Page 125 of What About Us

“Brenda contacted me a while ago. Tried to extort money from me. Clearly that didn’t happen, and she doesn’t worry me, but I’ve had a private investigator keeping an eye on her because I didn’t want her to try to hurt you. I felt better keeping tabs on her.”

I exhale and close my eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, no. This isn’t your fault, and I was purely trying to protect you. But I got a call this morning that Brenda’s in Arizona. She’s not good, Ivy. She’s homeless, and he says it looks like she’s using. I need to know what you want me to do.”

I pause, frowning at him.

“What do you mean? What in the world would there be to do about this?”

“Do you want me to pay for her to get off the streets and clean her life up?”

“Fuck no.” I shake my head, and I wish that we were alone because I want to climb in his lap and hug him to me. “No, Xander. I don’t want you to rescue her. She made her choices, and she’s a horrible human being. I did what I could to help her, and she let her life fall to shit all on her own. I hate that it’s come to this for her, but if you gave her money, she would waste it and end up right back where she is. You sent her to rehab for me, and she basically threw it back in your face. We’re done helping her. Because she’d never return the favor for me.”

His eyes move over my face, and when he sees that I mean every single word, he nods.

“Okay. I’ll tell the PI to close the case, and we’ll leave it alone.”

“Good. I’m ready for her to no longer be an issue in my life. I just want to move on.”

He leans over to capture my mouth with his. “Then that’s what we’ll do, wildcat.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

XANDER

“No pain?” Ivy asks as I do a deep squat with a hundred and fifty pounds on my back.

“No.”

She nods and I do another. I’m almost six months out from my injury, and I’m pain-free. Of course, she watches me like a fucking hawk, but I don’t mind because I love having Ivy’s attention.

I’m fucking addicted to her.

She’s been putting me through the paces today, and I’m a sweaty mess, but I don’t mind because I feel great, and this means that I’m so close to getting back on the ice with my team.

“We’ll head to the rink this afternoon,” she says. “Run some skating drills.”

“Does this mean I can go to Denver and practice with the guys?”

She lifts a brow and looks up at me. “Not yet. But you’re getting close to being able to do limited practice, with no contact. Your knee is still vulnerable, and hockey is violent, as you’ve pointed out to me several times.”

“That’s what makes it fun, sweetheart.”

She snorts and leads me over to the boxes. I’ve graduated up to one-legged box jumps. Even if it’s not far off the ground, it’s progress.

Thirty minutes and several different exercises later, she nods.

“Good job. We’re done for today.”

“I’m going to do upper body while you work,” I tell her, and she smiles at me. Fuck, that smile always smacks me right in the face.

“Sounds good.”

She grabs her water tumbler, the one I gave her when she started, and walks over to her desk and opens her laptop. Ivy pulls her legs up under her and immediately starts to type, those gorgeous hands flying over the keys.

“You’re not working out, you’re staring at me,” she says without even glancing my way, then takes a sip of her water.

“You’re so goddamn beautiful.”