Chapter Twenty-Six #2
Downtown Coeur-de-Lac had emptied out while she was at the bar, and the street was quiet except for the occasional passing car.
The only message she’d gotten from Grant all day was, “Long day at work. Hope you had a good one.” That didn’t scream, “Come over to my place.” Still, she walked past her mother’s car even though the marquee was turned off.
It wouldn’t hurt to check for a light on in Grant’s window.
But his place looked dark. He was probably already asleep.
Ivy was about to turn around when the big, round bulb lights on the marquee lit up, followed by the yellow fluorescent glow of the sign. She stared at it. Was the sign malfunctioning? The theater was closed for the night, so it should be off. Should she call Grant?
Her hand was deep in the recesses of her purse when the theater door opened and Grant walked out, his eyes fixed on the sign.
“Having a midnight showing?” she asked.
He jumped high into the air like Hastings did when he was startled.
“Jesus! You scared the shit out of me.” Grant pressed a hand to his heart. “What are you doing here? I texted you but you didn’t answer.”
“Was I supposed to answer that? It read like a statement and not a conversation starter.” She smiled at him so he knew she was teasing. “I was at Curly’s. Thought I’d see if you were up. Maybe throw snowballs at your window.”
“So you did miss me today.”
She nodded in the direction of the sign. “What’s going on with this?”
“I noticed one of the lights was dimmer than the others, so I replaced it to see if that fixed the problem.”
Ivy looked up at the sign. All the lights looked bright to her.
“Do you want to watch a movie?” he asked.
“At this time of night, that sounds like a line to get me into your apartment to have sex with me.”
Grant grinned. “If all I wanted was to have sex with you, I wouldn’t need a line.”
Hot remembering coursed through Ivy. He wouldn’t need a line. He’d barely need a look.
“But I thought it might be nice for old time’s sake to watch a movie in the theater,” he clarified. “Just us.”
Ivy put her hands behind her back in an effort to look aloof and not desperately interested. “What movie?”
“I was thinking White Christmas or Christmas in Connecticut. Something based in New England.”
“Trying to make me miss Boston?”
Grant shrugged. “Well, I can’t think of any romantic Christmas movies that take place in Wisconsin.”
She searched the dusty corners of her memory but couldn’t think of a single one, either.
“White Christmas,” she said decisively. “I want to hear Bing sing through the big speakers.”
Being inside the dark, quiet theater with Grant late at night reminded her of working there. She fought a Pavlovian urge to clean the popcorn maker or mop behind the counter.
“I still think it would be pretty cool if you took this place over,” she said. “If you’re already replacing light bulbs…”
“There’s a big jump between light bulbs and payroll.”
Ivy followed him to the projection room. “Why did you take Piper to work today but not Austin?”
“Because Austin doesn’t want to—” Grant stopped and frowned at her. “How did you know I took Piper to work today?”
“Austin came over and we hung out,” she said matter-of-factly, because she didn’t see anything wrong with it. But the way Grant’s entire body tensed made it seem like he didn’t share her view. “Is that…a problem?”
Grant pursed his lips like he had something he didn’t want to say, but settled on, “Kind of.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“Maybe because you’ve had a crush on him since forever?” The sarcasm was as subtle as a brick through a window. She didn’t know what the hell was wrong with him all of a sudden, but she wasn’t going to coddle him.
“You know, if you actually talked to your brother, you’d know his show got canceled. He’s not interested in dating right now. He just needs a friend.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel bad for Golden Boy?”
Ivy put her hands on her hips. “Yeah, a little bit. He lost his job.”
Grant had the audacity to roll his eyes. “He’ll be fine. He always gets what he wants, so another job where all he has to do is take his shirt off is probably right around the corner.”
“What the hell is your problem all of a sudden?” Ivy snapped.
“My problem is that while I was at work, doing actual labor, Austin was doing fuck-all and flirting with you all day. And even though last night was…was…last night, you couldn’t make time to text me back today once the Great Austin Underwood was in the room.”
Ivy threw her hands in the air in exasperation. “We decluttered my parents’ storage area! Do you hear yourself? Austin and I are literally just friends!”
“But that’s because he’s not interested in dating, right? ‘Just friends’ is all you can get right now. So I guess in the meantime, I’ll do? A nice little placeholder until the better Underwood decides he’s ready?”
It would have hurt less if he’d stabbed her in the heart. Ice-cold anger spread through her veins.
She glared at him. “That’s not what I said and you know it.”
“Do I?” There was a thread of hurt woven through those two little words, but she was too furious to examine it.
“Well, I sure as shit wasn’t fucking Austin last night.”
It came out harsher than she’d meant it to, but before she could try and walk it back, Grant snapped, “No, you had the next best thing. Different but same.”
The entire conversation was circularly pointless. She needed to remove herself before they both said anything else they couldn’t take back.
“You know what? I’m going home. Don’t talk to me until you’ve figured out how far up your ass your head is.”