I waited, assuming I’d see the three dots telling me a text was imminent. Instead, an announcement of a FaceTime call coming from Jake appeared on my phone. My heart kicked into gear. Shit.
I tapped my screen and Jake’s face filled it. He didn’t look happy.
“Ivy, you’re going to need to explain that last text,” he said, wasting no time on small talk.
Yep. Not happy. Borderline pissed.
“Um, well, hello, Jake. I mean, it isn’t anything shocking for them, really.” I debated how to break this news without sounding like I had the worst parents in the world. “It’s just that I call my parents on the second Sunday of the month for our monthly talk. I just got off with them—”
Jake interrupted. “But isn’t Addie in bed? Or did she stay up later since she didn’t have her nap?”
My heart melted on the simple fact that Jake knew my daughter even while I told myself to keep my distance. “Well, they prefer to talk to only me on our Sunday chats. They feel like they can talk to Addie every other month for a quick chat during the day…” I trailed off, not sure what to say about that because it pissed me off.
Jake seemed to growl. “And…”
Deep breaths, get it out.“And tonight they told me that they were headed to France for a month-long trip with friends—actually they’re Noah’s parents—and would be gone over the holiday. Apparently, Noah’s coming back, which I didn’t know, and his dad is irritated that he won’t come to work for him. Whatever.” I hurried on. “But this works out, Jake, because I really have always wanted Addie to wake up at her own house for Christmas, and now she can.”
I looked at the screen to see Jake staring up at the ceiling. “Jake?” I whispered.
A voice off-screen spoke. “You’re going to have to give him a minute, Bookstore. He’s trying not to lose it in front of his lady.”
Drew. Super. We had an audience.
More importantly, I was his lady?
Jake looked to his side and growled. I heard Steph’s laughter from the other side.
Jake looked back at me. “Ivy, I hate that you were on your own tonight when your parents put something else in front of youagainin terms of importance. This is just complete bullshit. But know this, on Christmas Day you and Addie are invited to my place.”
I sat back in surprise. “Oh no, Jake. We’re not there. I mean, we don’t know if—”
“Babe,” he said in a gravelly voice that really made me wish his siblings weren’t around. That, or that he was issuing this comment from a spot next to me on my couch. “Whatever we are on Christmas Day, we will be friends. And my friends don’t spend the holidays alone. My parents were already planning to be down here. Steph and Theo are with his family this year. They alternate. So on the years they go to his folks, mine come down.” He jerked his head toward the side where Drew was sitting. “And apparently this guy will be here. So you two are more than welcome. Or we can come to you. We’ll work it out, but you are not going to be alone.”
Warmth filled me up. I felt wanted, but not the way Jake made me feel the night before. Not to say that I hadn’t enjoyed that, because I absolutely had. But this sensation, this was the feeling my nana gave me. One of belonging. Of having a person who wanted to spend time with you, to be with you, because they cared about you. The idea that Jake and his family were becoming that both terrified me and filled me up at the same time.
Goddess, I was in trouble.
22
Crank the Music if Needed
Jake
I worked to school my expression so that Ivy wouldn’t fear that I was imminently going to look up her parents online, find their address, and then Cousin Eddie kidnap them so they could get their collective heads out of their asses and see what they were missing.
Jesus. She was just lucky that Mom and Dad had already headed off to bed because if Margot had heard the gist of this call, she’d already be marching down the block to find Ivy and give her a mother’s hug. Wouldn’t matter that she didn’t know the address, she’d knock on every door until she found her so that she wasn’t alone. My mom was a lot, but you never wondered where you stood with her. This would cut her, deep into her soul.
“Bookstore,” Drew called over to my phone, and I tipped the screen so she could see him. “You’re damn lucky Margot wasn’t around to hear that your parents are bailing on Christmas. Because I’m telling you now, she’d be rearranging the holiday to get Steph’s clan down here as well so you’d be surrounded by the entirety of the Spencers. And, quite frankly, Theo’s mom would have none of that.”
“True, true,” Steph said, raising her glass to Drew.
“Hold on, I need to do something,” Ivy called. I watched as she got up from her couch and took us with her to her shelves on the side of her living room. She sat her phone down, but propped up so that she could still see me and I could see her. I could tell she was flipping the record over. Sure enough, Van Morrison’s “Come Running” began pouring out of her speakers after a minute. She picked up her phone to head back to her couch. As she sat down, she found another spot to prop us up and grabbed a glass of what looked like beer. She scooted back into the corner of her couch with a shitload of pillows all around her and smiled.
“Now, that’s sorted,” she said. “And heck no, Margot can’t go rearranging plans for you all. Truly, we will be fine. As I told Jake, I’ve always wanted Addie to be able to wake up in her own house for Christmas. Now she gets that chance, so I’m choosing to look at this as a blessing.”
I wondered briefly if Ivy ever let herself just get pissed at her parents. I mean, I was angry enough on her behalf, but she seemed to try to cushion all their actions in excuses. What was that about?
Steph snorted, and I moved the phone so that Ivy could see her. “That’s good because Theo’s mom will lose her shit if I said we’re switching it up and coming down here.”
