Crazy for Loving You: A Bluewater Billionaires Romantic Comedy(96)

“I—I merely wanted you to calm down. Not—”

I freeze. “You plagiarized Julienne’s will?”

“No! No. Of course not. That would be ridiculous. But when she told me she was naming you and Mr. Jaeger—”

“You knew Margot Roderick wanted to kill her?”

The Dame actually blanches. “She was so prone to exaggeration…and making enemies…”

I turn around and march toward the door. I don’t want to hear any more.

“I’ve always been so proud of you,” she says quietly behind me.

That should mean something. It should be everything I’ve worked my ass off for since I was twenty-one years old.

But what kind of a victory is it when I don’t want it anymore?

“Daisy. Stop,” she says. “You don’t have to quit.”

I ignore her.

I don’t remember what my employment agreement said. Probably something about indentured servitude for life in exchange for that twenty-five percent cut I asked for. Or something about losing a share in the company if I quit before a hundred and fifty years.

But I don’t care.

I have Bluewater. That’s mine. Mine, and Emily’s, and Luna’s, and Cam’s. She can’t take that from us.

I have my pool.

I have my yacht.

I have my mom.

I have my friends, who will undoubtedly tell me I’m a moron for sending West away, but I had to.

For his own good. For Remy’s own good.

I step back out into the sunshine, and I wait for the freedom to wash over me.

It doesn’t come.

Not washing, anyway.

But the tears do.

A month ago, I would’ve drowned myself in tequila and techno music at a club on the beach.

Today, I just want to go home.

Tiana and Alessandro surround me with a huge hug.

“I love you guys,” I whisper.

“We know. And we love you too.”

And that’s all it takes to finally break me.

Just a little bit of love.

This love, I might deserve.

But West’s?

He can do so much better.





Forty-Two





Daisy



Four days after the Weekend of Horror, as I’m officially calling it, I’m camped out in my pool house, contemplating not much of anything at all, because I am slobber-faced drunk.

I could go fry in the sun on a float in my pool, but I don’t want to.

I want to lay here.

On the cool tile floor.

With my boobs squished under me and a glass of something pink and beautiful just out of reach, even with the straw teasing me mere inches away.

I’m trying to extend my lips to reach it when the door slides open and the most fabulous pair of shoes ever stop just behind the glass.

Those fabulous shoes are followed by another pair of fabulous shoes, and one set of adorable bare feet.

“Oh, honey,” a soft voice says.

“I told you we should’ve come yesterday.”

“Her mom said she was fine.”

“Her mom was mistaken. Or possibly in denial. Did you see how puffy her eyes were? She’s just as upset as Daisy is. Maybe more so.”

“Oga aye,” I sigh against the floor.

I have no idea what it means, but it’s the sounds my mouth wants to make.

“Should we take her to the gym?”

“I don’t think she can walk on those shoes, much less work out in them today.”

“Maybe dunk her in the pool?”

“Jude’s just outside. If she starts to drown, he’ll leap in after her.”

“No pool,” I say. “Sun bad. Water bad. Want tequila.”

Emily’s face swims into view as she squats in front of me. She’s so pretty. I want to be pretty like Emily. “You need an intervention.”

“Can you do it while I’m sleeping?”

“Daisy, you poor thing.” Luna’s flowy, flowery skirt flares out on the ground beside my head, and she strokes my hair, which might be dangerous, since it’s entirely possible Steve has crawled in there to bask in the glorious filth of my ’do. “Is this your first heartbreak?”

“Have to have a heart for it to break.”

“Definitely time for the pool,” Cam says.

They’re joking, so I ignore them.

Except suddenly my arms and legs are being lifted, my skin is snick!-ing off the ground, and any hopes of getting that straw disappear.

The sun is bright.

And the water is a huge wake-up.

I sputter, my head spins, and I flail around for half a second before I surface. I’m still in my yellow Versace dress from four days ago. And I have half a mind to sink back into the water and let it carry all my troubles away.

“I miss my baby,” I whisper, and then I don’t know where my eyes start and the water ends, or something like that, because my eyeballs are leaking again.

“Well, duh. You love him.”

All three of my friends settle in at the edge of my pool, peeling off shoes and dropping their toes in the water.

Even Cam, who’s impeccably dressed in a business suit.

My friends are the best.