Nina reached out to grab my arm, staring at the phone in her hand. “Wait, hold on! I just checked the availability and there’s only three spots left for the next session! We should grab two, right? If Liam can’t make it, maybe we can find a sub?—”
“Nina,” I said through gritted teeth. “Slow down.”
She finally looked up from her phone and at me, then froze when she took in my expression. “What? What’s going on?”
“Why are you booking up a full week of my son’s summer without even discussing it with me?”
She tipped her head, frowning. “Uh, isn’t that what we’re doing right now? We’re talking about it, Logan. Did you want me to call up your assistant and schedule a formal meeting?”
“Maybe. It sounds to me like you’ve already done plenty of legwork.”
She blinked at me silently, taking in every inch of my face.
“Yeah, you’re one hundred percent right, Logan. First, I researched the camp to make sure it’s even appropriate for a child Noah’s age. Then I read tons of reviews to see if it’s worththe hype. I scoured every single social media account of theirs and even crept on some parents who posted photos of their kids at the camp. I also checked your calendar to make sure that you didn’t have any travel conflicts for him. So yeah, I’ve done plenty to make sure that this camp is appropriate for the child thatyouhired me to take care of.”
Hearing her reference her paid position drove another wedge between us. But maybe that was a good thing. Because here it was—the moment I’d known was coming. The point where everything started to fall apart.
It was just bitter irony that it felt so similar to the last time. Guess I hadn’t learned my lesson after all.
“You’re overstepping,” I began in a measured voice. “It’s not your place to decide if and when Noah should go to camp.”
“I’m sorry, it absolutelyismy place!” Nina hissed. If nothing else, I was at least grateful she was keeping her voice down. The last thing I needed was a public spectacle. “Don’t you remember what we discussed on the cruise? The parameters of this agreement?”
“I do, and it seems that you’re the one who’s out of line,” I insisted.
“Logan, I didn’t decide it, I wanted totalkabout it together so that we could make a decision together. And you agreed to let me take the lead when it came to developmental concerns, which this very much is. I’m not going behind your back, so what’s the real issue here?”
The way she was looking at me, likeIwas the one out of line, was the final push. I broke.
“You’re ambushing me with this out of nowhere!”
She let out a shocked bark of a laugh while watching me with wide eyes. “Oh my God, why are you acting like I enrolled him in a cult or something? I didn’t register him without your permission. I would never!” She threw herself back against the bench with a loud sigh. “I don’t get what’s happening right now. I thought you’d behappythat I did the background checks prior to presenting it to you. Like, who even are you?”
I turned to face her. “I’m someone who loves his son and resents attempts to force us apart.”
Her expression shifted from shock to disbelief, and her mouth dropped open. I set my shoulders, prepared for the fight to come, because I’d been here before.
A distant scream cut through the tension between us. A familiar scream. My stomach dropped. No, it couldn’t be.
We both swiveled our heads to see what had happened to whom, but a crowd had gathered, blocking our view.
“Was that…” I began as I tried to peer through the people crowding around the playground equipment.
The group parted for a second, and I spotted a familiar form on the ground.
“Noah,” Nina breathed.
She sprinted away from me and forced her way into the group. I was just a beat behind her and quickly caught up.
My heart stopped when I spotted my son’s tearful red face. He was clutching his arm and crying while a stranger tried to comfort him.
“Daddy,” he hiccuped when he saw me. “I-I-I fell off the climbing wall.”
I pushed past all the other people and dropped to my knees, reaching out to him to try to assess the injury.
“Did anyone see what happened?” I asked, looking around at the worried faces.
“He was up there and his hand slipped,” the little girl he’d been dancing with replied. “He fell down.”
