by Carter Ashby
“Ivy, I…”
All she knew was that she didn’t want to hear it. She stomped on his foot and turned, leaving him hopping and cursing behind her.
She made it all the way over the fence and to her bike before he caught up to her. He didn’t touch her, but reached around and grabbed the key out of the ignition. She turned to face him, distraught that she couldn’t keep a couple of the tears from showing.
His cheek was red and his expression was stern. “Tell me what I’m supposed to think. Dallas has been going on and on about how you two have been sleeping together. I don’t wanna believe him, but the fact is, I don’t know you, Ivy. I don’t know what you’re capable of. And you sure didn’t have any hesitation about jumping me—”
She raised her hand, again instinctively. This time he caught her wrist.
“Ivy, I know I deserve it. I know. But don’t hit me again. Come on, let’s just talk about this.”
“I hate you,” she snarled through her teeth.
His jaw ticked. As she relaxed her arm, he loosened his grip on it. “I can see that. But I gotta know. What’s going on with Dallas?”
“I don’t owe you anything.”
“I know that, too. I know, Ivy, I really do. But the fact is, I ain’t been able to get you out of my head since that day. I don’t know why, but I’ve got it in my head that you belong with me. Did…did you feel that way after…?”
Damn him and his earnest expression and his blatant honesty. Ivy’s heart melted like butter on a hot biscuit. She slumped and sat back against the seat of her bike.
“Just…please tell me what kind of girl I went and fell for,” he said softly.
Ivy took a deep, cleansing breath, and exhaled slowly. “You’re right. We don’t know each other. So this once I’ll defend myself to you. But if that doesn’t earn me some good faith with you, then I don’t want anything to do with you.”
He nodded quickly. “I understand.”
She stood, rolled her shoulders, and took one more breath. “Okay, I can’t tell you what Dallas is hiding, but for some reason he’s decided to hide it under the pretense that he and I have been sleeping together. Which is the furthest thing from the truth because…eww.” She shivered.
Jake smiled.
“So he fake broke up with me and I had no idea what was going on. I still don’t.”
“So he’s using you for cover? Do you know what it is he’s hiding?”
She looked at him, hoping he wouldn’t ask her any more on the subject.
His expression grew more stern. He nodded. “Okay. Why can’t you tell me?”
“It’s a confidence. You wouldn’t want me telling your secrets, would you?”
“I don’t have any secrets.”
She grinned, arching a brow. “You have one, at least.”
He bit his bottom lip and looked her up and down. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
Ivy felt herself blush down to her toes under the heat of his appraisal.
“Okay,” Jake said. “Then, whatever he’s hiding has worse consequences than sleeping with you would.”
Ivy shrugged. “I guess that’s a matter of perspective.”
He studied her for a long moment, eyes narrowed. After what felt like forever, he relaxed. “Is there anything else I need to know?”
Ivy was filled with the urge to tell him everything. Of course, she wasn’t stupid enough to give in to such an urge. Just because he was approaching her with honesty and the most gorgeous brown eyes on the planet didn’t mean it was time for her to bare her soul to him. So she shrugged and said, “Nope. I think that’s it.”
“Doesn’t solve the mystery of why your truck’s been seen parked next to one of our trucks at that motel.”
Ivy pressed her lips together.
Jake raised his eyebrows.
Ivy slumped back. “I do know the answer to that, but I can’t tell you.”
“You could if you set your mind to it.”
She grinned down at her boots. “Jake, I ain’t sleeping with any of your brothers. Or anyone else, for that matter. That’s really all you want to know, isn’t it?”
“It’s part of it.” He reached down and tipped her chin up. “Do you like me, Ivy?”
Her face went hot again. She shrugged, looking down at her boots once more.
Jake chuckled. “If you want me to walk away, just say so. But you gotta look me in the eyes so I know you’re serious.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “I don’t want you to walk away.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. He nodded once. “Good. I won’t.”
“Good.”
