[This chapter is dedicated to BedheadBookworn, our new top 3 fans of our book. Thank you for reading!]

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'Papa is here, so you live in Palo Alto.'

Noah and his daughter were long gone. Probably they were on their way to the airport now.

However, Lucille's innocent remark still echoing in her head as she blushed in embarrassment. And Luke, seeing her discomfort, could not hold back his laughter.

They were still lounging on the beach near their villa, and Luke could not stop snickering like a kid who heard the funniest joke of his lifetime.

"Well you stop it," she snapped in irritation.

"Stop blushing like a freaking virgin, if you want me to stop laughing!" he said, laughing even more.

She just rolled her eyes in irritation. She leaned back on the sunbed and put back on her dark eyeglasses. She would get teased more by Luke if he knew she was affected. Thus, she ignored him and returned to lounging on her sunbed.

Astonished that Lucille would say that the reason she lived in Palo Alto was because of her father, she scoffed to herself, thinking if that were the case, it should be the other way around. She lived there first before Noah.

She wondered what Noah said to Lucille to cause her to think that way. As far as she knew, she did not answer Lucille's question about whether she liked her father.

She's not going to deny that the idea of Noah telling his daughter that he likes her gives her a giddy feeling. She swallowed the smile before it escaped her lips for she knew Luke was still observing her.

***

"Lucille, why did you say that Little Miss Jessie lives in Palo Alto because I lived there?"

He is sitting next to Lucille who is using the time that they are on the air to go through her homework, making sure that she didn't miss anything or her mother would scold her.

"It's because her friends who fell in love with some Chinese guys lived in Shanghai," she said in a tone like he just asked a moronic question. She flipped the pages of her math workbook, double-checking that all exercise questions have answers.

He scratched his left check then asked Lucille again, "Schatz, you think Little Miss Jessie likes me?"

While Jin and Soraya exchanged astonished glances, Antonio choked on his saliva when he heard the question from their boss.

They were all holding their breath waiting for Lucille to answer the question.

Lucille cocked her head to the side, "You like her, Papa."

Antony clenched his fist and maintained a poker face while Soraya and Jin giggled.

Noah threw a dagger look at Jin and Soraya, who quickly averted their eyes and stifled their laughter, however, they couldn't hold their laughter with what Lucille said next.

"When I asked her if she liked you, she didn't answer, yes."

His daughter finally told him what he heard when he eavesdropped on her conversation with Jess.

Before Antonio could pull the folder of documents in front of his face and hide, he saw his face turn red. He quickly excused himself before he could reprimand him.

Noah was dumbfounded by the words that came out of Lucille's mouth.

"Schatz, don't tell your mother anything about Little Miss Jessie if she ever asks you, okay?"

"Hmm, okay," she nodded, piling up all her workbooks after being satisfied that she had all of them answered.

"Schatz, pinky promise, papa. Okay?"

"Pinky promise," she said, holding their pinkies together and shaking them three times.

While Noah leaned against the leather seat, he thought of how much better this flight would be if Jess was with them. She refused to change her schedule for him. He couldn't blame her but he was hurt. His ego was hurt.

He wasn't invited to be in San Lucas either. He just went there, even dragging his own daughter just to see and be with her. Yet, she was okay without him. Unlike him, who turned into a mess when he couldn't see her.

He glanced at his watch on his left wrist and saw that they would still be on air for about an hour. As he closed his eyes, he imagined himself buried in two weeks' worth of work. He wouldn't have time to chase after her neighbors' ass.

"Daddy," she called her father softly as she tugged the sleeve of his coat. When he opened his eyes, she asked, "Are you going to bring me back to Mama, or just uncle Markus?"

"I will fly with you to Shanghai, princess. Why is something the matter?" He asked, tucking the tendrils of her hair behind her ears as he stroked her flushed cheeks.

"I forgot to ask Little Miss Jessie," she pursed her lips. She hugged her panda stuffed toy in her arms.

"What did you forget to ask, Little Miss Jessie?" When talking to Lucille, he couldn't help calling Jess Little Miss Jessie since she never called her another name.

"I forgot to ask her if Miss Ellise was her friend that lives in Shanghai!"

When Jess told Lucille that her best friends live in Shanghai, it didn't cross his mind that she was referring to Ellise. But with Lucille's curiosity to know other people who live in Shanghai, an idea crossed his mind.

He has Ellise's contact information. He would be in Shanghai the next day, and if she lives there, saying hello would just be proper etiquette, right? Those were the thoughts that were on his mind until they landed on the private tarmac of ANAT Pharma and Co.

He remembered Jess saying, her two best friends. It seems, there is another friend other than Ellise. He wondered how the other friend is compared to Ellise's cocky and indifferent attitude.

***

"Jess," he gently nudged her, who fell asleep on the sunbed. It was almost noon, and the sun was no longer suitable for sunbathing.

She just mumbled in her sleep and Luke felt bad for waking her up.

She must not have slept well last night. They were sunbathing outside like they normally would, but they both knew that someone might be watching over them. Especially, when Noah and Lucille came to say goodbye.

She seemed unaffected by everything but with her snoring, deep in sleep, she must have overanalyzed her situation. Jess would act as if she didn't give a fvck about anything, but in reality, she cared too much for those who mattered to her.

Luke cursed those people who were threatening Jess and that's all he could do — curse those motherfvckers. As Jess pointed out, they should not cower in fear of those bastards. Thus, they had to maintain the appearance that they were enjoying their vacation despite the threat in Jess's life.

"Jess," he called her name again. When she didn't even move, he threw his legs off the sunbed and grabbed her shoulder to shake her.

That was his intention, but the moment he held Jess' shoulder in a grip, she twisted her body, pulled down his right arm, and pushed his left shoulder — and… he heard his arm crack and he groaned in pain.

"Jessica!" He yelled as an unbearable pain surged through his shoulder that Jess had twisted while she was asleep!

Jess was startled when Luke screamed her name. When she opened her eyes, Luke was on the sand, lying in a fetal position, holding his arm, and moaning in pain.

"W- what happened?" she stammered.

His teeth clenched as he grumbled in pain, "Bitch, you karate slammed me in your sleep," he replied.

Her mouth formed a silent 'Oh' when she realized what happened, "I'm sorry Luke, I was dreaming…" she chewed on her lower lip in guilt, "Can you stand up?"

"Help me get up and remind me to never wake you up in sleep, you — little bitch!"

"I'm sorry," she grabbed her straw beach bag and shoved all of their things inside, and called the attention of a resort employee.

"We need a go to the hospital," she said, slugging her straw beach bag. She tried to hold Luke's arm but he flinched, and stepped sideways, avoiding her.

"I'm in pain, and truly traumatized. How can you be a karate kid in your dream?"

She couldn't help but chuckle when they entered the backseat of the hotel car service that brought them to the hospital.

They went straight to the reception at the emergency room to ask for the orthopedic department and bumped into the good-looking but impertinent doctor.

"Miss Zimmerman, from what I remembered, you clearly told me you never wanted to see me ever again, but then, here you are," he stepped backward to give her a look, "You look fine to me. Don't tell me you're here to visit me?" he asked with an irritating smirk.

"I'm here because my friend needs medical attention."

Dr. Neves, looked at Luke who was holding his arm with his shoulder clearly dislocated, and nodded nonchalantly.

"Yes." he gritted his teeth in annoyance with the doctor's "...real patient here."

"Get a number," he said and turned his heels away from them.

"What the fvck is his problem?" he spat in anger.

"Forgive him, for he must have a crush on you." A doctor with light blonde hair and hazel eyes said, making his and Jess' jaws drop on the hospital floor.