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I could tell that Ivy had no idea what I was planning or hoping would happen after we got to her place. We’d been friends for so long that she trusted me enough to simply go along with whatever I requested, no questions asked. It was one of the things I loved most about us—the fact that friendship was the base of our foundation. And in my opinion, nothing was stronger than that.
The drive back to her apartment on the lake was relatively quiet. I remembered when she’d scored the place. She’d been so excited while the rest of us were seething with jealousy. It had been a hell of a deal through an old family friend who didn’t want to sell it, but wasn’t ever going to live there again. There were too many stairs, and it was too loud on the weekends with all the tourists. Bars and restaurants lined the street. Not to mention, all of the boats and pontoons docked right underneath her balcony. The location was grade A, and Ivy jumped at the chance. She hosted parties all the time in the summer, but I hadn’t been here in almost a year, and I was instantly regretting it. how work was always getting in the way.
I glanced over at Ivy, who I could tell wasn’t quite sure what I was up to and she was far too nervous to ask. What if my answer wasn’t what she wanted to hear? At least, that was what I assumed. Christmas music played in the background, and I turned it down a little with the button on my steering wheel.
“Are you okay? Is your seat heater working?”
I wanted her to be comfortable even though we’d never done anything as simple as this before. Driving together in a car should be an everyday occurrence for people who were old friends, but for me and Ivy, it just wasn’t. We’d been in cars often, but never alone. And never lately.
“It’s nice,” she said as she scooted her back into it. “This is nice,” she added, and I wanted to reach out and put my hand on her thigh.
I could tell there was more going on in that gorgeous head of hers, but she wasn’t saying any of it out loud.
“Ivy,” I breathed out as I focused on the road and the snow falling, not saying anything else even though I had a million thoughts racing in my head.
“Saint…” She said my name in response, waiting. “Is my family at my place? Is that why we’re still in these clothes?”
I laughed, glancing at her for only a second before watching my headlights illuminate the trees. “No. No one’s there.”
“Then, why’d you make me stay in this?”
I gave myself a quick pep talk and decided that I had nothing to lose. I’d already come this far, and I planned on taking it a hell of a lot further once we got to her place. “Because I’ve been fantasizing about you in it all day. Do you have any idea how sexy you look? How hard it was for me to focus on the kids and not your ass for five hours?”
She sucked in an audible breath before she started whispering things I couldn’t quite make out. I noticed that she pinched her arm.
“Is this real?”
“It’s real,” I answered, and her mouth dropped open slightly, like she hadn’t meant for me to hear the question, let alone answer it.
“How, Saint? Why now?”
“Because I can’t wait anymore.”
HE WANTS ME?
IVY
He couldn’t wait anymore?HE couldn’t wait anymore?
I’d been waiting a million years for this man to look at me like he wanted me, and now, he was telling me that he did? For how long? Since when?
I had so many questions and zero answers.
It was a crazy feeling though—getting the one thing you wanted after so many years of pining for it. It was almost unnatural. Like it couldn’t really be happening. Saint had always been just out of reach, and a part of me had figured he’d always stay that way. Wanting him, but not having him was a notion I’d grown comfortable with.
And now that he was telling me differently, I was anything but comfortable.
“Did I say something wrong?” His voice broke through the carols on the radio and the pounding of my heart.
“No. You just caught me off guard,” I admitted, shifting in my seat. It was suddenly too hot. Or maybe I was sweating.
“In a good way?” he asked as we pulled onto the gravel road that led to my lakeside apartment.
The snow had left a blanket of white on the ground and in the tree branches. Everything looked so pretty and peaceful. It was Christmastime at its finest.
I ignored his question completely and reached for my purse, so I could attempt to fish out my keys. My fingers were shaking, and I did my best to hide that from Saint as he put his car in park, but didn’t shut off the engine.
“Are you coming inside?” I asked as I continued the search, shaking my purse and hearing the sound of keys clanging, but not seeing them anywhere.
