Chapter Twenty-three

EMILY

I stifled a yawn as I made my way to Juniper’s bedroom. Getting up early on a Monday after flying in on a Sunday wasn’t exactly fun, but my little girl still needed to head to preschool, and I had to head to work, so it wasn’t like I had any choice.

Knowing her father, she’d probably not gone to bed at a decent time the entire week. It was easy for him to set himself as the fun dad since he didn’t have to deal with consequences most of the time.

I rapped my knuckles on the door. “It’s time to get up, sweet pea.”

She didn’t respond. Not with words anyway. A loud, hacking cough sounded from the room.

I frowned and opened the door. Juniper sat up on her bed, her hair matted with sweat, dark circles under her eyes.

“Mama, I don’t feel so good,” she said.

Sitting down beside her, I placed my hand on her forehead. A fever and cough. Not good.

“Open your mouth for me, sweet pea,” I said.

She complied, and I looked inside with the help of the light on my phone. White splotches covered her reddened tonsils.

I sighed. Probably strep throat, which meant I couldn’t have her sleep it off.

“Okay, Juniper,” I said sweetly. “I’m going to get you some medicine, and then I’ll make some calls. I think we should go to the doctor.”

“What about school, Mama?” she said, between coughs.

“You’re going to probably miss a few days. Lie back down for now.”

Juniper nodded and laid back down, pulling the covers over her.

The next few minutes were a master class in motherly efficiency. First, I called and set up an appointment with her pediatrician. Then, I called my boss.

Fortunately, I pretty much never took any time off, so I had a month of time off saved up. It also helped that my boss liked me, and I was a hard worker. He had no problem telling me not to come in that day.

That helped a lot. I didn’t want to think I was leaving my boss or the other people at the bank in a bind. More guilt was the last thing I needed.

After finishing my calls, I fished some kids’ Tylenol out of my medicine cabinet and headed upstairs.

 

* * *

 

Two hours later, Juniper trailed behind me at the pharmacy. The official verdict was in. Strep throat. We’d already picked up her antibiotics, and now we were looking around for some soup. I was extra glad for my time off. My mother might be willing to watch her, but this was a situation where a little girl needed her own mother.

Juniper coughed a few times, and I sighed, patting her on the head. She’d been a trooper during the morning, but she was miserable and needed to get set up at home on a couch with soup, cartoons, and popsicles.

I grabbed a can and put it in my basket. I was just turning the corner when we all but ran into an older woman.

“I’m sorry,” I said, backing up. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

“It’s quite all right. Emily?”

It took my brain a few seconds to process that I’d almost run into Amelia Hawkins. Not only was the chance of randomly running into her low, but I also hadn’t expected to run into an old socialite at a pharmacy. Then again, considering the plastic bag she had with pill bottles, it shouldn’t be all that surprising. Just being an old socialite didn’t mean you were free from life’s infirmities.

“Good morning, Mrs. Hawkins,” I said.

She shot me a dazzling smile. “I hope you enjoyed your time in Japan.”

I looked down, suddenly nervous. “I did. I hope I’ve made that clear to Logan.” I considered for a moment. “Has he said something about it?”

“Oh, no. Other than sending me a text message to me let know he’s back home, he hasn’t talked to me about it.” Mrs. Hawkins’s gaze dropped to Juniper. “Good morning, Juniper.”

I held up a hand. “Juniper’s got strep, so I wouldn’t get too close.”

Juniper leaned against my leg and didn’t say anything.

“Oh, you poor little thing,” Mrs. Hawkins said. “I remember one time when Logan got it as a child. The poor boy was sick for a week.” She beamed a smile down at my daughter. “Just mind your mother, drink a lot of water, take your medicine, and get rest, and you’ll be fine.”

Juniper nodded quickly and coughed.

“I hate to be rude, Mrs. Hawkins,” I said, “but I really should be getting her home.”

“You do that,” she said. Her expression shifted. Something about it made my heart kick up. “I’ll let Logan know.”

Always the matchmaker, even when a little, sick girl was involved.

I managed not to sigh as I tugged Juniper toward the register.

 

* * *

 

“You have the VPN set up on your home computer?” my boss asked over the phone.

“I do.”

“Then don’t worry about coming in. Just work from home starting tomorrow. Can’t risk you coming in here and infecting everyone anyway. If she’s still sick by next Monday, we’ll revisit the issue.”

“Thank you very much.”

“I hope she gets better soon.” He hung up.

I glanced over at Juniper. She was asleep under her covers on the couch. I hoped she’d spend most of the day resting and maybe wake up refreshed in the morning without a fever, but even right then, I accepted that was wishful thinking.

I thought back to running into Amelia Hawkins at the pharmacy. She had probably already called Logan to pump him for information about our trip. She could easily use Juniper’s illness as the excuse to call before getting to what she truly cared about.

That made me wonder what he would tell his mother. I had a hard time imagining he’d tell her about all the sex we had. That’s just not the kind of thing you talked to a nice socialite mother about, even one who was trying to marry you off.

Would he tell her we hit it off, even though I told him I wasn’t interested in anything stateside?

If he did, that might mean she’d call up my mother to try and get her to pressure me. I sighed, then swallowed. Amelia Hawkins might already be talking to Mama. They were probably already planning the wedding together.

I quickly dialed, my heart pounding while I waited for Mama to pick up.

“Hello,” she answered.

