by Aubrey Irons
She nods slowly, her eyes sizing me up before the corners of her lips pull up just enough to count as a grin.
Well, at least I’ll be counting it.
I turn back to Carter. “You like fishing, buddy?”
“He’s four, Silas.”
“Well, high time he learned then.”
She gives me a look.
“I could show him how to pick a lock or steal a candy bar if you’d rather.”
Her look sours, but she looks away to try and hide the grin that comes to her face.
“C’mere, buddy.”
I duck into the wheelhouse and grab a spool of fishing line and a lure hook from the rusty old tackle box that was in there when I rented the place. I lace on the lure and cut off a length of line before I kneel next to Carter at the back of the boat. He looks on with big, wide eyes as I show him how to hold on and dangle the line over the side.
I turn back to Stella, who looks reluctantly impressed.
“So. You and Ivy are….?” she trails off, raising a brow at me.
I shake my head. “I don’t know what we are, but I’m working on it.” I hold her look. “I’m not giving up this time.”
Stella moves next to me, her hand ruffling her son’s hair as he stares intently down the line into the water.
“Silas, I wanted you to meet Carter, and I want to believe things are good now, but I haven’t totally forgiven you.”
“You know why I left.”
She nods. “I know why, but that doesn’t mean I like it. You were better than all that, Silas.”
I shake my head. “No, I wasn’t.”
I glance down at my nephew, feeling anger at all the years I missed, but also this glowing warm feeling at being so close now to what I’d always wanted.
Family.
“You all wanted me to be better than that, but I wasn’t.” I look up into Stella’s eyes. “But I am now.”
Carter suddenly screeches as he looks up at me sharply with a wild look on his face and the line jumping in his small hands.
Stella laughs. “Did he actually catch something?”
I kneel next to Carter, whose cackling away as I help him pull the line up out of the water with the flip-flopping 2-inch flounder flailing around at the hook.
“Fish!” he says with almost wonder, his eyes round as he stares at his tiny catch.
“Yeah, buddy!” I throw my hand up for another high-five, and he smacks it. “You got one!”
I take it cleanly off the hook for him, letting him see it flop in my hand before I toss it back into the water.
He giggles.
“I’m not going anywhere, Stella,” I say as I stand. I glance back at Carter.
“I’ve got a lot of making up for lost time to do.”
Chapter 33
Ivy
“Hi.”
I glare at Blaine’s smug, tanned, bleach-toothed face in the hotel lobby.
“Oh, hi.”
“Ivy,” he reaches out to touch my arm but I pull away.
“Contractually obligated, Blaine,” I say icily. “That is the only reason I’m here right now.”
He nods, looking contritely at the floor. “That’s fair, I deserve that.”
I roll my eyes. “Please don’t play the victim card. Spare me.”
He nods again. “Thanks for being here.”
“I told you, contractually-”
“No, I know, it’s just-” he shrugs. “Ivy, your brand is better than mine, and we both know it. I know you’re carrying me, and I just want to say thank you.”
“Please don’t.”
I’m literally counting the minutes until this ridiculous thing is over. I’m here to mingle, smile for the branding teams from sneaker and cosmetic companies, and eco-travel destinations. I’m going to smile, I’m going to shake some hands, snap some pictures where I pretend I don’t want to drown Blaine in the punch bowl, and then I’m going home.
To Silas.
“Ivy, I know you don’t believe me, but that whole thing from before, that really was a photoshoot. There’s no one else.”
“That’s great, Blaine,” I say evenly, not smiling.
“I have to go.”
“So we’ll meet here in the lobby before we head out?”
“Fine.”
I think he’s about to say something else, but I ignore him as I turn and step towards the elevator banks. The doors to one open, and I blink as I suddenly come face-to-face with my assistant.
“Ainsley!”
She jumps at my sudden greeting before she focuses on me “Oh, Ivy!”
I throw my arms around her. “What are you doing here?”
She frowns as she pulls away. “Uh, my job?”
I grin. “Sorry I meant I didn’t know you were here here. Are you staying in the hotel?”
She nods. “Yeah, Lori and her crew put me up for tonight too.”
“So how’s Boston been? You’ve just been staying with your friend?”
She blinks quickly. “What?”
“Your friend? Isn’t she someone you went to college with?”
Ainsley clears her throat. “Oh, right, yeah. It’s been fun. How’s home been?”
I arch my brows. “It’s been…interesting.”
“What happened with that guy you hit on the pier?”
I laugh. “It’s a very long story.”
She glances down at her wrist watch. “Can it wait? You have to be ready in two hours or Lori is going to have a fucking meltdown.”
I grin again and give her another quick hug. “I’m so glad you’re here for this shit-show.”
After a long, hot shower, I check my reflection in the mirror in the hotel room mirror. Lori and her team have picked out this slinky black thing with tiny shoulder straps and silver sequins that wash down one side like a wave. I have to give her credit, it looks great.
I finish piling my hair up on top of my head, the slight curl I’ve given it post-shower falling to my shoulders and giving me that “casually elegant without trying” look that I’ve actually spent the better part of two hours trying to nail.
