Rome laughed. “Cute. You never were the favorite. We all know I hold that title.”
“Dream on, little brother. The first is always the best.”
“That’s not what they say about pancakes. I’ve heard the same thing about kids—the first one is always a throwaway.”
“Nice to know what you really think about my daughter,” I mockingly reminded him. “She’s a first born too.”
“Damn, foiled by your annoyingly logical mind. Anyway, I gotta get. Talk to you in a few days.”
“Can’t wait to see you, bro. It’s been too long.”
“Same. See ya.”
“Bye.”
I pushed the red button on my phone then stared at the wallpaper it switched to. Zoe’s smiling face stared back at me, and my heartbeat slowed. Rome was right. I needed to trust my instincts. And everything inside me was saying that commenting on the situation with Ariel’s family was a mistake. I didn’t want to be the one to stoke the flames. I needed to rise above.
Or maybe below, when I thought about Rome’s other suggestion. Maybe a payoff was the way to go. I should call my lawyer.
Then I heard Briar’s bubbly laughter, and every rational thought flew out of my head.
Who was she laughing with? Last I knew, she and Adam were icy since she’d turned him down—an attitude I’d done nothing to mend.
I peeked through the blinds in the bedroom and watched as Briar and Zoe smiled up at a huge, hulking man in all black walking next to them. Then Briar laughed again, a sound even the gray walls of my trailer couldn’t fully muffle. Her white teeth flashed and her eyes crinkled in the corners. She looked so light and carefree. So different from the way she was when it was justme and her. Then she was stilted or pained like when I found her trolling her ex’s social media.
But this Briar was so different.
This Briar was the one I’d been watching on the webcam. All light and carefree. She was intoxicating.
I watched as the wind blew her hair and it whipped around her and Zoe like a butterscotch curtain. And then Zoe’s laughter joined Briar’s.
A feeling I hadn’t felt in a long time burned in my chest as the stranger laughed with them.
Jealousy.
They walked and talked and laughed like a complete family. Withmydaughter.
What the hell?
I stomped through the trailer, passing a stoic Adam reclining in the kitchen area, and I ripped open the trailer door. “Are you planning on bringing me my daughter anytime this millennia? I don’t pay you to flirt with the freaking bodyguard.”
Smiles dropped from everyone’s faces. Even Zoe popped her thumb in her mouth and blinked up at me from Briar’s arms.
Briar’s expression was stoically blank as she stiffly walked over to me and handed Zoe off. “I apologize if we were running late. I wasn’t aware we were on a tight schedule.”
“We’re always on a tight schedule,” I bit out. “Every minute you screw off on your way here is a minute less thatIget withmy daughter.”
Briar’s head jerked back like I’d slapped her, and remorse filled me. I was acting like a prick. It wasn’t Briar’s fault I was jealous of the time she got to spend with my daughter.
Or that I was jealous thathewas the one who made her smile and laugh.
“Understood. I won’t interrupt your time with Zoe any more than I already have.” She turned and headed back to where the hulking bodyguard stood, eyes shielded by his sunglasses.
But I knew he caught everything. Including how irrational I was being. “Briar, I didn’t—”
“Please.” She cut me off. “Don’t let me take up anymore of your daddy-daughter time. I’ll go raid craft services and get out of your hair. Call me when you need to get back to set.”
She took three steps away then paused. “You never said, is Mak to stay with me when you have Zoe, or does he stay with Zoe?”