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We may have ended things long ago, but I don’t want her to live through that heartbreak again. “Harper, you’re a great mom. Stronger than you give yourself credit for, but you’re not alone. I haven’t always been the best listener, but I’m here.”
“I just don’t know what to say. Vincent wants to know what I need, and I don’t know what to tell him. He’s trying, but sometimes it gets on my nerves.”
“We don’t always know what we need. I know you’re worried but try to take it easy.”
“You know, we’ve come a long way in the last few years.”
The back door swings open and Libby marches out. “I—” She covers her mouth when she sees my phone.
Harper giggles. “I’ll let you get back to your visit. Kenz should be done soon. And thanks.”
“Tell her I love her.”
Libby is still frozen when I put the phone away.
“Didn’t go well?”
She grunts and plops down on the swing. “Will you be my pillow?”
She twists and lays across the swing with her legs propped on the arm and her head in my lap.
“Want to talk?”
She shakes her head. Staring up, she clenches her jaw.
I squeeze her fingers. “Did you punch him?”
“No, he’s just frustrating.”
My phone buzzes with a message from Harper, so I open the video and press play, holding the phone so Libby can see, too. It begins in the middle of Kenzie’s dance as she spins in the middle of the room.
When the music dies away, Kenzie notices Harper and jumps to her feet. “Are you recording me?”
“It’s for Dad,” Harper says, off screen.
Kenzie makes a dramatic shrug, then runs toward Harper, squealing, “Hi, Daddy.”
She seems to tackle the phone, and maybe Harper as the video ends.
Libby giggles. “She’s adorable. I take it you were talking to your ex-wife when I came out?”
“Yeah, she still calls to make sure I’m behaving sometimes.”
“She must be disappointed. Does she know where you are?”
I draw my tongue across my teeth. “Yes. If you really want to know, she encouraged it.”
“Well, that’s an interesting turn.”
A first for me, too.
I nod toward the house. “So, what happened with Beckett?”
Libby chews her lip. “He’s hiding something, but I kind of flew off before I could get him to spill too much. Gave me a long, I came to God speech about how he’s selling his businesses so he can focus on us.”
Us, huh?
She sits and spins toward me, tucking her feet under her. “I think what happened in Georgia is somehow connected to him.”
