Chapter Thirty-Six
Brad had ditched her for dick.
Ivy knew it would happen one day, but she didn’t think that day would be Christmas.
At least he’d given the trip to someone she enjoyed. Janet’s daughter was eighteen, which blew Ivy’s mind because when she’d met Janet, her daughter was entering middle school.
“Do you have something for me?” she asked Janet after they hugged each other at check-in.
Janet frowned. “No, I don’t think so. Why?”
“Brad said he had a surprise for me, so I thought maybe he sent it with… You know what? Never mind.”
“Maybe I’m your surprise,” Janet suggested with a wink.
That sounded a lot like something Brad would do. He’d say he had a surprise for her and it would be the free cookie from the front desk. Giving the trip to Janet instead of someone they hated quite possibly counted as her surprise.
She hadn’t heard much from Grant, but that didn’t shock her, since her parents had informed her that Tim had a heart attack on Monday.
Tim was doing well but was at the hospital in Madison for the time being.
She didn’t know how to support Grant while also giving him space to deal with the things he needed to deal with, so she sent him a “Thinking of you” text and let it be enough.
She’d call him when she got to Paris to wish him a Merry Christmas, after she talked to her parents.
The flight was mercifully uneventful. If something exciting had happened, like a medical, she never would have forgiven Brad for ditching her.
“Are you going to bed or staying up?” Janet asked her as they climbed into the crew bus to go to the hotel.
“I think I’ll take a little nap on the way into the city, then see what’s open.”
“Will there be anything open outside of the hotel?” Janet asked. “I figured we’d stay in today in our robes and order room service.”
“I’ll walk around and see if there are any patisseries or brasseries open. Do you want me to let you know if I find anything?”
“Sure! Why not?”
Ivy’s phone began to buzz with missed messages as it connected to the international network.
Mom: Call us anytime! We miss you.
Dad: Treating Christmas like New Year’s. Staying up to midnight. Woo!
Ivy: Retirement has changed you.
She shook her head but smiled.
Their hotel was in the heart of Paris, within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower. It didn’t happen often, but sometimes Ivy got a room with a tower view. Those trips felt extra magical.
“Bonjour,” she said cheerfully when her parents answered her video call. “Is it Christmas in Coeur-de-Lac yet?”
Her dad yawned. “Almost. How was your flight?”
“Uneventful and boring. Just like I like ’em. What did you do today?”
“We went to see Tim in the hospital. He’s doing well. I don’t know what kind of good drugs they’re giving him, but he was all smiles and kept winking at us.”
Ivy chuckled. “Weird. Did you give Grant a hug for me?”
“He actually wasn’t there. Apparently we just missed him.”
“I wonder where he went.” Ivy frowned. “Mom, you’re being really quiet. Are you okay?”
Sophie pursed her lips like she was trying to hold something in, but it burst out of her anyway. “I don’t want to move!”
Ivy stared at the phone. Her dad stared at her mom.
“I don’t want to move,” Sophie repeated. “It was exciting at first, imagining where we could go, and Ivy, sweetie, I do want to live closer to you, but I don’t want to leave Coeur-de-Lac. Not yet.”
Paul sagged in his chair. “Oh, thank God! I don’t want to move, either.”
“Have you two not talked about this?” Ivy asked, her eyes darting between her parents on the screen.
“I wanted your dad to come to the conclusion himself,” Sophie said. “It’s why I threw him that retirement party. I wanted to show him how many people love him here and remind him how many people he loves.”
“I didn’t want to disappoint your mom,” Paul admitted. “So I’ve been trying to show her all the fun things we can do right here in town.”
“So I took two weeks off work because you two didn’t want to hurt each other’s feelings?” Ivy pinched the bridge of her nose. “Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.”
“We’re sorry,” they said in unison, but Ivy didn’t believe them.
“Go to sleep. I love you. Merry Christmas.” Ivy ended the call after her parents returned the sentiment.
So they didn’t want to leave Coeur-de-Lac. It didn’t shock her as much as it would have before she tried to pack up their house. At least they were only avoidant and not incompetent.
An idea tickled the back of her brain. Her parents didn’t want to move…but she did.
A few weeks ago, this idea would have been ludicrous, purely based on its proximity to Wisconsin. But now it seemed like the perfect solution.
Ivy logged on to the company website and pulled up the familiar base transfer form.
