“Logan?” I scoff. “What do you mean?”
“Oh please. Don’t play dumb. We all know there’s something going on between you two. The kids couldn’t stop asking when ‘Uncle Logan’ was going to come back and make dinner and have a tea party.”
That pulls a laugh out of me.
“Okay, first of all—that tea party was his idea.”
“Mm-hmm,” she says. “Sure.”
I laugh. “Uh, yeah. That…”
She leans back in her chair, studying me now. “Are you two dating now that he’s gone?”
Logan must have told Jackson. Obviously he’s in the loop. And at this point, I’ve got nothing to lose by being honest. Besides, Ivy and I might not be on the same level as me and Avery, but she’s not just a regular sister-in-law. She’s a friend. Especially with me living in Riverbend now.
The fire cracks, filling the space.
“Dating? No,” I say, a little too quickly. “We weren’t…like that. It was just a fling.”
“Oh.”
She sits back in her chair.
“So he broke it off with you?”
“Not really. It just…ran its natural course. And what not.”
Her eyes widen. “Ran…its course. And what not.”
“Yep,” I say, closed-lipped.
“Cass.” Ivy leans forward and puts her hand on my knee. “With due respect…men don’t help babysit the nieces of women they don’t genuinelylike. And want something more than a fling with. Sorry, but it’s true. It’sman science.”
“Maybe,” I huff, almost laughing at herman sciencecomment but not quite. “It’s just, bad timing. If we had a few more months in Riverbend, maybe.”
When she doesn’t fill the space, I keep going, gesturing toward the fire.
“I mean, look here.” I watch the fire again for a moment, then turn back to her. “I haven’t even finished burning stuff from the old. I don’t have room for the new yet. Especially when I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. And Logan’s in Florida. I don’t want to burden him with some…relationship offer. So I saw him off, and you know, I guess I shut him out.” I think about how I shut my door.
How I stared at hisyou up?text, and couldn’t bring myself to respond.
She smiles faintly, and I watch the reflection of the fire dance in her eyes before she looks at me again.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, timing is never good. But you don’t get many chances, either. And when a good thing comes around, well. May as well take a stab at it.”
I nod, sipping my beer, thinking about how Ivy’s words are echoing June’s advice to me earlier. It’s like the Universe is trying to tell me something through different people, but with the same message.
“And Logan? Come on, girl. I could tell in two seconds the way that man looked at you that he was enamored with you. It wasn’t rocket science. You didn’t hide it well.”
“Jackson and you knew?”
“We had a hunch.”
A knot jumps up in my throat.
“I know,” I finally say, staring into the flames. “It’s me. I’m the problem. I just…I don’t want to get hurt again. And that’s that.”
She doesn’t move, and doesn’t rush in. She just lets it sit there.
