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“I don’t think so, but he could change his mind.”
“Did you just all turn eighteen and move to America and were on your own? How did it all come about?”
“You know, no one has ever taken the time to ask me these things. Thanks for that. Each of us when we moved to America, my parents set us up with bank accounts for us, they bought us cars. They came over with us, or my mother did if my father couldn’t, but he tried to take time off to do it. They got us settled in school. Mark, Jasmine, and Dahlia all just got dropped off at their colleges and then they’d fly home to stay with my grandparents in Texas on breaks or summers.”
“So you weren’t really abandoned?” he asked.
“It might have felt like it, but no. Me, no one thought I could do it on my own. I couldn’t even argue with them. I didn’t want to live the way I had been, but I didn’t want to be alone. Dahlia was finishing college and couldn’t care for me. Jasmine was still in college. Mark and I were never that close. The only choice I had was my grandparents.”
“Were they strict?”
“In a different way than my parents were. As I said, I went to college and dropped out. I went back a few times to community college and it just didn’t stick. I always had a job and just decided to give school a break. I was managing a retail store before I moved here. Still living with my grandparents though.”
“Sounds to me like you know how to handle yourself. You came where you needed to be or do what needs to be done when the time calls for it.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
She was laughing when she said it and he just hoped to hell it wasn’t a game she was playing.
“You are,” he said.
“Do you want to know why I was so drawn to you?” she asked.
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me even if I say no,” he said.
“I am,” she said. “Sometimes people need nice things said to them. Or compliments.” He lifted his eyebrows at her and she only grinned. “You’re a big rough hammer. You are probably really efficient in your job and you were going through what needed to be done. You have no time for nonsense, but you lowered your voice and had patience with me. When everyone else is used to me being dramatic you said I had every reason to act that way without even knowing me. You’ve got morals and values that shine on you when you don’t want them to. You talk about your siblings in the same tone you did that night with me. When you talk about your parents you have this look on your face that it bothers you at how hard they work and you wish they’d cut back. I bet you take care of them even when they tell you not to. Or you find ways to do things for them.”
She completely humbled him and he wasn’t sure anyone else ever had before.
“That’s a mouthful,” he said.
“You’re not denying it so I’m sure it’s the truth, but you won’t brag either. Anyway, that is why I was drawn to you.”
“You’re good at sex,” he said.
She burst out laughing. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You kiss well,” he said, leaning down to put his mouth on hers.
“Another good one.”
“You’ve got a smoking body on you.”
“I work hard for it.”
His mouth moved to her ear. Very softly he admitted, “You make my heart race when we aren’t even having sex.”
She laid her head on his shoulder and was quiet after that.
15
Let It Go
She couldn’t be making Brooks’s heart race too much since she hadn’t heard from him in two weeks.
Maybe what she’d done wasn’t so smart.
Then Ivy had to tell herself, it’s not like he completely ghosted out of her life.
