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.
Chapter Twenty-four
LOGAN