“As for Ivy,” he says. “She may not like this now. She may even be miserable. But that’s not putting her in any real danger, physically or even emotionally. We can make this work. We will.”
I nod, and something else occurs to me. “Maybe we aren’t responsible for making Ivy happy. We should try to provide the best environment possible for her to be happy. And she has two parents who love her and want what’s best for her—that’s got to be the best environment for a kid, right?”
“Right,” Blake agrees. “And maybe she doesn’t want those two parents to be in such close contact, but that’s not her call. Maybe, if we’re worried about how much she’s struggling, we can do some kind of family therapy or therapy for just her. We’ll do what we need to do.” He nudges me gently with his nose against my temple. “Together.”
God, how I like the sound of that. I tilt my face up, and he leans down and we kiss and kiss and kiss, our hands wandering and our breath joining and our hearts pounding.
Together.
Seventeen
Blake
Waking up with Kim is something I’m not sure I’m ever going to get used to. In my first moments of consciousness, I’m alone again, waking up without her, trying to ignore the ache that never really goes away.Then I become aware of her scent, like sunshine and lemons, of her hair tangled on my pillow, the touch of her ankle resting against mine.
I stretch my arms around her, and Kim all but purrs and stretches out along my body. On the floor, I can hear Costanza stirring.The dog doesn’t seem to hate me, but I think he senses that I’m his competition for Kim’s affection, because he tends to get extra needy whenever she and I are together.
At least he hasn’t taken to peeing on my pant leg.
Lukas bangs on the door with a series of sharp blows. “Moooooooooooom!” he shouts. “Wake uuuuuuuuuuuup!”
I groan and pull on my boxers. Kim’s wearing a night shirt already, like she always does, and I wave toward the shower. “You can go first, if you want.”
She grabs me by the hand and pulls me down for a kiss, which makes me want to ignore Luke and our call time and the rest of this crazy world and just fall back into bed with her for the next few hours, at least.
But instead I go to the door and unlock it, while Kim ducks into the bathroom.
“Hey, buddy,” I say to Luke as I open the door.
He comes bounding into the room. “Dad! Dad Dad Dad!”
“Yeah, that’s me.” I wish I had Lukas’s enthusiasm for anything this early in the morning.
Anything, I suppose, but staying in bed with Kim.
“Ivy was texting Christopherall night!” Luke announces.
“Lukas!” Ivy shouts and comes flying in from their room even faster than Luke did. “Shut your mouth!”
I fold my arms. “How could Ivy have been texting Christopher,” I ask Luke, “when she doesn’t have a phone?”
Ivy grabs Luke with one arm around his waist and lifts him off the ground, pulling him backward while clamping her other hand over his mouth. She immediately shrieks and drops him onto his hands and knees, then backs away, wiping her palm on her pants. “Ew! Gross! Don’tlickme!”
“Well done, Luke,” I say. “Answer my question.”
Ivy looks at me like I’m a traitor to her nation, which I suppose at this moment I am. Behind me, I hear the door to the bathroom opening again. I hate that Kim doesn’t think I can handle this alone, but to be fair, it’s not going great so far.
“She stole Marguerite’s phone!” Luke says. “She put it back just now, but I saw her texting under a blanket.”
Shit. I turn to Ivy and give her the parental stare of truth. Ivy wilts under it, which tells me everything I need to know.
“Ivy,” I say. “We told you you’re not allowed to contact that boy. You want us to give your electronics back, but how are we going to be able to do that when you deliberately disobey us?”
Ivy draws herself up to her full height. “What are you going to do to me?There’s nothing else you can take away from me. You were never going to trust me again, anyway.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath to refrain from joining in her hysterics.The more Ivy ignores our decisions about Christopher, the more I think there’s really something wrong with this whole situation. I know that kids make terrible decisions when their hormones kick into overdrive, but—
“It’s true, isn’t it?” Ivy shouts at me. “I hate you, and I hate Mom, and I hate this family!”
