Page 84 of You Know You Wanna

She paused for a beat. “I can’t believe you thought you slept with a married man.”

She started laughing again, and this time, I saw at least a flash of the humor she did in the situation. It was just so bizarre that the only thing I could do was laugh. The alternative was to cry, and if I started crying about him, I didn’t know if I’d ever stop.

Part of me hoped she would just disappear again, leave as suddenly as she’d arrived, but I doubted the universe was going to make things that easy for us. I doubted Jacqueline was going to make things that easy for us, and now that I’d met her, I knew I was going to have to be prepared to fight for even the slightest chance of staying in their lives.

It had been unlikely before, but now? It felt like it had just become borderline impossible.

43

REMINGTON

Laurene woke up as our food arrived. I didn’t tell her that her mother had been here this morning. I had no idea where Jacqueline was staying, but I was hopeful that she would have left the resort by now and that she would stay away for the rest of the day.

I knew I was going to have to tell Laurene sooner or later, but I just wasn’t ready yet. I didn’t know what to say or how to reassure her, and all those plans I needed to make were still up in the air.

First things first. Now that Laurene had been fed and seemed fine after yesterday, I wanted to go find Birdie to make sure she was okay. I had to make this right with her before I’d be able to focus on the hurricane that had blown in this morning.

Lulu was my first priority, then Birdie, and then way, way down on that list was dealing with Jacqueline. Done eating, I looked across the table at Lulu and pushed back my chair. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to Kids Camp?”

“I’m fine, Daddy.” She smiled at me. “I’m just going to hang out today. I might go over there later, but for now, I want to get back in bed and read a book Cassidy told me about. I already downloaded it and I think I just need to relax a little bit.”

“How old are you again?”

She giggled, getting up and coming over to kiss my forehead. “Twelve, but I’m mature for my age.”

As she walked to her bedroom, I got up and trailed after her. “Is the book appropriate for regular twelve-year-olds? Even those who aren’t mature?”

“Yes, Daddy,” she said dutifully, turning to face me when she reached her door. “It’s about a boy and his dragon. There’s no sex, nudity, or graphic violence.”

I winced and backed away, throwing my hands up in the air. I kept walking down the hallway. “I’m going to pretend you still don’t know what any of those things are, and I want the name of that book. I need to check it out myself before I’ll know that I’m okay with you reading it.”

“I’ll send you a link,” she said, strangely calm about it all. She cocked her head at me. “You’re really going to check it out?”

“Of course.”

A wide smile broke out across her lips. “You’re the best, Daddy. Thank you!”

With that, she flounced into her bedroom, super excited about something, and I was already halfway to the lobby when I realized what it was. In the past, I didn’t think anyone had ever checked up on what she was reading or watching.

At least, not that she remembered or knew about. Back when she was a toddler, I’d set parental controls on all our devices and they were still there, but I didn’t think she knew I adjusted them on occasion.

Either way, it was another reminder that things were changing between us. I was going to be a better parent from now on. She was never going to have to wonder how much I cared ever again—and I was going to make sure Jacqueline knew she wasn’t taking her to England.

The one thing I knew for sure after this morning was that the London ship had sailed. I’d been going back and forth about it for weeks now, but after yesterday and Jacqueline not even being bothered to peek into her room this morning, my mind was fully made up. I wasn’t going to let my ex play dress-up with her.

Not anymore.

Lulu had plans for her own future. Dreams and hopes. I wasn’t going to let her mom destroy them just because she was bored.

As I walked out of the main resort toward Birdie’s studio, she came striding down the path, a relieved smile on her lips when she saw me. “I was looking for you!”

“Same here.” I took her hand, pulled her in the studio, and shut the door firmly behind us. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry about this morning. I heard you met my ex.”

Her blue eyes darted from one of mine to the other and it looked like she was going to say something completely different for a moment, but then she blinked and it was gone. “I did. She’s, uh, not very friendly, is she?”

I scoffed. “Describing her as ‘not very friendly’ is overly kind. Why didn’t you wake me up? I’d have chased her away from you.”

“Oh, uh, I was going downstairs to check in with Alan when I ran into her, and I thought it was better to let you two talk. I’m sorry for leaving the way I did. I wasn’t planning on it. I thought I’d bring back some coffee to the suite after I spoke to Alan, but then…”