by Claire Adams
I chuckled quietly. I’d been wondering when she’d get around to calling me again, as it’d been a long time for her, especially since she was still on her matchmaking crusade.
That kind of phone silence typically meant she was scheming something and was trying to make sure she could surprise or outmaneuver me.
Of course, it wasn’t like you needed to be a psychologist to figure out she probably wanted to know about Emily.
I picked up the phone, letting it ring a few more times before finally answering. “Good afternoon, Mother. I didn’t see you in church yesterday.”
“I was visiting a friend’s church. That’s not important.”
I pondered how much I wanted to toy with her. It might be fun, but it could cause me trouble later. “So, did you need something, Mother?”
“I wanted to call you and ask you how little Juniper was doing. That poor thing, having to suffer through that. I feel for her.”
“Really now?” I smirked to myself. “You wanted to call and ask me how Juniper Blue is doing? And nothing else?”
“Yes. Why is that so strange?”
“I didn’t say it’s strange. Why do you think I think it’s strange?”
My mother scoffed. “Because you have that smug tone about your voice, Logan. Don’t play games with me.”
“I could say the same to you.” I chuckled. “Why ask me instead of asking Sally Jolie if you’re worried about Juniper?”
My mother cleared her throat, probably stalling to think of a response. “Well, you know, I figured I’d call you. I know you visited Emily and Juniper on Saturday.”
“And I assume you know that because Sally told you.”
“Yes,” she said, the word tight and clipped.
“Now, Mother, give me a little credit. I know that Sally would be keeping you up to date, but if you are truly calling about that, then you should know Juniper is fine, much better. She’ll probably even be able to return to school in a couple of days.”
“That’s wonderful. Such a lovely little girl. Hmmm.”
I leaned back in my chair waiting for her to get to the point. “Is there anything else you were curious about?”
“Sally saw you at the hospital,” my mother said, her tone suggestive. “She thinks you and Emily are together. Considering you took her on a trip to Japan, I don’t think that’s a crazy assumption, but you never told me you were together. You keep insisting you’re just friends, and that makes me wonder what’s actually going on.”
I took in and let out a long, slow breath. This conversation had stopped being fun, especially since my mother was digging into some things I hadn’t quite figured out myself. Every time I thought I’d finally connected with Emily, something changed, something to convince me she wasn’t as interested, but then she would turn around and do something that made me think she was.
Mixed signals. I guess that’s what people called it.
“You want the truth?” I said with a sigh.
“I’d prefer it, yes. I’m not a little girl, Logan. You don’t have to sugarcoat things for me.”
“The truth is that Emily and I are good together, Mother. We really are. I like spending time with her, and our personalities are compatible. From what I can tell, she enjoys spending time with me. Honestly, Emily is one of the few women I’ve ever met who I feel like might actually be worth pursuing, and this is one of the few times I’ve cared enough to seriously try.”
My mother let out a little shout of glee. I winced at the uncharacteristic sound.
“That’s simply wonderful,” you said. “You see? You thought I didn’t know what I was doing, but I’ve set you up with a wonderful woman, so you don’t even have to worry about pursuing her, as you put it. If only you hadn’t been so resistant throughout these years, we could have had you married off years ago.”
“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself.”
“Am I now? Am I really?”
“Yes.” I turned in my chair to stare out at the city through my window. A news helicopter flew near a building in the distance, and I wondered if something was going on. “You see, there’s one small problem.”
“Don’t be too picky, Logan. No woman is perfect. If you wait for perfection, you’ll die old and alone.”
“You don’t understand. I don’t have a problem with Emily.”
“Then what’s the problem? Humility is grand, but don’t overdo it. I’m sure she can see past whatever silly habits you think might offend her. At a minimum, you’d be a big improvement over Lionel Blue.”
I snorted. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“You know what I mean.”
“It doesn’t matter. That’s not the problem either.”
“Then what is the problem? Stop being so difficult and just explain it to me.”
“The problem is,” I sighed, “I’m pretty sure Emily doesn’t want to date me.”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense.”
I turned away from the window toward my desk. “You asked. I answered.”
“But I don’t understand. You said you were good together. That you were compatible. Why on Earth wouldn’t she want to date you? I’m confused. And for that matter, what is it you’re even doing? When you take a woman out to dinners, help out her child, and take on fancy foreign vacations, that’s dating.”
“No, that’s two friends spending time together.”
“Then what’s holding back those friends from becoming more?”
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t. There’s just something there blocking things. Something on her end.”
“Then you unblock it, boy. If you can convince people to sign multimillion-dollar deals, you can convince that woman you’re worth dating. You’ll have to try harder.”
I laughed. “That does have a certain logic to it, and I can’t really argue with it.”
What could I say? When my mother was right, she was right.
A beep in the background alerted me to another call. I looked at my phone.
“She’s calling now, Mother.”
“Then hang up on me and take her call. Don’t make her wait.”
