Chapter 12
“It kind of looks like she’s dead.”
“It’s not that bad.” Jo tilted her head and squinted her eyes, letting the vaguely-mermaid-shaped piles of sand go blurry. It didn’t so much look like a dead mermaid as it looked like someone had dropped the sand sculpture from a great height and then tried to mash it back together.
Annie planted her hands on her hips and sighed. “It is that bad. We’re bad at this.”
Jo dropped her focus from the smooshed mermaid and turned to Annie, taking her by the shoulders and giving her a little shake. “That just means mermaid sand sculpting isn’t our true calling.”
“Then what is?”
“I don’t know, kid.”
“I don’t think I even know what a true calling is,” Annie said, deflated.
“It’s about what you’re meant to do with your life.”
“I think my true calling is eating ice cream. And ghost hunting. Obviously.”
“Obviously.”
“Is taking pictures your true calling?” Annie asked.
“I don’t think so. It is for my friend Kyla, though. She takes amazing pictures. I’m not a real photographer.”
Not a real photographer, not a real social media manager, not a real model or nanny or—shit. Not a real anything.
“Then what is your true calling?” Annie asked.
“I don’t know if I have a true calling.”
“Everyone has a true calling. The Phoenix Princess says so. But she calls it destiny.” Annie shaded her eyes from the sun, squinting at Jo. “Maybe yours is modeling? Kat says you’re a model.”
Jo blinked back her surprise. “I was a model.”
“Not anymore?”
She was not prepared for conversations about her life’s purpose and the subsequent existential dread. Couldn’t she have one day to dwell in the giddy aftermath of a hot guy edging her into oblivion?
“Now I’m your nanny.”
“But what about when we leave? What are you then?”
Geez, kid, cut right to the heart of it, why don’t you?
But Annie didn’t give her a chance to answer. “I wish you could still be my nanny even when we go home.”
“You won’t need a nanny when you go home. You’ll have your parents.”
“I think everyone needs a nanny. Daddy definitely does.”
Jo nearly choked on her own saliva. “Why’s that?”
“Sometimes he gets so busy at work he forgets to eat. You would never let me forget to eat.”
She ruffled Annie’s hair. “We have to make sure you have enough energy to keep playing.”
“And sometimes when I’m with Mama and Daddy’s at his house alone, I worry that he’s lonely. If he had a nanny, he wouldn’t be lonely, even when I’m not there.”
Jo’s heart clenched in her chest. She wanted to wrap this little girl up in her arms and wipe the worry from her face, to promise she’d take care of her dad, to make sure he was never lonely—
Damn. Where did that come from?
“It’s very sweet that you worry about your dad. I’m sure he appreciates that.”
“He says it’s not my job to worry about him.”
“He’s right.” Jo squeezed Annie’s hand. “But it’s hard not to worry about the people we love.”
Annie let out an exhausted sigh. “It really is.”
Okay, this got too real. Time to bring back the fun. “What do you say to hitting up The Love Shack for some tacos? We’ll need fuel if we’re going to plan our next big adventure.”
“I already know our next adventure. We’re going to find the gold they named the beach after and then we’re going to find the ghost.”
“Sure thing. One mountain of gold and one mysterious ghost, coming right up. But first, tacos.”
Annie glanced over her shoulder to where Midnight Storm and the members of Neon Empress, a long-forgotten girl group that had exactly one hit to their name, were engaged in an oddly competitive game of beach volleyball.
Their corner of the beach had been cordoned off, creating a viewing area for the fans attending NostalgiCon to watch from a safe distance as their favorite bands battled it out in the sand.
As they watched, Logan dove for the ball, bumping it up and over the net at the last second, his heroic save celebrated by the cheering fans.
“Can we bring our tacos back here to watch the rest of the game? I want to know who wins,” Annie said.
“Of course.”
Annie brightened. “And can we get tacos for Daddy and Kat too?” She pointed to where her dad and Kat sat on lounge chairs beneath an oversized red umbrella at the edge of the volleyball court.
His dark dress pants and starchy button-down were out of place amidst all the tanned skin and tropical-printed bathing suits, his polished dress shoes sinking into the sand and taking on a fine coating of dust.
Jo couldn’t help but grin. Underneath all those fancy clothes, Derek wasn’t nearly as proper as he might like people to think, and she had the sore pussy to prove it.
