I Want You Back (Want You #1)(42)

“I am meeting him,” I snapped, my patience gone. “He’s Mimi’s father.”

His condescending look vanished. “I knew you worked at Lund Industries, but you never mentioned your intimate connection to the family.”

“Why would that have mattered?”

“I like to know everything about someone I’m getting involved with.”

I poked the down button for the elevator, relieved when the doors immediately opened. I didn’t speak until I was inside it. “Well, it’s not something you need to worry about now, because we’re definitely not getting involved. Good-bye, Damon.”

For once the universe had perfect timing and the door shut in his face before he could respond.



* * *



? ? ?

Jax made it to my apartment with about thirty-five seconds to spare.

Mimi wasn’t her usual exuberant self, but she did disappear into the kitchen for a snack after giving me a hug.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Jax’s expression turned serious. “No name-calling. No swearing. No bringing up incidents or issues from our past. We keep this discussion polite and to the point. Agreed?”

I almost snapped that he didn’t have to explain adult behavior to me, but that wasn’t exactly mature, was it? “Agreed.”

His gaze moved over my face, down my neck, across my cleavage—twice—then dropped to my lower half before taking a leisurely track back up to meet my eyes. “I hope your date appreciated how beautiful you are.”

“Do not think that compliments will soften me up.”

“Because that would be unforgivable, would it? That I remind you that I still find you as hot and sexy as every other man in the world does?”

Argh. What was wrong with him? “Jax. Focus.”

“I am. I won’t let you goad me into a fight with you, because clearly you’re spoiling for one.” He set his hands on my shoulders and squeezed. “Go put on some comfy clothes, because I’ll be here awhile.”

From the kitchen Mimi yelled, “Daddy? I poured your milk.”

He smirked at me. “I was promised milk and cookies since we had to leave so abruptly before we had our dessert tonight.” Then he walked off without another word.

In my bedroom I stripped out of my clothes and slipped on my satin pajama set with the full sleeves and long pants.

They’d finished their snack by the time I returned. Jax gave Mimi a piggyback ride into the living room, and we spread out, with them on the couch, me in the opposite chair and Mimi’s cell phone on the coffee table between us.

“First of all, I didn’t buy this for her. Nolan gave it to her only after Mimi found out Calder received a phone just like this today too. The phone is registered to the Lund Industries security division.”

My heart raced. “Why?”

He explained, and with each point I felt more fearful instead of relieved, but managed to keep Mimi from seeing my concern. What wasn’t LI security telling us? Were there threats against our daughter? I didn’t care that she couldn’t surf the Internet or use the device to play games or that none of her friends would have the phone number. I worried about why she needed a trackable safety device in the first place.

When Mimi sighed for the third time, Jax told her to start her habit of plugging the phone into the charger before she went to bed, and Mimi happily escaped to her room, leaving us alone.

That’s when Jax went into more details about why this was suddenly a necessity. After he finished speaking, we were both quiet for a few moments.

“It’s just one of those things, Luce, given who she is.”

“I get it. I see her as a normal little girl and forget that she’s got these other aspects of her parentage that take her out of the normal realm. I can’t let her ride her bike to a friend’s house or tell her to go play at the playground.” I looked at Jax, and in that moment our daughter’s resemblance to him was uncanny, which freaked me out because Mimi looked nothing like either of us, saving us from any “mini-me” comparisons.

“We’re trying to give her as normal a childhood as we can. It was easier for the Lund family to keep their kids out of the spotlight before all this constant bombardment with fifty different types of social media.”

I snickered. “You weren’t exactly the type to lay low, Lund. With your mad hockey skills from a young age putting you right in the spotlight.”

He gave me a sheepish and utterly charming smile. “Only thing I cared about was advancing my skills so I could play more games at a higher level against better opponents.” Then his handsome face shuttered and he locked his gaze to mine. “Speaking of a young hockey player, Mimi told me that she wants to learn to play.”

I laughed. “Of course she does . . . today. Tomorrow she’ll want to be a veterinarian. And the day after that she’ll talk about becoming a circus performer.”

“This is different.”

“How would you know?” slipped out before I could stop it. “She’s tried every sport—”

“Except for hockey,” he interjected. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

“What’s wrong is you pushing her into thinking she wants to play hockey.”

He shook his head. “She told Nolan she wanted to play.” He paused, making sure he had my full attention. “Last year. And apparently when they’ve had free time together, she watches my old game tapes, and she convinced her uncle to take her to a few local girls’ hockey games.”