Wicked Fun: An Ivy Morgan Mystery Books 7-9

by Lily Harper Hart

  Jack snorted. “That’s entirely different and you know it. They had a reason not to like that guy. Kids can be impressionable. My mother had no reason to dislike anyone. She just likes exerting control. She’s a control freak. She always has been.”

  “Still, I could see what she was thinking,” Ivy said, her expression unreadable. “You aren’t with me because of that, right? I mean … you didn’t stay because you felt guilty about what happened, did you?”

  Jack pinched the bridge of his nose as he groaned and slipped lower on the floor, resting his shoulder blades against the couch and rolling Ivy so she was on top of him and had no choice but to look into his eyes. “I am with you because I love you. I loved you even then even though I had no idea that’s what I was feeling. You have to know that.”

  Ivy chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes glassy as she contemplated the statement. “You would tell me if you felt obligated to be with me, right?”

  “Ivy, I would never stay out of a sense of obligation. That’s not who I am. I’m here because I want to be here.”

  Ivy pressed her lips together and nodded as Jack stroked the back of her head.

  “This is exactly why I didn’t want to do this dinner thing,” Jack muttered, clutching Ivy closer as he rested his forehead against her cheek. “You’re the least insecure person I know and yet my mother is making you feel as if you’re on uneven footing in our relationship. You’re not. I need you to know that.”

  “Does that mean I’m still the boss?”

  Jack barked out a laugh. “You’re definitely the boss.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead as he ran his hands over her back. “Ivy, I need you to prepare yourself for the fact that things might not go the way you want. My mother may never warm to you, and Denise … well, she’s only going to warm to herself because that’s the only person she cares about.”

  “I’m not really worried about Denise,” Ivy admitted. “I’ve met women like her before and she’ll give up when she realizes she can’t get a rise out of me.”

  “That is completely true.”

  “Your mother is a different story,” Ivy added. “I want her to like me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you came from her. I would be sitting in front of this fire alone if your mother didn’t bring you into this world. She can’t be all bad because you’re so good.”

  Jack swallowed the lump in his throat, her words touching him. “Oh, honey, I love you so much it overwhelms me sometimes.” He buried his face in her hair and pulled the blanket tighter. “My mother isn’t a bad person. She’s merely set in her ways.”

  “Then I guess we’ll have to change that.”

  “I’m not sure that’s possible.”

  “We won’t know unless we try.” Ivy was determined. “I have to stop being such a wimp, though. If she’s not going to like me it’s obvious I’m not going to change her mind by appealing to her sense of humanity.”

  “I have no idea what that means, but I’m already liking the sound of it.”

  “I’m just going to have to tell her how things are,” Ivy said. “I’m not going to go to her any longer. She needs to come to me next time. I mean … I made Cornish hens for the woman. She should be bowing down and thanking me for the best meal ever.”

  Jack found the visual absurd but he loved that Ivy’s feisty nature seemed to be returning. “Exactly.”

  Ivy’s eyes were plaintive when she shifted them to Jack. “If I get in a fight with your mother, are you going to be okay with that?”

  Jack nodded, sober. “I think she needs it. Just don’t smack her around or anything. You fight like a dude when you want to throw down.”

  “That’s because of Max.”

  “It’s not a bad thing. My mother doesn’t fight like a dude, though.”

  “What about your sister?”

  “Oh, you can smack the crap out of her.” Jack flashed an enthusiastic smile as Ivy giggled. “I would pay money to see it.”

  The duo lapsed into comfortable silence for a moment, only breaking the spell when Ivy stirred.

  “I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I’m going to have a talk with your mother. I don’t see any way around it.”

  “You have to do what you have to do.”

  Ivy’s eyes flashed with heat instead of worry when she shifted her hips against Jack. “There’s something else I want to do.”

  “And that’s only one of the reasons I love you,” Jack said, grinning as he rolled to pin her to the floor. “Lay it on me, honey. This is already the highlight of my day.”