People always forget, even when they do it themselves, that the photographs people post online are the best of a bunch you took. We all forget that what people post about themselves is the highlights reel - the polished and shined side of what are ultimately the same, plain, everyday lives we all have. The same rough patches, the same bad hair days, the same hangovers, regrets, second thoughts, and heartbreaks.
I frown as I think of the way I walked away from Silas down at the docks before I left - at the way I snapped at him like that. Being home in Shelter Harbor and being around him - it’s bringing it all back. It was never simple with us, but I just want it to all be how it was back then.
Fresh, innocent, fearless.
We were like little kids who go barreling down the hill on their bikes - fearless because they don’t know they can get hurt. It’s not until you do fall, and realize how much that hurts, that you’re suddenly more guarded, and more cautionary in how you do it the next time.
I want to unlearn the hurt. I want to forget the history and the regrets and the broken hearts.
I pick up my phone and call him, but my face falls as it goes to voicemail. I try a second time before sighing and stuffing the phone into my clutch and meeting my own eyes in the mirror again.
I take a deep breath.
Okay, time to do this.
“Where the fuck is he?”
I’m pacing downstairs, checking the clock on the far wall of the lobby and grinding my teeth.
Blaine’s late, of course.
I mutter under my breath. “Seriously, he’s had two damn hours to put a fucking suit on. What’s taking him so long?”
Ainsley is silent when I look up.
“Ains?”
“Hmm?” She jerks her head up as if I’ve just startled her out of her thoughts.
“Blaine?”
She blinks. “Yes?”
“Do you know what’s keeping him?”
“Oh,” she blinks again, looking bizarrely and very uncharacteristically unfocused and scatter-brained. “I don’t know?”
I groan. “Okay, I’m going to do this stupid event, but I am not going to be late because Blaine’s rubbing tanner on his face or whatever he’s doing.”
I scowl as I turn and storm towards the elevators.
“Whoa, where are you going?”
My storming away breaks Ainsley out of her weird daze as she comes scurrying after me.
“To drag Blaine down here so we can get this thing over with.” I jab my finger at the elevator button.
“I’m sure he’s coming, Ivy.”
“Well he will when I go drag him out by the collar.”
“Ivy, we should just wait.”
Ainsley is frowning and checking her watch skittishly, but she follows me into the elevator.
Blaine’s shirt is unbuttoned when he answers the door to my impatient knocking.
“Oh, uh-”
His eyes dart from me to Ainsley standing behind me.
“Um, hey?”
I roll my eyes. “Are you seriously not ready yet?”
He blinks quickly, his eyes darting between Ainsley and I again. “Yeah, sorry, I got distracted.”
I follow him into the suite as he tucks his shirt into his suit pants and grabs his jacket from the back of a chair. He stops in the mirror, posing with these ridiculous facial expressions, as if he’s trying out for the cover of GQ instead of going to a stupid vendor gala.
Ainsley is wringing her hands, standing just inside the doorway when I glance up at her.
“Ains.”
“Yeah?”
I give her a small smile. “Relax, we won’t be late.” I turn and sigh heavily at Blaine, who’s still preening in the mirror.
“So long as someone gets their fucking hair in place so we can go?”
Blaine looks up, smiling. “Well, shall we?”
I roll my eyes again as I turn to my assistant. “Ains, can you call for the car?”
Her face is white as she frowns.
“Ainsley?”
She swallows. “I, uh, I can’t find my phone.”
I furrow my brow at her. “You sure you’re feeling okay today? You look ill. Is it in your bag?” I nod at the huge shoulder bag she’s hardly ever without.
Ainsley frowns as she starts to dig through it. “I- I don’t know.”
I sigh another exasperated groan as I open my clutch. “Look, I’ll just call it.”
“No! That’s-” She looks up at me quickly. “That’s okay, I’m sure it’ll turn up.”
“Why are you being so weird?”
I give her another curious look as I hit the call button on my phone.
Her phone rings its distinctive tone - the theme from Friends, and I watch as her face goes white.
The phone rings again, and I’m still staring expectantly at her bag, even though that’s not where the sound is coming from, when it suddenly hits me.
I turn slowly at the sound of the television theme song ringing melodically from across the room.
…From somewhere in Blaine’s bed.
I look up to see him looking at me in the same weird, slightly fearful way she is, and then it all clicks.
Oh, wow.
I’m dizzy from it, turning to stare at the two of them as Ainsley’s tell-tale phone goes quiet in the silence of the room.
“Wow,” I say quietly, shaking my head and locking eyes with my assistant - my friend.
She looks away quickly.
“This is actually amazing,” I mutter before barking out a humorless laugh.
“Blaine, you have outdone yourself.”
“Ivy, it’s-”
“Right, not what I think it is, is that it?” I look at him pitifully. “Please, spare me.”
I turn back to my assistant, this time narrowing my eyes at her until she looks up mournfully at me.
“And you?” I tsk as I shake my head.
“Ivy-”
“Go fuck yourself. Or Blaine, I honestly don’t even care.”
And then I’m gone, storming down the hallway.
I take the elevator to my floor, grabbing my things from my room and shoving them in my overnight bag.
