Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay, #8)(35)

“And you haven’t spoken much since.”

He shook his head. “At first, that was her doing. But around the time I turned eighteen, she started coming around, trying to make things right.”

“And . . . ?”

“And by then I wasn’t interested.”

Her heart had squeezed hard when he’d first started talking, and it didn’t unclench at the thought of him feeling so abandoned for so long. “So although you knew she lived here in the city, when you saw her last night . . .”

“It was a total surprise.”

“And you don’t like surprises,” she murmured, adding up what he’d said and what she knew of him, all of which now made a lot more sense. He’d been burned by people in his life. His mom, his coworker . . . “I’m starting to understand your comment about not liking liars.”

He gave a low snort, and relaxed a little bit. From talking to her, she realized. Not Caleb, his cousin and best friend, but her. This gave her a rush of both pleasure and terror. Pleasure because she felt proud of being the one he’d chosen to trust. And terror because . . . well, she was the exact kind of person he hated.

A liar.

“I’m sorry I left like that last night,” she said quietly. “I shouldn’t have. Was it awful?”

“She gave me an invite to a surprise baby shower for my sister,” he said. “Remy missed her own first baby shower because she went into early labor with Harper. The party’s on the night before Christmas Eve.”

“Which is right before you go back to Idaho, right?”

He nodded, which had a little stab of anxiety going through her, but it was also a good reminder as well—he wasn’t for her. “Are you going to go to the shower?”

He lifted a broad shoulder and finished his beer. He still wasn’t giving much away, but there was a sense of longing in him that she imagined was much like her own longing for the kind of family she knew existed but had never experienced. “You should go to the shower,” she said softly. “You could reconnect with your family.”

“My sister and I are fine.”

She thought of how his mom had looked at him at the diner, soaking up his face like she’d never seen anything more important to her in her entire life. The way her fingers had shaken as they’d gripped her order pad and pen in a death grip. “I know this is none of my business,” Ivy said cautiously. “And yes, your mom had an affair. That sucks. But as awful as it sounds, lots of people do it. Not that it makes it okay, I’m just saying, maybe there’s a lot more to her staying away so long before trying to have a relationship with you than a ten-year-old could possibly understand.”

He shook his head, but she gave it one more try, from another angle. “Your sister won’t understand you not being there.”

“Probably not, but I’d have to be around my mom and stepdad.”

“I’m assuming there’ll be a lot of people there. You wouldn’t be alone.”

“It’s a baby shower.”

“Yes. And?”

“And that means stupid games like making clothes out of diapers and guessing the baby food.” He shuddered.

She had to laugh. “Maybe, I don’t actually know. I’ve never been to a baby shower.” She thought about the horrors of that and grimaced.

“See?”

“Yeah, but Kel, if I were invited to one, especially by my own sibling, I’d go.”

“Brandon doesn’t have kids yet, I take it,” he said.

She shook her head. But in truth, she had no idea. In the two years since she’d seen her brother, anything could’ve happened. “Just seems like family should go to that sort of thing for each other.”

He looked at her for a long moment and then surprised her when he said, “I’ll go if you go.”

She gave a startled laugh. “That’s not how it works, Kel. You don’t bring a stranger to a baby shower. I don’t know your family. I barely know you.”

“Fine.” Standing, he shoved his hand into his pocket and came out with some cash, which he tossed onto the bar, giving the bartender a nod in thanks. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” she asked, baffled, even as her heart started a slow, heavy beat.

“You just said you barely know me. We’re going to fix that.”

Oh boy. Her knees wobbled. “Um . . . the dart tourney—”

“They don’t need us. A date, Ivy,” he said, looking amused by her panic. “We’re going on a date to get to know each other.”

“That’s pretty extreme just to get me to go with you to the baby shower.”

“It’s not just for that,” he said.

Their gazes locked and she swallowed hard. “Where to?”

“You’re the one who lives here in San Francisco now,” he said. “You pick.”

She stared at him, at the unspoken but unmistakable dare.

“Afraid?” he asked.

“Of course not.” Only petrified.

“Then . . . ?”

She took in the challenge in those dark eyes and felt the tingle of excitement and adrenaline flood her. What the hell, she thought. She’d bluffed her way through most of life, this was nothing, right? Ignoring the nervous little butterflies in her belly, she led him out of the pub and across the dark, quiet cobblestone courtyard.