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“Please come in,” Ivy says and they move to the side to let us in.
“Where is Ryder?” Jace asks and as soon as the words are out a young voice shouts from the top of the stairs.
“Uncle Jace?” A little boy tears down the stairs and hugs his uncle. They are obviously a close family and admiration floods me.
Jace introduces me. Ryder says hello but he’s interest is on the bag his uncle is holding.
“You and Dylan spoil him,” his mother says but her tone is fond.
We all watch as Ryder pulls a T-rex headlamp from the colorful bag. “Wow,” Ryder says. His excitement is palpable and it makes me want to be a kid again.
“It can shoot water too but you can only do it outside,” Jace explains.
It’s touching to see this side of him. It reminds me of the way he held and whispered to Sarah’s baby showing that he was good with children. A lot of people in the clinic find him a little bit intimidating and not as talkative as his brother, Dylan. But he is, in the right setting.
We follow Alec and Ivy into the living room. Ryder runs upstairs with his gift. The adults sit in the living room and chat. They are a fun and warm couple and they are careful to include me in the conversation.
“I’m sorry that Alec teased you when he opened the door,” Ivy says as I help her carry the dishes of food to the table.
I laugh. “It’s fine. It was worth it to see the look on Jace’s face. He looked like he wanted to kill his brother.”
Chapter 11: Olivia
“How did you two meet?” I ask Ivy and Alec during dinner.
They look at each other and laugh, increasing my curiosity.
Jace is on my right side and I look at him questioningly. He shrugs and chuckles. “Not my story to tell.”
“The first time we met, we hated each other,” Ivy says. She rakes a hand through her wavy dark brown her and her eyes gleam. Not only is she intelligent, but she is also very pretty.
I’ve always had this image of authors as extremely introverted. People who don’t shower for days on end and spend all day in their pajamas. Silly, of course, but I don’t know any authors. It’s an odd thing coming from a magazine writer but journalists are a different breed. None of my colleagues have aspirations to write a book. They love writing short articles and stories. So do I, actually. I can’t imagine working on one project for months or years. It would drive me insane. So you see, even if we both earn our living from writing, they’re different professions that attract very different personalities.
Ivy is very friendly and chatty while Alec is reserved but very observant.
“I did not hate you. I was attracted to you,” Alec says mildly.
Ivy shakes her head. “Trust me, he hated me and to be honest, it was mutual. I disliked his superior attitude. To be fair though, he’d never been to that part of town. I was a struggling writer.”
I’m surprised by that. Ivy looks posh but I suppose years of good living will do that to you. “He came to your place before you knew each other?” I ask.
“Yes. I was a surrogate for a family friend and her husband. I got pregnant but it turned out that the clinic had used the wrong sperm.”
Shock reverberates through me. The information is given so casually that it hides the seriousness of it. I’m horrified. I glance at Jace. He doesn’t look happy that Ivy is telling that story. I don’t blame him. It’s the kind of that would damage the reputation of the clinic.
The kind of story that brought me to the clinic.
“Our one and only mistake,” Alec says. “Ivy, you really shouldn’t tell that story; it will give Olivia the wrong impression about the clinic.”
“I don’t go repeating it to everyone,” Ivy says, unaffected by the irritation in Alec’s voice. “Only to people I trust.”
Guilt grabs me by the throat. I push it back down. I’m only listening right now. Like any other guest would. I have so many questions. What happened to that baby? Is he Ryder? If so, does that mean that Alec is not the biological dad? But what about the resemblance I saw between Ryder and his parents, especially his dad?
I can’t believe I almost shied away from coming to dinner. “What happened?”
“It turned out that they used Alec’s sperm. Don’t ask me why he had stored his future family.” She turns to Alec and they both chuckle. “So that’s how I ended up pregnant with Alec’s baby,” she says.
“Then you fell in love?” I ask.
