Page 76 of Against All Odds

I rose and took a few steps to reach her. I crouched infront of her, taking her hands in mine. “How about we let the anger go? Please forgive me so we can move forward.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

And then she threw herself into my arms, and I hugged her tightly.

“How do you feel about ice cream?” I asked after a long moment.

She sniffled as she laughed. “Yeah, Daddy. That would be good.”

We went into the kitchen, and I gave her two scoops of vanilla ice cream and took one for myself. Sometimes, you just needed comfort dessert.

“I’m going to talk to your mother today.”

She nodded. “I’d like to talk to Mama, too. So, I’d like to be there…for part of it at least.”

I wanted to refuse her request, but I knew this was important for her. Both Alexa and I had failed her, and she deserved to say her piece. If she needed me with her when she spoke to her mother, I’d be there.

“Okay. I promise, Juno, I’m going to try and fix what I broke.”

“With Sable?”

“I don’t think she’s going to forgive me,” I said, my throat tightening as I admitted it out loud. “And honestly, I don’t blame her. But I still want to help her. Her business is struggling because of all this drama. I have a plan to help her. Even if it doesn’t fix anything between us, I owe her that much.”

Juno was quiet for a moment. Her brow furrowedlike she was working through her thoughts. Finally, she spoke. “I’m proud of you, Dad,” she said simply.

I was caught off guard.

“You made a mistake, and you’re owning it. And you’re trying to fix it. That’s what matters. Well, that’s what you’ve always told me.”

The knot in my chest loosened at her words, and I gave her a small, grateful smile. “Thanks, Junebug.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry for being mean to you.”

“It’s okay. I deserved it.”

“I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, kiddo.” I hugged her again and took the win. I had my daughter’s respect and trust back, and I intended to never lose it again.

I texted Alexa, making sure she was at home and telling her we were coming over to talk. I wanted her to be prepared, so I added, “Juno wants to talk about what happened.”

Her reply was:You don’t need to tell me when my daughter wants to talk to me.

Okay, so Alexa wasn’t ready to help put this behind us. Well, that sucked. I let my daughter know that Alexa might not see what she’d done as wrong and that Juno needed to be prepared for that.

As we walked into Alexa's house, I could feel the tension radiating from my kid. Juno used her key, but I did ring the doorbell to let Alexa know we were here.

My ex was in the living room, wine glass in hand, looking like she didn’t have a care in the world. But Iknewher,and I knew she was scared. Alexa was a lot of things—and so many of them, lately, I’d discovered were not great—but she loved Juno and was a decent mother when she wasn’t crazy with jealousy.

Alexa had positioned herself on her couch, every detail calculated like she was posing for a feature in Architectural Digest. It was all a façade. Beneath the polished surface, she hated the idea that her daughter had issues with her—and even more, that she might be the reason for them.

“You both look like someone killed your puppy.” Her tone was flippant, but I caught the tremble in it.

What happened to the woman I’d married? The one who had been nice. I knew a little now about how she’d been as a teenager, but people outgrew that—however, it felt like once we were in Aspen, she’d regressed, gone from mean girl to mean ex-wife.

“We need to talk about?—"

“Oh, here we go,” she cut me off, rolling her eyes.

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