And her sentiment was enough to get my lips moving. “I had a conversation with Marissa before we set sail.”
“Your ex-wife, right?”
I looked over at her and nodded. “Right.”
“I take it the conversation didn’t go well?”
My eyes found the water again as I threw back the rest of my drink. “Not in the slightest.”
“What happened? I mean, what did you two talk about?”
She should stay up to date with everything that affects Asia. She’s her nanny, after all.
I cleared my throat. “Marissa called to tell me that she’d taken a job in Paris that would take her away for six months.”
“Oh. That doesn’t sound too bad, especially now that I’m helping out. Right?”
My gaze gravitated slowly back to her. “She asked Asia and me to come with her.”
She clicked her tongue. “Ah. That would be the hang-up.”
I chuckled. “It’s not the only hang-up. Marissa’s done many things I don’t agree with. For starters, she can apparently take any overseas contract she wants, but I have to tell her whenever I’m offered that kind of gig. And ever since our divorce, I haven’t been able to take a single one of them because of the hell she raises over it. She calls it ‘sticking her with her daughter without help.’ I call it ‘being the single parent she proclaims to be.’”
“Wow, that’s very unfair.”
I drew in a deep breath. “Oh, it gets better. The last time Asia was in the hospital because of her asthma, my ex blurted out the fact that our daughter was an ‘accident.’”
“What? Don’t tell me she heard.”
And when I didn’t respond, Eva’s face grew red with anger. “I can’t believe she said something like that. Maybe you didn’t plan her, sure. But Asia is no fucking accident, Gavin.”
It warmed my heart to hear how much it angered Eva because it showed me how much she already cared about my little girl. “I know. And then on the phone, when I threw that in her face—which I probably shouldn’t have done, but I can’t take it back now—she said that if I hadn’t forced her to have Asia, we wouldn’t even be having the argument we were having in the first place.”
Her jaw dropped open. “I’m sorry, but did you marry Satan?”
I barked with laughter and turned my attention back out to the water. “Some days, I feel like I did. And my head popped off so quickly that I told her the next time she heard from me, it would be through my lawyer after I submitted paperwork to get sole custody of Asia.”
“I think that’s a fantastic idea.”
My head whipped back over to her. “You do?”
She nodded. “I do. If that’s really the kind of atmosphere Asia’s around with her mother, and if her mother really says shit like that in front of her, then it’s what you have to do. Asia doesn’t deserve that, and it sounds like Marissa doesn’t even want to be a parent. She just wants all of the accolades that come with being one.”
“Thank you! Finally, someone that gets it.”
She squeezed my hand. “Either way, I support you one hundred percent.”
And with those words, I felt myself fall just a little bit more in love with this wonderful woman who had come soaring into my life. I only hoped that I didn’t find a way to fuck it up for good.
Eva yawned. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for some sleep.”
I stood to my feet. “Want to wake up with me in the morning and watch the sunrise? We could have breakfast together before Asia gets up.”
She stood and giggled. “I’d love nothing more. But I’ll need help finding my room. I wasn’t sure which one I was supposed to be in, so I got changed in your room instead.”
“Why can’t you just sleep in there with me, then? It’s got a king-sized bed.”
“Asia won’t think that’s weird?”
