Chapter 31
We Finally … You Know.
Dash
After dinner, I find myself on the porch with Daniel. Neither of us plans it—we just both end up here, needing air, needing space.
“I don’t expect anything,” he starts.
“I want to know you. I want to hear about your life. Your music. Everything.”
“I’d like that.” His smile is shaky. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Will you stay in town through Christmas?”
“If you want me to.”
“I do.”
He pulls me into a hug. It’s awkward and tentative but, for the first time in my life, my father puts his arms around me.
After a moment, he clears his throat and slaps me on the back. Then he says, “I’ve got a question for you.”
“Shoot.”
“Is your mother dating anyone?”
I blink. Not the question I was expecting. “Uh, no. She doesn’t date. Ever.”
He gives me a long look. “Would you mind if—?”
“Listen, I think we’ve all learned not to ask other people’s permission to be in love. That’s between you and Mom,” I say, and I mean it.
He grins. “Fair enough.”
Mom finds me later, in the kitchen where I’m helping Ivy wrap up leftovers.
“I don’t know how to fix this,” she says quietly.
“You start by letting me make my own choices,” I say.
“Even if I think they’re wrong?”
“Especially then.”
She nods slowly. “I’ll try. I can’t promise I’ll be good at it.”
“Just try,” I say. Then, because she’s still my mother, I pull her into a hug. “That’s all I ask.”
She holds on tight, and I let her.
It’s past eleven when Ivy and I finish saying our goodbyes and finally leave the inn. We’re both quiet during the short walk to the cottage as we process everything that happened.
Inside, I collapse on the couch. Ivy curls up next to me, and I wrap an arm around her. The closeness feels right after so much distance.
“That was—” I start.
“A lot,” she finishes.
“Yeah.”
We sit in silence for a moment. Then my phone rings.
Brody.
“His timing always did suck,” I mutter, but I answer it. “Hey.”
“I heard about dinner,” Brody says without preamble. “Your mom called me.”
“Of course she did.”
“She said she was wrong. That I should listen to you. So I’m listening. What do you want?”
I look at Ivy, snuggled into my side, her head on my shoulder.
“I want to take the meetings,” I say. “But I’m not going to LA. I’m willing to go to New York to audition for the musical, but anyone else who wants to meet me can come here.”
“To Vermont?”
“Yes.”
He’s silent for a long time. “Aren’t you leaving the day after tomorrow?”
I glance at Ivy while I say, “I hope not.”
She turns her face up to me and smiles. My heart feels like it might explode. I smooth my hand over her hair and try to concentrate. “Planes fly in both directions, Brody. So set up the meetings but set them up here.”
“You’re serious.”
“I am.”
“That’s actually not a bad negotiating position,” he says slowly, thinking it through. “It shows you have leverage. Gives you power in the relationship.”
“So you’ll make it happen?”
“I’ll make it happen. That’s my job. And for what it’s worth? I think you’re making the right call.”
“Why’s that?”
“I saw that first fake kiss just like the rest of the world. You were toast from that moment on.”
He hangs up laughing.
Ivy pushes herself up to seated. “You’re really staying?”
“I’m really staying.” I pull her closer. “Is that okay?”
She kisses me instead of answering. It’s a heck yeah kind of kiss.
Outside, snow starts to fall again on Mistletoe Mountain. Tomorrow, there will be more conversations to have, more healing to do, more pieces to pick up.
But right now, I’m exactly where I want to be.
Finally.
There’s just one more thing I want to do tonight. I swoop her up in my arms and carry her squealing and laughing to the bedroom.