Chapter 6 #2
Knowing Harrison’s girlfriend would read more into an evasion, he didn’t even try to get out of introductions.
“Ivy, Harrison, this is Laurel Maxwell. Laurel, my friends, Ivy Blake and Harrison Wilkes.”
Everybody shook hands.
“Maxwell. Are you—” Harrison began.
“Logan’s sister. Yes,” she finished. “Does everybody know everybody around here?”
“Well, we’ve only been here a few months, but yeah, that’s the general consensus,” Harrison acknowledged.
Ivy threaded her arm through Harrison’s. “Laurel, you’ll have to come to dinner.”
The out-of-the-blue invitation ruffled Laurel’s usual social grace. “I…um…”
Harrison’s lips quirked. “Way to segue, babe.”
“Call it a consequence of constantly hanging out with all your friends. I’m starved for female company.”
“Sure, we’ll call it that,” he teased.
Sebastian still couldn’t get used to seeing his usually serious friend this relaxed. Love had made him soft, but in a good way. Ivy smoothed out his rough edges.
“Tomorrow night,” she continued.
“No, you’ve got that conference call with your publicist,” Harrison reminded her.
“Wednesday, then. You’ll still be here Wednesday night?”
“Yes. I’m dog-sitting for my brother while he’s on his honeymoon.”
“So you’ve got a couple of weeks.” Ivy exchanged a Look with Harrison, and Sebastian knew she was thinking sometimes that was all it took.
For a thriller writer, she’d gotten all romantic and shit since she and Harrison got together.
She’d been on a less-than-subtle crusade to play matchmaker.
He needed to nip this whole thing in the bud.
Laurel wasn’t moving to Eden’s Ridge permanently, so nothing could happen beyond this fling.
Maybe if he kept reminding himself of that, the idea would stick.
“She’s not gonna take no for an answer,” Harrison warned. “You might as well give in now. I know this from experience.”
Ivy stuck her tongue out. “You love my dogged determination.”
While they made googly eyes at each other, Sebastian scrambled, trying to find some means of getting Laurel out of this. But her expression was one of amused curiosity rather than annoyance.
“I’m sorry, I have to be a little nosy here…publicist?”
Ivy waved a hand. “Oh yeah, it’s just a meeting to talk about further promotion for my latest book.”
Laurel’s eyes sharpened. “You’re an author?”
“They both are,” Sebastian added.
“What do y’all write?”
Ivy’s grin turned impish. “Come to dinner and find out.”
Laurel glared at Sebastian in the driver’s seat. “You’re seriously not even going to give me a single clue?”
He only smiled. “Nope.”
“Come on! Google failed me. There’s not a single Ivy Blake or Harrison Wilkes listed on , so obviously they write under pen names. Won’t you even give me a hint about genre?”
“Oh no, it’ll be a lot more fun to watch you find out on your own.”
On a huff, Laurel crossed her arms. She hoped her teasing snit would cover the nerves bubbling over this dinner.
How the hell was she supposed to act tonight?
It had been obvious what Ivy thought was going on when she’d issued the invitation.
But Laurel wasn’t Sebastian’s girlfriend.
They weren’t dating. She didn’t know exactly what they were because, despite their frank conversation to the contrary, he hadn’t done more than kiss her.
Wonderful, addictive, toe-curling kisses, yes.
But still, just kissing. It wasn’t what she’d expected. He wasn’t what she’d expected.
He’d put her to work the past few days. She had offered, of course, but she hadn’t imagined he’d let her get quite so involved.
While he’d been running lessons and working with some of the more problematic rescues, she’d mucked, groomed, polished tack, and ridden.
He’d even let her work with a couple of his rescues that were further along, teaching her how to look past her expectations and read their body language and behavior.
She’d had the time of her life, even if she’d been feeling aches in muscles she’d forgotten she had.
If his master plan was to keep her too busy to dwell on the subject of what came next in her life, mission accomplished.
It was probably just as well he hadn’t tried to take her to bed yet.
Every night, she fell into a virtual coma as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Which was, admittedly, later than planned because of the side research project she’d started.
Sebastian stayed quiet the rest of the drive.
He’d been pensive today, and she wasn’t sure why.
Was he dreading this dinner as much as she was?
Or was something else going on? Had he realized he didn’t want to pursue things with her and was trying to figure out a way to let her down gently?
That was a depressing thought. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anyone.
The idea that it could be one-sided made her want to shrink into the seat.
