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“Yeah, you’re right. It would be uncomfortable. I’d feel twisted. Like I wouldn’t know who to support.”
“Caught in the middle?”
“Exactly. Is that how you feel?”
“I don’t know. Still processing it, I guess.”
“Was your father cheating on your mother?”
“No.” Not on her mother but cheating everyone else. Mikelina needed to nip this conversation in the bud. “I want to bet on number five,” she said, forcing her voice to sound bright and carefree. “I have a good feeling about him.”
Bastien grumbled about it, but he went with her to make a bet. He even refrained from saying I told you so when poor old number five crossed the line in the middle of the pack.
“At least he wasn’t last,” she said.
“I don’t think they’re here,” he said, squinting into the crowd as if he could pick them out. “Let’s go to the next one on your list.”
She’d rather play some more slots, but she diligently trailed along after Bastien as they went from casino to casino and still came up empty at the end of the night. She was down fifty bucks and her feet were killing her.
“It’s possible they were casino hopping and we kept missing them,” she said once they were back in his car and had given up for the night. Kicking off her shoes, she rubbed her aching feet. As they headed back toward South Beach, Mikelina was thoroughly not in the mood for any hanky-panky—especially if the groom showed up while they were fooling around.
“I’m exhausted,” she said to Bastien when they were back in South Beach. “Can you just drop me off at my hotel?”
“You don’t want to stay?” Bastien asked.
She shook her head. “I’m so tired I can’t even think. Touch base with me tomorrow, though. Enjoy the parasailing.” Her head was still whirling about her mother and Kirk kissing.
“All right,” he said quietly. “Tomorrow can you contact the owner of the beach house? I’d like to know their asking price. I might buy it if Jace doesn’t.”
“I don’t even know if it’s for sale,” she said, holding on to her temper. She needed to remember that this was business first and pleasure later. There shouldn’t even be any pleasure, so she should get that out of her mind. But with him looking so sexy and confused sitting next to her, it was hard to remember that she had a job to do and that was to make sure all her guests had a good time, not just Bastien.
“If the owner does wind up selling,” he went on, “and you need a place to store your things, let me know?”
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m good. I could always drop it off at my aunt’s house.”
“Or maybe your mother can take some of it?”
“Yeah,” she said. She wondered how serious it was between her and Kirk. Was her mother spending the night with him?
She squeezed her eyes shut. She did not want to think about that. With her father in jail and her mother in a new relationship, where did that leave her? She could live quite happily off the sale of the beach house. But then where would she go? Where would her home be if not that house?
The rest of the car ride was quiet and when he pulled up in front of her hotel, she thanked him absently and walked into the hotel as if she was sleepwalking. When she got to her room, she opened up her laptop and searched to see what the visiting hours were for the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami.
As much as she hated to visit him, she needed to see her father before she decided to do anything about the house.