She shrugged.
He shrugged.
They stood there, suddenly unable to hold eye contact.
“So, uh,” Jake stammered, kicking at the ground, “how do you want to do this?”
“Reverse cowgirl?” Ivy said, hoping to shock him, even though she blushed to her ears doing it.
His eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. And then he laughed. “Shit,” he said to the sky.
Ivy laughed with him. “You don’t like doing it that way?” she asked, moving into him.
“I like that way just fine.”
She giggled, holding onto his hips, her head dropping almost all the way back as she looked up at him.
He brushed her hair aside. “Obviously that wasn’t what I meant.”
“Obviously.”
His expression sobered, some. “How do you want me to, um…court you?”
“Court me?”
“Yeah. Do you want to take it slow? I mean, we can’t go on traditional dates, but we could meet. Have picnics here at the creek. Hold hands.”
“Hold on, why can’t we go on traditional dates?”
“You kidding? My old man would disown me.”
Ivy stepped backwards, dropping her hands from his hips. “You’re a grown man. You’re almost forty, for Christ’s sake.”
“I’m thirty-six…what’s that got to do—”
“You’re standing there, a grown man, telling me you can’t date me because it might upset your daddy?”
Jake’s cheeks reddened slightly. “I said he would disown me.”
Ivy snorted. “You’re being overly dramatic.”
“That ranch is my life, Ivy. I date you, it’s gone. Do you get that?”
“That’s ridiculous. He’s not going to take that away from you just because you date someone he disapproves of. He’s all talk, Jake. He loses you, he loses his livelihood.”
But what she saw on his face was that, whether Gideon would or wouldn’t disown his son in actuality, Jake genuinely believed he would. And as a result, Jake wasn’t going to take a risk that might lose him the one thing he loved more than anything else in the world.
Ivy pondered on this. She turned it over in her mind. Turned it over in her heart, drawing from a deep well of compassion. She took in a deep breath, met Jake’s vulnerable gaze, and said, “Fuck you, Jake Deathridge! If you’re too afraid to so much as have a beer with me in public then you can go fuck yourself! God, I can’t believe I even came down here.”
She hopped on her bike and reached for the key, which wasn’t in the ignition. She shoved her open hand out to him.
Jake’s stone cold gaze didn’t waiver as he dangled her key in front of him and took a step backward. Then another. And another.
“Stop screwing around and give me my key,” she said.
He frowned, seemingly thoughtfully, and shook his head. “I don’t think so. We’re gonna talk common sense like adults, you’re gonna apologize for being mean to me, and then we’ll have a nice, passionate kiss goodbye. Then you can have your key.”
“You condescending son-of-a-bitch! I’ll…I’ll…I’ll…”
He laughed. “You’ll what?”
“I’ll tell your mother!”
All humor left as his jaw dropped. “What the hell is with all the low-blows? You ever try being nice?”
“Give me the key, Jak
e!”
“No! You’re so damn self-righteous, you stand there and tell me why I should risk my livelihood to go on a date with a woman I hardly know?”
“Because I’m a woman you want to get to know. You just said you liked me. You said I belong with you. So?”
“So let’s see each other quietly…discreetly for a while. Figure out what we want from each other. Figure out if there’s even anything we can work with here. Then we can talk about going public and the consequences of that.”
Ivy frowned at him as she got her temper under control. It made sense. He wasn’t asking for anything unreasonable. But damn it, there was no romance in it!
She should sacrifice her ideas of romance for him. It was the right thing to do. “I don’t…” she stopped, thinking her words through. When she spoke again, she was quiet. “If you and I were to become something long term, I don’t think I could look back on this moment and respect myself for agreeing to what you’re asking.”
His eyebrows went up. “I’m asking to get to know you. How is that unreasonable?”
“I want romance.”
“Romance?” he said the word as if pronouncing it aloud for the first time in his life; uncertain, unsteady.
“Yeah. Romance. Gestures. Boldness. Courage.”