I don’t even stop to change.
And then it’s down to the lobby, out the front door, and directly into a cab to North Station.
Because I’m not upset, and I’m not even that angry.
I’m just tired.
And I want to go home.
Chapter 34
Ivy
The late train from North Station to Shelter Harbor is mostly empty. A few drunks, the odd late-shift waiter or bartender.
I get some strange looks at the black and sequined cocktail dress I’m still wearing, but I don’t care. I’m tired, I’m drained, and inside my head, I’m closing the Blaine chapter of my life with a satisfied click.
Because I’m going back to an earlier one - a better one.
I’m going home, and right now, I just want my husband.
I need my lighthouse.
The cab driver I get at the Shelter Harbor train station gives me a strange look when I have him drop me off at the docks, but I pay it no mind. I slip off my high heels and walk barefoot down the pier, listening to the sound of the tide washing again the underside of the wooden docks.
His houseboat is dark, but I know he’s there.
I climb over the side and slowly open the door to the cabin. I watch him for a moment as he sleeps, his bare chest rising and falling in the glow of the moon. The dress slips from my shoulders, pooling on the floor before I slip my panties down my legs to join it there.
There are no words, I just slide into bed with him, smiling as I find him as naked as I am under the thin sheet draped across his lower body. He stirs as my hands slide across his skin, turning to blink at me in surprise before I silence whatever he’s about to say with a kiss.
I pull away slowly to see him grinning at me with a curious look on his face.
“You’re back.”
I nod, and his brow suddenly knits.
“What’s wrong?”
I smile. “Nothing.” I lean into him again, kissing his lips.
“Nothing is wrong.”
“How’d it go?”
I roll my eyes. “What if we saved the talking until tomorrow.”
“I think I can work with that.”
And then there really are no words.
He pulls me into him, kissing me deeply as his hands trace down the small of my back. I melt into him, feeling his skin hot against mine in the humid summer evening air and feeling the throbbing hardness of his cock against my thigh.
His hands slide to my ass, pulling me hard against him, making me shiver as I feel him pulse there between my legs. Fingers slide across my ass, down further and deeper between my thighs. I lift one leg up and over his hip as his fingers trace across the dripping wet heat of my pussy, making me moan into his mouth.
We roll over as he pulls me on top of him. And before I can do anything, those strong, powerful and demanding hands of his are pulling me up his hard, inked body towards his lips and his tongue..
I whimper as he settles me onto his mouth, and when his tongue slides deep inside of me, I cry out. His hands hold me by the hips, pulling me tightly to his mouth as he slowly licks me - teasing me, tasting me, making me gasp as his tongue finds my clit. My hands slide up my own body, teasing over my breasts and pulling at my nipples before sliding up to my hair.
I toss my head back, letting my eyes close and letting him rock my hips against his mouth, letting myself melt as he fucks me with his tongue. He moves faster and faster, his tongue swirling around my clit sending lightning through my body. His hands slide around to my ass, gripping at the curves there, holding me to his mouth. He spreads me wide, and I whimper as I feel his finger tease around my ass as his tongue curls a
round my clit.
And when I come, it’s like a storm crashing against the shore. I cry out sharply, my hips bucking against his face and my body shattering as his tongue and his fingers drive me over the edge.
I’m still shaking - still gasping for air - when he rolls us over. He starts to reach for his bedside table, but I stop him, bringing him down to kiss him fiercely instead.
“Just you,” I whisper, feeling insane and crazy, and drink off my desire for him.
“I want to feel you like we did that time.”
“That time” being the time frantic and panting making out in the cab of his truck led to clothes being pulled from sweaty bodies, only to realize there wasn’t a condom to be found.
The time I rode him bare - skin to skin and the notion of how risky it was only making it all the hotter.
I stroke his face as he hovers above me, my legs spread for him.
“I just want to feel you inside of me,” I say quietly, arching my hips up towards him and gasping as I feel the throbbing head of his cock slip across my opening.
His eyes flash at me as he leans down to kiss me hard. He pulls back, sitting up as his hands slide down my legs from my ankles to my thighs, spreading them wide and pushing them up and over his shoulder. He eases against me, his thick head slipping between my slick folds and making us both moan.
Slowly, he drives inside, filling me up with every thick, throbbing inch of him as I cry out. He leans down again, capturing my mouth with his as he eases out, leaving just the head inside before he pushes back in to the hilt.
Oh God yes.
I can feel him bare inside of me, my pussy clutching at his shaft and feeling him throb so deep and so hot inside of me. Silas groans into my lips as he starts to fuck me like that, his hands holding me by the backs of the knees as he pumps in and out with deep, even strokes. He sits up, his hand sliding to my ankles and holding them up in the air as his hips pound into mine again and again.
I can feel my pulse racing, the breath hitching in my lungs as he fills me again and again, his eyes never leaving mine as he fucks me closer and closer to another orgasm.
He reaches for my hand, bringing it to his mouth and sucking on my finger as I moan for him. He brings it down, placing my hand on the place where we join and letting me feel the slickness there as his cock pumps in and out of me. I start to rub my clit, my breath coming faster and shorter as my body starts to fall.