You don’t have enough evidence to prove your case. Stop drawing unfounded conclusions.
“Laurel?”
The rumble of his voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “What?”
“We’re here.”
The generous post-and-beam cabin was lit up like a golden jewel against the winter dark. It was as warm and welcoming as its hostess, who threw open the door and waved them inside, her smile almost as bright as the house.
Laurel unlatched her seatbelt and started to climb out of the truck, but Sebastian caught her hand. “You okay?”
“Fine.” She almost left it at that but couldn’t resist adding, “Are you?”
His eyes widened a fraction. Then his expression softened and he squeezed her hand. “It’s nothing to do with us.”
Us. That one tiny syllable put her mind at ease.
Her shoulders relaxed. “Then let’s go be social.”
“Come in! Come in!” Ivy gave Laurel’s shoulders a squeeze as she stepped into the entryway.
It should’ve been awkward. They didn’t know each other. But Laurel found it impossible to hold on to her discomfort in the face of Ivy’s genuine enthusiasm.
She half expected Sebastian to freeze up a little, as he had when they went to town.
But he was far easier around Harrison and Ivy.
It was clear, as they all worked to finish setting the table and prepping drinks, that the two men had a long history.
And Sebastian treated Ivy with the same kind of fond, platonic teasing Xander had always directed at Laurel.
By the time they sat down with food, she had relaxed into the flow of banter between good friends.
“So how exactly did you and Harrison meet?” she asked.
“Oh, well, I drove off a mountain because of a bear. Harrison is the one who rescued me.”
Laurel’s mouth dropped open. “Off a mountain?”
“I mean, it wasn’t awesome—my Blazer was totaled—but it could have been a lot worse.
And I certainly didn’t cry about being trapped with all that big sexy for days because of a Tennessee blizzard.
” She waved her fork at Harrison. “Talk about inspiration. Which was good, since that was the whole reason I was running away to the mountains in the first place. I had the worst case of writer’s block of my career. ”
“Do you write romance?”
Ivy’s pale green eyes lit. “Sebastian didn’t tell you?”
Laurel shot him another glare. “He said it would be more fun to see me guess.”
She drummed her fingers together with glee and beamed at Sebastian. “You do love me!”
“Not my secret to tell, and I know how much fun you have seeing how long it takes people to get it.”
“You’ve got to at least give her some clues,” Harrison put in. “Fair’s fair.”
Ivy angled her head, considering. “Okay. It’s not generally what people expect.”
“You call that a clue?” Sebastian asked.
“I think Laurel can work with it.”
“I do like a challenge.” Setting her fork aside, Laurel studied her hosts.
“I’m guessing Harrison was a Ranger. He carries himself like Sebastian does.
If that was your inspiration, I’d narrow what you write down to romance or some kind of suspense.
You said it’s not what people expect, so that would lead me away from romance and more firmly into thriller or suspense.
The kind of stories about a guy who can handle himself. ”
Her hostess grinned. “Getting warm.”
“You mentioned a publicist the other day. I’m guessing they don’t hand those out like candy, so that would seem to indicate a certain level of success.”
“Warmer still.”
“I haven’t had much time to read for pleasure the last few years, but I did do some browsing of the best seller lists before we came over.
I don’t remember seeing many women among the suspense and thriller set.
Which makes me think you might be pulling a George Eliot and using a male pseudonym. Or at least one that’s gender neutral.”
She mentally flipped through the names she remembered. One, in particular, had stood out with multiple entries that had stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for months. Sitting across from Ivy now, a lightbulb went off. “Holy shit, you’re Blake Iverson.”
Ivy bowed with a flourish. “At your service.”
Sebastian stared. “You managed to get to that from ‘It’s not what people expect?’”
“It’s deductive reasoning.”
“Dear God, now we have two of them,” Harrison groaned.
“Don’t worry, baby.” Ivy patted his hand. “I’m sure it’ll take at least until dessert for us to take over the world.”
Sebastian still looked a little shell-shocked. “I’m beginning to see how it is you’re at the top of your class.”
Laurel grinned and shifted her attention to Harrison. “Now you. Your name wasn’t anywhere on either, so also a pseudonym I’m guessing.”
He angled his head in acknowledgement.
“Your former occupation would lend itself well to thrillers or suspense, but I’m guessing you maybe went in a different direction.” She took in the Battlestar Galactica T-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders. “Maybe military science fiction?”
Amusement had his lips curving. “Keep going.”