Page 26 of You Know You Wanna

He hadn’t let me make a fool of myself, and for that, at least, I was thankful.

13

REMINGTON

Stuck in the suite working for a few days, I was so in the zone when Laurene came back after hanging out at Kids Camp that I hardly noticed her until she suddenly shut my laptop. I narrowed my eyes in a glare, glancing up and wondering just what the hell was up with her now.

Her smooth red hair was damp and pulled up in bun high on top of her head, her skin still pearly white and a sunhat in her hand. Angry flames flickered in her eyes as she stared back at me, her oversized T-shirt sticking to her wet swimsuit underneath.

It was clear that she’d been swimming this morning, but I didn’t understand what I’d done to piss her off or why she thought it was okay to slam my laptop shut while I was busy working on it. “Something on your mind, sweetheart?”

As I spoke, I tried opening the computer again, my eyes still narrowed on hers, but she pressed down on the lid, obviously not about to give up. “You dragged me out here and you’re making me stay. The least you can do is come out with me. We should do something fun together.”

“I have meetings today.” I schooled my features, realizing that I didn’t need to look at her quite as harshly as I was for just wanting to spend some time together. All those promises I’d made myself about prioritizing her had gone out the window these last few days, and while I regretted it, I hadn’t had much of a choice. “You go on and I’ll catch up with you later. Where are you going to be hanging out?”

“Probably doing drugs somewhere.”

I frowned. “That’s not funny.”

“It will be once I’m high on drugs.” She shrugged. “If only I had some adult supervision.”

“Okay, I know you’re joking, but I actually need to know where you’ll be.”

“Does it matter?” she asked, finally releasing the laptop to cross her arms tightly over her chest and taking a massive step back. Disappointment clouded her eyes. Her little brow pinched as she suddenly become the one glaring at me. “It’s not like you’re really going to come out there to find me, Dad. Just give it up already and let’s go home.”

“We’re not doing that, baby. It’s just a few days of meetings, is all. Plus, the signal isn’t good enough for me to have my camera on, which means I’m getting through it all much faster since people aren’t so inclined to chat these days when they can’t see you. I’ll meet you later. Just tell me where.”

“No,” she said stubbornly, tears welling in her eyes as she shook her head. “If you’re going to work around the clock every day, we might as well not even be here. I just want to go home.”

“Really?” I asked, squinting at her as I took in her obstinate expression. She was pissed at me, and honestly, I was glad that she wanted us to spend time together, but I also wasn’t about to be steamrolled or manipulated. “It seems to me that you’ve been having a lot of fun here, even when I have been working. You don’t really want to go home. You’re just trying to prove a point and it’s not going to work.”

“You’re wrong. Everything is wrong. You’re ruining my life!” Her face scrunched up and she swallowed a scream. “I’m not just some thing that you can forget about when it doesn’t suit you to remember that I’m even here. I thought you said that we were going to spend time together this summer?”

“I did and we have been. Just take a deep breath, honey. Calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down!”

“Okay, okay. Everything is going to be okay. I only have a few meetings left and then we’ll go do something fun together.”

“You’re lying,” she spat at me. “We came here for you to work while I was entertained by people we don’t even know! I just want to go home.”

“No, you don’t.”

Her jaw tightened, those tears sitting heavily on her lids. It looked like she wanted to say something else, but she seemed to think better of it, storming out instead and leaving me reeling.

Laurene and I had been known to have an argument on occasion, but now I was ruining her life? How? I only took a few meetings.

I blew out a heavy breath and rubbed my temples, willing myself to forget about it but unable to follow through. I knew these last couple years and the divorce had been tough on her, but I’d really thought that being here and getting to know all these people at the resort was helping.

In fact, I’d even thought it would be okay to take these meetings because she’d been so busy at the Kids Camp, she’d barely seen me anyway. Struggling to understand the logic, I got up and strode out of the suite, in a mood but needing to talk to her.

Before she actually did end up on drugs.

I marched to the lobby, not seeing a trace of my daughter, and I was about to try the camp when Alan suddenly appeared behind the front desk. I hadn’t seen the man since the day we’d checked in, and since I didn’t know how long it would be until I saw him again, I decided to get the show on the road.

“How’re you doing, Alan?” I asked as I walked over to him.

“Oh. It’s you.” He scowled at me from behind the desk, his gaze dropping to something I couldn’t see. He busied himself with whatever it was, acting like he didn’t even know I was still here.