Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay, #8)(76)

Everyone else rose to go as well, and Ivy tried to just keep breathing. Her two least favorite emotions—heartbroken and loneliness—were already swamping her again. Her brother was gone, probably really headed to Mexico this time, and he wouldn’t be coming back.

And Kel . . . well, that was over, and though she’d known it would be, and had told herself she was prepared for it, she wasn’t. But she managed a smile and saw everyone off and then went back to work. She told herself what was done was done, and in truth, she wasn’t sure she’d do anything different.

But when she and Jenny closed up a few hours later, Ivy made a point to walk by the fountain in the courtyard. She took a ridiculous beat to try and figure out which quarter on the bottom of the copper bowl was hers, but of course she couldn’t. So she just glared at the whole fountain. “Do you feel good about yourself?” she asked it. “Giving people false hopes? Because I don’t feel good about it. You suck.”

“So you wished on the fountain.”

At the craggily old voice next to her, Ivy craned her neck and took in Old Man Eddie standing there grinning.

At her dark look, he laughed and lifted his hands in surrender. “Hey, just making conversation. But just so you know, the fountain never fails.”

“It failed,” she said flatly. “It’s just a stupid myth.”

“What did you wish for?”

Feeling stupid, she hedged. “If I tell you, it can’t come true.”

“Now that’s a stupid myth,” he said. “Tell me. Did you wish for your one true love?”

“No.” She blew out a breath. “I wished to believe in true love.”

He nodded sagely.

“What?”

“Well,” he said slowly. “Don’t kill the messenger, but . . .”

“But what?”

He smiled. “Seems like you believe in true love now, if you’re pissed off at the thing for not dropping it in your lap.”

She stared at him as the truth of his statement hit home. “Dammit.”

He laughed and pulled a coin from his pocket and tossed it to her. “Maybe it’s time for wish number two,” he suggested, and walked away.

Ivy really wanted not to throw the coin in the water. But in spite of what had happened between her and Kel, she realized that suddenly, or maybe not suddenly at all, she really did believe in love. When exactly that had happened, she wasn’t sure. So . . . with her heart tight and aching in her chest, she let go of the coin. “Thanks for helping me believe,” she whispered. “No regrets.”

At least not on that . . .





Chapter 27




We start together and end together



Thirty minutes later, Ivy stood behind a table slicing turkey and ladling gravy. She was at the Mission Homeless Center, wearing a red apron and matching hat, doing her best to look festive while on the inside she felt like the Grinch.

At the table to her right was Sadie, dishing out scoops of side dishes such as corn, stuffing, salad, and rolls. To her left was Tae, handing out dessert, which was cupcakes. In an identical assembly line just across from her, Molly and Haley were serving as well. There was a crowd of people making their way through the lines for a free Christmas Eve dinner and a few minutes inside, safe from the icy night.

There were other volunteers as well, everyone working in sync to keep things moving. There were a lot of people and Ivy was able to keep herself busy with orders. She didn’t even look up until she heard the unbearably familiar voice.

“I’d like to make a special request.”

Ivy jerked and spilled gravy down the front of her apron. It was Kel, of course. No one else could evoke so many feelings within her without even trying.

He was in a hoodie with a jacket over that, hood up against the chill. Dark sunglasses on his face. All she could see was his unsmiling mouth. Her mind stuttered, but the rest of her did not. Specifically, her mouth. “No special requests allowed.”

“It’s just that I lost something,” he said quietly, removing his sunglasses and pushing off his hood. “Something, someone, who means a lot to me.” He shook his head. “Actually, she means everything to me.”

Her heart took a good hard leap against her ribcage. “What are you doing here?”

“Can we talk?”

Her chest felt tight. Way too tight. “It’s hot in here,” she whispered. “Is it hot in here?” she asked all the people standing way too close.

“Honey, that’s called a hot flash,” an elderly woman waiting in line said. “Are you going through the change?”

“Edna, she’s like twelve,” the woman next to the first one said. “She’s not going through the change. And how much longer before you refill the mashed potatoes? I can’t stand on my feet too long, I get the veins.”

Ivy was having a hard time processing and just stared at Kel.

“I was wrong,” he said before she could speak. “About a lot of things, as it turns out. But mostly about how I reacted.”

“The mashed potatoes?” the woman asked again, impatiently.

“Hush, Amelia,” Edna said. “Can’t you see she’s in the middle of something? Hot Stuff here’s trying to apologize. A man apologizing, can you imagine such a thing?”