Page 83 of You Know You Wanna

“I just…” I trailed off. “Nothing. She lied?”

“She lied,” he said, suddenly on the move again. Crossing the room to Gracie, he grabbed her chin between his thumb and forefinger and placed a hard, hot kiss on her lips. “We aren’t done. I’ll see you later.”

He spun on his heels and left. She seemed to sway a little bit, a goofy grin appearing on her lips as she glanced back at me. “That guy is good. Like, real good. I shouldn’t have held out for so long. Coffee?”

“Yes, please,” I muttered, feeling like my brain had been detached from my body. I’d never been caught up in anything like this.

Scandals happened in Bluebell Hollow and not everyone was good, but this was crazy. If Remington and Jacqueline really were divorced and she really had spent her summer on the yacht she’d gotten in said divorce and she’d really flown all the way back here just to create a bit of drama, then I was way out of my league.

Who does that?

Gracie exhaled through her nostrils and watched me. “Strong coffee, it shall be. Come on. Talk to me while we’re waiting and start at the beginning.”

I pushed to my feet, but I felt like I was floating as I moved toward her kitchen. “After we found Lulu last night and brought her back to the resort, I went to the suite to let him know that the police had left and that he didn’t have to worry.”

“Okay,” she said, cocking her hip against the counter after putting on a pot of coffee. “Then what?”

“He asked me to stay and I did.” My cheeks heated at the memory of everything we’d done while I’d stayed, but I didn’t share any of those details. “This morning, it occurred to me that I really was going to lose them and that I didn’t want to, so I ran out to go find Alan and bumped into Drama Barbie instead.”

Gracie chuckled. “Drama Barbie, I like it, but Bitch Barbie might be more accurate from the sound of things. So you just bumped into her and she told you he was her husband?”

I nodded. “Something like that. Her exact words were about me keeping her husband’s bed warm, but yeah.”

She exhaled harshly, her lips pursing. “I hate it when women do stuff like that to each other. What did Remington say when he saw her?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I admitted after a brief pause. “I, uh, ran out and came here. He was still sleeping when I woke up, so…”

“So you left him there to wake up to his ex-wife walking into his suite?” she asked, her eyes widening a little more with each word until she started laughing. “Wow. I’d have given anything to have been a fly on that wall. At least tell me he wasn’t sleeping naked.”

I wrinkled my nose, and she started laughing even harder, only just managing to squeeze the words out as she struggled to even breathe. “Oh, gosh. I’m sorry. That’s awful, but I really would’ve paid good money to have been in that room. It would’ve been hilarious. Can you imagine?”

“Can I imagine what? Waking up to a woman who looks like her walking in on my sort-of boyfriend naked?” I winced. “I’d rather not, thanks.”

“Oh, relax,” she said easily, coming over to give me a quick hug. “It’s not like she was naked too, and even if she was, it doesn’t sound like he’d have done anything with her. By all accounts, she’s a terrible, terrible person and he’s with you now. You’re the best person in the world.”

“She’s really pretty,” I whispered as I hugged her back. The coffee started to run into the pot. “They were together for a long time. You never know what might be happening even as we speak. Don’t exes still hook up sometimes?”

“Mostly only the ones who are still in denial,” she said wisely. “It doesn’t sound like Remington is in denial, so you have nothing to worry about. He also wouldn’t need to turn to her for comfort sex because he’s already had that. With you.”

“How did you know?”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Birdie. I’m not stupid. Plus, even Declan and I needed some comforting after yesterday. It’s only natural you did too. Can we have coffee now, or do I need to keep talking you off the ledge you were on when you got here?”

“No.” I cleared my throat and dragged in a deep breath. “No, I’m all good. We can have coffee now.”

“Good, and when we’re done, you need to go talk to Remington. Obviously, something’s up. The sooner you find out what it is, the sooner you can get back to comforting your man.”

I groaned. “Stop it, and he’s not my man.”

She winked at me. “He sure is.”

I didn’t really know how to explain to her what was bothering me. I couldn’t even put a finger on it myself.

As I carried my coffee to the couch and sat down again, I thought about the events of yesterday, replaying it all up to the point where Lulu and Remington had finally talked. “What are the odds of her showing up out of the blue just after those two talked about her going to Juilliard? You should’ve seen Lulu’s face while they were discussing it, Gracie. She was so hopeful, and now her mother is here and she’s probably going to ruin it.”

“Or maybe she’ll understand,” Gracie said softly, taking the seat next to mine and squeezing my arm. “They’re a family, honey. Even if Remington and Jacqueline are divorced, they’re still a family. You need to let them sort it out, but you also need to talk to him about what this means for you. More importantly, you and I both have to find out if there’s some way we can help Laurene in all this.”

I wrapped my fingers around my mug, blew on the surface of the coffee, and watched the steam skitter away. I nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. One thing at a time.”