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“Sneaking out like it never happened?” I ask.

She freezes with her hand on my door handle, and I chuckle.

“It’s fine. You can go.”

She slowly turns around to face me. She clears her throat, and she looks like she’s in a world of hurt right now. “What exactly happened last night?”

I sit up, giving her a view of the abs I know she can’t resist—even more so now that I’m back in season and getting closer to season shape. I blow out a breath. “When I got home, I saw Mandy’s car parked in the driveway and I heard retching coming from your casita. I relieved her of her duties. Why didn’t you tell her you filed for divorce?”

She looks guilty, but then she shocks me with her next words. “She’s pregnant. Jaxon proposed and she quit her job. It didn’t feel like the right time to dump our news on her.”

Our news .

Like she’s giving me any sort of choice here.

My eyes widen and I choke a little. Holy shit. This is news to me.

Jaxon is getting married? I thought he was even further away from that than I was. It’s just…unexpected, I guess.

As is everything in my life lately.

“Can you expand on relieved her of her duties ?” she asks before I get a chance to process what she just told me.

“Wait. Mandy’s pregnant?”

She nods. “Yes. Catch up. She’s preggers, Jaxon proposed, they’re getting married before the season starts, and she’s apparently going to be a stay at home mom to their child because she put in her resignation. Now what the fuck happened last night?”

I outright laugh, and she glares at me.

I clear my throat as I try to calm the laughter. “Sorry. You’re just funny when you’re hungover.”

Her glare deepens, and I think she might really be back to hating me in this moment.

“There’s nothing funny about this. Now talk.” She’s being demanding, and it’s fucking hot. I realize how damn much I’ve missed her and her bratty mouth in the last few weeks between camp and avoiding each other.

“I told Mandy she could head out and I’d take care of you. You were passed out on your bathroom floor at that point, so I carried you up here just to make sure you didn’t get sick again. That’s all. Nothing happened, and you didn’t even wake up when I brought you up here.”

“Oh,” she says, the glare not as deep as it was before. “Well, thanks, I guess.”

I duck my head a little. “You’re welcome, I guess.”

She purses her lips at me before she twists the handle and walks out of my room.

Mandy and Jaxon. Huh.

The season starts one month from yesterday. That gives them less than a full month to plan and execute a wedding. I wonder how pregnant she is.

I wonder how Victoria feels about all this given how badly she wants children of her own.

Come to think of it, I suppose I already have my answer if her response was to get drunk enough to puke and pass out.

But it’s not like she’ll come talk to me about it.

My phone starts to ring on my nightstand, and I reach over to see it’s my dad calling. “Hello?” I answer.

“Travis, it’s your father.”

“I know, man, but thanks for identifying yourself.”

“Habit,” he says. “I had an idea for you regarding your situation.”

“I’m listening.” I’m not sure which situation he’s talking about, but I assume it’s the part about Jerry Callahan trying to take my daughter from me.

“What if you lean into your status?” he proposes. “Go out on the town as a family, and use the paparazzi to your advantage. Let them take pictures of the three of you. Let them showcase the stable family you’ve built. Get outside and have a family day. Go to the zoo, the aquarium, the mall, the children’s museum. Do it more than once.”

“I think it’s a great idea. Just one problem,” I admit.

“What?”

“Victoria’s filing for divorce.”

“What?” he gasps. That’s right. I made old man Woods gasp with my news.

“You heard me. She doesn’t want to stay married to me. I guess the sex club news was the final straw, but she hates that people follow her around to get intel on me . Among other things.” Like the fact that I’m a terrible communicator. I can’t keep blaming my lack of experience when it comes to relationships for that. At some point, it’s up to me to step up.

But my father might be onto something here. Just yesterday I was trying to figure out what the good side of having access to the paparazzi is. Maybe this is it—to showcase our family. But what if there’s more? What if I can do something that would be meaningful for her on the larger stage I have access to?

My mind starts whirling with possibilities.

Her last relationship ended because Owen was a toxic piece of shit who stopped caring about the beautiful woman he was lucky enough to land for a few years.

I won’t be a toxic piece of shit like him.

But the only way I can win her back is to prove this is the life for her…to need to prove I’m the right man for her. To prove I can communicate—to prove I’m more than some sex-crazed drug addict with a criminal record.

And I think I know just the way to do it.

It all starts with a day of family fun…if I can get her to agree to it.

She’s in her casita getting ready for work when I head down to the kitchen. Her door is open, an unusual occurrence lately unless Harper is home. I need to get to the Complex for today’s meetings, but I stop by her door and lean my head in, knocking on the frame at the same time.

She glances up at me. Her hair is wet as she pours a bowl of Cheerios, as if she just got out of the shower and decided she needed to eat. “What’s up?”

“You feeling any better?”

She shrugs. “I took some ibuprofen that hasn’t kicked in quite yet, but I’ll live.”

“Can I talk to you about something?”

“You took care of me last night, so I suppose the least I could do is listen.” Her words are short and clipped.

“I appreciate that,” I say dryly, knowing if she thinks just listening to me is a favor then the real question I want to ask is quite the long shot. “I, uh, haven’t mentioned this to you, but given all the headlines lately, the judge presiding over my custody hearing decided to move up the date to August twentieth. I need to talk to Coach about potentially missing some of camp to attend the hearing.”

“I knew the date was moved up.” Her voice is soft and gentle. “Ellie told me. I was wondering when you were going to.”

“It felt like big news, and you’ve been pretty good at avoiding me lately.”

She presses her lips together.

“Anyway, my dad just suggested we use the paparazzi to our advantage and have a family day out in public. Would you, uh, mind… faking it with us for the day?”

Her brows knit together.

“I know it’s a huge ask, and I understand if it’s a no. I can just take her out the two of us, too. It doesn’t have to be the three of us. I just thought since we got married to show stability, we should show stability.”

She stares at me while I ramble, and when I finally stop, she nods. “Sure, Travis. I’ll do anything for Harper.”

“Does that include waiting to file the papers until after the hearing?” I press. I have to ask, or it’ll eat away at me not knowing the answer.

She sighs. “Yeah. I guess.”

“I appreciate it.”

“Sure. I guess I’ll see you around.” It’s her way of dismissing me, and I need to go anyway, so I take the hint.

“Let’s, uh, plan for Sunday for our family day of awesome. Is that okay? It’s the only day off this week.” I grip the doorframe as I wait for her answer, and she finally nods.

“That’ll work. Let me know if you need help planning anything,” she says.

“I’ve got it,” I say, and then I head to the Complex with a quick call to Ellie on the way for some additional assistance.