“Okay, okay. I only told you all that so you know what’s going on.”
“Answer her, Logan.”
My mother hung up on me, which made me burst out laughing. I calmed myself and answered Emily’s call.
“Hello,” I said, doing my best to keep my voice smooth and neutral.
“I hope you had a good Sunday,” Emily said quietly.
“Lovely. Even the sermon at my church this week wasn’t boring.”
“That’s good. We didn’t make it to church since I wanted to give Juniper another day to rest.” I could hear Emily swallow over the line.
“What is it?” My heart sped up. Had Juniper’s illness worsened again?
“Juniper is up to being outside. She played a little in the yard today.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “That’s great news.”
“Yes, it is. She also keeps asking about your dogs, and I don’t know. I tried to tell it’s already pretty late in the day, and you’re a busy man, and—”
“I’m almost done with work. You can bring her by in a couple of hours if you want.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“No, the boys would love to play with Juniper, and I have a huge backyard.”
I heard the sound of something I think was a muffled sigh. Silence followed for long enough that I thought the call had been disconnected before Emily finally responded.
“Okay, I’ll tell her, and we’ll be there in two hours. See you then.”
“See you then.”
Emily ended the call, and my heart leaped for joy. She’d called me, reached out to me, and not out of desperation but to ask about something fun for her daughter.
Admittedly, she seemed a bit nervous about the whole thing, but that was to be expected. This might finally be the turning point I’d been waiting f
or. I’d thought it would be Japan, but maybe that was more the beginning.
I grinned to myself. My mother was right. I just needed to unblock things.
* * *
I’d sent Arla home early. It wasn’t that I didn’t want her to meet Emily, but I thought a more casual atmosphere would be better for Emily’s first visit to my house.
I paced in front of the door, waiting for her arrival. My patience was finally rewarded with a knock.
I opened the door to find a smiling Juniper and a much less excited Emily. I figured she must have had a tough day at work.
“Come in, come in,” I said, motioning inside. “The boys are out back. I have ice cream and ginger tea.”
“Yay,” Juniper yelled. She rushed inside and started running circles in my foyer before stopping abruptly and bouncing up and down. “Yay! Ice cream, ginger tea, and doggies.”
A laugh escaped my mouth. “Well, I see you’re definitely feeling better, back to the more hyper girl than the sick girl.” I shot a smile at Emily, but then my smile faltered when I saw the strange, distant look on her face.
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but something was off.
Chapter Thirty-one
EMILY
A few minutes later, I was sitting in a chair in Logan’s dining room sipping on some sweet tea. Juniper was chasing the dogs around in the huge living room. Both Joe and Dean barked happily, their tails wagging.
“Careful, sweet pea,” I said after she almost ran into a wall beneath a painting. She might be small and the room large, but it wasn’t a gym.
“Don’t worry about it,” Logan told me with a smile. “Just let her enjoy this. She’s had a rough time. You both have. It’s nice to hear some laughter in here for a change.” He shrugged. “It’s not exactly like I spent a lot of time laughing it up with my housekeeper.”
I gave him a nod and forced a smile on my face, praying that Logan couldn’t tell how nervous I was. He’d been giving me curious looks since we arrived, which made me think I must be giving away more than I thought.
“Thanks for letting us come over,” I said. “She’s obsessed with those dogs now. She’s been talking about them a lot.”
“You’re free to come over anytime,” Logan said. “Until you get your own dog. I think every family should have a dog.” He leaned over. “Let me tell you about the first dog I ever had growing up. She was called Goldie. I loved her, but God help her, she was the stupidest dog in the neighborhood.”
I faked another smile. I wanted to tell him the truth: that we couldn’t come over anymore. I tried to ignore this as the conversation moved to Logan telling his funny story, but I was barely listening after the start. I was too distracted by memories of Lionel’s visit to my house the night before.
* * *
I remembered Lionel glaring at Logan as he pulled away in his car.
“What was he doing here?” Lionel hissed. “He’s coming to your house now?”
I closed the front door behind me. I didn’t know what had crawled up Lionel’s butt, but I could already tell we were going to have a big argument, and I didn’t want Juniper to have to hear it. Little girls shouldn’t have to worry about their parents fighting.
“He came to check on Juniper,” I said. “Unlike you, he had time to visit. Even though he’s a busy businessman.”
Lionel squared his shoulders and marched up to me. “I was on vacation, and it wasn’t my week.” He motioned off in the direction Logan had driven. “And do you really think you can get away with that kind of behavior?”
“With what kind of behavior?” I stared at him.
“Exposing our child to that sort of thing?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Exposing Juniper to Logan?”
“Oh, don’t act so dumb.” Lionel snorted. “You barely know this guy, and you’re jetting off to Japan with him. Did you screw him there?”
My face heated. “What I do with anyone in my private life is none of your business.” I pointed accusingly at him. “And I’m not going to hear it from a man who has slept with all sorts of women since we’ve been divorced and even when we were married.” I shook my head. “You’re just mad that someone is interested in me. You want me to be sad and alone. Well, too bad. You lose.”
