Page 91 of You Know You Wanna

“You’re her mother. Shouldn’t you know that?” I ascended the stairs out of the water and left, getting out of there as fast as humanly possible without running.

My heart was pulsing when I reached the locker room, and I sagged against the door, scrubbing my hands over my face and hoping that no one would come in while I was having a moment. I wasn’t sure where I’d found the strength to stand up to her, but it was all gone now.

She’d managed to make me feel more afraid than ever about my future with him—and it was because there was a good chance she was right. Declan had gone after Gracie hard from the moment he’d arrived, pursuing her purely for her looks, and he was only beginning to get to know her now.

Remington hadn’t necessarily come after me the same way, but they’d both managed to find themselves a warm body to spend sultry summer nights with. No matter what they said or how genuine they seemed when they said it, they were both hot, rich, and busy in their real lives.

Was I the kind of woman he would settle down with? Or was I a toy? One he’d apparently grown particularly fond of but a toy nonetheless?

The truth was that I had no idea. I knew what I’d believed when I walked in here, but walking out, I had to ask myself if Jacqueline was simply creating drama or if, by some miracle, she’d actually been trying to look out for a fellow woman back there.

47

REMINGTON

After a big meeting with Alan and Declan, I was feeling good about what we were going to achieve here with the money we’d be pumping into the place. We’d mostly discussed the golf course so far, but Alan was also considering it an investment in the resort as a whole, which was great since that was what we’d intended for it to be.

Business-wise, we were on track and I’d texted Jacqueline to meet me at the suite this evening. I was tired of waiting for her to make her move and she still wasn’t answering my calls or requests to meet, so I’d simply told her where to be and when.

Now all I had to do was hope she’d show up, or I was going to have to get my private investigator to track her down, allowing me to arrive on her doorstep unannounced for a change. As I opened the door to the suite though, I realized that wouldn’t be necessary.

Jacqueline had come. Early, in fact. I glanced at my watch. She wasn’t supposed to have been here for another couple hours.

I sighed. Of course, she was going to find some way to try to catch me off guard after I told her where to be.

Pushing the door wide open, I strode in, finding her and Laurene talking in the living room. Laurene was arguing with her about something, tears in her eyes. She spun to face me when she realized I was there. “Daddy!”

“Sweetheart?” I caught her when she launched herself at me, winding her arms around my waist and holding on to me like she was trying to fuse herself to my body. “What’s going on?”

It was then that I saw them, two suitcases laid out on the couches and a mass of Laurene’s clothing lying around them. My stomach went ice cold and my gaze snapped to Jacqueline’s. “What is the meaning of this?”

My ex frowned like she didn’t understand. “Laurene is coming back to London with me tomorrow. The flights are already booked. We talked about this, Remi. I told you that I wanted her at my party.”

I nodded slowly, then gave my daughter a quick squeeze before I peeled her arms away from my body. Dropping to my haunches, I sat in front of her and forced a smile. “Why don’t you run along and go play, honey? Alan mentioned something about water balloons at the Kids Camp this afternoon.”

She looked back at me, her eyes still full of tears, but she nodded. “Okay, Daddy. I’ll see you later.”

As I pushed back up to my feet, I bent over to kiss her head and then ruffled her hair. “I’ll meet you at the deck next to the pool later. We’ll have pizza.”

Without saying goodbye to her mother, she scooped up a swimsuit and her towel from the floor, leaving the rest of her things strewn around as she left. Once she was gone, Jacqueline arched an eyebrow at me and let out a burst of incredulous laughter.

“Run along and go play? Since when does Laurene play?”

“Since now.” I crossed the room, slid my hands into my pockets, and leaned casually against the kitchen counter. “It’s about time our kid gets to be a kid, don’t you think?”

She chuckled. “Laurene is a young woman now, Remi. She should act like one. Is that what you’ve been doing this summer, encouraging her to run around and play like some child?”

“Yes,” I said honestly. “That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. She’s twelve. She is a child, even if you’ve done your best to turn her into a miniature version of you.”

“She’s my daughter, Remington. She should be a miniature version of me.” She sniffed. “No matter. We’ll get her back on track once she’s in London.”

“She’s not going to London,” I said firmly, still leaning against the counter. “You need to leave us both alone unless you want to get the lawyers involved again. I’m supposed to have June through the end of August, when school starts. It’s only the end of July now. She’s not going anywhere.”

“I’m doing you a favor by taking her early,” she responded primly. “This way, you’ll have more time to spend with your grimy local girlfriend and you won’t have to worry about getting back to Manhattan early to get her things sorted out before you put her on a plane.”

Reining in my anger, I took out my phone. “You’re going directly against our custody agreement and my lawyer’s number is still on speed dial. I’m done with this, darling. I might not be able to physically kick you out of town, but you have no right to interfere with the time we have together, and that’s what you’re doing.”

One of her eyebrows lifted slightly and she kept quiet for a moment, looking at me like she was puzzled about something. “Let me get this straight. You actually want her here with you? Instead of running around with your little plaything, you want our daughter to worry about?”