Crazy for Loving You

by Grant, Pippa

  And me in a hot pink teddy.

  His arms tighten around me. “I love you too, Daisy,” he whispers. “And it scares the fuck out of me, because love’s never been kind, but I can’t help myself. You’re so damn easy to love.”

  I blink up at him, and he’s watching me with the most serious expression I’ve seen since the night I asked him to come back and help me with Remy.

  He’s offering me his whole heart.

  That whole, perfect, bruised but still beating, gentle giant heart.

  I touch his cheek. Smooth his brow. Let my fingers trace his lips. “I don’t deserve you.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “I love you,” I whisper again. “I don’t deserve you, but I love you.”

  His smile is everything.

  Everything.

  And I can’t resist kissing that smile until I’m breathless and hungry and pulling him to the floor beneath my desk to love him the way he deserves.

  Forever.

  It’s always been for other people.

  But only because I hadn’t yet met my West.

  Thirty-Seven

  West

  The only thing better than watching my baby brother kill it on the ice on a Saturday night?

  Having my family—and Daisy’s chosen family of her billionaire besties and their boyfriends—with me while we cheer and holler and raise the fucking roof in the arena while he does it.

  The Miami-based half of our crowd cheers for the home team too, but they also join us in celebrating Ty’s goal in the third period.

  Remy’s not a fan of all the yelling, but he loves the attention that comes from getting passed around the box to everyone who’ll hold him, from my sisters to Daisy’s friends’ boyfriends.

  For someone as popular as she is, Daisy’s not on her phone often. Usually just an hour a night, catching up before bedtime, unless it’s her mom or her three best friends texting, which she’ll answer immediately.

  Or me, when I’m out on my job site, I’ve discovered.

  But she keeps sneaking it out during the game.

  “What are you doing?” I finally ask.

  She grins. “What I do best, Westley. You just wait and see.”

  And see I do.

  Once we’re back home, after the game, she disappears into her closet and returns a minute later in a little glitter bikini that matches her sparkly gold hair this week.

  She shoves my board shorts at me.

  “Do I really need these?” I ask with a brow wiggle.

  “You do if you don’t want to flash your whole family.” She winks. “Party’s in five.”

  “Wait—whole family?”

  “Whole family. And a few more friends too.”

  I drop trou and fling my shirt off.

  Daisy’s eyes go dark.

  And we’re fifteen minutes late to the party.

  We hit the pool hand-in-hand, Daisy carrying Remy and both of us wearing I refuse to feel guilty for why I’m late grins on our faces.

  But it’s not just family.

  It’s a whole freaking party.

  “Westley!” Tyler crows from the edge of the pool.

  Three of his teammates rush him—Zeus and Ares Berger, two massive brutes, along with Nick Murphy, the team’s goalie—and they toss him in.

  Then they trade glances, and the loudest Berger twin yells, “Cannonball!” and all three go flying into the pool, followed by a guy I’ve seen in the neighborhood.

  My sisters shriek and dive for cover.

  Their husbands and kids—the ones old enough to be awake—are all laughing and diving in too. So’s my dad, who flew down this morning to join us.

  Six cats yowl and dart out from their hiding spots in the bushes around the pool.

  There’s tropical island music playing.

  Burgers grilling, courtesy of Derek.

  Beck and Jude are hanging with him in the outdoor kitchen, both with beers.

  One of Daisy’s security guys is manning a bar.

  My mom’s riding the mechanical unicorn that I thought Daisy was kidding about, while Cam stands to the side and hits buttons on her phone, making the unicorn go slower or faster while Mom yells to Allie to get it all on film!

  The cats are all prowling about, sniffing curiously and then dodging back inside through the cat doors Daisy had me install throughout the complex.

  “Westley!” Tyler crows again. He climbs out of the pool, dripping wet, and smothers me in a hug that ends with some pumping on my back that makes me realize I need to get back to the gym.

  Little fucker’s gonna be able to beat me in arm-wrestling too soon.

  “Fatherhood looks good on you, dude,” he says.

