Page 40 of Battle of the Exes

Indifferent to the awkward situation, Rusty yawns, heading back inside the house. I didn’t plan to be alone with Ivy but I’m not complaining. Whatever Rue or, more likely, Mae did to orchestrate this, I owe them.

What was supposed to be a casual group hangout has turned into an accidental date.

Lucky me.

While Ivy roasts a marshmallow, I study her. There are lines near her mouth and eyes that weren’t there twenty years ago. But that sharp mind and even sharper tongue are still there. Still wrecking me.

She thinks she’s hiding how she feels, pretending there’s nothing left between us. But that kiss in the Quillwas no accident. The spark’s still alive and not just the physical part.

When she hands me a marshmallow, golden and perfect, I take it, brush her fingers lightly in the exchange, and for a second she looks right at me. Into me.

And it hits me.

We’re not kids anymore. We’re not twenty-five and fearless. We’re older. Wiser, maybe. But no less vulnerable.

Especially not to each other.

She looks away first. Retreating just enough to keep me guessing. As much as she believes it, I’m not the one who ran all those years ago. But I’ll do whatever I can with this second chance. I didn’t come back to Silver Pine to play it safe.

Because the truth is, I’ve been holding on too long to my deep, dark secret. I’m still in love with Ivy Winslow and I have been all this time.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Ivy

When our eyes meet again, I don’t look away.

Beau stands, and for a second, I think he’s leaving. But instead, he pulls out his phone. Music drifts through the air.Wonderful Tonight.

Our wedding song.

“Dance with me?” he asks, voice low, like the breeze through the pines.

He holds out his hand. He looks achingly vulnerable.

It would be easy to say no. To remind him what this song meant.

“For old times’ sake.”

The sincerity in his eyes splinters the wall I’ve built. I swallow hard and take his hand. A jolt of electricitypulses between us as he leads me to a patch of grass near the fire.

We move together without thinking, like muscle memory. My head finds the crook of his neck. His hand settles on my lower back.

I breathe in the woodsmoke and aftershave and close my eyes.

For a moment, I’m back at our wedding. No choreographed steps, just the two of us, swaying to the music. That night, I knew without a doubt how much Beau loved me. How much I loved him.

The song ends, but neither of us moves. “Ivy.”

I open my eyes to the only man who ever had my heart. Something in me unravels. I’m falling for him all over again, and I don’t want to stop.

He leans closer, just slightly. My mind goes quiet.

I lick my lips and kiss him.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Beau

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