Chapter 12 #2
“Scar, want to come sit on my lap?” I ask her, thinking she might take a nap too if I coax her.
Scarlett shakes her head and moves in even closer to Carlie.
I try not to let it bug me. The girls are used to spending a lot of time with Carlie, and she’s more than a nanny to them.
She’s basically been their mom the last several months, and that shows in their relationship with her.
Another reason I need to ditch my too-demanding job.
Carlie grins at me, then turns to Ivy. “Did Law not warn you Malcolm was coming?” she whispers.
Ivy shakes her head. “He didn’t say anything.”
Carlie scowls. “He was supposed to. He’s been kind of distracted lately with something. He’s been playing really well, so I don’t think it’s football, but you never know.”
“Oh?” Ivy’s eyebrows shoot up. “I haven’t noticed.”
Carlie glances over toward Malcolm and frowns. Ivy taps her fingers against her leg, nervous about something. Malcolm? Or is she lying about knowing what’s distracting Law—
The ring. Ivy must know about the ring Law bought for Carlie.
He showed me the day he brought it home.
He’s making sure that she’s ready to take the next step since she’s wanted to move slow from the beginning of their relationship, but he told me he couldn’t wait any longer to buy it.
He needed the symbol of their future in his hands.
He was more excited about it than I’ve seen him over anything in a while.
With that on his mind, Carlie’s flight getting cancelled, then Ivy’s broken ankle—I can see how telling Ivy that Malcolm was coming to the game slipped his mind.
“I’m sorry he didn’t tell you.” Carlie leans forward and squeezes Ivy’s knee. “This is weird. At least I didn’t invite Caleb.” She beams at Ivy and then winks.
Ivy snorts with laughter. “Thanks, Car.” She bites the inside of her cheek. “It’s fine. We probably need to have a conversation. Act like normal people. I’ve been avoiding going places I know I’ll see him in Nashville, and that wasn’t the point when I moved back. The point was to move on.”
Carlie frowns in commiseration. “I know it’s not easy, even if I also know you’ve probably prepped for this conversation. I bet you have a workbook page for it and everything.”
“That’s actually a good idea.” Ivy pretends to mull this over.
“We could all take turns distracting him so that you don’t have to talk to him,” I offer. “You live in the same town. Closure doesn’t have to come today. On Christmas, when you’re supposed to be having fun.”
Ivy turns to me, and she slides her hand toward me, like she’s going to reach for me, before quickly pulling it back.
I want to hold her hand too. I could do that to warn Malcolm off.
I mean, if she wants me to, I can totally do the fake boyfriend thing for her.
It’s what any friend would do. Then maybe she’ll like it so much, she’ll want to keep it up.
“It’s fine. We’ll see what happens. Maybe he’ll avoid me the whole game.”
We all three glance at Malcolm and then at each other. Over two hours in this relatively small room together with only six other people? Unlikely.
“Carlie, can I have a root beer?” Scarlett asks her instead of me.
Ivy lets out a breath of a laugh before swallowing it, looking over at me with dancing eyes. Carlie hides a smile of her own, but it’s not surprising. Scarlett knows exactly which one of us is going to acquiesce to that.
Ivy’s the one who answers, casting me a mischievous smile before she does. “It’s Christmas, Scar. Of course you can have a root beer.”
I shake my head at her. “You’re going to pay for this.”
Ivy casts me a devil-may-care expression. “If you think threatening to make them sleep with me tonight is a punishment, you don’t know me very well. I love Scarlett and Zoey sleepovers. I’m thinking of taking them back to Nashville with me. Ha!”
“Ooooo, Daddy! Let’s go to Nashville!” Scarlett says, clapping her hands.
Or Ivy could stay in Houston with us.
I want to slap my forehead to force the thought out of my head.
Ivy eyes me with wide eyes and an expression that says, Oops, sorry.
“Nashville would be a fun place to visit,” I tell Scarlett, and she nods. To Ivy I say, “Sounds like a win-win.” I give her the same careless expression. Then we stare at each other for several seconds until Carlie clears her throat.
“I agree with Ivy that you can definitely have a root beer,” Carlie says, sliding forward to stand and taking Scarlett’s hand to lead her away.
Ivy’s cheeks turn pink, and she leans her head against Zoey’s, avoiding looking over at me.
“What happened to your ankle?” a voice says.
Ivy and I both look up to see Malcolm standing next to the spot Carlie just vacated, a plate full of food in one hand and the other hand in his pocket.
