Claimed By My Billionaire Ex

Chapter 26

LUCAS

Only a month had passed, but it felt like so much longer. There were purple circles under her eyes, and she looked like she'd lost some weight, but Olive still looked incredible. I wanted nothing more than to hug her, to hold her.

"Lucas?" she gasped, gripping her chest.

I'd clearly startled her, appearing on the edge of the street corner like this, but I wasn't sure how else I could have done it.

"Hi," I said. Hi? Didn't I have anything better to say? I'd spent time and money on a private investigator to track her to this beach side Connecticut town, and I couldn't say more than hi? What the fuck was wrong with me?

"What are you doing here? I mean...how did you find me?"

I shrugged. "Olive, I fucked up. So bad." The corner we were standing on was busy enough that a few people who had heard me curse stopped and stared. But all my fucks went out of the window the day I discovered she'd taken a bus to another city by herself. She was lost, struggling to find herself, all because of what I'd said. I needed to make it clear that, this time, I wasn't going anywhere. "You weren't answering my calls, and I didn't know what else to do. So I hired a private investigator."

Olive's cheeks flushed red. She glanced sideways around the street. It was clear that more than one person was listening now. In fact, was I imagining this, or was a couple on the corner pausing to take a photo of us?

Stepping toward me, Olive lowered her voice to a whisper. "Lucas, this town is too small and too nosy for you to making a scene. C'mon." She strode past me down the street.

"Where are we going?"

I couldn't tell if she was annoyed, but as she turned around and started walking backward, she gave me a small smile. "Just come with me."

The downhill single lane road curved out of the quaint downtown and weaved past a modest playground. There wasn't even a sidewalk, but I followed Olive, walking in a single file as we hugged the tree line off the street and hooked a left onto a dead end, a peninsula surrounded on three side by the Atlantic.

Olive approached a cottage at the end of the street. It had a For Sale sign out front, but she bypassed it, crossing the driveway and opening a gate at the side of the house.

"Are you squatting in a house?" My attempt at a joke resulted in her rolling her eyes.

"They rented me the guest suite out back. At a discount, if I keep an eye on the main house." She glanced back at me. "But maybe I'm just being cheap...since you know...you gave me fifty grand, and it's not like I really need to get discounts."

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I stayed silent as she led me to the dock and opened the sliding doors, leading into a quaint in-law guest suite.

She avoided my gaze, pursing her lips as she crossed her arms. "How's Claire?"

Where would I start? I wanted to tell her everything. That I'd taught Claire how to ride a bike. That I read her stories at night. That in one month of being a single dad, I'd experienced enough stress and worries and concern that I had no fucking idea how she'd done this for an entire ten years.

"She's great, Olive. She's such a good kid."

She licked her lips and gave a sad smile. "I'm glad she has you and Adam."

I stepped toward her, wanting so badly just to hold her. "Olive, she has you too. She will always have you. That's why I'm here. You are her mother. And she needs you back in her life...I need you back in our life. And not just for her. For me too. I fucked up."