I Want You Back (The Want You Series, Band 1) - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lorelei James is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Need You Series, the Blacktop Cowboys series, and the Mastered series. Her books have won the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, as well as the CAPA Award.

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One

Lucy

"Mommy. What time will Daddy get here?"

Whenever the hell he feels like it.

Not an answer I could give my precocious eight-year-old daughter, even when it was the truth. "He said after six. Since it's now six fifteen, he'll be here at any moment."

Mimi sighed heavily. Then she kicked her legs up and hung upside down from the back of the chair, balancing on her hands. It was obvious to everyone she inherited her natural athleticism from her father. Embarrassingly I was one of those people who trip over their own feet . . . and everyone else's.

"You sure that hanging like a monkey in a tree won't upset your stomach?" I asked her. "Or give you a headache? I'd hate for you to miss an overnight with your dad."

"I have to practice so being upside down doesn't make me sick," she replied with another sigh, as if I should've already known that.

"Ah. So what are you practicing for this week?"

"It's between a trapeze artist or an ice skater. If I decide to have a partner I'll have to be used to being upside down."

Last month Mimi wanted to be an astronaut. The month before that a dolphin trainer. While I've always told her that she can be whatever she wants to be when she grows up, it's exhausting finding an activity that holds her attention. After spending money on dance lessons, gymnastics classes, martial arts classes, T-ball, soccer club, fencing, swim team, tennis lessons, golf lessons and horseback riding lessons, I'd put my foot down and said no new organized activities. If none of those worked then she needed to wait until she was older to try others.

Still, I feared she'd play the guilt card and I'd find myself buying tickets to the circus, a Cirque du Soleil show or a Disney on Ice program. Or . . . maybe . . .

"I'm sure your dad would love to take you to a performance." Not really dirty pool-Mimi's father, Jaxson Lund, was a member of the billionaire Lund family as well as a highly paid former pro hockey player, so money had never been an issue for him. And there was nothing he loved more than humoring Mimi's requests, even if it was to alleviate the guilt that he'd missed being a regular presence in her life for most of her life.

The doorbell pealed and Mimi squealed, "I'll get it!" twisting her lithe little body sideways from the chair to land lightly on her feet, agile as a cat.

I heard her disengage the locks and yell, "Daddy! I thought you'd never get here."

He laughed. That sweet indulgent laugh he only had for our daughter. "I missed you too, Mimi."

"I got my stuff all packed. I'm ready to go now."

Without saying good-bye to me? That stung. But I sucked it up and started toward the entryway.

"Sure. Just let me get the all clear from your mom first."

Then Jaxson Lund and I nearly collided as we turned the corner simultaneously.

His big hands circled my upper arms to steady me.

I had to tilt my head back to look at him as he towered over me by almost a foot.

It was unfair that my ex actually looked better now than he did when he and I met a decade ago. His dark hair was shorter-no more long locks befitting the bad-boy defenseman of the NHL. No scruffy beard, just the smooth skin of his outlandishly square jaw and muscled neck. His eyes were clear, not bloodshot as I'd usually seen them, making those turquoise-hued eyes the most striking feature on his face . . . Besides that damn smile. Hockey players were supposed to have teeth missing from taking a puck or two hundred to the face. I knew Jax had a partial, but he'd never removed it when we were together. The lips framing that smile were both soft and hard. Druggingly warm and soft when pressed into a kiss, but cold and hard when twisting into a cruel sneer. A sneer I'd been on the receiving end of many times.

That shook me out of my musings about Jax's amazing physical attributes.

"Hey, Luce."

Jax had called me Luce from the first-a joke between us because I warned him I wasn't loose and wouldn't sleep with him on the first date. An inside joke made me feel special-he made me feel special-until I realized Jaxson Lund used that killer smile and those gorgeous twinkling eyes as a weapon on every woman he wanted to bang the boards with; there wasn't anything special about me.

I forced a smile. "Jaxson. How are you?"

He retreated at my cool demeanor and dropped his hands. "I'm fine. You're looking well."

And people thought we couldn't be civil to each other. "Thanks. You too."

"Anything I should know before Meems and I take off?"

Meems. He'd given our daughter another nickname, even when Mimi was already the shortened version of Milora Michelle. "Nothing worth mentioning. She's been looking forward to this all week."

Those beautiful eyes narrowed. "So don't disappoint her, right?"

"Right."

"Luce. I'm not-"

"Daddy, come on. Are we goin' or what?" Mimi demanded.

"We're goin', impatient one." Jaxson hauled her up and cocked her on his hip with seemingly little effort, because his eyes never left mine. "We can do the switch back at the Lund Industries thing on Sunday afternoon?"

"You'll be there?"

"I work there, remember?"

In the past six months since Jax had joined the family business, I'd hardly seen him hustling around the building in a suit and tie, so I had no idea what his actual job title was. As far as I could tell, he didn't "work" there like I did. Sunday's event was a retirement party for a woman I doubted he knew personally. "I'm surprised. I wasn't aware that you knew Lola."

"The poor woman was tasked with getting me up to speed on all departments when I started at LI. I'd still be aimlessly wandering the halls if not for her."

"Lola will be missed, that's for sure. So if you want to bring Mimi's things on Sunday, that'll work. I planned on going for the two hours."

"Sounds like a plan. Speaking of . . . what are your plans for the weekend?"

None of your business. "Oh, this and that. Mimi has more things planned for you two than you could fit into two weeks, say nothing of two days."

His dark eyebrow winged up. "Now I'm taking that as a personal challenge."

Mimi held her arms out for a hug. "Bye, Mommy."

"Bye, wild one. Behave, okay?"

"Okay."

"Promise to call me tomorrow sometime."

She sighed heavily. "I'd call you all the time if I had my own cell phone."

I chuckled. "Nice try. Use Daddy's phone. Or Grandma Edie's."

"But all of my friends have iPhones."

"Eight-year-olds do not need a cell phone." I sent Jaxson a stern look as a reminder not to swoop in and buy her one just because he could. Then I kissed her cheek. "Love you, Mimi."

"Love you too."

Jaxson gathered Mimi's stuff with her chattering away at him like she always did. I wondered how much of it he paid attention to.

Not my concern. I'd had to learn to let go of a lot of my issues with Jaxson's parenting style since he'd returned permanently to Minneapolis.

I waved good-bye and locked the door behind them.

As I readied myself for my first date with Damon,...