She may as well have been speaking in Swahili. He stared at her blankly for the longest time. “I don’t think I understand.”
She fisted her hands, but worked to keep control of her emotions. “It’s not rocket science, Jake. If you wanna see me, you can knock on my door, hat in hand, like a gentleman. If not, then we got nothing more to say to each other.” She lunged forward and snatched her key from his unresisting hand. Though she moved fast, she hoped he would stop her. Wished he would step forward and give her what she wanted.
But she rode home, angry, tired, and deeply disappointed.
Jake remained in a perpetual state of shock all the way through dinner that night. As he stared sightlessly at the plateful of roast beef with carrots and potatoes his mom had dished out, he kept going back to that word. Romance. Was it reasonable for her to want romance from him? Especially when they didn’t even know each other. Jake was no Romeo. Never even wanted to be. And Ivy was a born and bred ranch girl as well as a business woman…she should be above such ridiculous notions.
“I do hope Ivy isn’t too brokenhearted,” said Clara.
Jake looked up and opened his mouth, but closed it swiftly when he realized his mother wasn’t talking to him.
Dallas let out a heavy sigh, his cheek resting on his fist as he dished second helpings onto his plate. “Of course she’s brokenhearted, Mom. We were falling in love.”
Jake frowned at his blasphemous brother for taking the name of Love in vain. He himself couldn’t exactly say he was in love with Ivy just yet, but he knew for sure the seeds had been planted. All that wanted was some nurturing and, apparently, some romance.
Boone snorted at Dallas’s remark.
Clara smacked the back of Boone’s head. “Don’t mock your brother. Love isn’t a joking matter. Why, I can’t imagine how I would have survived if I hadn’t been allowed to see your father.”
“Thank you, Mom,” Dallas said. “Your understanding means so much to me.”
Punching him in the face would only elicit more questions that Jake couldn’t answer. He’d watched Ivy, earlier that day, take control of her temper by breathing deeply, so he decided to try it. He made it to the end of his inhale when Gideon spoke again.
“I did you a favor, son. Ivy may be a pretty girl, but she ain’t a lady.”
Clara gave a sad, resigned sort of nod.
“Ivy’s a lady,” Jake said, because his brain-to-mouth filter tended to malfunction at the sound of Ivy’s name.
Gideon snorted in response. “If she was a lady, she wouldn’t have been sleeping with Dallas, now, would she?”
Dallas darkened at the insult, but otherwise remained silent.
Clara reached over and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t say things like that, dear. Our Dallas is every bit the gentleman, aren’t you?” She pinched his cheek. He grinned at her.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Gideon merely shook his head and speared a forkful of roast beef. “Nah, that girl’s smart. Only reason she’d go after Dallas is to weasel her way into our good graces. He’s the only one dumb enough to think her sincere.”
Jake could no longer inhale or exhale, his teeth were ground together so tightly. Dallas pushed his plate away, leaned back in his chair, and got that distant look in his eyes that all the boys got from time to time. It was a way of shutting down, anesthetizing against Gideon’s cruelty. Clara sat up straighter, glancing between Dallas and Gideon as though confused by the situation; as though she hadn’t sat in that same spot all their lives and heard Gideon call Dallas “dumb” nearly every day.
“I guarantee you,” Gideon went on, jabbing at a piece of potato and a carrot, “that if she thought she could get her hooks in Jake, here, she’d have done it. She probably tried. Am I right, boy? Did she try flirting with you?”
Jake stared blankly at Dallas. “Not that I can recall.”
Gideon ignored the response and pointed his fork at Dallas. “I repeat…I did you a favor. She was playing you for a chump. You ought to know better than to think a girl like that would want anything to do with you. She’s a social climber, that one. Got her fancy clothes and college degree. You just go ahead and thank me right now, son, and be done with her. Go on.”
Dallas said, “Thank you, Pop.”
“You’re welcome. You’re right welcome.”
