Lou started to speak, but Emma held up a hand to stop her. “I’m sorry, Ivy. You’re relatively new here. We don’t mean to be so nosy. I just realized this could be incredibly intrusive if you aren’t used to us. It’s just that we love Jake. He’s ours. And you’ve become ours, so we’d be delighted if there was something there. But”—and she looked sternly at Lou, a bit less so at Maggie—“you don’t have to tell us if there is something going on.”
A pang of longing hit me. Between Jake, and now these three, it was nice to feel cared for. Ironically, it made me miss my nana more than I had for some time. Though I absolutely believed her spirit was all around me when I was at my shop. And I felt the nudge from her now and then, like she was giving advice. Right now? I felt her nudge to open up a bit. To trust. It was so hard—I felt like I’d been on my own forever—but maybe it was time.
“Well, maybe I wouldn’t say there was nothing…” I trailed off, debating how much to share.
“Yes!” Maggie pumped a fist to the ceiling. “I knew it.” Emma gave her a look, then Maggie continued much more subdued. “I mean, if you’d like to share.”
So I spilled the story of last night. The conversation about my parents, grandma, the position we found ourselves in before he left. The forehead kiss. Hot damn, that kiss. Good Goddess, that kiss. If only more men knew how sexy a kiss on the forehead, the back of the neck, the side of the neck, was I bet it would happen so much more. I’d only relived it a time or twenty before bed last night. I shared with them my strong desire for a whole lot more than what we had. And bless their souls, no one interrupted. Lou simply took my hand in her wrinkled one when I shared who my nana had been and squeezed.
“And that’s it.” My face felt heated, which was silly, I supposed. “It’s nothing really, just a moment. I’m sure I’m thinking about it far more than he is. I’m not sure why last night seemed important, but it did.” I let my voice trail off as I thought about those minutes, because really, that’s all it was. Minutes. But it was also a connection, and my life had seriously been lacking in connections before moving to Highland.
Lou cleared her throat, and I let my eyes meet hers. For once, she looked serious. “My girl, I should have made the connection between you and Lorelai when you came to town. Beyond the similar look, you share a beautiful spirit. There was just something about your grandmother that drew people to her.”
I nodded. “I know what you mean. I loved being with her. She was soothing. I felt at peace simply by being around her.”
Maggie smiled. “You’re that way too, Ivy. I know I felt like spending time with you as soon as we met.”
“Absolutely.” Emma concurred. “I told Maggie that we were pulling you into our group when we met. You must take after your grandmother. I don’t remember her well, but I know we met from time to time.”
The warmth I felt at their words was indescribable. Nana had been the best person I’d known. If I was even a tenth of the person she was, I’d take it. But… “Well, if that’s true, I sure don’t relax Jake around me. We tend to bicker more than I do with anyone else.”
Lou laughed. “Sweetheart, that’s because you both are strong. Like recognizes like. And my dear, you two are crazy similar to each other. You are nurturers—”
I sputtered. “Jake, a nurturer?”
Lou raised an eyebrow over her purple frames. “Need I remind you who has your child right now?”
“Sugar cookie,” I swore. Clearly, she was correct.
“Ah, chickie, I think you mean shit,” Lou said with a grin. “Addie isn’t here right now. And as I was saying, here we have two nurturers who tend to have some strong beliefs. Of course you will disagree from time to time. So there’s that, plus those disagreements just ratchet up the smokin’-hot chemistry that’s already there.”
Could that be it? Was Jake actually not a climate-change denier? Was he a proponent of women’s rights? And bigger question, was I really so wrong about this guy? I mean, clearly I trusted him; he was watching my daughter. Thinking over our conversation last night, I realized how much I did like being around him. In five days, he’d become someone I relied on, that I considered a friend. But was that other stuff still there? What if it was? Was that okay?
“I think I need to slow down, think more about this.”
“But,” Lou began.
“We totally understand,” Emma said, giving Lou a look. Lou rolled her eyes at Emma but then looked back at me, tilting her head.
“Do you have siblings, Ivy?” she asked.
“No,” I said, trying to figure out how our conversation had completely turned.
“Hmm.” Lou paused. “Cousins?”
I was quiet for a moment. Sometimes when I was here in Highland, surrounded by people who had roots, families, it was hard to acknowledge that I didn’t have that. “No. My parents are both only children.”
“I thought so,” Lou said with a smile. “I was trying to figure out why Lorelai hadn’t talked about you, but she did. You just had a nickname, didn’t you?”
My smile spread wide. I hadn’t thought about Nana’s nickname for me in years. “Yes, she called me Pip.”
Maggie looked at me. “Pip?”
I laughed. “Pipsqueak. I mean, I’m no giant now, but I was so small as a kid, short and superthin. Nana was a tall lady, around five foot nine or ten. You can imagine me as a seven-year-old, just an itty-bitty kid beside her.”
Lou nodded. “Yes, Lorelai talked about you all the time, Ivy. She said she called you Pip, but that you had the roar of a lioness if you felt an injustice had occurred. She was so proud of you, my dear.”
My eyes welled up. That was something I knew, but it was amazing to hear. “Thanks, Lou. I miss her so. Even more since coming back to Highland.”
