Page 36 of The Heartbreaker

“You’re funny.”

“Aren’t I?” Jana chuckled and set down her mug. “Daisy, we need to get ready to leave. Are your teeth brushed?”

“Ughhh,” my daughter moaned. “The bubblegum is gonna taste yucky with the syrup.”

“I don’t care. You have to go brush them,” Jana said. “And is your backpack ready to go?”

“Yep!”

“And have you brought your dish to the sink?”

She wiggled for me to put her down, and once her feet hit the floor, she grabbed her breakfast plate from the table and brought it over to the sink, running for the stairs.

“Don’t run,” Jana told her. She shook her head and began washing Daisy’s dish. “How was the bachelor and bachelorette party?”

“Eventful as hell.”

I leaned my arms onto the island across from her, thinking of the star attraction.

Addy.

A woman who had been haunting my every thought since she’d left my house a few evenings ago.

Shit, I needed more of her—at the very least, a repeat of everything that had gone down between us. But I hadn’t heard from her, and it was eating away at me.

Why the hell hadn’t she reached out?

Was it work? Had she really been that busy the last few days? Or was it something else?

Because when she’d left my house, I had been positive she’d text me the next morning.

That afternoon.

Or, fuck, that evening.

But silence was all I got.

And I wasn’t happy.

I wasn’t going to mention any of this to Jana since there was really nothing to talk about, even though I could tell her without an issue.

Jana and I had been broken up for three years, but we’d remained good friends and discussed the people we dated. We agreed that if a relationship became serious, on either side, they could be introduced to Daisy. Until anyone reached that point, our daughter wasn’t to meet them. Within that span, Jana had only introduced one man to our daughter—a relationship that had recently ended. And with Jana being the last woman I’d been serious with, Daisy hadn’t met anyone I dated.

“Rhett was in a mood,” I continued.

“When is he not?” She gave me a look of concern before something seemed to click through her eyes. “Oh shit—the date. It was last week, wasn’t it?”

I nodded. “You always remember.”

“Rowan and Rhett will be my family until the day I die. Nothing will ever change that.”

“You know I appreciate that.” Because the better Jana and I were, the better our daughter was. “Rhett’s going to take Daisy on Saturday, and she’s going to spend the night with him.”

She sighed. “I’m relieved to hear that. He needs her, Ridge.”

“I know.”

“I’mreaaady!” Daisy shouted from the top of the steps, followed by thump after thump as she jumped down each of the stairs, breathless by the time she reached the bottom. “Let’s go to school.”