I Want You Back (Want You #1)(91)

LUCY




Yes. Right there. Perfect.”

The deliveryman picked up his clipboard. “Sign here and here.”

I scrawled my name and handed it back. “Thank you so much.”

“Not a problem. There’s more on the loading dock, so I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Not me. The owner will be here to take delivery.” I smiled. “Go easy on him. He doesn’t know where anything is supposed to go.”

“In his own house? Damn. I guess that’s rich folks for ya.”

I walked him to the elevator, and after he reached the ground floor in the garage, I switched off delivery mode. Now only Jax’s, Mimi’s and my keys would run the elevator. Pretty nifty safety feature.

Mimi sat in one of the new barstools, coloring. She’d been unnaturally quiet since Saturday night. I hadn’t pressed her to talk, knowing she’d inherited my trait of talking on my time frame, no one else’s.

Jax had been scarce since that night too, after he’d panicked at the thought of having sex with me and ran.

Paranoid much? That’s probably not true.

I could say that to myself over and over, but it didn’t convince me or take the sting away. What was worse, Mr. Let’s Talk It Out refused to talk to me the one time I actually wanted to have an intimate conversation with him.

Now I knew how shitty it felt to have someone bail on you without explanation.

I’d handled his rejection—because face it, that’s what it was—in a mature manner; I got myself off with my trusty vibrator, imagining the lust on his face as he watched.

Then I followed that action with another action—I shut my phone off and went to bed.

But he hadn’t called, or texted. Not at all on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, leaving me more confused than ever.

Jax should’ve been all over me, especially after being a freakin’ monk for three years.

Following that logical train of thought, he wouldn’t have suffered from performance anxiety. The cocky man knew precisely how to satisfy me, as he’d proven the previous weekend.

Maybe he was afraid of being quick on the trigger the first couple of times?

Maybe he’d been telling the truth about being worried that Mimi might overhear us.

I was loud in bed. It’s never bothered me, and Jax loved that I was so vocal.

But things were different with a kid in the next room. The few times I’d actually had a guy stay over, Mimi hadn’t been around.

God I’d grown tired of being in my own head with these stupid, paranoid thoughts.

Jax needed to explain what happened. Until he did, we couldn’t move forward, and dwelling on it, dissecting it, wouldn’t change a damn thing.

I refocused on Mimi. “Hey, girl. You ready to go downstairs?”

She shrugged. But her feet started to swing beneath the barstool—a tell that something was bothering her.

“Something on your mind, sweetheart?”

She looked up at me and nodded.

I saw such sadness on her face that my heart stumbled a little. “What is it?”

“I haven’t seen Calder in forever.”

Now that hockey sucked up a big chunk of her free time, even the nights she stayed at Jax’s, she arrived too late to play with Calder.

“Can he come over here and play?”

“This weekend? We’ll figure out a way to make it happen. I promise.”

“No, Mommy. Today.”

Today had been an in-service day for the teachers, giving the kids a day off in the middle of the week. I checked my watch. Almost two. Even if Calder could come over, we had to leave for hockey practice in three hours, which wouldn’t give them much time.

“Please?”

“I’d love for him to come over, Meems, but you have hockey practice—”

“It’s not practice, it’s skills class, and I don’t wanna go.”

I froze. That was the first time she’d wanted to skip anything hockey related. “You’re sure?”

“Uh-huh. So can we call him?”

“We can try. But it’s late in the day to be asking, so you’ll be okay if he can’t make it?”

“I guess. But even if he can’t come, I still don’t wanna go to skills class.”

Oh boy. “I’ll call his mom.” I scrolled until I found her name and hit call.

She answered, “Rowan Lund.”

“Rowan. It’s Lucy.”

“Hey, Lucy, how’s it going?”

Weird wasn’t a socially acceptable answer, so I said, “Good. Say, I know it’s late notice, but Mimi wondered if Calder could come over and play for a while today. She misses him.”

“Omigod, seriously? That would be a sanity saver. He had to come to the gym with me today since there’s no school, and he’s been a little terror.”

“I know the feeling. You’re at the U of M right now? We’ll be there in like . . . twenty? Will that work?”

“Yes. He’ll be thrilled. Thanks so much.”

As soon as I hung up, Mimi was practically bouncing up and down. “So? Can he?”

“Yes. We’re picking him up, so grab your coloring stuff and we’ll drop it off in our apartment and get our coats.”