“I think you need to find out where he lives and drag his ass back to California,” Lexie chimed in.
“What if he doesn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore?” I questioned. Not for the first time, I tried to wrap my head around his nightmare and if it was the reason he’d ended things.
“You won’t know until you try to reach out to him again. If you show up on his doorstep, he’s not going to slam the door in your face,” Pen added onto Lexie’s idea.
“Let’s do a background search on him and find out where he lives. If we can find an address, then you have to go there and tell him. Where’s your laptop?” Lexie asked as she looked around my kitchen.
“It’s in my office.” Before I could say anything more, she left the room. Leaning closer to my phone, I watched as Pen did the same. “It’s been almost two months, and he hasn’t reached out to me. If he was regretting his decision to end things surely, he’d have reached out to me by now. He has my number this time,” I pointed out.
“How do you feel about him now?” She tilted her head to the side as she asked.
“I miss him, but it doesn’t hurt as bad. And I want him in my baby’s life.”
“But do you want him in your life? Do you want him in your bed?”
“Most days, but I don’t want to drag him here only for him to leave again. I can’t do that to myself again.”
“Okay, then you need to go to Florida and find out why he ended things the way he did. If it’s because he’s a stupid guy, then give him the news and say he can be in the child’s life as little or as much as he wants, and leave it up to him.”
“She’s right,” Lexie called as she walked back into the room with my laptop and browser open. “I didn’t want you to change your mind, so I already did the search.”
“Already? That’s fast and scary. I don’t want someone to be able to search my home address up that fast.”
“One thing at a time. Did you find an address?” Pen asked.
“I did, and I already looked up flight info.”
“Okay, you’re scary good at this. Have you done it before?”
“No,” she laughed and shook her head. “I book plane tickets all the time, but I don’t make it a habit to do background checks on people.”
“Sure, you don’t,” Pen laughed. “Did you by any chance already book her a flight?”
Lexie looked at the computer screen and then at me as she bit her lip. “I may have.”
“Oh my god, you two are going to be the death of me.” Lexie set my laptop down in front of me and rushed to get out of the way as if she was afraid I’d hit her. I blinked a few times at the date and time that was on the page. She had me flying out at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow morning. “Tomorrow? Couldn’t you give me a little time to figure out what I want to say?”
“That’s what the flight is for,” Lexie smirked.
I turned to glare at her but stopped when I saw her hand lightly pressed to her belly. I couldn’t believe there was a chance we’d be pregnant at the same time. Seeing her like that instantly thawed me out. “No, I’ll be sleeping because I’ll have to get up at four in the morning to make my flight.”
“You’ll figure out what you want to say after you hear him out,” Pen instructed. “And I want you to call me after you see him. I don’t care about the time.” She let out a huge yawn, reminding me we’d woken her up.
“I will,” I promised. “I’ll let you go so you can get back to sleep.”
“As if I’ll sleep now. I’m so excited I’m going to be an auntie,” she squealed and then looked over her shoulder. “Walker is leaning against the bedroom door, looking at me like I’m crazy, so I should probably go.” She pointed at her phone. “Call me tomorrow, so I’ll know if I need to go kick his ass when I get back.”
“I will,” I laughed, knowing she would kick Remy’s ass if he broke me again. “Bye.” I blew her a kiss before hanging up.
“Now, let’s go pick out an outfit that’s going to make Remy St. James rue the day he walked away from you.”
22
Remy
A soft knock on my bedroom door had me perking up and sitting up on my bed. “Come in.”
My dad cracked the door open and pressed his face into the small opening. “There’s someone at the door for you.”
“For me?” I questioned. No one ever came by to see me. Ever. At least, not since I was in high school.
“The one and only, and you shouldn’t leave them waiting for too long. Otherwise, they might leave.”
My brows knitted together, racking my brain on who it could possibly be. Maybe it was one of the guys from the station, but why wouldn’t they call before coming over? “Who is it?”
“You’ll have to come to the door to find out.” The hint of mischievousness in his tone had me up and off my bed in a nanosecond. What was my old man up to?
I thought he might have let whoever it was inside or he would have waited for me at the door, but when I walked by the living room, my dad was reclined back in his chair with a smirk on his face.
When I hesitated to open the door, he yelled. “Hurry up and find out who it is.”
Doing as I was told, I slowly opened the front door. Whoever it was stood with her back to the door and her long black hair in a ponytail. For a brief moment, I thought of Stella and how I wished it was her, but she didn’t know where I lived, so I knew it couldn’t be her.
“Can I help you?” I asked as I swung open the screen door.
The woman turned at my voice, and my knees nearly went out from under me when Stella stood there staring back at me. Her big brown eyes scanned me from head to toe, and once they were done, they were filled with unshed tears.
Unable to move or speak, it seemed, I took in every inch of her body. Her eyes were red-rimmed as if she’d been crying, and her nose was tipped with pink, but she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She wore a light blue sundress that showed each and every one of her curves. Her breasts seemed larger than when I last saw those perky globes with dark nipples that I loved to suck on so damn much. Her skin was a beautiful bronze that glowed in the sunlight.
Her hands went to her hips. “Are you only going to stare at my boobs, or are you going to say something?”
“Stella,” I croaked out and had to clear my throat. “What are you doing here?” I wanted to hit myself with the heel of my hand at my stupid question, but before I could take back my words, she spoke.
“I came for two reasons, but before I tell you, is there somewhere we can talk in private?”
She wanted to talk in private? I didn’t really want my dad to eavesdrop on our conversation, even though I’d likely tell him all about it later, so I knew we needed to go somewhere else.
“Are you hungry?”
“No.” Her face actually looked like it turned a slight shade of green at my question.
“Okay, let me grab my keys, and I’ll take us somewhere private to talk.” I held up one finger. “I’ll be right back.”