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“I think that’s an excellent idea,” Nia says. “It might be better if you had some…”
She trails off.
“Privacy,” Sonya finishes for her.
“Yes. Privacy. I’d better get back to the theater.”
“And I need to get back to Hott Spot,” Bella says.
“All of us,” Reggie chimes in.
The women gather up their things and stuff them back into shopping bags and totes, heading out the door. Sonya and Reggie are the last to leave.
Sonya takes Ivy’s hand. “Hey. If you need someone to go wedding-dress shopping with you, call me, okay?”
Ivy’s expression softens. “Okay,” she says.
“I’m in, too,” Reggie says.
Sonya rolls her eyes in her friend’s direction. “Just know that if you let her come along? We’re totally going to end up thrifting for your dress.”
“She doesn’t lie,” Reggie admits. “But I’m a fucking genius at it.”
Ivy laughs. “Thanks,” she says. “I haven’t really plugged in here—I was…gun-shy after LA.”
“Yeah, I bet it’s tough to know who your real friends are there,” Sonya says sympathetically.
That’s for fucking sure, I think.
Ivy nods, biting her lip.
Someone hurt her, and I’m pretty sure it’s Fessa. I want to break his kneecaps.
“Thank you,” she says, leaning in and hugging the two women.
They slip out, and we’re left alone. It feels like a bad idea. And also the best idea.
“So,” Ivy says.
I like the way her gaze keeps slipping away from my face to rake over my torso. I especially like the way it snags at the spot where my breeches ride low on my hips. “So,” I echo.
“Where are we doing this proposal?”
“The engine bay of the Atticus?”
She grins. “Lashed to a spire?”
“We’re going to have to settle for something a little more down-to-earth.”
“My backyard?”
“Sounds good.”
I gather the tripod and phone adapter, and we walk through Ivy’s tidy kitchen and into her backyard.
“This is—beautiful.”
It’s a garden, like the front yard, but whereas the front has a wild country-garden feel, this is sculpted and tamed and curated. There’s a small patio with a rattan sofa, two chairs, and a glass coffee table. Blooms burst from pots and from beds that surround the patio, in small clusters of colors and shapes.
