Page 53 of You Know You Wanna

While they talked, I went to get everyone checked in, silently fuming about the intrusion but also unable to ignore how excited Laurene was to have her dad here. As much as I wanted to ban him from the trip, I couldn’t do that to her.

I couldn’t send him back when the time they had together now might well be the only time they’d really have together this summer. He couldn’t do any work out here and he’d be forced to actually pay attention to her for real, so I let it go.

My insides churned with frustration about it, but there was nothing I could do. More than once, I’d thought about how much this girl deserved the attention, and here he was, ready to give it to her. I had no doubt he had ulterior motives for this too, but if Lulu got some time with him as a result, then I was willing to shove it all down.

Once we were on the course, the girls sprinted ahead, fearless with Cassidy in the lead. I took my time, bringing up the rear, but Remington slowed down about halfway through, and by the time I noticed it, I was already forced to catch up with him.

“Come on, slowpoke,” he teased, the widest, most carefree smile on his face when I reached him. “What’s going on with you? I thought you’d be flying through this thing.”

I grunted. “I’m afraid of heights, if you must know. Every time I come out here, I tell myself this will be the trip when I’ll conquer my fear, but as soon as I start the damn thing, it’s like my muscles disconnect from my brain.”

His expression softened, the smile fading as the look in his eyes gentled. “How about we do the rest of it together, huh? I’ll be right here if you need me.”

“I won’t need you,” I hissed, but he stuck with me anyway, and surprisingly, it really did make me feel better to know that at the very least, there was another grownup here who could take the girls back to camp if I should fall and twist an ankle.

With halting movements, I made it to the very last section, a zip line that disappeared into the trees and skirted along the lake. It was my least favorite part of the course, and real panic iced my veins, making my feet feel like wooden blocks as I waited my turn on the platform.

“There’s only one way down,” Remington said gently once the girls had gone. He reached for my hand but didn’t take it, seemingly wanting to let me know it was there for me if I wanted it. “Do you trust me?”

“No,” I said, but then the zip line attendant fastened us in and released us without even asking if we wanted to go together.

The next thing I knew, the platform fell away from my feet and we were soaring through the air. I grabbed hold of his hand as I swallowed a scream, more grateful than ever before to have the asshole with me.

27

REMINGTON

Birdie was pretty pissed at me and I understood why, but this was all just a huge misunderstanding. After the zip line, she’d barely looked at me, not even acknowledging how she’d clung to my hand like it had been her lifeline on the way down.

She sat on a dock by the lake now while the girls floated in a canoe, and I let out a long exhale. When we’d collected the canoe from the boat shed, the man had said something about an hour, so I assumed I had at least that long before she’d have to take the girls for the next activity.

For now, it was just her and me not on the water and I didn’t know how much free time like this she’d have on the trip. Now was probably the best time to talk to her about what my investment would really mean, or at least to broach the subject, but she still looked pretty damn pissed.

With her legs dangling off the edge of the dock and her arms folded on her thighs, she leaned forward and glared at the shimmering surface of the lake like it had offended her. Neither her posture or her expression were welcoming or open to conversation in any way, but I had a feeling that wasn’t going to change unless or until I finally explained myself.

The way I saw it, I could let her stew for another couple hours and then hope another window of opportunity presented itself, or I could just take the bull by the horns and go for it.

Deciding on the latter option, I went to get two coffees from the little food truck next to the lake and walked over, sitting down beside her and offering her one. For a long minute, silence stretched between us.

A breeze rustled through the trees surrounding the lake, but it was gentle and not even bordering on wind. Because of that, it was truly peaceful out here, the only sounds that of the kids’ laughter every once in a while and the birds twittering in the distance.

I knew how much Birdie appreciated this kind of peace and I didn’t want to shatter it, but it was obvious she wasn’t feeling said peace anyway. Internally, she seemed to be in turmoil, glowering at the water with her head down instead of tipping it back to feel the sunshine on her face like I knew she enjoyed doing.

Suspecting that I was the cause of that turmoil, I decided it was time to just speak. “Would you hear me out if I explained everything?”

The coffee I’d bought her was still hovering between us in my hand. When I spoke, she seemed to notice it for the first time and she took it, bringing it to her lips for a small sip, which I took as enough of an answer even though she still hadn’t even looked at me, let alone nodded or uttered a word.

I wasn’t about to wait for a cordial invitation, though. In the end, she also hadn’t said no, so I mentally grabbed my balls and went for it.

“I’m not trying to take the resort from Alan,” I started, looking out at the water myself as I spoke quietly but confidently. “I’m also not trying to take it from you, for that matter.”

Those blue eyes flickered to mine, but instead of hope, all I saw staring back at me was doubt. She scoffed, which wasn’t a real response but at least I knew she was listening. “The fact of it is that Alan is old and the resort needs some work, and if he’s serious about passing it on to you, there’s no reason for you to inherit it in such bad shape.”

She’d pulled her hair up into a high ponytail, and with the sun shining down on it, it looked like spun gold as she sat there, chewing on her lip like some kind of uncertain angel. That was kind of what she was, though. An angel. One with a real heart for children and nature, and who really cared about the people around her.

She was that rare kind of personality that restored faith in humanity and made even the most jaded souls like mine see the beauty and the good in the world again. While I wasn’t usually the type to entertain these kinds of thoughts, I made an exception for her because that was kind of the point.

A woman like her really didn’t deserve to be burdened by a resort that would start falling into disrepair real soon if some serious maintenance wasn’t done on it. She didn’t deserve to be saddled with a business that would surely fail if the property was in shambles and she definitely didn’t deserve the guilt she’d feel for “failing” Alan when it happened.