“Be serious!” I swat his arm and smile.
“I truly don’t know. My feelings came hard and fast, but they were also a slow build. I knew when I met you, you were someone special. I knew at the pool that I was desperate for more of you. I knew on the gondola that I wanted to try with you, that the pretend thing wasn’t working for me and never had. And when you sang karaoke, I knew that I would stay with you, no matter what it took, for as long as you’d let me.”
“Alex, I never wanted you to have to give anything up, and it looks like that’s exactly what’s happening. And all I’ve done is gain.”
“I’d been itching for a change for a while. I did what I wanted to in Hollywood, and now I’m over it. I don’t long for fame or money. I still want to create, but I have a plan for that. It allstarts with the box.”
“Oh my gosh! I forgot about the box. What was in it?” I move off Alex’s lap to sit beside him, and he pouts.
“It was full of my grandfather’s World War II things and letters he exchanged with my grandmother.”
“Wow. I can’t wait to see it all.”
“I wish I had brought it with me.” Alex twirls one of my curls around his finger. “I’m writing a screenplay. A love story set in World War II. And the good thing about screenplay writing is I can do it anywhere. I mean, I’ll have to travel some, but mostly, I could be here.”
I launch myself at Alex and pin him to the sofa. I kiss him until I hear something and turn to find the Parkers standing there with shopping bags.
Did they buy throw pillows?
47
Alexander
I’vebeenbackwithIvy for three days now. I’ve been staying at a bed and breakfast, but the bed was too short for me, so the first piece of furniture—after the sofa—that I want to buy, is a bed.
“Lie down and see what you think,” I tell Ivy, as we stand in the middle of a sea of mattresses, looking at one that claims to be perfect for most sleep types.
“It doesn’t matter what I think.”
“It will.”
She raises her eyebrows at me. “That’s presumptuous.”
“We’ll be married before too long.”
“Will we now?”
I lean down and whisper into her ear. “When I know what Iwant, I’m not afraid to go for it. And my sole focus right now is securing a lifetime with you.”
Ivy shivers, and I place a kiss on her temple, then place my hand on the small of her back, urging her toward the bed.
From that point forward, our shopping experience is a blur because I can’t get thoughts of rings, weddings, and everything with Ivy, out of my mind. I don’t know anything about the mattress I buy, apart from the fact that Ivy likes it. And it’s the same with the bed frame. It could have unicorns on it, and I wouldn’t know. Mentally, I’m at a jewelry shop.
I need to refocus. She deserves my full attention.
I thread my fingers through Ivy’s and kiss her cheek when we step out of the store, heading to the car and then on to dinner.
“Tell me more about your screenplay,” she requests as she fastens her seatbelt.
“It’s about this woman named Ivy—”
She shoves my shoulder. “No, it’s not.”
I chuckle. “No. I haven’t yet named the female lead. I’ve just been calling her Jane.”
“And you don’t want to use your grandparents’ names?”
“No. I want to honor them, but not use their actual story or their names.” I turn out of the car park toward the restaurant.