  Thirteen

  “And how was your dinner last night?”

  Brian’s smirk was obvious as he sat at his desk the next morning, casting a sidelong look in Jack’s direction as the younger man flipped through some files.

  “Pretty much how you would expect,” Jack replied. “Ivy cooked Cornish hens and they were delicious. Max opened his big mouth and mentioned the time she got shot and I ran away. Then my mother and sister fixated on that little development until they left.”

  Even though he was in the mood to tease his partner, Brian couldn’t help but be sympathetic. “I wasn’t happy when you pulled that disappearing maneuver, but you and Ivy have obviously gotten past it. I can’t believe Max brought it up.”

  “I can. Max speaks before he thinks.”

  “Are you going to beat him up?”

  Jack shrugged. “I might bust his balls on it later, but he hardly did it to be mean. He was just joking around and his mouth got ahead of him.”

  “That’s his lot in life,” Brian agreed. “What are you looking at?”

  “The autopsy report on Ron McDonald is in,” Jack replied. “As far as the medical examiner can tell, he was shot with an antique pistol.”

  Brian stilled, surprised. “Seriously? Like a musket ball or something?”

  “No, more like a Colt revolver,” Jack replied. “That’s like something they used in the Old West, right?”

  “Your lack of firearms knowledge baffles me,” Brian muttered, shaking his head. “For simplicity’s sake, though, that’s exactly what they used back in the olden days.”

  “Well, I would guess not many people have that sort of weapon around these parts,” Jack mused. “I guess we can go through registrations and see what we come up with.”

  “I have a Colt revolver.”

  Jack arched an eyebrow. “Seriously? I didn’t know you collected guns.”

  “I don’t really collect them,” Brian replied. “It belonged to my grandfather and he left it to me when he died. It doesn’t work. It basically sits in my gun case. I get it out every so often and clean and oil it. I think you might be surprised how many people collect guns around here, though. The owner might not be nearly as easy to track down as you expect.”

  “Is yours registered?”

  Brian nodded. “I registered mine because I’m a police officer and know the rules. The thing is, a lot of people might not do the same. If an older relative died, then a firearm could be passed down through generations without it ever being registered.”

  “You’re basically saying that running registrations is going to be a dead end.”

  “I’m basically saying that it can’t hurt, but we can hardly limit our search to registrations,” Brian clarified. “I might know a dealer over in Bellaire, though. He collects guns and they have a little group of people who meet every so often so they can admire their pieces. He might be able to give us some direction.”

  Jack fought the mad urge to laugh as he bit the inside of his cheek. “You basically just said a group of men get together to show each other their pieces. You know that, right?”

  Brian shrugged. “I heard it as soon as I said it. There was no need to comment.”

  “Well, give your friend a call and I’ll run the registrations to see if I come up with something,” Jack said. “After that, Max gave me a tip on the Shadow Lake Credit Union. He said he saw Ron doing business there f
rom time to time.”

  “Okay, that sounds like a place to start,” Brian said. “Let’s get to it.”

  IVY SPENT the bulk of her morning working in the greenhouse. Even though the weather had turned she had work to do before the snow arrived. She needed everything put away and orderly when the spring season rolled around again. Once the snow hit she would barely see the property, and only when she took the time to drive around to the west entrance. The snow would be too thick to traverse on foot.

  She was lost in thought as she dusted off pots, her mind wandering to dinner the night before. She had no idea how to handle Margaret Harker. She wasn’t used to people not liking her. Er, well, that wasn’t exactly true. Plenty of people didn’t like her. Ivy didn’t like most of those people right back so it wasn’t a major problem in her life. Until now, of course. Jack’s mother hated her and for the first time ever she didn’t like the feeling.

  The sound of the greenhouse door opening caused Ivy to jerk her head to the left. She expected to find Max there, an apology already bubbling on his lips, but instead she was surprised to see Gilly McKinnon gripping her hands together as she swayed in the doorway. Ivy hopped to her feet and hurried over, dumbfounded.

