Forever Logan by Elena Matthews (animal farm read .txt) 📕

I finally drag my attention from Ally as a hand smacks me on the shoulder. I turn and smile when I see Ally’s parents.

“Hi, Dave, Lydia,” I greet, holding my hand to shake Dave’s.

He reciprocates the gesture.

I lean over to press a kiss on Lydia’s cheek before stepping back.

“Hi, son. It’s great to see you. Thanks to you and Nate for inviting us.”

“I’m glad you could make it.”

I take a glance at their matching sweaters, and I can’t help but laugh. They’re both of elves, but they have each other’s faces on them. This year is definitely the year for the best sweaters.

“I love the sweaters.”

“They’re cheesy; I know. Ally almost didn’t want to drive with us. She said she was too embarrassed to be seen with us,” Dave says.

I shake my head, scrunching my face up with mock disgust just as Nate sidles up beside me. “What? You guys look great. If I were married to the love of my life for as long as you guys have been, I’d wear the exact same thing. Wouldn’t you, Nate?”

“Definitely. I just hope to be as cool as you both while wearing them.”

Lydia giggles and waves her hands. “You’re both sweet.”

“Anyway, we just wanted to say hi,” Dave says. “We’ll leave you kids be. Have fun, both of you.”

“You, too,” I tell them before they turn and walk away.

As soon as they’re out of earshot, Nate doesn’t waste any time when he says, “If you were married to the love of your life, huh?”

I shrug my shoulders. “I didn’t mean it literally; I was just making conversation.”

“I didn’t realize you knew Ally’s dad that well.”

I shake my head. “I don’t really. I’ve only met him a few times. He’s always been really nice to me. Probably because I saved his daughter’s life.”

He cocks his brow up. “I doubt he’d like you if he knew you were trying to get into her panties.”

I laugh. “Oh, to the contrary. He likes me plenty, and he even told Ally that she should be with someone like me.”

“That will only happen when hell freezes over, brother,” he says, pitifully smacking me on the shoulder.

Hmm, shows how much he knows.

“Was that my name I just heard?” comes from Ally.

My heart and groin throb at having her close as she steps up to us.

Flashing her my panty-dropping smile, I say, “Yes. I was just saying that your dad likes me.”

She rolls her eyes. “God knows why. You’re an idiot.”

“Ouch, hit me where it really hurts,” I mock, holding my fist to my chest.

Her eyeline follows my hand as I drop it, and her lips pull together with humor as she reads my sweater before she quickly disguises it with a snarl.

“It’s not going to lick itself,” she reads. “Really?”

“Well, it isn’t.”

“Do you just spend your entire day thinking of ridiculous T-shirt slogans?”

“Oh, I wish I had the time, sunshine. I do, on occasion, make time to think about you naked though.”

Her eyes widen, and I let out a grunt as she smacks me in the chest against the red candy cane on my sweater.

“You’re such a dog. Why is it, we’re only in each other’s company for less than two minutes, and I already want to grab a bottle of tequila and smash it over your head?”

“That would be the sexual tension,” I say with an arrogant shift of my shoulders.

“Or it could be hatred,” Nate pipes up, and I just shoot him a glare.

“Thank God my best friend fell in love with the right twin.” She slides her gaze from me to Nate. Her attention goes down to his sweater, and her eyes light up with amusement. “I love your sweater.”

I frown. “Wait. His is dirtier than mine. How can you like his and not mine?”

She glares at me, and if I didn’t already know she was madly in love with me, I’d definitely be worried at the level of hatred being flung my way. “Because when he wears it, it’s funny. When you wear it, well, it makes you a douche.”

“Believe me, sunshine, my brother is as much of a douche as me. I’ve known him a lot longer.”

“Hey,” Nate argues.

“Stop calling me sunshine,” she states, ignoring Nate.

“Stop calling me a douche,” I retort.

“Never.”

Oh, the defiant shit.

“Well, sunshine it is.”

“Ugh,” she exclaims, her face screwing up. “I need a drink.”

I have to fight back the laugh as she flicks her brunette locks and storms away from me, toward Jace and the margaritas. I’m unable to take my eyes off her swinging hips, and it takes a punch in the gut from Nate to pull my attention from her.

“I am not a douche.”

“You are, but according to Ally, you’re the nicer douche.”

He shakes his head. “You know, if you didn’t annoy her, she might actually tolerate you.”

Oh, she does more than tolerate me.

“I’m only playing with her; she knows that.”

“I don’t think she does.”

Keeping up the farce that we’re not boning each other’s brains out, I say, “Okay, I promise I’ll be nice for the rest of the evening.”

“How about just being nice to her, full stop?”

“Because where is the fun in that?”

“Well, don’t come crawling to me when she finally kicks you in the balls,” he says, giving me a brotherly smack on the shoulder before walking away.

Finally getting a moment to myself, I grab my phone out from my jeans pocket and open up my messages. I type out a text to Ally.

Me: I just promised Nate I’d be nice to you for the rest of the night.

I watch her intently from across the kitchen as she talks to Jace while he mixes her a drink. A second later, she takes her phone from her purse. A smile creeps on her lips as she reads it. Her thumb travels over the keys before I receive a text back.

Ally: Now, where is the fun in that?

Chuckling, I reply back.

Me: That’s what I said. I can think of other stuff I’d prefer to do though. None