Page 49 of You Know You Wanna

Chewing on her lower lip, she took a deep breath before she tried again. “Like, have you ever wished that you grew up in a city instead?”

I shook my head, a fond smile on my lips as I thought back to the life I’d had right here in town. “No, not really. At times, I wished we had more money or more space, but I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else.”

She sighed. “We have too much money and too much space.”

I frowned at her. “That’s not a bad thing, honey.”

“It’s not. It’s just that our house is always quiet because Dad is always out trying to make more money and my mom was always out trying to spend it all. It doesn’t sound like yours was ever quiet.”

“It wasn’t,” I agreed. “That’s kind of what happens when you share a two-bedroom house with your dad and five siblings. Oftentimes, we barely had enough money to put food on the table, but no, I wouldn’t change what we had for the world.”

She lapsed into silence, and eventually, I scraped together the courage to ask about her father. “What are you guys really doing up here, honey? As much as you seem to have started enjoying it, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you do and you’re sad more often than you’re happy. Even right now, you’re sad.”

“Right now, I’m sad because all the money in the world can’t buy me a childhood like the one you were talking about and I never even knew what I was missing until now.” She blew out a heavy breath and ran her fingers through her hair. Her gaze went back to the fire. “Dad doesn’t think I know all this, but he owns a resort in Gatlinburg. We were supposed to stay there for the summer, but as soon as we arrived, he heard this place was doing better, so he decided to check it out. I know he wants to spend time with me, but this is a business trip for him more than anything else. I’m just along for the ride because my mom didn’t invite me to cruise on the Mediterranean with her.”

As she said it, my heart broke for more reasons than one, and rage shot through me like a fire-breathing dragon. This child was only twelve and yet she knew and understood so much more than he gave her credit for.

She deserved to be celebrated for her strength, her wisdom, and her intuition. She deserved to be his priority, not only for the summer but always. Yet, it didn’t look like she’d ever been anyone’s priority. Not once in her young life had anyone put her first, which was ridiculously unfair.

Laurene Ford hadn’t asked to be born. Remington and this Jacqueline character had created her, either by accident or on purpose. Neither of which was her fault, but they sure seemed to treat her like an afterthought.

Then there was also the fact that she’d just confirmed my suspicions, as well as proving Alan right. Remington Ford wasn’t here for a vacation, and I did my best to hide my disappointment from Laurene as she got up to go get ready for bed too.

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t put these pieces together earlier. If Alan hadn’t warned me…

I buried my face in my hands for just a minute. I had three preteens to take care of and I couldn’t afford to fall apart right then, but for just that one minute, I let myself feel the anger and upset over having let the wrong man into my head, my bed, and maybe even a little bit into my heart.

25

REMINGTON

Still scratching my head about why Birdie was suddenly giving me the cold shoulder, I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the resort with Declan. We compared notes to what he’d seen at the Greens and jotted down a few ideas. Then we headed to the bar to talk shop.

Declan had now met Alan, who had been as pigheaded with him as he had been with me, and my friend shook his head as we sat down at the bar. “That man isn’t going to budge. You were right about him. It’s a lost cause.”

“Told you,” I said dryly, not boasting at all. “It doesn’t matter to him that our intentions are good. He’s just not going to bite.”

“Yeah, but that’s because he probably doesn’t think that our intentions are, in fact, good,” he replied.

“Either way, it means that going forward, we have to focus on making the Greens more like this place instead of trying to make this place ours.”

He nodded. “You got it. We’ll start there, and who knows? Maybe once he’s kicked the bucket, we’ll try again.”

I grimaced. “I wouldn’t say that out loud around here if I was you. These people are freakishly fond of the old mule.”

“Why is that woman glaring at us?” he asked suddenly.

I glanced at him. “Who?”

He inclined his head toward the far side of the bar, where Gracie was shooting me glares over her shoulder as she bartended. I tried to ignore it at first, shrugging at him and picking up my beer, but as we spoke, I kept noticing those damn glares she kept sending my way.

Something is definitely up.

Since it was possibly the same thing that had prompted Birdie to stop even wanting to look at me, I cut Declan off and got up. “Give me a minute. I need to go talk to her.”

“How many women are you involved with, dude?” he asked incredulously. “I thought you’d sworn off dating, but here you are, wooing not one, but two of the resort employees. Well done, man. I’m proud of you. Look who’s back in the game.”

“I’m not wooing anyone,” I emphasized the word and shook my head at him. “It’s also not a game, and even if it was, I’m not in it. That’s Gracie. She’s Birdie’s best friend and she might have the answers I want, so I’m going to go get them.”