I Want You Back (Want You #1)(105)
“Who knows about this?”
He scratched his chin. “Me. Gabi. Agnes. Her butler/personal assistant guy. And now you.”
I poked him in the ribs. “I’ve made it to the short list?”
Jax’s eyes softened and he reached up to touch my face. “You’re at the top of all my lists from here on out, Lucy.”
I moved closer and kissed him. Twice. “What happens now?”
“Staff meeting on Tuesday. Dennis is gone. The other instructors will be informed they’re on notice. Lakeside will be making changes for the next year. Not sure exactly what, except Gabi is reinstated and she’ll take over coaching Mimi’s team. I’ll still handle the skills class and I’ve got a few other ideas, but Tuesday’s the big day.” He brushed my hair away over my shoulder. “Will you come to the rink on Tuesday? Work your PR charm with the parents and kids while I’m dealing with the coaches?”
“Jax. I don’t know anything about running an ice rink.”
He chuckled. “Funny. Neither do I.”
“I’m serious. This is your business.”
“No, baby, this is our business. Now that we’re officially a couple, I want us front and center at Lakeside, not just me. All that means is we can tout it as a family-owned business.”
“I won’t have to do anything like manage ad budgets and submit wage increases to payroll? Because I’m already taking on a ton of new responsibilities when Lennox goes on maternity leave.”
“I just want your public support, even if in private you tell me I’m crazy for letting an eighty-five-year-old woman bully me.” He caressed my arm. Those rough-skinned fingers sent tingles rippling across my flesh. “And I’ll actually have a real office at Lakeside. No more sharing a closet space with Simone at the bar or borrowing the conference room at Chris’s office.”
“Makes sense you’d have your base of operations there since you’ve spent most of your life in an ice arena.”
“Hiring competent managers also means I won’t be stuck behind a desk. I want oversight in these businesses I’ve invested in . . . not being forced to make day-to-day managerial decisions. I have more important things to do.”
“Like?”
“You.” Jax flipped me onto my back and stretched out over me. “That will take up a lot of my time.” He pressed his lips to the corner of my jaw, then he started a meandering path of kisses down my neck. “A lot, my Lucy Q, so you won’t need to question what’s my number one priority.”
* * *
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Early on Sunday morning, after Jax and I had made love for the fourth time—the man was insatiable—we’d had a detailed discussion about our expectations going forward, both as a couple and as a family.
Neither of us saw any reason to keep the truth of the change in our relationship from our daughter, because it wasn’t temporary. Jax wanted me to move in immediately, and I agreed there was no need for a transitional period. Intimately existing in the same space, both of us being present in Mimi’s life every day, we were both eager to make that our new normal.
We skipped the Lund family brunch and the invite to watch the Vikings game at Walker and Trinity’s place. Jax picked Mimi up from his parents’ house and took her out for ice cream so they could talk about their issues from Saturday. I could’ve gone with him to serve as a buffer in case things got tense. But they needed to find their own way to sort out conflict, especially now that things were about to change in Mimi’s world once again.
Mimi was shocked to find me moving things from my bedroom into Jax’s bedroom. She was even more shocked when we admitted we’d fallen in love again and the new apartment was where we’d all live together as a family.
Was Mimi happy about that? Not at all.
Several of the hurtful things she’d hurled at us were aspects of becoming a three-person family unit that Jax and I hadn’t considered, including Mimi having to share her Daddy time with me, after she’d just gotten Daddy time, if we would be kissing all the time which was gross, if Daddy would make her do chores, if I’d let her watch cartoons before and after school, if she’d have a babysitter when we had Mommy and Daddy date nights like Calder’s mom and dad did, how would she choose who helped her with homework or who she read books with every night, and it wasn’t fair that she’d only have one bedroom when she used to have two.
But the real kicker was when Mimi said she never wanted us to have another baby, because we’d probably love the baby more than her and forget about her.
In the midst of her selfish concerns was real fear that she’d become less important in both of our lives. That’s when we realized we needed help to make this new family dynamic work. Family counseling sessions brought to mind broken families—not families that had been renewed like ours, but neither Jax nor I were willing to sacrifice Mimi’s happiness for our own. But neither were we willing to let an eight-year-old call the shots.
Thankfully Jax’s counselor understood the stress the situation would put him under and set up an appointment for us with one of his colleagues.
Mimi had been quiet since Sunday night. She watched her dad and me together with equal parts suspicion and fascination, because we hadn’t bothered to hide our happiness. There were no half measures with Jaxson Lund in public or private. In front of our daughter or behind our bedroom door.