BAD Beginnings Read Online Free PDF Page B

hospital recently and I was hoping to find out where the funeral might be.”
    She advised that they’re not allowed to give out information to non-relatives. He should contact the family. That proved a dead end. It wasn’t likely that he’d ask Logan’s mom if her son showed up in a morgue at dinner tonight. Where else could he check?
    The thought was interrupted when one of the office staff advised him that his car was waiting to take him home. Home. Thankfully, Gemma wasn’t around when he departed.
    That evening he stared at his reflection in the gilded mirror above Logan’s bathroom sink. Logan’s pants and undershirt fit him like a glove. How weird was that? He had no idea how long he focused on the image in front of him. A complete stranger stared back. Was he really going to follow through on the parent meeting thing? He shook his head. No way.
    “Not your parents, you idiot. You don’t even know them.” Actually, it hadn’t sounded as if Logan knew them either.
    The bigger concern was, did they know Logan well enough to see through his charade? He smiled at the reflection, trying to fake the overconfidence he’d seen only briefly while driving the man.
    “Damn.” He sure as hell looked the part. Chaco, the surliest barber in the city, had done a good job. In fact, it was so good he fell into a deep slumber during the scalp massage. Somewhere during the process he had dreamed of women stroking his hair, caressing his shoulders, and—clipping his toenails? He frowned at the foreign face in the glass and looked down at his shoes. Was it a dream?
    Baden kicked off a loafer and slipped from the left sock. He’d never seen his feet without the callous on his outer toe…and buffed nails. Well, fuck me. Then that would mean—he lifted his hands and turned them over. Yep. That mani-pedi had really happened and he’d snored and drooled clean through the entire experience. God, he hoped he hadn’t actually said anything that went through his mind at the time. He vaguely remembered stumbling out.
    “Chaco’s pretty good for a transplanted mountain man, isn’t he?”
    Baden turned to the voice that was getting way too familiar and stopped in his sockless track. He stared at the low-cut gold dress that was painted on her health-club instructor body.
    “Holy shit, Gemma.” It just popped out. Probably like his eyes did. He didn’t like that her name had also. As if they were—old friends.
    She ran a nervous hand over the shiny cloth. “It’s a little too much, isn’t it?”
    Baden cleared his throat and hitched a brow. “Too much of what? You or the material?” Dammit. Why’d she have to show up looking like that? He had just about talked himself out of going to the parent dinner shindig and escaping from Logan’s life as well. In fact, he had been two minutes away from putting Baden’s shoe on and hot-footing it back to his rinky-dink apartment. Sure, he’d have to seriously kiss some ass to try to get his job back. Nothing he hadn’t already done just to get the piece of shit paycheck. He could handle groveling.
    Gemma crossed her arms and leaned against the doorjamb. “Very funny. Are you going like that? I thought it was a formal thing. Did I get it wrong?”
    Baden doubted she got anything wrong. Ever. “Sorry. I’m behind. Had to do a little work first but I’ll change now. So what do you think I should wear to impress the new daddy?”
    “Like you really care about impressing. I half-expected you to wear shorts out of spite. Here, put this on.” She pulled a dark suit from the rack that was the exact duplicate of the other four next to it. “You might as well wear your favorite.”
    His favorite of what, five suits with exactly the same shade of black? Without turning, he rasped the zipper down on his current slacks before an awareness of his audience kicked in. He darted a look over his shoulder and collided with her brilliant browns. “You planning to help? Or just