Page 28 of Lonely Heart

I understood their appreciation, but it was entirely unnecessary. Waving my hand dismissively, I said, “Just like I told her, I don’t need any thanks. I don’t doubt for one second that if it had been one of my sisters who’d been in a situation like that, and one of you could step up to help, you would do it in an instant.”

“Of course, we would.” Liam gave me a nod of approval. “But it doesn’t change the fact that we haven’t had to do that, and you did what you did for our sister. I already told you this the day she told me what happened. If it couldn’t be one of us that was there for her, I’m glad it was you.”

“Thanks, Liam. I appreciate you saying that. I’m just relieved it wasn’t worse than it was for Ivy, and I’m happy to see she seems to be doing much better now.”

And I did appreciate it.

But I couldn’t deny that there was one thought in the back of my head as it pertained to the gratitude I received from Ivy’s brothers. I wondered if they’d all have the same reactions they were having now, if it had been one of them instead of Cooper who had entered that room and saw me there with her.

Would they have been thanking me the same as they were now, or would they have had similar reactions to Cooper? Would they have presumed the worst—that I put the marks on Ivy’s faceand body? And if that thought never crossed their mind, would they have been furious at the idea of their sister being with me?

“You think she’s doing better now?” Tate asked me.

Confused at the question, my eyes darted around the table. “Of course. Don’t you?”

“Well, I’d like to think each day has been getting better for her, but I’ve only seen her once since she shared the news. She seemed okay to me, but I guess I thought you might see Ivy more often with being down at the villas that perhaps you’ve seen something reassuring. If not, I’m left feeling curious if Ava is reading too much into things that she learned a couple of days ago when she visited with Ivy.”

My stomach clenched painfully, but I kept my expression neutral. I got the distinct feeling there was something I’d missed. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

“Yeah, Tate, what’s going on? What did Ava say?” Cooper questioned him.

He looked away, his jaw clenching. Shaking his head with frustration, he shared, “Ava told me that she thinks Ivy is spiraling a bit.”

Wyatt leaned forward with interest, his forearms resting on the table. “How so?”

Tate’s hand moved to his chin and scratched the skin along his throat as though he was running through whatever Ava had shared with him and trying to decide what to share or, perhaps, whether to share it.

His silent response had me growing impatient as much as it had me hoping there was some big misunderstanding. With the exception of the day she’d showed up at the villa to return my T-shirt to me, in the instances I’d seen Ivy over the last few days, our interactions had been relatively short. I’d been doing my best to remain friendly and keep a normal level of interaction with her, because I couldn’t dream of cutting her out completely.But I hadn’t pushed for the extended conversations with her for fear of putting myself in a worse predicament when it came to my attraction to her.

Ivy hadn’t shown me anything that indicated she was having a tough time with what happened. If anything, I found myself surprised by how well she seemed to be doing.

Tate remained silent for so long, Cooper felt compelled to snap him out of it. “Tate!” he called. “What’s going on?”

Blinking rapidly, Tate cleared his throat and adjusted himself in his seat. “Look, this might all just be Ava overreacting, but she said Ivy’s doing things that are out of character.”

“Like what?” Liam pressed. “She’s been coming to work every day.”

Liam’s doubt about what Tate was insinuating was reassuring and had me breathing a little easier. At least I wasn’t the only one who refused to believe there was anything wrong with Ivy.

“Yeah, and I guess that’s part of it. That seems to be the one area of her life where Ivy hasn’t made some drastic change. But when Ava was over at Ivy’s place a few days ago, their interaction with one another had Ava feeling unsettled. She said Ivy was oddly chipper. Apparently, they hadn’t even had a discussion about what happened, and Ivy was smiling, happy, and asking Ava about knitting.”

“Knitting?” That came from Wyatt, who looked just as confused as I felt. “I didn’t think Ivy was into knitting.”

Tate nodded. “That’s exactly the problem.”

“How so?” Cooper asked him. “I mean, Ivy’s been spending so much time over the last year doing all sorts of new things.”

Feeling compelled to defend her, I added, “Yeah, and if I recall correctly, she told me she had been going to a woodcarving class the night she was attacked.”

“I don’t feel like Ivy showing interest in learning to knit is enough of a reason to think she’s spiraling out of control,” Cooper reasoned.

The tension I felt in my gut began to unfurl. I didn’t want to accuse Ava of being crazy, but I would have liked it even less to believe Ivy was struggling with what happened and had chosen to cover it up. It was unbelievable that she’d not seek out the help of her best friend or sister or mom.

“She’s coloring,” Tate declared.

Liam jerked back in his seat. “What?”

“Evidently, she had boxes of markers, crayons, and colored pencils there, and when Ava asked her what they were about, Ivy said she was going to start coloring that night. And that’s not all. Over the next couple of days or weeks, she intends to rearrange the furniture in her home. Ava tried to talk to her about it, because she felt genuinely unsettled by the way Ivy was acting, and Ivy insisted there was no problem, that she just wanted to move on from what happened.”

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