“Mama?”

“Yes, Emily?”

A few seconds ticked by. If she’d talked to Amelia, she would have probably already asked me questions, so now the whole call seemed pointless.

“Just wanted to let you know that Juniper’s sick.”

“Oh, no. Poor girl. Cold?”

“Strep throat.”

Mama sighed. “Did you take her to the doctor?”

“Yes. I’ve already got antibiotics. I’m working from home for the week.”

“That’s sad, but that’s children for you. So many germs, especially at school.” Another long pause followed. “It pains me to say it, but you should probably let your no-good ex-husband know in case he might have caught it. I don’t mind the idea of him being a little sick, but it wouldn’t be very Christian not to warn him.”

“You’re right, Mama,” I mumbled. “I’ll give him a call here in a bit.”

“So.”

“So?” My heart kicked up. Even without Amelia Hawkins, Mama knew where I was. She had her own expectations.

“How did the trip go?”

“It was fun.”

“Just fun?”

I glared at the phone. “I saw some nice places. I bought some nice things. Logan took me to a sushi restaurant. It was nice. He even bought the building for the guy to keep him in business during a rough patch.”

Mama laughed softly. “Oh, now that’s lovely of him, supporting the local businesses even when he’s overseas.”

That was one way to look at it, I supposed.

“Well, I won’t bother you more other than to say you should build on whatever happened there,” Mama said.

“Mama, please—”

“A man doesn’t take a woman on a cross-world trip unless he’s interested in a lot more than a little fun.”

I rolled my eyes even though I knew she couldn’t see it. “Okay, I’m going to let you go. I should give Lionel a call while Juniper is still asleep.”

“Okay, Emily. Just think about what I said.”

“I will, Mama. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

I took several deep breaths. What happened in Tokyo needed to stay in Tokyo. Juniper getting sick proved that more than anything. She was fine before I left, and suddenly, she was sick. Lionel hadn’t done a good job of watching her, I suspected.

There was no point in even bothering to ask him about it because he wouldn’t have even noticed a problem anyway. That didn’t do much for the anger burning inside me.

I called Lionel up and waited, praying it’d go to voicemail. The last thing I needed that day was having to actually talk to my ex-husband.

“What?” Lionel answered bluntly.

“Hello to you too.”

“I’m a busy man, Emily. So, what?”

“I wanted to let you know that Juniper has strep throat.”

“You took her to the doctor, right?”

I sighed. “Of course, I did.”

“Then why are you telling me this, Emily? I’m not going to be seeing her for a bit. So why is it important?”

“Can you not be an ass for one second? I was trying to be nice and let you know you might have caught it too. I was out of the country, so her exposure would have been at some point where you might have been exposed.” I barely stopped myself from accusing him of not doing a good job of watching her.

Lionel let out a long groan. “I don’t have time for this right now.”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby, Lionel. I’m sure you can take some time off work.”

“It’s not about that. It’s about going on a trip to Cabo San Lucas with my girlfriend. I can’t get sick. She’s really looking forward to it. And unlike you, she’s a woman who appreciates my efforts.”

“I’m so sorry our daughter is messing up your plans to take your girlfriend to Mexico.” I did my best to force my disdain into my voice.

He scoffed. “Whatever. You think you can do whatever you want with Logan Hawkins. What? Am I supposed to sit around like some priest never having sex while you’re off slutting it up in Japan?”

Lionel had moved from annoying to downright enraging. My face heated, and my heart kicked up. I took several deep breaths trying to calm down.

“Shut up, Lionel. You’re the one with a new girl on your arm every other month. I’ve barely so much as looked in another man’s direction. So, no, you don’t get to act like I’m some whore because I finally took a trip with a man.”

“You listen to me, Emily, yo—”

I ended the call, glancing over at Juniper. I didn’t have time to argue with her father, and if I started yelling, I risked waking her up.

She still slumbered peacefully, though her little face was a little too red for my comfort. The dark circles under her eyes only showed how little actual rest she’d gotten the night before.

I shook my head and tossed my phone on a nearby chair.

I couldn’t believe Lionel. He’d cheated on me during our marriage and then constantly threw his new women in my face, and then he had the gall to act like I was out of line because I went to Japan with Logan.

Then there was the not so little matter of the cocaine habit. I’d found out about that at the end, but I suppose I should have always known.

I’d even been understanding. I could have used the drugs as a reason why he shouldn’t have joint custody, but I didn’t want to take Juniper’s daddy from her, even if he was a cheating son of a bitch, especially since he swore on the Bible he’d clean himself up. The one good thing I could say about the man is that as far as I knew, he had stopped with the drugs. At least he learned something from the divorce.

Very few people knew about the drugs. As far as the divorce court was concerned, it was just irreconcilable mutual differences.

I scoffed at the thought. I’d bent over backward to be nice to a man who’d screwed me and not in a good way.

Shaking my head, I thought about the future. It’d be easier if he didn’t have joint custody. Then, at least I wouldn’t be forced to see him so much, and I wasn’t so certain he was a good influence on his daughter with all his girls of the month. For all I knew, one of them had strep throat and passed it to Juniper.

I sat down in my lounge chair and put my feet on the nearby Ottoman. Another yawn erupted. I was running on fumes between my flight and dealing with Juniper. A little nap wouldn’t hurt, so I closed my eyes.

Lionel couldn’t mess with me in my dreams.