Page 23 of Battle of the Exes

“I’ll run the store.”

She gives methelook.

“I’m telling you, Beau can’t be trusted.”

“He’s being a good Samaritan, Ivy.”

“Beau? No chance. He’s the literal opposite of a good Samaritan. He’s a?—”

“Please, Ivy.”

I can’t believe this is happening. “There has to be another way.”

“Okay, let’s hear it.”

I wrack my brain for any alternative. Gary and Lulu can’t mind the store and there is no one else she can rely on at this late date.

“You have a choice to make,” Rue says gently. “Are you going to let your past ruin our future?”

She must see my resistance softening, because she grabs her phone. “I’ll text you his number.”

My phone dings with my ex’s contact information.

“Go ahead,” she says.

Before I can change my mind, I text Beau.

Let’s talk about the festival.

Not ten seconds elapse when he replies.

Meet me at my house in an hour.

He sends the address.

The commanding tone makes me want to tell him to stuff it, to forget the whole thing. But Rue’s words ring in my ears.Don’t let the past ruin our future.

I give a begrudging thumbs up and head to my car.

Chapter Eighteen

Beau

Ihave exactly fifty-five minutes to make this place look like a grown man lives here. Decent enough that Ivy won’t walk in and turn right back around.

Rusty trails me as I clear the coffee table, gather up the socks he keeps dragging under the couch, and light a candle to mask Eau de Dog.

On the bookshelf, tucked between old guidebooks and a cracked snow globe, is a photo I haven’t had the heart to move. Me and Ivy, our cheeks pink from the cold, holding our ski poles aloft, grinning ear-to-ear. It was shortly after I wiped out getting off the lift, her saying I looked like a human snow cone. I didn’t even care. Lying there, my pride bruised, staring up at her gorgeous face, her auburn hair topped with goggles, her expression exhilarated, I’d never seen anyone so beautiful.

That was the day I told her I loved her for the first time, nearly a year after meeting her on the same mountaintop. She reacted by tossing her poles aside and collapsing in the snow beside me, telling me she felt the same, her kisses confirming she meant it.

While I’ve never admitted it to another soul the truth is, I never stopped loving her.

Chapter Nineteen

Ivy

The drive up Summit Ridge Road is ringing enough bells to wake bears from hibernation. This road is very familiar. As I near the address Beau gave me, I slow to admire the view. Below me, the town sprawls across the valley, nestled between towering peaks, their snow-capped tips just kissing the clouds. From here, I can make out the winding streets and the dots of the ski lift in the distance.

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