“Are you picking a fight?” I almost laughed. He wasabsurd.
“I’m trying to get on the same page,” he countered. “Idon’t want to guess at what you’re thinking. I want to hear the words.”
I thought about Juliet. I thought about all that I’dkept a secret from him. I thought about why I left to begin with.
Did any of that matter now?
Juliet was my daughter. I couldn’t deny the fightinginstinct inside me to protect her, to want to introduce Sayer into her lifegently and carefully and with her best interest always in mind. But at the sametime, Sayer was her dad. Didn’t he have the right to know her? To be in herlife and see how absolutely special she was?
“There are things we have to talk about,” I told him.My phone started buzzing in my purse across the room. I tried to ignore it.“There are things I haven’t told you.”
He gave me a look. “Caroline, you haven’t told meanything.”
“That’s what I mean.” My phone started buzzing allover again. “I-I left for a reason. A very important reason.” The phone quitbuzzing. Then started up again.
He quirked a brow. “Do you need to get that?”
The phone stopped vibrating. Only to start all overagain a second later.
“Apparently,” I told him. “I’ll call back. It willjust take a sec. We should get dressed.”
He stepped back, giving me room to slide off the desk.I realized I was naked and we hadn’t used protection and sex was messy.Grabbing some tissues nearby, I used them as discreetly as I could while Sayergot dressed behind me.
For the few minutes it took me to dress, I feltunfairly exposed. The air grew thick with tension and weird with unsaid things.Was this what a one-night stand was like? Was it always this awkward?
No, he’d said he wanted to be together again. He saidhe still thought of us as a couple.
This was my issue. Not his.
I took a steadying breath and buttoned my jeans. Myphone had continued buzzing, so I finally reached for it in my purse, diggingpast the stolen items to find it.
The daycare had called four times and Francesca hadcalled seven. My pocket started buzzing and I nearly screamed until I realizedit was my burner phone. Pulling it out, I didn’t even check the caller. Therewas only one person who had this number.
“What’s wrong?”
“Where have you been?” Francesca shouted in the phone.“Did something happen? Are you okay?”
How to answer that question.“I’m okay.”
That was not the answer she wanted. “Then why thehell did it take you so long toanswer?”
“Geez, Francesca, I’m—”
“Someone took her, Caro! Before I could get her,someone picked her up! The teachers had just called the cops when I showed up,but she’s already gone. I don’t know where she went. The cops are going to behere any second and I don’t know what to tell them–”
My blood iced over with fear, turning my limbsbrittle, paper thin. “Slow down, Frankie. Tell me the whole story,” Iwhispered, sounding calmer than I ever had. It was a façade, a tool to get theinformation I needed. I wasn’t calm. I wasn’t close to fucking calm.
Sayer saw my distress and walked over to stand next tome. His hands landed on my shoulders, comforting, warming the frost, anchoringme to this planet.
“It’s Juliet,” she wailed, full on crying now. “She’sgone! Someone took her!”
“Who?” I roared into the phone.
“I-I don’t know. Sayer maybe?”
“He’s with me,” I answered quickly.
I felt her surprised pause through the phone. She hadquestions but now was the wrong time to ask them. And my answers wouldn’t helpthe immediate problem at hand.
