It was her MO around me—vanishing. Leaving me stunned. Wondering what the hell had just happened.
Junie knelt beside me, grinning like she’d just watched the best episode of her favorite show. “You’re funny, Daddy.”
I sat up, slinging an arm around her small shoulders, trying to shake off whatever that was between me and Demi. It felt like I’d missed something. Again.
“You think so?” I asked.
She nodded and leaned her head against me. “Uh-huh.”
“How come?”
“Because you’re a scaredy-cat, Daddy.”
I blinked. “What?”
“She wanted you to kiss her,” Junie said matter-of-factly. “And you didn’t.”
My heart, admittedly, skipped a few beats.
“Junie . . . how do you know that?” How could she read Demi, when I couldn’t? Sometimes Junie’s gifts frightened me. And I had a feeling that the older she got, the more of them she would discover.
“Because I know things.”
“Care to share with your dad?”
Junie giggled. “I can’t, silly.”
I’d figured that’s what she was going to say. Her little goddess was a divine pain sometimes.
But I couldn’t help but wonder if she was right. Had Demi wanted me to kiss her? Did Demi really think there was more to us? I didn’t have time to contemplate it. I had to get back and set Demi up on dates. Meaningless dates with the wrong men.
If Demi wasn’t meant for any of these men, then who was she meant for?
Me? Were the signs pointing us in that direction? That was a risky thought.
All I knew was that this quest was getting stranger and stranger.
Chapter XXIV
Demi
Nothingsaidromanticdatelike a staged setting and having a camera crew in your face the whole time. Not that there was any romance going on during these so-called dates. They were becoming more like therapy sessions, with me as the therapist. My Dear Abby side was in heaven. And I had no doubt that side would be coming out any moment now on what was my fourth date in the last two days.
First there was Todd. Yeah, that was a real joy. We’d ended up writing his ex-fiancée, Olivia, a letter when we should have been playing minigolf on the resort’s property. Of course, he would give it to her after the show since, technically, we couldn’t have contact with the outside world.
Although I was planning on making sure Olivia got anappearance on the show, one way or another. Believe me, Todd wasn’t having anyone else. He’d literally written in the letter:I even miss your toenail clippings in my bathroom. Yuck.
Even if I hadn’t known Todd wasn’t right for me, I might take spending the rest of my life with a locked heart instead of with a man who wrote odes to toenails. But if that didn’t say love, I didn’t know what did.
My second date was with Carter. My besties had labeled him “the king.” There was something royal about him. Maybe it was his height or the way his beautiful brown skin glistened in the sun.
I had to say, I had fun with him, but only because we ditched our picnic and shot hoops the entire time while we talked about everything from his days in the NBA to Cassie, who he was more than fond of.
Date three had started early this morning with Jax—the model.
We’d been all set up to paint on one of the lodge’s verandas, a scene so curated it practically begged for a slow-motion montage. Jax, ever on brand, had leaned over and asked if I wanted to paint him instead of the landscape. I’d declined, figuring that would probably entail him stripping down. Which, of course, was exactly what the crew had probably hoped for, to spice things up.
Instead, Jax had broken down, right there in front of the easels, and told me about his body image issues.
