Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay, #8)(26)

But how else to protect herself from her past and keep this new life she wanted so badly? Telling little white lies about where she’d come from and the people in her past was what kept her safe.

And her friends.

And she was okay with that.

But she hoped to God whoever had broken into her truck was a stranger felon and not her brother the felon . . . Yes, sometimes she actually missed him. He’d always done his best to take care of her, by whatever means possible, and in spite of all his screwups, he was family and she cared about him. And sometimes, she was just damn lonely for family.

But he’d come in like Hurricane Brandon and blow up her life in some manner, she knew that for a fact. So yeah, her brother was a much better brother from far away. Very far away.

“Unleash your inner athlete!” Tina yelled to the class. “Bring it out with every ounce you have left.”

“Uh, I have negative ounces left,” Sadie whispered to Ivy.

“Just one more!” Tina yelled at her, apparently having superpower hearing. “Okay,” she said when Sadie and Ivy did the extra. “Two more. Make it three. Leave it all in the room!”

Tina said that a lot, leave it all in the room, and it was actually pretty great advice. She was going to go with that. Leave it all in the room . . . She would concentrate on the things she knew she could handle. Her taco truck. Saving every spare penny for the condo’s down payment. Strengthening the ties with her friends.

She didn’t include Kel in this list. Much as she craved him, he wasn’t for her.

Not even a little bit.

She’d decided on permanence in her life, and Kel—sex-on-a-stick or not—was just about as temporary as they came.

When class was finally over, they crawled to the showers and shared an Uber to the Pacific Pier Building where they all worked. Halfway there, Sadie’s phone buzzed an incoming call from Caleb. She answered, listened, smiled, and handed the phone to Ivy.

“Need a favor,” Caleb said without preamble. That was Caleb. Busy 24–7, he liked to get right to the point.

“Whatever you need,” she said.

This broke him out of business mode enough to snort. “The Ivy I know doesn’t give anyone that kind of power.”

“True,” she said. “But you went through your better half to get to me so I’m not worried you’re looking for anything icky. Plus I owe you, we both know that. We also both know you won’t ask me for anything I can’t do, so . . . spill it. You’re wasting the day away.”

He snorted again. “I’m going to take you up on the ‘whatever you need’ thing in spite of the fact that I happen to know you’re not going to like it. But tough, you already said you’d do it.”

“Okay,” Ivy said slowly. “But now you’re scaring me, so start talking.”

“I need you to cater an event tonight.”

This was not anything unusual. It was part of their deal. Part of the deal of him matching her down payment on the condo was that she pay him back by catering his fancy events at cost. And even then, she got way more out of it than he did because he was high-powered and high profile. Catering events for him always led to other gigs. She’d tried to tell him he was only helping her out even more, but he said he got what he needed out of the deal and was glad she got something out of it as well.

If he wasn’t already taken, and wasn’t a complete control freak, and didn’t wear clothes on a daily basis that cost more than her annual worth, she could’ve fallen in love with him. “Short notice,” she said. “For how many?”

“A hundred.”

She sucked in a breath and remembered there was another reason she didn’t fall in love with him. Because she also usually hated him. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. It’s going to be at a private residence in Nob Hill. Your truck won’t be able to get up the driveway. Get Jenny to help you prep and I’ll cover her hours. I’m sending someone to pick up you and the food at six p.m.”

“Alright,” she said. “Sure. And thanks.”

“No, thank you for the amazing food,” he said.

“You don’t know yet if it will be amazing.”

“Yes, I do,” he said. “See you tonight.”

He disconnected in her ear, and still smiling at his confidence in her, she handed the phone back.

“If he hadn’t put a better, bigger smile on my face just this morning, I’d be jealous,” Sadie said. “But I’m too done in from kickboxing to be anything but a limp rag doll.”

Ivy laughed and set her head on Sadie’s shoulder. She had no idea how she’d gotten so lucky to count them both as friends, but she was grateful.

Those warm fuzzy thoughts faded when she got to her truck and her very busy day started in earnest. She had to call Jenny in early to handle the truck customers while she prepped for the evening ahead. She was still feeling anxious and harried when her chariot arrived in the form of a Ford truck, and Kel got out.

And suddenly all her resolve to let him go faded, replaced by warm fuzzies—until she reminded herself that he was not for her.

He was not for her.

And she’d just keep repeating it to herself like a mantra until it took.





Chapter 10