Page 32 of Who Pissed Off Ivy Dell?

“Gonna eat some barbecue, drink a few more beers, might sing a few songs before the night’s over.”

“You, asshole. You know I didn’t mean for tonight.”

“Well, I’m not in the mood to talk about the future beyond tonight.”

“Understood.”

“Looks like I’m going to have to ask Jojo to give me a tattoo.”

“Yeah, I may have heard something about that.”

“I bet you did.”

“She’s just trying to help. She wants everybody to be happy.”

“I don’t know how she went this long never seeing the place she was named for, but she had no trouble fitting in.”

“My best guess would be that Ivy could fit in just about anywhere.”

“You’ve got that in common then,” he says, shaking his head.

“You think?”

“I know. When your ass showed up, I told Petra you didn’t belong in Ivydell. You belonged on a golf course. She told me I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about.” He laughs his big rolling laugh. “She might’ve been right.”

“I’m glad you decided to give me a chance.”

“So am I, brother. You turned out all right.”

“You think I’m finally grown, huh?”

“I think you might be about ready to fly.”

By the time weget to the community center with barbecue, beer, and wine, the party has already kicked off. Everybody’s showered and changed. I help drop off the food and booze, and then I slip back out to get myself cleaned up. Ivy’s friend will be here soon, and for the first time in a very long time, I actually care about making a good first impression on somebody.

Cujo and I walk out together. “Full moon,” he says, looking up at the sky.

“My favorite phase.” I smile thinking about Ivy in the bed of my truck last night.

We head in opposite directions to get cleaned up, but we’re both doing it for a girl. I’m the only one who will admit it, but he’s not fooling me. It might be true that he and Josephine don’t want anything serious, but they’re pretty serious about what they’ve got. For now, anyway.

Ivy’s red hair isthe first thing I see when I walk back into the party. It bounces as she pulls Zara along to introduce her to someone else. She leans in closer to her friend to say something, and they both smile. Her eyes light up when she spots me, and I don’t have to see mine to know they’ve had the same reaction.

I walk to her like I’m being pulled on a cable.

“Zara, this is Jensen.”

“It’s a pleasure,” I say. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Probably not as much as I’ve heard about you.” She turns to Ivy. “You said he didn’t own a shirt.”

I roll my eyes as they laugh. “I rented this one just for tonight. Don’t spill anything on me. I’ll lose my deposit.”

Josephine joins us. “Hi, you must be Zara. I’m Josephine.”

“You’re the tattoo artist! I saw you on that show. As soon as Ivy told me about you, I knew who you were.”

“I can’t believe you watched it. And that you remember it.”

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