Ivy looks over at me, eyes widening for a moment, before she turns to Malcolm. “Skating accident,” she says, her voice forced casual.
Malcolm looks between me and Ivy, gaze shifty and nervous. “Can I talk to you?” The alone part is implied when his eyes flick toward me again.
I’m not leaving Ivy alone with him if she’d rather not get into something heavy right before the game starts. I keep my seat, leaning my elbow on the arm of the chair and resting into it.
“Sure,” Ivy answers, her voice calmer.
Malcolm takes the seat Carlie vacated, sitting on the edge and facing Ivy. He looks over at me again, his intent that I make myself scarce obvious. I ignore him and raise my eyebrow slightly at Ivy.
Her smile is soft. She mouths “I’m fine” at me and then says out loud, “Chad, can you grab me some coffee?”
As much as I don’t want Ivy to have to deal with him today—or ever, actually—I won’t override what she wants just because I want something different.
It’s the whole reason I kept myself from asking her if we can take whatever flirting we’ve been doing to the next step.
It’s what kept me from kissing her last night.
“Of course.” I stand and head over to the table holding the food—cookies, sodas, and a huge charcuterie board with ham, turkey, roasted new potatoes, a few kinds of cheese, flatbreads, and assorted crackers.
There’s even a hot chocolate bar and a carafe of eggnog.
I grab a mug from the end, but I don’t fill it yet.
I don’t know how Ivy takes her coffee, and as much as I’d like to interrupt her conversation with Malcolm to ask, she only requested this from me to let me know it’s okay to leave her alone with him.
Gabriella and Ava are talking to each other, coffee mugs in hand, but their voices are low murmurs, both of them sliding their gazes over to Ivy and Malcolm every few seconds.
Carlie holds Scarlett on her hip, a can of root beer in her hand while Scarlett rests her head on Carlie’s shoulder.
Carlie’s not even pretending to talk to anyone else.
She watches the couple with as much interest as I feel.
I’m standing closest. My back is to them, but the chair and sofa where they’re sitting are just a few feet away from the table. I hold the mug, and like the rest of the group gathered over here, I’m unapologetically eavesdropping as well.
If Malcolm is going to choose here and now to have this conversation, I think he kind of deserves the audience.
“Malcolm,” Ivy says from behind me. “The past is behind us. I’m okay now. Things don’t need to be awkward. We both want to be a part of Law’s life. Let’s just decide to be friends and not let our relationship weigh us down.”
“I don’t want things to be awkward either. I want to … clear the air for us.”
“Not necessary,” she says gently. “I forgave you a long time ago. I had to.”
She has such a generous spirit. She told me that the hope she clung to in their relationship, that someday she would be enough for him, was often at odds with the situations she coached others through in relationships, and yet she hung on.
He strung her along, and for that I want to yank him out of the chair and make him go sit out in the cold stadium. I don’t want him here with her.
“Thank you.” His voice is husky. I’m itching to turn and look at him, see his expression.
Judge if he truly appreciates the gift she’s given him.
I look up at Carlie, who’s still not hiding that she’s openly watching Ivy and Malcolm.
I look quickly over my shoulder, but I can only see his profile.
“But there’s something I need to tell you.
That I’ve needed to say for a long time,” he continues.
I can feel the stillness that goes through the room at his words.
Ava and Gabriella stop talking, then quickly start again to cover the lapse.
Carlie frowns and leans forward but then gives her head a little shake.
I grip the mug, taking a couple steps toward the coffee to at least look like I’m doing something.
“It’s okay,” Ivy says in a gentle voice. “I don’t need all the details for us to move on. We’re good, Malcolm. I promise.”
“I need to say this,” he presses.
The group around the table tenses, all of us sharing a look. Awkwardness has filled the room. Maybe now is the time for me to fill Ivy’s coffee and then ask her for her preferences to force Malcolm to move on from the conversation for now.
“I understand.” Her voice is sympathetic, quiet and kind. “But I’ve spent the last six months doing the work on myself, not dating while I made sure I was choosing a relationship for the right reasons …”
I whirl around at the words, cutting Ivy off mid-sentence about learning to not override her intuition. Her gaze snaps to mine, and I swallow.
Ivy does want a relationship.
She wants the right relationship.
Every argument I’ve had with myself about a possible future with us has fallen away. Every interaction we’ve had the last two days is being rewritten in my mind, especially last night when we almost kissed.
And for the first time, I don’t feel wrong about hoping.