Page 73 of You Know You Wanna

“I don’t want to go to stupid England,” she said tearfully, looking like she was forcing the words out past a massive lump in her throat. “Please don’t make me go, Daddy.”

“Come here, sweetheart,” I said, smothering my own frustration and opening my arms for her, but she didn’t come to me.

“I just want to stay here. With you. And with Birdie.”

My heart sank and I scrubbed my hands over my face. This is not good. This is not good at all.

“I know, baby,” I murmured, drawing in a deep breath. “If I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t want to leave the mountains either, but we can’t stay here forever. England or not, we will have to go back home.”

“Why?” She folded her arms across her chest. Tears leaked from her eyes as she tilted her head to the side. Her voice was quivering, her shoulders caving in as she glared at me. “I know you’ve been working. If you can do it from here for the summer, why can’t you just work from here permanently?”

“Because we have to go back to our lives,” I said gently. “Our lives aren’t here, Lulu. We have to go back. Back to New York. Back to my office. Back to school. Back to your mom. This isn’t our home. It’s only a vacation.”

“No,” she said stubbornly, lifting her little chin into the air. “It doesn’t have to be.”

“Yes, it does, baby. I know you like it here, but⁠—”

“No!” she yelled. Her fingers rolled into fists at her sides. “I don’t want to go to London! Why don’t you understand that? Why won’t anyone listen to me?”

“I am listening, sweetheart. I am. I promise you, I’m listening, but there’s just no way we can stay here indefinitely. This isn’t where we live.”

“But it could be.”

I shook my head. “No, it can’t. It doesn’t work like that. You can’t move to every place you like in the world. We’ve got responsibilities and none of them are here, which is why we came here on vacation to get away from it all.”

“No!”

“Yes, Laurene. You don’t have to like it, but we can’t stay here. Your mom wants you to go to London. She’s bought a place and she wants you at her housewarming party. It could be a good thing, baby girl.”

Her entire face collapsed and a sob rolled through her. The sound broke my heart. I took a step toward her but she stumbled back, shaking her head over and over again. She turned and ran away.

“You’re still in your pajamas,” I called when she reached the stairwell, but it didn’t seem to matter to her.

The door banged open and she disappeared into the dark void beyond, letting it slam shut behind her. My heart started galloping. I knew she was safe in the resort, but I didn’t know if I could just let her run off in such a state.

It took me a minute to make up my mind, and while I did want to give her all the space and privacy she might need to process this, I couldn’t just let her take off without any idea of where she was going. As angry as she was, I wasn’t even sure she’d stay on the grounds.

As soon as that thought hit, I took off. Declan hadn’t returned yet from his morning run, so I was on my own. With my heart at a flat-out sprint in my chest, I banged open the stairwell door and paused for a moment to see if I could hear her footsteps, but there was no telltale pounding coming from below.

I didn’t know if she’d simply double-timed it or if she’d stopped at another floor, but I flew down anyway, keeping my ears open in case a door slammed somewhere. Nothing like that happened, though.

When I reached the lobby, she wasn’t there either. I jogged through it, making sure to check all the nooks and crannies before I rushed outside.

Running out into the bright sunshine, I blinked against the light and lifted my hand to shield my eyes as I looked around. There was no sign of her. She wasn’t on any of the paths leading away from the main resort.

She wasn’t around the pools, the restaurant, or the bar area either. Deciding to try the Kids Camp, I darted to the right, jogging until I reached the entrance. I pushed open the gate, running to Jenna on my way to the chill room.

“Is she here?” I asked urgently.

Jenna frowned. “Who? Laurene?”

“Yes.”

“I haven’t seen her,” she replied apologetically, her eyes darkening with concern as she looked back at me. “Did she tell you she’d be here?”

“No.” I didn’t have time to explain, so I simply spun around and started running again, checking all the other obvious places.

We’d been here for long enough now that Laurene knew every inch of this property, especially since she’d befriended Cassidy who’d practically grown up here. I checked the spot where they’d built their makeshift shelter the other day, but that was empty too.