Transfer From: Boston (BOS)
Transfer To: Chicago (ORD)
Send.
Ivy was almost back to the hotel after her walk when her phone rang. Who could be calling? It was the middle of the night back home. If it was Crew Scheduling…
Grant.
Her heart shot into her throat. Something had to be wrong.
“Grant? Are you okay?”
“That’s a weird way to answer the phone,” he said with a sleepy chuckle. “You look cute, though.”
“I don’t think it’s that weird considering— What do you mean, I look cute?”
“I like your red coat. Makes you easy to spot.”
Behind her, two cars honked at each other. She heard those same honks through her phone a moment later. Ivy spun around.
“Grant, where are you?”
A motorcycle zipped by, and the whine of the engine drew her attention. Then she saw him, standing on the opposite side of the street like a walking dream.
Ivy barely looked both ways before she ran across the street. Horns blared, brakes squealed, and she felt the wind of a car behind her, but she made it to the other side in one piece. And she threw that one piece at Grant, jumping into his arms and locking her lips over his.
He was real. He was in Paris.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, kissing him so much it was hard for him to answer.
“I…didn’t…want you…to spend Christmas…alone.” He leaned back. “You said to come to Paris. So I came.”
She kissed him again, savoring his mouth. Had she really only last seen him on Sunday? That was a lifetime ago. An eternity.
“Where’s your stuff?”
“I, uh, didn’t bring anything. Made things pretty interesting at customs.” Grant chuckled awkwardly. “Stopped at home to get my passport and that was it.”
Ivy took half a step back from him so she could study him better. “Who are you and what have you done with Grant? Grant Underwood doesn’t do impulsive things.”
“He does when he’s in love.”
Love. The word stopped her heart and stole her breath.
Any length of pause seemed too much for Grant, so he barreled on.
“I couldn’t sleep on the plane, even in that fancy lay-down seat, and I just kept thinking about how I didn’t want to wait another minute to tell you that I love you, because I’ve already waited too long.
I love you, Ivy. I have for a really long time.
I understand if you’re not ready for that, but I couldn’t hold it in anymore. ”
Ivy held his perfect, anxious face in her palms. “I love you, too, Grant. I love you so, so much.” She kissed him again, because she could, because he’d come to Paris.
It was the best sleep she’d ever had on a layover. There was something magical about waking up from a long nap on Christmas with the person you loved snoring gently next to you.
They’d tried to stay awake. Grant told her about the fight with his dad, asking to take over the movie theater, and his shock when Brad had appeared in his dad’s hospital room. She’d told him about her plan to transfer to Chicago and move back into her parents’ house.
“With all the money I’m saving, I won’t have to work as much. So we can go on dates and do normal couple stuff.”
Then they’d made soft, sleepy love, reconnecting after days apart.
“Mmm…hey.” Grant yawned, stretched, and pulled her closer to him. “Did we fall asleep?”
“Yeah.” Ivy smoothed his hair away from his forehead. “It’s about dinnertime. Do you want to order room service?”
“Will you stay naked if we order room service?”
“I know it’s France, but I should put on a robe to answer the door.”
He nodded, his eyes still shut. “Close enough.”
She ordered their dinner, first attempting her fractured French, then happily accepting the operator’s offer to switch to English. When she hung up the phone, Grant was watching her.
“I was thinking,” he said, “that instead of pretending like you’re not going to be spending every night at my apartment, you could…move in? Save some hassle?”
“Are you asking me to move in to save some hassle?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m asking you to move in because I love you. I want to fall asleep next to you and wake up next to you. I want to bring you coffee in bed and leave you little notes in your suitcase. That’s harder to do if I’m tiptoeing around your parents’ house.”
“You became my boyfriend six hours ago. Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. You said the transfer could take a few months. By then it will seem normal to have you move in. No one will bat an eye.”
Ivy rolled her eyes, even though her heart was overflowing with affection for the man she’d been avoiding for the better part of a decade.
“I can’t believe I’m moving back to Coeur-de-Lac,” she said, though really, that wasn’t the unbelievable part.
The unbelievable part was Grant. The boy next door who’d grown up into the man who flew across the world so she wouldn’t be alone on Christmas.
He loved her in a way she never imagined was possible.
Loving him—and being loved by him—was as natural as the changing of the seasons.
As beautiful as fresh-fallen snow. As magical as Christmas.
It was, without a doubt, remarkable.