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“Yes, they’ll be ready…no, I’m not talking about that with you, Logan. If you don’t stop bringing it up, I’m going to force a mediator to conduct our phone calls.” She paused, but my hackles were up. What the fuck did he keep bringing up and why did it make her so angry?
Red blotches started popping up along her collarbone and neck as she sighed.
“I know, fine.” She turned, facing me, and shook her head in frustration. “If that’s what you want to do, I won’t stop you. They need school supplies and school clothes. It would be nice if you took them.”
Fuck that. I would take them; I could get them everything they needed and more. I happened to know he’d already left the kids high and dry with no child support for two months, putting the full weight of bills and their needs squarely on her shoulders. He was a coward, but now he was trying to play hero.
Clenching my jaw, I moved around, grabbing for a glass.
I stilled at Bexley’s next words.
“No, I won’t go with you. Because I don’t need to, Logan. Bella is young enough that she doesn’t need to try on clothes—you just grab her size and it fits.”
I looked down, anger bubbling inside my chest at his persistence to include her and have her with them. I wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t over Bexley, and now that I was in the picture, he was making it clear that he wasn’t giving up. Sick and twisted considering he had a new kid and a girlfriend at home.
“This conversation is over. You can take them on Wednesday, while I’m at work. Ryan will be watching them—do you think you can be civil enough to pick them up from him without acting like a child?”
One last scoff left her lips before she dropped the phone and hung up.
I hated the anxious look that crossed her face while she pulled her hand up to her hairline and rubbed, heaving a shuddered sigh.
Moving toward her, I pulled her into my arms, kissing her shoulder and neck. I wanted to erase the weariness Logan brought on, eradicate him from her life and memory entirely. It had me itching to drag her upstairs, but we’d agreed I needed to stop dealing with my insecurities in that fashion.
“It’ll be fine. I’ll make sure it stays civil,” I reassured her.
She tightened her grip around my neck and let out a breath of air, then she let out another while she slowly traced a line up my neck.
“What was he trying to bring up?” I hesitantly asked.
She went rigid for a brief second, so fast I almost missed it, and her easy smile and peck against my neck had me thinking I’d imagined it. “Nothing, just the clothes shopping thing.”
I would have let it go, but she followed her explanation by lifting those shoulders in a small shrug.
I narrowed my eyes, silently calling out her lie. When she didn’t confess or say anything else, I tried to let it go, deciding she had her reasons and it wasn’t worth getting into it.
I hated that I had this simmering doubt resulting from letting her go ten years earlier. She may have left, but I’d given her every reason to go, and now I had to bow to the whims of another man having precedence in her life.
* * *
It was Monday,which meant it was time for me to face the music and call my agent.
Dialing him, I braced myself for the firestorm I was in for. I had ignored him, my producer, and even my publicist. Even with the stories swirling around regarding Bexley and the kids, I ignored everyone because I wanted to stay in the bubble with this new proverbial family I’d adopted into my heart.
They had a dad, but those kids meant so much to me that I’d do anything for them. I was in love with Bexley, so much so that I felt like my heart was shredding in half any time I considered losing her to this career.
“Ryan!” Jerry yelled upon answering.
“Hey Jerry, just calling to check in.”
“Check in?” he scoffed, and I tried to mentally prepare for what was in store. “You’ve ghosted us for weeks, Prince! Fucking weeks! You haven’t returned a single call or email!” Jerry’s voice strained with anger, making me feel shitty.
“I told you I was on vacation,” I reminded him gently, trying to placate him.
“A vacation you were supposed to be off of two weeks ago.”
Yeah, that was true, and technically I should have been in Brazil for pre-production…but I wasn’t ready to leave.
“I know, Jerry. Look, I’m sorry. It’s just…” I tried but failed to come up with the words to explain why I’d been absent from the world. It felt like no amount of words would accurately express my desperate need to be left alone.
