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Logan lay awake for a long time thinking about what Wendy had insinuated about the memories not being happy ones. The strange thing was that they were kind of happy memories for him. He’d thought the Christmas break was going to be hell when he discovered who they were staying with, but Weird Wendy had made some of it weirdly fun. It was in a different sort of way to normal, but still, it had been far better than expected. Despite everything that had happened with their parents and the bombshell that had been dropped on them, he’d enjoyed the time he spent both fighting and flirting with Wendy.
Of course, it hadn’t all been good. The physical fights had been pretty great, but when she had verbally ripped him to shreds it had cut deeper than expected. He’d thought it was the end of their odd hate/attraction thing, but then she’d reached out to him with her messages.
The big question he had to ask himself was, why had he forgiven her so easily? Usually when someone crossed the line with him he tended to cut them completely.
But he was sure that Wendy lashed out for exactly the same reasons that he did. It was a defence mechanism. Simple self-protection from the unreal world their parents inhabited. She was just as overwhelmed by it as he was, just as lost.
Bizarrely, they had quite a bit in common after all.
Not to mention some seriously flirty banter. She could pretend all she wanted but it seemed obvious to him that it was all leading to yet another supercharged kiss.
He looked at the poster by his bed, and a terrible thought struck him. He wanted more of Weird Wendy. It wasn’t just that he wanted to kiss her again, he might actually like her.
***
I ABSOLUTELY HATE LOGAN Moss! Wendy thought, as she stared with horror at the book on the table in front of her.
When Vince had brought the package to her in the Common Room that evening, Wendy hadn’t given it much thought. How dumb was that? She shook her head at her own stupidity.
She had torn it open right there in front of everyone.
“What is it?” Vince said.
“A biography I ordered of Queen Victoria.”
She ripped off the cardboard and the book fell on the table.
Vince tilted his head, reading the title aloud. “The Highland Warrior and His Reluctant Bride. Are you sure this is about Queen Victoria, Wendy?” Vince’s eyes glittered with amusement. “I mean, I know she had a fling with her Scottish ghillie, but I don’t think John Brown was ever quite that ripped, and I don’t think she was his bride either.”
“Very funny,” Wendy snapped at him, while desperately thinking of an excuse for the book. Even worse, now Sandra was reading the back out loud to everyone and they were all laughing at her.
If she said the book was a prank then they’d want to know the details, and if she claimed she hadn’t ordered it then probably no one would believe her.
“Don’t bend it,” she said to Sandra, as inspiration struck. “It’s a gift for my mother, she loves that kind of trash.”
“Then why was it sent here?” Vince said, not letting her off that lightly.
“Because I need to wrap it and add a card, obviously.” She gave Vince her hardest stare and he quickly backed down from the teasing.
Wendy stormed up to her room holding the book like it might bite her. How dare he try to humiliate her? She worked hard at being taken seriously in her own right, and Logan was undoing that. It wasn’t nearly the same as when she sent him the ridiculous poster and book. Logan only had a reputation as a playboy, a shallow jerk; his reputation wasn’t going to suffer from a few harmless pranks.
She slumped as she reached the privacy of her room. It wasn’t really Logan’s fault – she’d been the one to start it. But that just meant she should be angry at herself. Why had she tried to be friends with him? Why hadn’t she just left things on the awkward terms they had been when they returned to Compass Court? It was impossible to just be friends with a guy like Logan. He didn’t understand the concept. He didn’t have any friends that were girls because all his conversations led to flirting. Well, there would be no more of that!