  “Wet looks good on you,” I reply.

  He lets out a war cry, bends, grabs me in a fireman hold, and the next thing I know, I’m going into the pool too.

  That’s fine.

  I’ll let him have this one.

  “Tyler Jaeger!” Daisy exclaims as I’m coming up for air. She’s handed Remy off to one of my sisters, and I have no doubt the kid’s going to be passed around from person to person all night long. “You beat my team.”

  He grins. “Daisy Carter-Kincaid. I did. And I’d do it a—aaah!”

  She gets him by the ear, twists, and shoves him into the pool. Then she dusts her hands. “Got him for you, baby,” she calls to me. “Clear out, Berger boys! Cannonball!”

  “She’s so fucking awesome,” Zeus Berger says behind me while Daisy makes an Olympics-worthy splash.

  Ares Berger, equally large as his twin, is grinning and shaking his head.

  “Your wife know you’re looking at another woman?” Nick Murphy, the Thrusters’ goalie, says.

  “You kidding? She thinks Daisy’s awesome too. Gives good advice on shoes.”

  Ares dunks him.

  Then dunks Nick.

  Then Tyler.

  Then the dark-haired, familiar dude whose chin seems to be sparkling.

  I hold out a fist. “Nice.”

  He dunks me too.

  I surface with a sputtering laugh.

  The crowd’s growing, with more people from the neighborhood coming in. I don’t recognize everyone, but I’m sure Daisy does. I get a glimpse of Remy, currently being held by Beck while Luna melts into a pile of lust and adoration beside him.

  “Unicorn jousting!” Zeus suddenly hollers. “I got the shortest kid on my team. Ares. Take the other short one. Show ’em how twins do it.”

  They bump fists and take off for my twin nieces, who are floating in miniature unicorns.

  Daisy surfaces next to me and wraps her arms around my waist. “C’mon. Introduce me formally to that brother of yours. I want to know if he’s as cool as your sisters.”

  “As cool as?” Ty puts a hand to his heart. “I’m so much fucking cooler.”

  “Until you can ride the mechanical unicorn as well as Mom, you’ll never be cooler,” Staci pipes up from her spot at the edge of the pool, where she’s twirling her youngest in a floatie too. “West, you need a nanny? We can relocate permanently to the Piña Colada suite.”

  “That one’s caused six accidental pregnancies,” Daisy tells her.

  “Dammit,” she mutters.

  Keely cackles.

  Tyler pumps a fist. “Way to go, Javi, my man!”

  My brother-in-law flashes a thumbs-up from across the pool, where he has their second-youngest and is teaching him how to swim.

  “More grandbabieeeeees!” Mom crows before she goes flying off the bucking unicorn and lands with a perfect tuck-and-roll on the mats surrounding it.

  “Got it!” Allie replies with a laugh.

  “Your family is so awesome,” Daisy sighs happily.

  “Suspiciously so.” Emily plops down next to Staci. “Do you all really get along all the time?”

  “Only when Brit’s not stealing my hairspray,” Staci replies.

  Luna sits on her other side, hair braided down her back, bangle
s covering her slender wrists. “Which one of you watches Bachelor in Miami? Daisy said someone does.”

  My sisters all gather around Daisy’s friends, everyone chatting while the Berger twins and Nick Murphy and Ty climb up onto unicorn rafts and each grab one of my nieces or nephews for a squeal-fest of unicorn jousting.

  Derek serves up burgers.

  Helene sits in one of the pool chairs with a plate of street tacos. “Daisy, I don’t know when Cristoff started making these, but I demand them every week.”

  “Costco,” Daisy calls.

  Every one of my sisters gasps.

  “You replaced Cristoff with a chef named Costco?” Helene asks her daughter.

  Daisy grins. “Sure, Mom. Let’s go with that.”

  “You shop at Costco?” Staci whispers.

  “Street tacos and wine. Fuck, yeah.”

  “I love you,” Brit breathes.

  “Make way, peasants!” Zeus yells. “Horse with a sword, coming through!”

