In a lot of ways, the excuse was lame, he knew, but it was the best he could come up with, without turning Tiffany's powerful ire toward Melody.

Liberty Station, an old art deco train station, now a landmark Victorian restaurant, overlooked Salem Harbor from the tip of Pickering Wharf. Owing its early twentieth-century ambiance to stained glass chandeliers and windows, Liberty Station maintained a reputation for serving the finest gourmet seafood on the North Shore.

"I adore this place," Tiffany said as the waiter left them with menus.

"I'm glad," Logan said, loathe to point out that she should, since it was clearly the most expensive restaurant this side of Boston.

"Wrong answer," Tiffany said, attempting to charm him with a pout. "You're supposed to say that you adore me."

Ah. She expected him to follow like a lapdog wherever she led. But he'd failed obedience school. "You might have noticed, Tiffany, that I'm not very good at saying or doing the right things. Right, according to you, that is."

"We all have our flaws," she said. "We can work on yours."

Logan smiled, grateful she'd helped strengthen his resolve to break it off. "Before we order," he said, "let me settle a few issues for you and get us on the same... wavelength."

"Go ahead, darling. I've been... tuned in all along."

Logan ignored the endearment and told her about his struggle for Shane's custody and his concern about station day care ruffling administrative feathers on the new job. He explained how Melody got Shane in without a ruffle.

Tiffany made a sound of pure pleasure, as if he'd given her one of those gaudy diamonds she liked so much. "So Shane isn't Melody's at all? I've never been so glad of anything in-" She bit her lip, her relief short lived. "Wait, why would Melody get him into day care? Why spend Halloween together?"

"Because my son adores her."

"How does he even know her?"

Logan took a sip of water, the words, "none of your damned business" teetering at the tip of his tongue. He placed his glass on the linen tablecloth. "Melody is our downstairs neighbor. Shane loves to spend time with her."

"Oh... but that can be fixed."

Whether she referred to the location of his home or the time Shane spent with Mel, Tiffany's statement bothered Logan a great deal. He could see the selfish wheels of manipulation turning. "Before you start trying to fix things, Tiff, hear me out."

"Sure, but order us some champagne first, will you."

Logan sighed, shook his head, and signaled for the waiter.

When the champagne arrived, Tiffany offered a toast, "to us," but Logan purposely left his glass untouched, while he proceeded to reveal a future in which, he pointed out, Tiffany did not figure. "I want to stay in Salem," he said, "buy a house, mow my own lawn, have more children, and work hard to give them a good education. I want to share my life with someone who shares my interests and who doesn't care that I hate to shave on weekends. In other words, Tiffany, I'm not looking for a member of the country club set." There, that about said it all. She might even break up with him.

Tiffany became serious. Twice she began to say something, and twice she stopped, before bracing herself to speak. "You're not saying Melody is that woman?"

"No, of course not. I want someone who sticks to something for longer than a month. You do understand where I'm going with this, don't you? You and I simply don-"

"Yes! Oh, Logan," she said. "Yes! Oh, yes!"

While Logan tried to make sense of Tiffany's skewed reaction, she pulled out her cell phone and hit speed dial. "Daddy! I'm getting married! But I'm quitting the country club."

Shit!

"Logan. I know. Me, too. Sure, here." Tiffany handed him the phone.

Like a fish out of water, Logan kept trying to speak but Max didn't give him a chance. Nevertheless, Logan heard the bottom line: Make my daughter happy, and you win; hurt her, and you lose. As Peabody hung up, Logan saw Shane's, and Melody's secure futures passing before his eyes.

Where had he gone wrong? Shit! "Tiffany," Logan said, avoiding her kiss to finish his drink. "Tiff." He grabbed her hands as she tried to place her arms around his neck. "You don't understand. I didn't mean to propose. I meant to-"

"I know this is not the most romantic place for a proposal," Tiffany said, "but it doesn't matter; I accept."

"You hear only what you want to hear, don't you, Tiff?"

Tiffany grinned. "It's called optimism, and right now, I'm hearing wedding bells."

Logan swore beneath his breath. "It's called stubborn. I'm not ready to get married," he said baldly.

"Fine." Tiffany shrugged and covered his hand with her own. "I have no objection to a long engagement."

"I object to any engagement," he said, louder this time.

"Then we'll get married tomorrow."

Logan ran a hand through his hair and decided he was getting nowhere. He'd have to settle this with Max to keep the damage to a minimum, because Tiffany just wouldn't hear what she didn't want to.

Shit! When had he lost control?

He'd tell Max in the morning, explain where he went wrong. Another man would understand, right? When it was settled between them, Logan would... quit his job, to save Max the trouble, and get his resume into the mail. Shit!

Tiffany pouted when Logan dropped her at her door and refused to stay the night, but when he said he had to pick up Shane from Melody's, Tiffany thought that was best and urged him on his way. "Bring the boy over tomorrow night," she said, "and the three of us can have dinner together. He and I need to get to know each other."

Logan waved and got into his car, his heart pounding, his palms sticking to the wheel. "The boy's name is Shane," he snapped into the silence. "I only mentioned it twenty times." He started the car. "Dead meat," he said. "Kilgarven, your ass is toast."

In his garage, he turned off the engine and rested his brow on the wheel. "My life is crap." He got out, slammed the car door, and noticed that Jessie's parlor lights were still on. He ran over. Jess would know what to do. If she could help him beat a theft charge, she could help him beat a life sentence.

She tried to slam the door in his face.

