Page 37 of The Parent Pick-Up
Ivy laughs softly. “If you insist.”
When I get back in the car, Olivia eyes me with open curiosity. “Did she dump you?”
I nearly choke. “What? No! We aren’t even dating.”
“But she’s going to dump you.” Hannah sniffs back fresh tears. “Just like Olivia dumped me.”
I pat Hannah’s knee reassuringly. “No one’s getting dumped. Just because Olivia is moving doesn’t mean you can’t be friends.”
“But not BFFs.”
Even if she’s already guessed the truth, I refuse to add more to my child’s misery. “You can still be close.”
Hannah just looks at me like she’s not buying my bullshit, then spends the rest of the ride home staring out the window.
Ivy is alreadyin a corner booth by the time I get to The Pizza Peel. She’s wearing my gray hoodie, dark sunglasses, and a baseball hat. It’s obvious she’s trying desperately to blend in, but her disguise just makes her stand out more.
“Thanks for coming,” she says quietly as I slide into the booth across from her.
I cross my arms over my chest as if that could hold in the avalanche of emotions threatening to pour out. “So? Is this when you tell me it’s over?”
Her eyes widen. “Not at all. Is that what you thought?”
I brace myself and ask the question I’ve been dying to know. “Are you breaking up with me?”
She smiles sadly. “I wasn’t aware that we were dating.”
“We’re not.” My heart breaks, and so does my voice.
The server approaches and takes our order. I ask for extra garlic on the knots, and Ivy doesn’t say a word. Message sent. There will be no kissing tonight.
When the knots arrive, she tears a piece but doesn’t eat it. “About Axel?”
“The man who slept over at your house last night?”
Her lips flatten. “It’s not like that.”
“A man with wet hair fresh from the shower in your kitchen at daybreak didn’t spend the night?” My broken heart shatters even more as I say the words out loud.
Her face twists. “He’s my manager.”
I break off a hunk of the bread and shove it in my mouth before I can say anything unforgivable.
Ivy fidgets with the garlic knot, littering her plate with bread. “He’s already gone. He only came to help get the press off my back.”
I shake my head. “Like you will be soon enough.”
Her brows knit. “What does that mean?”
“Hannah said Olivia’s moving. So, unless your daughter’s doing this solo…”
“I’m not moving,” she says quickly.
My shoulders inch down from my ears. “You’re not?”
“I never said I was.”
“Olivia thinks otherwise.”