  My niece Mia squeals in delight. Some of the older nieces and nephews leap into the pool to try to knock Tyler off his raft. Elvira circles the pool like she’s thinking of claiming another floatie for herself.

  And I wrap my arms around Daisy’s shoulders and lean against the wall of the pool while she leans against me.

  Family.

  Fun.

  Friendship.

  This is what I want every day for the rest of my life.

  Remy growing up surrounded by love and happiness and having no boundaries on how far he can go. Waking up every morning in Daisy’s bed.

  Mom pops up behind us and sits at the edge of the pool along with the rest of the line. “Where’s the baby?”

  “Somewhere. We should get him to bed.” I peer around the pool area, looking for him.

  “Spoilsport. We have to go home on Monday. And when will I see him again?”

  “Anytime you want, say the word, and we’ll send a plane,” Daisy tells her.

  Mom bursts into tears.

  “Dammit, Daisy,” Allie says, and she bursts into tears too.

  “Whoa,” Zeus says.

  “Retreat!” Murphy yells.

  “Not again,” Oscar and Javi both groan together.

  “What? What?” Daisy spins and stares at me. “What did I do?”

  “Welcome to the happy tears.” I shrug. “It’s a Jaeger thing. Once one starts, they all start.”

  “Oh, god. I think I might cry too,” she whispers.

  “This is beautiful.” Luna wipes her eyes. “I love happiness.”

  “Daisy, how strong is the chorine in this pool?” Emily asks. She, too, appears to be on the verge of crying.

  “Group hug!” Daisy yells.

  My mom and sisters cry harder.

  Daisy bursts into tears.

  All of the hockey players paddle for the deep end.

  Except Tyler, who falls off his raft laughing. I catch his eye, and I almost double over too.

  I love these women.

  All of them.

  Even when they drive me nuts, they’re all heart.

  And they’re all climbing into the pool for one big group hug. With Daisy at the center.

  Finally getting all the love she deserves.

  I sweep another look around, peering for whoever has Remy, and I spot Helene instead, who’s also wiping her eyes, and I watch her lips. “I couldn’t give her this kind of family,” she says quietly. “I wanted to, but…it turns out, I have very poor taste in men. I could never spot the monogamous ones.”

  “You did something right, or she wouldn’t be who she is.”

  I push out of the pool, because I can’t see Remy.

  None of my sisters have him.

  None of the billionaires.

  None of their significant others.

  Where the fuck is my baby?

  Alessandro meets my eye, sweeps a look around the pool, frowns, and disappears into Daisy’s private wing of the house, lifting a walkie-talkie to his mouth.

  My veins ice over.

  I don’t stop to towel off, but instead head toward where Alessandro just disappeared, eyes roaming, looking, watching.

  “You see the baby?” I ask Jude as I pass him.

  He makes a sweep of the patio, then leaps to his feet. “Somebody put him to bed?”

  Beck and Derek join us as the bartender touches his earpiece and looks straight at me.

  My heart leaps into mission mode, except this isn’t get the job done.

  This is what the fuck?

  I turn and scan the party on the deck again, this time catching Daisy’s eye in the pool.

  Her smile freezes, and suddenly, she turns in a circle.

  Then another circle.

  There’s no baby down here.

  There’s no baby down here.

  She goes white as a ghost.

  She knows too.

  Alessandro steps out of her door. “Sleeping?” I ask him.

  He shakes his head tightly and says something else into his walkie-talkie.

  Maybe Alessandro overlooked him. Maybe someone in my family put him in the crib in the Strawberry Daiquiri suite. Maybe one of the hockey players Daisy invited wanted baby snuggles inside. Maybe one of my older nieces or nephews wanted a few minutes alone with him.

  He’s safe.

  Margot Roderick is in jail, being held without bond.

  Anthony Roderick is supposedly out of the country.

  Supposedly.

  It’s not enough.

  It’s not enough, and after stopping the party and searching everywhere, it’s clear.

  Remy’s gone.