Jake got up and left the table.
“Honey, where are you going?” Clara shouted. “You didn’t eat your supper!”
The screen door slammed on her last word. He skipped the two porch steps, his boots landing solid on the gravel driveway. He followed it to the county road toward his house. The gravel crunched beneath his feet. The sun hovered over the tree line, gradually dipping, taking its summer heat with it.
Jake stopped, turned around, and started walking the other direction. He passed his parents’ house without incident and followed the county road all the way to where it intersected with a small highway. Three miles didn’t slow down his heartbeat or his intentions. The farmhouse came into view, big and beautiful, way more house than the two people living in it needed. Even when Mrs. Turner had been alive, she’d had to hire help to keep it clean. Three stories tall with a two-story wrap-around porch. Mrs. Turner used to talk about turning it into a bed and breakfast, but Jake doubted her introverted husband and daughter would do any such thing.
Jake jogged up the steps to the double doors and rang the bell. Ivy would open the door and he’d grab her and kiss her good and hard. He’d do it fast before her brain had a chance to ruin the moment. He’d kiss her so wildly that she’d beg him to take her to her room. Then he’d make love to her way longer than two and a half minutes. He’d blow her mind. Rock her world. Conquer her so thoroughly that she’d never want to leave his side.
The door swung open and Jake choked on his next breath. “Uh, hey, Mr. Turner.”
“Good evening, Jake. What brings you by tonight?” Jared, as amiable as ever, stood comfortably in his doorway, holding the screen door open.
“Umm…” Jake couldn’t help glancing past Jared’s shoulder to the interior of the house.
“Are you looking for Ivy?”
“What? No, of course not. Why would I be looking for Ivy?” He laughed nervously, cleared his throat, and schooled his expression. “No, sir, I came by to, um, to…to warn you. Right. About the thing on Myra’s blog.”
“What thing?”
“Myra caught me at the diner the other day and, well, at the time, she was asking about Ivy and Dallas. And I thought she’d done enough to poor Ivy, so…I suggested to her there might be some rivalry between you and my dad.”
“I see. You thought that would take her attention off Ivy.”
“Yes, sir.”
“In that case, no apology necessary. Ivy’s a strong, self-confident young woman, but the gossip was really beginning to get her down.”
Jake swallowed and nodded.
“I don’t suppose you happen to know how the rumors got started in the first place?”
Jake gulped again and shook his head.
Jared chuckled. “Son, if you wanna see her, she’s just upstairs.”
“See who? Ivy? I don’t even know her. I just came by, like I said, to apologize.” He started backing down the steps even as his eyes wandered upward. Somewhere up there in one of those rooms was a smallish girl with blond hair and warm skin and soft lips and a loud mouth…
“She isn’t doing anything important. I could call her down.”
She’d grown up up there, just a few miles from him. He’d spent all his life on that one patch of land and here she was, all the time. He remembered seeing her as a baby. A toddler. A little girl with braids. She’d grown up and gone to school with Boone. One summer, when she was sixteen, he’d seen her swimming in the river with her friends, climbing up on rocks and jumping off. He did remember that—her lean, bronzed body glistening in the sun; her smile big and innocent and unspoiled. He’d seen her in passing at church every Sunday, in the grocery store, at the diner, socializing at fairs and carnivals and parties. All this time. “I wouldn’t want to bother her,” he said, barely conscious of having said it.
“Jake.”
Jake’s head cleared and he met Jared’s gaze. “Yes, sir.”
“Are you in a relationship with my daughter?”
“No, sir.” That was an easy question to answer.
“Do you want to be?”
Not an easy question to answer. Jake laughed nervously. “No. Of course not. I don’t, like I said, even know her. I just…”
Jared blinked and folded his arms over his chest. “Just what?”
“I just never noticed her before, that’s all.”
“But you’re noticing her now?”
“No. I mean, yeah, but…but you wouldn’t want that, I’m sure. Right?”