Sex, Not Love

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?” She squinted at her father.

Shit. This was about me.

He gave her a stern look and a matching tone. “Give us a few minutes alone, Isabella.”

Izzy looked up to her father. I’d never seen her defiant toward him before. “No,” she spat. “I’m not going to leave you alone so you can give Nat the third degree. It’s none of your business what she does or who she spends time with.”

My eyes widened.

Garrett spoke between clenched teeth. “Go wait by the door, Isabella.”

Izzy stood, and for a second, I thought she was caving. Until she turned to face me. “You ready, Nat?”

I glanced back and forth between my ex-husband and stepdaughter, trying to figure out the right thing to do. I hated for her to leave him angry. If she regretted whatever had been said, she didn’t have tomorrow to make it all good again. It would be another month before we were back for our next visit.

Hoping I made the right decision, I looked at Garrett. “Izzy is growing up to be a pretty amazing person. She’s really matured and has come into her own lately.” My eyes caught with hers. “So while I hate you two fighting, I support her, and if she’s ready to leave, we’re going to be going now. Goodbye, Garrett. See you next month.”

Izzy gave her father one last look. “Bye, Dad.” And we walked out together.

I expected her to break down after we made our way out of the prison. But she didn’t. Izzy was quiet as we collected our things from the locker and walked to the car.

Once we were inside, I turned to face her before starting the car. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“He’s such a jerk. I was telling him about how my jump shot has improved, and you know what his response was?”

“What?”

“He asked who the man was that was in our apartment.”

Marcus had only been inside our apartment once, and my gut told me this was not about Marcus. “How did he know there was a man in our apartment?”

“Damon told him you were dating a plumber or something.”

Ugh. Damon.

“I’m sorry he tried to get you in the middle of things and it ruined your visit.”

“Dad ruined my visit. He wasn’t even listening about my game. Then he got pissed when I told him it was none of his business who was in our house.”

Oh shit.

“What did he say to that?”

“He said you were his wife, and it was his business. That I was his eyes and ears while he couldn’t be home right now. So I told him you were his ex-wife, and it was his own fault he couldn’t be home right now. That I wasn’t his eyes and ears, I was his daughter.”

God, I was so proud of her. But my heart also broke that Garrett was trying to use her during the one shitty hour he got to see her each month.

“You’re a hundred percent right, Izzy. But that couldn’t have been easy to say.”

“It’s the truth.”

When had she become such a grown up? “Izzy…thank you. Thank you for defending me. But I just want to put it out there—I’ll never be upset if you want to tell your father our business. While I don’t think I’m his business, you are, and I suppose he has every right to know if a man is hanging around while you’re home.”

She again stared out the window, so I started the car to give her some time. We were going to be physically next to each other for the next few hours, yet I thought she might need some privacy to replay things in her head.

But she didn’t put in her earbuds and fall asleep this time. Instead, she looked deep in thought.

After about an hour, I pointed to a bunch of fast food signs on the side of the highway and asked if she wanted to stop and get some lunch. She nodded. Rather than go through the drive-thru as we normally would on the way home, I parked in a spot at Wendy’s. If she was ready to talk some more, it would be easier sitting across from each other.