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“Don’t glare at him. You know you want him here,” I whispered, taking his hand.
He glanced down at it and then at me, saying, “How the fuck are you still hungry?”
“I almost forgot I was annoyed with you. Thank you, dick.” I snapped, pulling my hand away and marching to the room by myself.
ETHAN
I was confident if my mother were still alive she’d have no idea how to handle Ivy. The woman was the very definition of a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. She didn’t react or say anything the way anyone else would. I’d had a man’s balls cut off and she’d slept with me. I’d mentioned she’d eaten too much and she was ready to never speak to me again. She smiled when she was supposed to be scared and judged complicated things simply. There was no due north with her. However, she reacted purely based on her own moral code, which was just as skewed as mine.
“A delivery.” Toby came in with a giant basket of sunflowers.
“From?” I asked. Everyone paused eating to look up at them.
“The Moretti Family. They were also in the church. All of them came out alive, though.”
“All of them?” Ivy questioned, and Toby nodded, making her frown as she spoke again. “That’s weird.”
“What is?” my aunt Mina questioned.
“I was sure I left Klarissa bleeding out on the floor before leaving the church. She asked for help, but I left, and smoke was pouring in there. I guess some people really have nine lives.” She shrugged, licking marble cake off her spoon. Her eyes lit up and she turned to me. “This is really good!”
Everyone else was silent, trying to process what she’d just causally admitted to.
“You left her bleeding out?” Mr. In-His-Damn-Feelings, asked her.
Ivy looked at him and nodded. “A piece of the door went into her thigh.”
“And you just left her?” Wyatt still pressed.
Shaking my head, I reached for the wine as she went on.
“What did you want me to do? Carry her on my head?” she questioned, and I snorted, fighting back a laugh. Me. They were all just as shocked as I was, looking at me. Ignoring them, I wiped the corner of my mouth.
“You could have—”
“Next time a church falls on top of you, you can let me know what I should have done. But in all honesty I left her not because she would’ve been heavy and obviously slow me down from saving my own life, thanks for asking, by the way.” She made a face at him, and I really was dying to laugh inside, but held my composure as she went on. “I don’t like her. I’m kinda disappointed. I really wished the big guy had handled that one for me.”
No one said anything, just stared at her, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, sighing before turning back to Toby.
“Is she at least okay?” she asked him, but her tone clearly not giving two shits.
“Both her legs are broken,” Toby replied.
“Well, that’s something, I guess.” She shrugged and then turned to me, pointing her spoon at me. “Are you going to eat your cake?”
Lifting the plate, I handed it to her and you’d think I’d given her a gold bar.
“Thank you.” She ate happily, either ignoring or not noticing the looks everyone around the table was giving her.
Both my uncles glanced at me. I knew that look. Approval.
Who I chose to marry wasn’t just my business, it was family business. And while they seemed like happy-go-lucky married men…they were Callahans. They accepted my choice, because they had to. Approval was why my Aunt Cora set up this dinner, the last time we would have together for a long time, as they’d leave Chicago again. Once my father had died and I took over, they wanted no confusion to who the head of the family was…and they were tired. Burnt out. Uncle Declan and Aunt Cora lived on a boat. Yes, a damn boat. They’d spent the last couple of years sailing together. They were almost always unreachable, only making exceptions for emergencies. While Uncle Neal and Aunty Mina lived in the outskirts of some place in South Korea, like normal people.
“Just this once I’m going to pretend to go to the ladies’ room so you all can have a moment to talk about me,” she replied, acknowledging the fact that she did notice their gazes, then got up to do just that.
Nari’s brown eyes shifted to me and I nodded for her to follow Ivy out of the room.
“Well, she’s honest.” My aunt Cora grinned.
