He swallowed hard and shifted Annie’s weight in his arms.She said no.“It’s not up to me, peanut. Jo was always only going to be with us for a little while.”
“You should say please.” Annie’s voice was muffled by sleep. “I think she’d come with us if you said please.”
Would she? And did he even want that?
Yes.He wanted those six months. He wanted to watch her shine as the band’s social media manager. He wanted time to figure out if this thing between them could last, and he couldn’t do that if he was worried about making sure Annie didn’t get too attached.
Is she really the one you’re worried about getting too attached?
“You’re not coming on tour,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Because you have to go to school and grow that big, beautiful brain of yours.” He fished his key card out of his pocket and let them into the cottage, not bothering to turn on the lights as he carried Annie to her room.
“She could come with you when you visit me. She could be a part of our family. Just like my wish.”
He stilled, gently lowering his daughter onto her bed despite his sudden inability to breathe. “What wish?” When she didn’t immediately answer, he slipped off her shoes and tucked the blanket up under her chin, tracing the curve of his cheek with the back of his knuckles. “What wish, Annie?”
“I can’t tell you,” she mumbled, rolling over and burying her face in the pillow. “If I tell you, it won’t come true.”
He watched her until her face went slack with sleep, steadying himself with her rhythmic exhalations as a tempestraged inside his ribcage. Derek was the responsible one, the person who put others’ needs before his own, who took care of everyone, but he hadn’t been responsible these last few days. He’d put his own desires ahead of protecting his daughter’s heart, and now they both were likely to be heartbroken.
If he could convince Jo to go with him, to join the tour, he could salvage this. He could find a way to bridge the divide between a weekend fling and the emotions twisting behind his rib cage.
The soft snick of the front door of the cottage closing set his pulse racing. With one last kiss on his daughter’s forehead, Derek went to find Jo.
She stood in the kitchen, pouring a glass of wine. Her gaze darted to his as he entered the living room, and he knew. It was over. The wild look in her eyes, like a caged animal watching their captor approach…
It wasn’t the look of a woman who wanted to be asked to stay.
Chapter 17
Jo took a long sip of her wine as Derek rounded the corner of the hall, leaning against the doorway. She’d waited until Derek and Annie were out of earshot to give Jackson a piece of her mind, but the experience had left her rattled. She’d thought they were friends, but a friend wouldn’t have implied she was sleeping with Derek to advance her career. He wouldn’t have implied that the life she’d built for herself in Aster Bay wasn’t worth returning to, that she’d be so ready to discard it that she’d be willing to trade sexual favors for a taste of the sweet life.
Isn’t that what you did? Isn’t that how you got here in the first place?
“Is she asleep?” she asked. Derek nodded. “Good. That’s good.”
She could deal with Jackson’s derision, even if it stung, but she couldn’t stand the idea of Annie looking at herany differently. Hopefully the little girl hadn’t understood Jackson’s thinly veiled insults.
“Jo—”
“I have a full life in Aster Bay, you know?” She set down the wine bottle a little too hard, the glass hitting the countertop with a thunk. “A great big, fan-fucking-tastic life with people who love me.”
“I know.”
“I haven’t been sitting around waiting for someone to rescue me. I’ve been living my life. And, yeah, sometimes I don’t know how I’m going to pay the rent and sometimes it’s lonely, but it’smine.Nobody handed it to me. I worked for it, every part of it. And if I fuck up, no one’s looking at me like I don’t deserve the things I have. I get back up and I smile.” She spread her lips into an approximation of the expression, but the fear in her eyes didn’t diminish. “And no one gets hurt.”
“Except you,” he said softly.
She scoffed. “Please. I’m Joelle Fucking Baker. I don’t get hurt.”
“Because you don’t let anyone close enough to hurt you.”
She rolled her eyes to hide the way his words lashed at her skin.I would have let you close enough. “Who are you, my therapist?”
His eyes fell closed. “Don’t. Don’t do this.”