A sickening grin appeared on Lionel’s face. “You think your new man is a nice guy? You think a man like that hasn’t slept with all sorts of women, done all sorts of shady things?” The grin turned into a sneer. “You don’t get that rich without having all sorts of skeletons in your closet.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just because you’re a bad person doesn’t mean every man is. Logan’s a good man. He’s already proven that.”
“Are you so sure of that? I bet a few private detectives could find something.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. This was getting tiring. “Besides, we’re not even together. We’re just friends.”
“Bullshit!” he yelled.
I was so startled, I took several steps back.
“Don’t lie to me,” Lionel said, his eyes bulging. “I know you’ve had sex with him. I can see it on your face.”
“What does it matter what we are? Or what we’ve done?” I planted my hands on my hips. “Do you have a point to all of this other than coming off like a crazy person?”
“Yes. If I find a few skeletons in his closet, then I can go to a judge and get full custody of Juniper.”
My heart dropped. “What?”
It didn’t seem right, but I wouldn’t put it past Lionel to weasel out something that might have worked. Maybe I was just letting him get too far into my head. Years of gaslighting during our marriage had left me too sensitive at time to his attacks.
“You heard me.” Lionel’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re not going to get full custody.” I shook my head. “You don’t even want full custody.” It was one of the few things we hadn’t argued about during the divorce.
“Maybe I’ve changed my mind. All I know is Juniper was fine when she left my house, and then she ended up in the hospital.” He shook his head. “I’ve thought a lot about that, and I think it proves you aren’t paying enough attention to her. You’re an unfit mother.”
I wanted to wrap my hands around his neck and throttle him. “How dare you. I took time off work and watched her. She just got worse. It happens.”
Lionel snorted. “I think you were too busy worrying about Logan Hawkins and not paying enough attention to Juniper.”
I slapped him before I even realized what I’d done. My hand stung from the blow.
Lionel rubbed his cheek, glaring at me. “You’re going to stop seeing Logan Hawkins, or as God as my witness, I’m going to make sure I get full custody. Our daughter came close to dying.” He jerked this finger up to point at me. “And you were the one watching her at the time. And I guarantee you that I can find something on Hawkins.”
My pulse pounded in my ears. I didn’t want to believe Lionel could take Juniper from me, but he was ruthless. If anyone could find a way, he could find it.
He looked away, the fire dropping from his voice. “Besides, I think there’s something else we need to talk about.”
“What?”
“Your trip to Japan and my trip to Mexico made me realize something important.”
“And what was that?”
Lionel sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “That maybe you were right, and I was putting things before me.”
I blinked several times, confused by the conversation whiplash. “What are you talking about?”
He held up his hands. “I understand why you’re interested in Logan Hawkins. You need a man in your life. Someone to make sure you’re doing what you need to. Juniper needs a full-time man in her life.” He nodded. “That’s maybe why I’m getting so worked up, but I think we need to think about what’s best for Juniper, not just us.”
“Are you drunk? I can’t follow what you’re saying at all.”
Lionel stared at me, his
face tight. “I think we should get back together.”
I stared at him for a long while, waiting for him to laugh. When he didn’t, I did.
“I’m not joking,” Lionel said flatly. “I think we should.”
“I thought I was selfish and that I couldn’t satisfy you. You just said I was unfit!”
He waved a hand. “I’m willing to overlook that for our daughter. And if I’m around, it doesn’t matter that you have…problems.”
My hand itched to slap him again. “I’d say something about hell freezing over, but I wouldn’t even get back together with you then.”
Lionel’s face darkened. “Fine then, but if you’re thinking you don’t need me because of Logan Hawkins, well, that’s over. You either break up with him, or I go back to court and go for full custody. Whether or not we get together, I’m not going to allow that man to be around my daughter.”
I was about to say something when the door opened, and Juniper peeked through.
“Is Daddy coming inside?” she asked.
Lionel shot her a bright smile. “Sure, sweet pea. I’ll come in.” He walked over to the door, shooting me an evil look.
I watched him, my breathing shallow. I didn’t understand Lionel at all. I’d been the one who divorced him, and afterward, he’d never seemed interested in getting back together at all.
Why did he suddenly want to get back together after two years? Just because another man was interested in me? I wondered if this was about him not wanting me to happy. Even if I got back together with him, he’d cheat on me, and I’d be forced to divorce him again.
I groaned and rubbed my temples. It didn’t matter. There was no way I would ever consider getting back together with him. Juniper didn’t need two parents who were fighting all the time.
But that still left the question of Logan. I couldn’t do anything that might risk me losing my daughter.
I sucked in a breath and wondered what I should do.
* * *
As I remembered the confrontation with Lionel, my heart pounded like he was right there in front of me. I took several deep breaths and rubbed my hands together in my lap.