"Hey! Hey, what's up?" Logan kept the door from clos-ing, but she fought him. "Jeez, why do you hate me all of a sudden? I need a friend, Jess."

"No kidding, Bozo." She opened the door enough for him to step in, but kept him standing in the entry. "What's new, shark bait?"

"You've been talking to Melody."

"Ever since we saw the news."

"Wait. I'm confused."

"Once you marry that black widow shark, she's gonna eat you alive."

Logan's stomach flipped. "Marry?"

"Your engagement was just announced on the local news. The station is celebrating. They interviewed Peabody. He promised a hell of a public exhibition of a ceremony, by the way, and nothing less than a full partnership as a wedding gift."

"Damn!" Logan ran a hand through his hair.

"Why do you look so sick? This can't come as a surprise to you?"

"It's a mistake."

"I'll say. Wait... it's a mistake? You're not engaged to Tiffany?"

"The announcement's not a mistake. The engagement is." Logan gave her an abbreviated explanation.

Jessie finally showed a bit of sympathy. "Come in and sit down."

Logan's shoulders fell as he followed her into the living room and sat on her sofa.

"I don't know why you dated that woman in the first place, with Melody right there-"

Logan's head snapped up. "You and my mother have been matchmaking from the beginning, haven't you?" He made an exclamation of disgust.

"Wait a minute. Don't get your knickers in a knot. It's not like your mother and I didn't talk before you came home about what a nice couple you and Mel would make, but frankly ever since you got here, Melody's been so vocal about not wanting you that we"-Jess shrugged-"sort of gave up."

Logan ran a hand through his hair. "See," he said, annoyed all over again that Mel didn't want him, though he didn't want her, either. Jess furrowed her brow. "While I can see why Mel wouldn't want you, I can't figure out why you wouldn't want her."

"Who are you?" Logan said. "Thanks a freaking bunch."

Jessie laughed. "I mean, 1 understand that you seem to have turned into a tight ass with a briefcase, like Mel says, and she's had enough of that with her father. But why wouldn't you want her?"

"Jeez," Logan said, his elbows on his knees, as he rubbed the throbbing in his brow with the tips of his fingers. "Glad I have friends in this town."

He looked up when Jess nudged his arm. She was holding a cup of water and a bottle of aspirin. "Thanks," he said taking the bottle and popping a couple.

"So..." Jess sat beside him. "Care to tell me why?"

"Why what?"

"Melody loves Shane; he loves her. I even think you care for each other. Why the hell wouldn't you ask her out and let her see the real you? You're not really the stuffed suit she thinks you are."

Logan sat back. "When I date someone, I think of them as potential mothers."

Jess raised her hands in a gesture of incomprehension. "So... Melody would make a wonderful mother." She smiled. "Mel thinks it's funny, by the way."

"What's funny?"

"That Tiff sprung the engagement trap and you fell in 'dumb ass over thick head.'

Her words."

Logan shot from the sofa. "Melody knows? Jess, I gotta go."

"I thought you wanted to talk."

"Can I have a rain check? I want Mel to understand what happened, and Shane...

I want him to hear it from me, so he knows the truth-"

"Right, go. First things first. See you tomorrow."

Before Logan made it across Jessie's yard, his mother and Melody's father pulled into the driveway.

Melody came out to greet them. His mother folded Melody into her arms, and they walked inside arm in arm, followed by Mel's father. If any of them had spotted him, and Logan thought his mother had, they didn't acknowledge his presence.

Damn. He hung back a minute, squared his shoulders, went to Melody's door, and rapped it open. The three of them sat at her table, as if waiting for him, their faces set like a hanging committee.

Melody's father stood, his stance protective, and Logan chuckled. "If Mel needs defending from one of us, it's not me," Logan said.

Actually, after the coatroom incident, she did need defending from him, Logan thought, but he hadn't considered that before he spoke. Damn, he had it coming anyway. "Sorry, sir. Do your worst," Logan said.

"Don't 'sir' me. You're despicable."

"Daddy, stop it. Logan and I have no understanding. We've made no promises.

He's free to marry any shark he wants."

"It's a mistake," Logan said. "I didn't ask her. She assumed I meant-"

Melody laughed. "She didn't assume; she manipulated you, again, the same way she did at the ball when you asked me to dance and she accepted. You simply played into her hands... as always."

"At the ball?" Logan said. "At the ball, she... You're right."

"Right," Melody said. "She acted as if she thought you asked her. Looks like a case of the shark bites twice."

"Hard to believe anybody can be that-"

"Conniving, spoiled, calculating, controlling," Melody supplied. "Guess again, Sherlock."

Logan sat. "I plan to end it tomorrow." He looked at his mother. "Shane and I might have to move, though."

"It can't be that bad," his mother said.

"Can't it?" Melody said. "The station owner giveth, and the station owner taketh away. Tiffany's daddy is used to giving his girl whatever her cold little heart desires."

"I don't know how you got yourself into this," his mother said to Logan, "but I do know that you and Shane deserve someone who loves you."

"I know, Ma."

"I think you should be horsewhipped," Melody's father said, "for leading my daughter on."

"I never-" Logan and Melody looked at each other, and Logan shut his mouth.

"Has Tiffany told you that she'll be a good mother to Shane?" Melody asked. "Because, take it from me, she'll send him to boarding school first chance she gets."

Melody's father regarded her for one enlightened minute, and they seemed to understand each other, perfectly-perhaps for the first time, judging by the surprise, and sadness, on their faces.