All of Me - Leeanna Morgan (the snowy day read aloud .TXT) 📗

Tess knocked on Logan’s front door. She was about to put into action steps one and two of her plan with Molly. Step one was to tell Logan about her past. Everything.

Step two was slightly more complicated. Molly said that knowing your enemy was more important than knowing your friends. They didn’t talk about how she knew this, but Tess was happy to go along with Molly’s superior knowledge.

So as well as telling Logan who she used to be, she was supposed to be finding out about his friend, the reporter from Seattle.

Logan opened the door. Tess stared at the casual trousers and cotton shirt he had on. He’d had a shave, maybe a shower. He didn’t look like a man settling in for a relaxing evening at home. He looked like a man about to go on a date.

“I didn’t mean…” Tess closed her mouth and tried again. “I hope you didn’t change your plans for me.”

Logan frowned, then looked down at his clothes. “I’m going out later. I’m glad you called. I wanted to see you.”

“You did?”

Logan held the door wider. “Yeah. Come in. Make yourself at home.”

Tess looked around the living room. Nothing had changed since she’d last been here and met his sister. It was only a few weeks ago, but it felt like a lifetime.

“Have a seat on the sofa.” He glanced at her laptop and her backpack. “It looks like you’ve come here to study.”

Tess left the laptop on his coffee table and her backpack on the floor. “It’s not studying, exactly. More like background research.” She wiped her hands down her jeans; then started to undo the zipper on her pack.

“Do you want a drink? I’ve got coffee and hot chocolate. Or tea. Mom’s arriving tomorrow and she likes a cup of tea.”

Tess shook her head. “I’m okay.”

Logan sat on the edge of one of the chairs. “What did you want to see me about?”

Tess took a deep breath and pulled the magazines out. She left them face down on the table. She’d thought about what she was going to tell him for most of the afternoon. She should have written it down, made notes or something.

“I wanted to tell you about me. About what I was doing before I came to Bozeman.”

Logan looked confused. “You weren’t a model?”

Tess turned her laptop on. Her hands were shaking so much that she had to type her password in twice before she could log in. “I was a model. Do you know what type of model I was?”

Logan’s eyes widened.

“No,” Tess squeaked. “I wasn’t that type of model.”

“What types of models are there?”

This was going to be harder than Tess thought. “I earned a lot of money. I worked in Milan, Tokyo, New York, and Paris. I met Molly when I was on assignment in Greece and again in Ireland.”

He still didn’t look as though he appreciated just how much money she’d earned. “I brought you some pictures.”

Logan’s eyebrows shot up. “I get that you were a model. You don’t need to prove…” He looked at the cover of the magazine that Tess had left on his knees. “That’s you?”

Tess nodded. Logan was holding the most successful Vogue cover shot she’d ever done. Combined with the images inside, it had propelled the designer of the clothes she’d been wearing into super stardom.

She opened the magazine to the other shots and watched Logan’s face as he slowly turned the pages. He looked up at her, then back down at the photos.

She wasn’t going to make excuses for the woman in the magazine or the real woman in front of him. She’d gained a little weight. Okay, maybe a lot, but the photo had been taken nearly six years ago and all she’d eaten was salad. And she might have a few more wrinkles, but she used cleanser, toner, and moisturizer morning and night, and she wouldn’t do plastic surgery.

He smiled at her. “You look better now.”

Tess’ mouth dropped open.

“What else have you got?”

Logan looked as though he was enjoying her show and tell, as if it didn’t come as a surprise to him at all. She pulled out the rest of the magazines. He flicked through the pages of Marie Claire, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar as if they were children’s picture books. She was almost looking forward to seeing his face when he saw her Victoria’s Secret runway clip.

“I spent ten years modeling.”

“Looks like it.”

Tess felt like jabbing him in the ribs. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“No need to get all defensive. I’m just saying.”

“Well, you can quit talking and look at this.” Tess opened a file and set the laptop on the table.

The Victoria’s Secret show started and Logan coughed. “Are you doing this to torture me or prove a point?” His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the designer collection she was modeling. There was more material in the angel wings attached to her back than the lace demi bra and v-string panty she was wearing.

Logan closed the lid on her laptop. He looked hot and bothered and so cute that Tess nearly smiled. Until she remembered what else she had to tell him.

“What do you think about what I’ve shown you so far?” she asked.

“Do you still have any of that lingerie?”

Tess threw a cushion at his head. “I’m trying to make a point.”

“I wish you’d hurry up. You’re torturing me.”

“I was a model. People recognized me.” She opened the laptop again and Logan closed his eyes.

“I’m not watching the Victoria’s Secret show unless you tell me why you’re here.”

“You can be so weird, sometimes. This has got nothing to do with lingerie. I want to show you a picture of my friend, Evie.”

Logan opened his eyes. “Has she got clothes on?”

Tess opened another folder and double clicked on a photo she’d taken of Evie. “This is my friend. We were in Italy.”

Evie was standing on the beach, laughing at the camera. She had a pair of sandals in one hand and a huge sun hat in the other. She looked carefree and happy, so different to the person she was to become.

“We’d been modeling for about three years when I took this photo. She met Andrew Gibson about two years later. He’d been newly elected as a senator. She thought it was amazing. The girl who’d grown up in Michigan moving in the same circle as the President of the United States. Except he was married,