Ivy kept her eyes closed, but she didn’t need them to know that Tessa and Zane had slid back into their original seats. She was surrounded on all sides by churchgoers, and Luke was mere inches from her on the right. But they couldn’t allow the presence of an empty twenty-four-inch-wide chair on her left? Did they realize how overprotective they were being? Or was this so much a part of their training that they did it subconsciously?
When the closing song came to an end, she leaned behind Luke and Faith to speak to Emily.
And four rows back, she looked straight into the dark eyes of Abott Percy. “Ab?”
Luke placed a hand on her back. “Ivy?”
“It’s okay, Luke.” She turned back to Abott. “I saw—” He was gone.
She craned her neck, looking through the throng, trying tofind him. Abott Percy was tall. Built. Very good looking. She’d thought she might be falling in love with him once.
He wasn’t her type. She knew that now. But once, she’d cared about him. She still did.
“Ivy?” This came from Tessa. “What did you see?”
Tessa had her agent face on. Tessa was always intimidating in the way anyone who looked like her was. She was the kind of beautiful you didn’t expect to see in real life. In a magazine? Sure. On a red carpet? Absolutely. Thirty feet tall on a big screen? Take my money.
She was the kind of gorgeous that made women jealous and men lose all sense—and bless her heart, she knew it. But what Ivy had learned last night was that Tessa wasn’t conceited or vain.
She knew she was stunning, and she also knew it meant nothing. She didn’t want the approval of people who only appreciated her for her looks, and she was baffled by the envy of people who assumed being physically beautiful meant everything else about her life was perfect.
Tessa, Ivy had come to see, spent most of her energy trying to prove she was worth being loved on her own merits. On what she did. On how good she was at her job. On her skills. Her kindness. Her generosity. Her intellect.
All of this made Tessa Reed a formidable woman. But there was nothing frightening about Tessa. She was sweet to the core.
Or Ivy had thought so until this moment. Because Tessa Reed with her agent face on sent a surge of terror through Ivy. Not because she was afraid of Tessa, but because she was afraid of whatever had generated that level of intensity in her new friend.
“Ivy. Talk to me now. Who did you see?”
Ivy sank back into her seat and answered immediately. “I’m sure it was nothing. I thought I saw Ab.”
“Who is Ab?” Luke and Zane asked in unison.
Faith, Tessa, and Emily, who had slipped around the end of their row and were now standing in the row ahead of them in front of Ivy’s seat, all nodded with understanding.
“Want to clue us in, babe?” Luke directed the question to Faith.
“Her ex.”
“Whose ex?” Gil asked as he joined Emily in front of Ivy.
“Ivy’s,” Tessa answered.
Gil propped his knees in the chair and draped his arms on the back of it and settled his gaze on Ivy. “Ivy’s ex?”
“Long-gone ex,” Emily jumped in. “Over for years.”
“Does he live in Raleigh?” Gil still hadn’t broken eye contact. It wasn’t a staring contest. He wasn’t glaring. He didn’t look mad. It took Ivy a few seconds to realize she knew that look.
Gil was gearing up to fight.
“Ivy? Your ex? Where does he live?” Gil asked again.
“Atlanta.”
“Any idea why he’s in Raleigh?” Hundreds of people continued to leave the auditorium. They were surrounded by friends. But it was as if there was no one else there. Just him. Just her.
“He was guest lecturing at NC State this past week, and he’s making a pitch for a grant this coming week.”