  I swore I’d protect him, and he’s gone.

  Thirty-Eight

  Daisy

  I can’t dial my phone. I can’t send a text. I can’t stop shaking.

  “It was just friends and family at the party,” I tell the police officer for the sixth time. “I swear I knew everyone here.”

  Alessandro and West are talking to another officer. They’re calm. Collected.

  Except for that flutter in West’s neck.

  He’s freaking the fuck out.

  As he should.

  And it’s my fault. All my fault. How old am I? How long have I lived with people who would use their money to buy anything and everything, from call girls to favors from tax officials to fucking hit men?

  Of course Remy’s not here.

  I threw a party, because that’s all I do. I throw parties. I make people like me. And it distracted all of us to the point that we gave the Rodericks the perfect opportunity to sneak in.

  “They paid a kidnapper,” I whisper. “They paid a kidnapper, and he probably has Remy halfway around the world by now.”

  None of the men in the room—not the officers, not West, not Alessandro, and not Jude, who’s in the corner waiting for orders on how to help—contradict me.

  “We shut down the roads,” Alessandro tells me. “He couldn’t have been gone more than fifteen minutes before we noticed.”

  “Cam activated Bluewater’s SOS system,” Jude tells me. “We’re accounting for every boat in the marina and every plane at the landing strip.”

  “Shutting down the causeway too,” one of the officers tells me. “They can’t get back to the mainland without a vehicle search.”

  My little baby.

  He’s so helpless. And little. And alone.

  “I shouldn’t have taken him to the party.”

  I barely whisper it, but suddenly West is there, wrapping me in his arms. “Daisy—”

  “No.” I shake free. “I know better. I know better. There’s never safe when there’s money involved. Money can buy anything, and I put him in the middle of dozens of people and let my guard down.”

  “We both knew better. This isn’t on you.”

  “Where are we looking? Where can I help? Get me a flashlight. I’m going out. Have you searched the beaches? The pool houses? What are we doing standing here talking?”


  “We need to be with you if the kidnapper calls—” the officer starts.

  “This kidnapper doesn’t want money. He wants Remy.” I fly into motion, because I can’t stand still.

  Remy’s out there somewhere.

  He’s out there, and I have to find him.

  Not for Julienne.

  Not for my grandmother.

  For me.

  He’s mine. Mine to love. Mine to raise. Mine to save.

  I don’t care how he came to be here in my life. Or how much sleep I lose, or how many dirty diapers I have to change, because that gummy smile—that sweet, innocent adoration, that happy coo, his chubby little face when he’s falling asleep on a bottle, the way I swear he’s trying to tell me stories every morning—he’s become my everything.

  I can’t imagine a day without him.

  West falls into step next to me as I head for my shoe closet. “I’ll go with you.”

  And there’s the other half of my everything.

  The one I’ve let down so very, very badly.

  It was bound to happen sooner or later, wasn’t it?

  “No,” I say. “We split up. We cover more ground that way.”

  “Or whoever took Remy gets you too.”

  “Buddy system,” Jude agrees.

  “Where’s Cam?”

  “With all your parents.”

  I shove my feet into my favorite stilettos, then remember how my last trip through the sand on stilettos went, and I mutter to myself and grab my black-and-white checked Sketchers instead.

  “I’m hitting the beach,” I tell them.

  West and Jude share a look, and West falls into step on my heels. “Daisy—”

  “Don’t. Don’t try to make me feel better.”

  My pulse is on hyperdrive. I can’t feel my feet.

  And I can’t stop wondering if Remy’s crying. If he knows what’s going on. If he’s scared.

  I take the back staircase and land on the beach, scanning the horizon for ship lights. Boat lights. I’ve docked right up on this beach in a dinghy before. It’s possible. Which means anyone could’ve been hiding in the mangroves between our properties, just waiting for a chance to sneak in.

  West doesn’t speak while we go up and down the beach. Around the paths between my house, Luna’s house, Cam’s house, and Emily’s house, and repeat. Checking bushes. Flashing lights into the mangroves.