth and fucking speak!

But nothing happened, and Jill continued, “But you were just…just…were you kissing him?”

Yes, I was definitely kissing him, Tate thought, but still nothing left his brain via his mouth.

Finally, Logan spoke up, “Excuse me? Who exactly are you? Rachel, what’s going on?”

But before Rachel—whoever she was—could answer, his sister took another step toward them, and Tate saw her mouth open and shut several times as though she, too, had lost the ability to speak. Jill, however, found it again, much quicker than him.

“I thought you were meeting with Diana, and instead, you’re in here, kissing a…a…”

“A man,” Logan added dryly. “I’m a man.”

“Is this who you’re dating? Does Diana…does she know?”

Jill’s voice had risen to a high-pitched shout, and the questions she was demanding answers to were hitting Tate with the force of a sledgehammer. Still standing mute and apparently immobile, Tate watched Logan take a step toward the two women.

“Look, I don’t know what is going—”

“Wait,” Tate finally spoke up.

Logan looked over his shoulder, and the expression on his face was one of concern. But he also appeared as if he figured this was the moment Tate would take to lie and deny everything. That was the problem. Tate didn’t want to deny one damn thing, and as he stood there, he’d been trying to work out exactly what it was that he did want to say.

Taking a fortifying breath, he stepped forward until he was shoulder to shoulder with Logan, and he looked down at Jill. “This is my sister, Jill. Jill, this is Logan, and yes, he is who I’ve been dating, but he is not the reason I left Diana. That was over a long time ago, months before I even met Logan.”

Tate watched his sister’s eyes widen, as she seemed to take in the information he’d just supplied her with, and then she shook her head. “What?”

“This is Logan—”

“I heard that part, Tate! What are you thinking?” she demanded and spun on her heel ready to leave. “Where’s Diana? Does she know?”

Tate lunged forward and gripped her arm, spinning her back. “You don’t need to—”

“Don’t fucking touch me,” she hissed at him with so much acidity that Tate literally dropped her arm as though it had burned his hand. She glared at him and then shifted her glare to Logan, who was standing deathly silent beside him. “This is disgusting. Mom and Dad will never forgive you for this.”

“Jill,” Tate warned, his breathing stuck somewhere inside his chest, knowing exactly how well this would not go over with his family. As he watched her march out of the office, he called after her, “Jill!” but it was too late.

She was now standing out in the middle of the law firm in front of Diana and Cole, who had apparently come out of the conference room to see what all the noise was about. Diana looked at her best friend, his sister, before raising her eyes to meet his.

That was when Tate felt someone move up beside him, and without turning, he knew it was Logan because Diana’s eyes moved to him, and a scowl crossed her features. Slinging the strap of her purse over her arm, she walked forward and clasped his sister’s arm. When they both reached him, she laughed in a way that was both as ugly as it was spiteful.

“Good luck explaining him to your family, Tate. They already hate you for what you did to me. They’re going to hate this even more.”

Tate knew she was right. Introducing Logan to them was going to be a nightmare, one they were going to have to deal with sooner rather than later.

“This is for me to tell them,” Tate told them both, “not you.”

Jill looked away as though she couldn’t even stand the sight of him.

Diana cackled like the witch she was turning out to be. “Well, we’ll just have to see who gets there first.”

“Diana,” Tate cautioned, becoming more and more pissed.

She completely ignored him, turned to Logan, and said in a voice dripping with malice, “So, do you fuck the exes of all your clients? Or just the men?”

“Diana!” Tate shouted and got in her face. “Stop it.”

Narrowing her eyes, she didn’t back down one bit. “Fuck you, Tate. Oh, hang on,” she said, making sure to spread her venom as she moved past them with his sister in tow, “maybe he can do that.”

Logan stood in the middle of Mitchell & Madison with all of his coworkers, including Cole, staring at him and the man standing beside him. It didn’t bother him in the slightest that they knew he was seeing Tate, but never had he blatantly displayed his personal relationships before. Then again, this was his first.

“Okay everyone, show’s over, go back to work. Tate, can I see you in my office, please?”

Logan moved to his door, and glanced inside to see Rachel sitting on his couch with her lip caught between her teeth as she stared at him with an I’m-so-sorry look plastered all over her face. Logan winked at her and tried for a smile, letting her know it wasn’t her fault, as he stepped aside to let a traumatized Tate walk back into his office.

Standing, she glanced in their direction and indicated she was going to go and almost ran out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her. As it clicked shut, Logan turned to face Tate, who was still silent and looked as though he was in shock, which he probably was considering everything that had just happened.

Logan was just about to suggest they sit down when Tate turned and grabbed his hands.

“We need to go and see my parents.”

Wait…what? Logan thought as he looked at the desperate expression on Tate’s face.

Tate nodded manically as he clutched Logan’s hands, and then he started talking rapidly.

“Yeah. We’ll go there now, my mom is home, and she can call my dad. We can sit down, tell them how we met, and that this is all good, that we…you know…that this is…”

He trailed off, and Logan felt his own anxiety starting to swirl and race through him. Meeting parents? Meeting family? Family that won’t like me because of who I am? No, thanks. He’d already had one of those in his life with his own father.

Plus, are we really that serious that we have to jump into this right now? Tate is just nervous, he is rushing things, he is—

“I want to tell them, Logan. They need to hear it from me—the right way, not the distorted, warped version that she’ll tell.”

Okay, so apparently, Tate is very coherent.

Logan took a step back and rested up against his desk. Removing his glasses, he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Tate, I don’t know. I’m not good with families. I don’t think you need me there.”

Tate stepped toward him and reached out to touch his shoulder. “Of course you need to be there.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Logan stared up into the brown eyes now staring at him with confusion.

“I don’t understand.”

Glancing away from that all-too-knowing stare, Logan said once again, “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“What’s not a good idea?” Tate demanded, his voice so loud that Logan knew it could be heard outside of his office.

Standing, so they were on equal footing, Logan put his glasses back on and slid his hands back into his pockets for something to do. Suddenly, the whole day looked totally fucked-up. “I just don’t think we’re at that stage yet. I mean, I get you need to tell them. But they don’t need to meet me.”

Tate blinked several times and almost staggered back from him. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Letting out a sigh, knowing this was not what Tate wanted to hear right now, Logan raised a hand and stroked his chin. “No.”

Tate launched himself at him before Logan even had a moment to counter it. He shoved him so hard in the chest that Logan stumbled back and landed on the desk.

“You fucking asshole!” Tate boomed as he crowded in against him.

Taking a hold of his jacket lapels in his fists, Tate yanked him up, and Logan had never, ever seen him look so volatile. He also had never realized how fucking strong Tate was when he was angry.

“You ask everything of me, everything, and risk absolutely nothing in return.”

Releasing him with a rough, hard push, Tate glared at him in a way that made Logan feel like the piece of shit he knew he was being.

“I don’t know why I’m so surprised. Did things get a little too real for you, Logan? Well, fuck you! My whole goddamn life just changed, and here you are, backing away like a pussy.”