  “Gilly, what are you doing here?” Ivy asked, instinctively grabbing the woman by the elbow and leading her toward a chair. Gilly was huge. She looked as if she was ready to give birth at any second, which made Ivy understandably nervous. “Should you be out and about like this?”

  “Probably not,” Gilly replied, offering a nervous chuckle. “Darren doesn’t even know I’m out of the house. He thinks I’m reading in bed. He’s busy all day at the turkey farm because everyone is picking out their holiday birds so I kind of slipped out when he wasn’t looking.”

  Ivy worked overtime to keep her expression neutral as she sat in the chair opposite Gilly and fixed the weary-looking woman with a confused look. “Yeah. I guess I didn’t realize how a turkey farm worked. I thought you guys had a refrigerated section. I hope I didn’t hurt Darren’s feelings when we left without buying something yesterday.”

  Gilly chuckled. “Darren told me about that. It was the best laugh I’ve had in days. He was fine. He couldn’t wait to reenact the story for me, though. He said your face went white and your eyes were as big as saucers.”

  “I don’t think that’s very far from the truth,” Ivy said. She had no idea why Gilly came for a visit, but she was smart enough to let the woman get where she was going on her own. “I was shocked. I think I must’ve been blind not to realize it. Jack laughed when I told him the story, too.”

  “I think it sounds just like you,” Gilly said. “I haven’t had much cause to laugh recently, but that did it for me, so I thank you for that.”

  “Yeah, well … I was sorry to hear about your father,” Ivy offered, sympathy washing over her. “He was a really good man. I always liked him. He was extremely nice to me whenever I had occasion to run into him.”

  “He always liked you. Some of his farm hands saw you in town one day – oh, I guess this was about two years ago – and they were making lewd comments because they thought you were pretty. They asked Darren if you were seeing someone and then said they wanted to take you out on a date.”

  “I’m guessing they didn’t say it that nicely.”

  “Not even close.” Gilly’s smile was rueful as she tugged a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. “My father heard them talking, though, and he had a total meltdown. He was not happy about what he heard and he told them in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t going to be tolerated.

  “He said you were a good girl and he wasn’t worried about one of them approaching you because you could take care of yourself,” she continued. “He also said that Max would kick their butts if they got handsy or something. My father was a good man and didn’t like it when people talked poorly about others. He thought everyone deserved respect.”

  “That’s exactly how I remember him, too,” Ivy said, leaning back in her chair. She didn’t want to push Gilly, but she was honestly confused by the woman’s sudden appearance. “Gilly, is something wrong?”

  “What? No. Of course not.” Gilly’s eyes widened as she gripped her hands together. “It’s just … I was out driving because I needed some air. I’m not technically supposed to be driving, but the plan was just to go a few miles. Before I realized it I was driving down the road and I saw the greenhouse door open. You were in my head because Darren told me the story so I couldn’t help but look.

  “I didn’t see a vehicle, but I know you walk to work sometimes so I took a shot that you were here,” she continued. “I have no idea why I did it. It’s not as if we spend a lot of time together. It’s just … there are no women on the farm. It’s all men.”

  Realization dawned on Ivy and she offered Gilly a warm smile. “And you didn’t want to talk to the men because they look at you as if you’re a bomb that’s about to go off.”

  Gilly nodded. “It’s not just the baby either, although that doesn’t help. It’s almost as if they think I’m going to burst into tears the second they say something, so instead of saying anything they avoid eye contact and hurry away. It makes me feel as if I have cooties or something.”

  “That doesn’t sound fun at all,” Ivy said, leaning back in her chair. “You know you’re welcome to visit whenever you want. I’ve always enjoyed your company although, after today, I probably wouldn’t risk coming by the greenhouse. I’ll be shutting everything down. The house isn’t too far away, though. You can stop in for some tea or something.”

