Page 80 of Whatever You Want

“I think I’ll be the judge of that.”

He brought my fingers up to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “I should probably finish up with breakfast before they come looking for us. But I promise, we will finish what we started later.”

I sighed until I remembered we had the place to ourselves for the next few days. There were plenty of things to keep the girls busy, and I planned to use them to my advantage. My mission was to make sure he found time to unwind and put his troubles behind him.

I would not let Vanessa ruin this trip. Regardless of what he believed, she had to be the one who put the tracker in my car. Nothing else made sense.

I lifted my head, taking in the view in front of me. The sun was already glistening on the lake, and there were already a few boats on the water. I took a sip of my coffee and breathed in the cool, crisp air.

I glanced at the message from my contact at the police station. After my conversation with Ava yesterday, I was second-guessing my theory on the tracker they found in her car. I read it one last time and fought the urge to chuck my phone in the water.

It was official; that tracking device did not come from Vanessa. Never in my life have I been so conflicted.

On the one hand, I was relieved it wasn’t her. I just spoke with her doctor two days ago, they were adjusting her meds, and she was already showing signs of improvement. She was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder. She admitted experimenting with different medications when she was a teenager, but they made her gain weight, so she stopped taking them. Her mood swings and irritability now made sense, and I was glad that she was finally making progress.

On the other hand, someone had taken an unhealthy interest in my girlfriend. The dipshit from the park was the only person I could think of. What Ava didn’t know was that I ran a background check, and he came up squeaky-clean. Which only irritated me even more because I would not rest until I found out who it was.

The sliding glass door to the deck opened. I turned to see a little head with dark hair moving toward me.

“Hi, Logan.”

“Good morning, kiddo. Are you excited to go fishing today?”

Ava warned me that Madison would probably be up at the crack of dawn. She wouldn’t stop talking about going fishing last night at dinner, so I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see her smiling face. It was both comical and endearing how excited she was about today.

“I’ve got my pink fishing rod and tackle box all ready.”

She slowly walked along the wobbly dock, wearing her blue and white polka dot bathing suit and her tie-dye towel with her name on it. I wrapped it around her shoulders, noticing a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose from the sun yesterday. I made a mental note to apply a little extra sunscreen on her face.

She leaned forward, pulling a hairbrush out of her bag along with a hair tie that matched her tackle box. “Can you help me with my hair?”

“Sure.” I set my coffee down, and she settled herself in between my legs. “Are you ready to catch some fresh trout today?” I asked, running the brush through her tangles as softly as I could. Thank God I had a little girl of my own and knew how to do this.

“My mom starts from the bottom of my hair first and then moves her way up the top.”

Or maybe not.

“Sorry.” I winced and did as instructed.

“That’s okay.” She leaned her head back, giving me a view of the cute little dimples. “It doesn’t hurt so bad when you do it that way.”

“So, how many fish do you think we’ll catch?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I just want to catch one biiiiggg fish.”

“And what are we going to do with this big fish once we catch it?”

“We’re going to gut it and cook it for dinner.”

I cracked up at how animated she was. Madison was the exact opposite of Brina. If Brina caught a fish, she threw it back in the lake as quickly as she caught it. She was squeamish about handling live bait, so I bought her a box of artificial lures. Not many girls were fans of real earthworms, but my little friend here seemed pretty eager to get her hands muddy and dirty.

Once I smoothed out as many knots as best as I could, I pulled her hair back. “Do you want a high or low ponytail?”

“In the middle, please.”

A smile split my cheeks. This little girl was slowly wrapping me around her finger. “What do you think? Should we get the boat ready and go wake the girls up?”

“I tried to wake Brina up, but she threw the covers back over her head. She snores pretty loud, you know.”

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