“Tacos for everyone. But we have to go quickly if we’re going to get back before the end of the game. And then you can help me take some photos and videos of the guys playing volleyball for their social media.”
“Deal.” Annie wiped the sand off her palms and took Jo’s hand as they headed towards the taco shack at the edge of the beach. “Can I get chicken nuggets?”
“Someday you won't want to have chicken nuggets for every meal, you know.”
Annie wrinkled her nose. “Not every meal. Who would have chicken nuggets for breakfast?”
“Someone probably does.”
“They’re missing out. Pancakes are the best breakfast. Especially the ones Daddy makes.”
“What’s so special about your dad’s pancakes?”
“It’s his secret ingredient. He says it’s love, but I think it’s really vanilla extract. Or chocolate chips. It’s probably the chocolate chips.”
Images flooded Jo’s mind of sitting at a kitchen table, Annie on one side of her and Derek on the other. A stack of chocolate chip pancakes in front of her smothered in butter and syrup. Derek’s hand on her knee under the table. Annie excitedly recounting the latest Phoenix Princess book.
She swallowed down the sudden wave of longing. Jo wasn’t the type to want something so domestic. She wanted adventure, dancing on the bar at two in the morning, sneaking backstage at a concert, hopping the red eye to exotic places. She didn’t want quiet mornings over homemade pancakes.
Did she?
“Maybe he can make them for you someday,” Annie said.
“Yeah, kid. Maybe someday.”
“The guys are doing pretty well,” Kat said, tilting down her sunglasses as Beckett dove headfirst into the sand in a failed attempt to pop the ball back up over the net.
From the beach lounger next to her, Derek shot her a look of disbelief. “They’re down by seven.”
Kat slid her sunglasses back into place and leaned back, turning her face up to the sun.
“I don’t mean the game. Nico and Zach are being careful about how much flirting they do with fans—enough to make them feel special, not so much they’re going to find someone naked in their beds.
Beckett’s been too busy working out every spare minute to offend anyone and Logan is… well, Logan is never a problem.”
“Unlike Jackson.”
“I heard about the Paris video, but it sounds like the team caught it before it got too far.”
Derek grunted. “For now. It’s only a matter of time before something else surfaces. And his drinking…”
Kat waited for him to continue, tension in the set of her jaw, but he wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence. Famous pop stars partied, especially Jackson Hayes. That wasn’t new. But something felt different this time. He just couldn’t put his finger on exactly what.
“What does Becks say?” Kat asked.
“The same thing Beckett always says. ‘He’s fine.’” Derek shook his head. He wasn’t sure Beckett would tell him if he wasn’t.
Kat seemed content to take Beckett’s word for it, the tightness in her posture easing as she stretched her neck side to side in the California sun.
“You and Jackson have always gotten under each other’s skin.
If Beckett says he’s fine, I’m sure he is.
And before you know it, you’ll be back on the road and finding new ways to annoy each other. ”
Derek glanced towards the now-empty section of beach where Jo and Annie had spent the morning piling wet sand into nondescript shapes.
He should be grateful they’d finally moved on to something else.
Jo in her sherbert orange bikini and tropical patterned sarong was too big of a distraction while he was trying to work, especially since he knew there were tiny bruises on her hips where his fingertips had dug into her skin as she rode his face the night before.
Never mind that he was already imagining all the things he wanted to do with her once Annie went to bed.
They had two more nights together and he intended to make the most of them.
And if she’d really meant what she said the night before, if she wanted to go bare next time…
He cleared his throat and turned back to the volleyball game.
“Let’s see how the next thirty-six hours go before we start celebrating,” Derek said as he caught sight of Jo and his daughter weaving their way through the beach chairs at the edge of the beach, an overstuffed food court-style tray in Jo’s arms.
Kat followed his line of sight and grinned, her voice taking on a teasing sing-song. “Speaking of the next thirty-six hours…”
“No.”
“Come on, bossman.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“I spent the entire night watching reruns of Ghost Hunters—”
“I wish she wouldn’t watch that.”
“—and letting your seven-year-old paint my toenails.” She lifted her sandaled foot and wiggled her toes at him, highlighting the alternating pattern of hot pink and glittery blue nail polish.
“I made her brush her teeth and call your ex-wife to say goodnight. I think I even convinced her to invite some kids from her class to the trampoline park for her birthday. I am the ultimate wingman. The least you can do is give me the details.”
“No.”