  “I would like that.” Gilly glanced toward the window, her face unreadable. “The baby is coming soon. He’ll be here any day.”

  “He?”

  “It’s a he. We decided to learn the sex so we could decorate without being stuck with neutral colors.”

  “That sounds nice,” Ivy said. “You must be so excited.”

  “I was … before this.”

  Ivy’s heart rolled at the sad expression on Gilly’s face. “Your father never got to see his first grandchild. That must be difficult. I can’t even imagine dealing with that.”

  “It’s not just that,” Gilly admitted. “My mother died before I was ready to have children. My father was sad and depressed since it happened, but he was so excited to meet the baby. He couldn’t stop talking about it.

  “It’s not just that my father died before he had a chance to meet my son,” she continued. “It’s that my son – and any future children I have – won’t have a chance to know their grandfather. I feel as if something has been taken away from my son before he’s even born.

  “I know that’s ridiculous to think, but I can’t get it out of my head,” she said. “How am I supposed to deal with my father’s death so close to what is supposed to be the happiest time in my life?”

  “Oh, I get it,” Ivy intoned, leaning forward so she could squeeze Gilly’s hand. “You feel guilty. You feel as if you’re being disloyal to your father if you’re happy about the baby’s arrival. If you’re sad when the baby comes, you’re somehow being disloyal to your son.”

  “Yes.” Gilly energetically nodded. “I loved my father and I’m thrilled to be having a son. How am I supposed to reconcile those two things? The sadness is so pervasive, but a baby’s arrival should be about joy and love.”

  Ivy wet her lips as she decided how to answer. “I didn’t know your father very well, but it seems to me that he wouldn’t want you to miss out on anything,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “He was excited about this baby and he wouldn’t be happy to know that you’re torturing yourself because you think you should be sad.

  “The thing is, you can’t help but be sad about the loss of your father,” she continued. “He was your father, after all. He loved you more than anything. I remember seeing you together when I was a kid and he always beamed when he had you by his side. All of those carnival rides he took you on and when you dressed up and took that cow as your sidekick in the pet
parade … he loved you every moment of every day.

  “You can’t avoid the sadness, but it will eventually get better,” she said. “You can take your son to the cemetery and teach him about respect. You can tell him stories and show him photographs. It’s certainly not an ideal situation, but you can only do the best you can do.

  “One day you’re going to realize that the best thing your father ever did for you was to teach you how to be a good parent,” Ivy said. “That’s his legacy and it’s something you can pass on to your son.”

  Gilly’s smile was wan. “And I think that’s exactly why I stopped to see you today. Instinctively I knew you would tell me what I needed to hear.”

  “I’m not sure I told you anything other than the truth.”

  “Yes, but I needed to hear the truth,” Gilly said. “Darren has been so good through all of this, but he’s stressed. He doesn’t want me to see it because he doesn’t want me to worry. It’s hard on both of us.”

  Ivy rolled an idea around in her head before deciding to absorb the risk associated with delving into Gilly’s personal life. “Can I ask you something?”

  Gilly nodded.

  “Did you know your father was in financial trouble?”

  “I knew he had some big bills coming up, but he said everything was going to be fine. Do you know something different?”

  Ivy didn’t like the alarmed look on Gilly’s face. “As far as I know you should be fine,” she replied hurriedly. “It’s just … your father had a lot of debt. It’s something your uncle didn’t tell Jack when they first questioned him. I was simply wondering if the financial problems were severe or only looked worrisome to someone looking in from the outside.”

  “My father never lied to me,” Gilly said. “If we were in trouble, he would’ve told me.”

  “Even though you’re pregnant and he didn’t want to heap stress on you with your delivery being so close?”

  Gilly opened her mouth to answer and then thought better of it, tilting her head to the side as she considered the question. “I would like to say no but … that sounds like him. He believed in being truthful, but he was protective above all else.”