Page 117 of Sliding Into Love
Someone—Isaac probably—had unearthed a smoke machine and lowered the lights to near darkness, and when Ethan and Ivy stepped onto the dance floor, it was as though they were the only people left in the room. Ethan's arms wrapped around her, pulling their bodies against each other. Dark hair tickled her cheek as Ethan let his forehead fall to rest against hers and they slowly swayed to the music. Warmth and peace settled over Ivy, and she leaned back to brush her lips over Ethan's.
“Mom! Dad!”
Tucking her head under Ethan's chin, Ivy continued to sway with him in time to the music while his hand stroked over the bare skin of her back.
“Mom! Dad!”
Through the blissed-out haze of the fading adrenaline, Ivy heard what sounded like a kid yelling for their parents. But there weren’t any children at the gala. Weird. She settled in closer to Ethan, closing her eyes and blocking out the world again. Ethan made a sound of contentment deep in his chest, and it rumbled in her ear as someone yelled again, closer this time.
Then Ivy was surrounded by people wrapping their arms around her, and she realized her kids had arrived, and Jase had called hermom.
In all the time Jase and Janna had lived with her, they’d never called her mom. The last of her adrenaline rush faded, and she collapsed to the floor, bringing Jase, Janna, Ethan, and Lily down with her.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed to Lily, trying to hold back tears.
“Ah, I might have texted her. Asking about the weird text I got. And then I told her about what happened,” Ethan supplied helpfully, tugging his hand through his hair. Janna settled on his lap, and Jase sat cross-legged on the floor, one of his knees touching each of them.
“And Jase was still awake, so I told him, and…here we are?” Lily shrugged. Both her and Jase’s faces were bone-white, with eyes like saucers.
Jase slid his hand into Ivy’s, and his fingers were like ice as she squeezed them. His gesture sent her over the edge into full-blown sobbing.
“It’s okay, we’re okay,” Ethan chanted as he gathered all of them into his arms— even Lily, who still looked sick.
When they were all calmer and without tears, Ethan launched into an explanation, with Ivy filling in her side. Others joined the little knot of people on the floor; Derek and Isaac with cocktails for the adults and lemonade for the kids; Jen with plates piled high with the regional delicacies. Jimmy, Laura, and Harkness hovered on the edge of the group, listening in silence while the whole ordeal was recounted for them all.
To Janna, it seemed more like an adventure story, something to be in awe of before moving on to the next exciting thing. Jase grasped the gravity of the situation more than his sister, and he was rattled, but the adults who’d joined them were all speechless and stone-faced.
Eventually, the police called, and Ivy, Ethan, Jimmy, and Laura had to go to the police station to provide their statements. Lily took Jase and Janna home after eliciting promises that everyone would keep them updated on the situation.
Behind the glass panels of the station doors, Ivy heard a distant, tinny yelling and turned to see a tv with a video of Marshall playing in a glass-enclosed office, but the sound disappeared when the door closed, and Ivy shuddered. Statements were given, papers were signed, and Ethan and Ivy were released.
They slowly descended the steps in front of the station when Ethan tugged on her hand to stop her.
“Look,” he said, pointing ahead.
The sky was a deep blue, tinged with pink and gray, the first hints of sunlight peeking between the buildings, with the rays reflecting off the glass and metal, casting shattered patterns on the cracked pavement in front of them.
“Ivy, it’s a beautiful new day.” He drew her to him, and when she looked up, his smile was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. “Let’s go home.”
It is a truth universally acknowledged,Laura Lorne thought,that one with children will always be late. She, Jimmy, and Frankie were waiting outside the new restaurant where they were to meet Ethan, Ivy, Jase, and Janna. To celebrate the big win, Ivy had said. Beside Laura, Jimmy kept grinning down at her with his lopsided grin, as if he knew something she didn’t. What he knew, Laura couldn’t possibly imagine. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Frankie nudge Jimmy with an elbow, and Laura sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
The unmistakable deep laughter of her son reached her ears as she was considering asking the host for a curbside cocktail. Bright peals of laughter echoed all the way down the street from Janna and Ivy, like bells ringing through the brisk morning air as they rounded the corner together. Laura’s heart nearly burst at the happiness her son had found.
Janna wore a poofy dress and those silly, lacy socks little girls wore. Even Jase, whose standard outfit was athletic shorts and a tee had changed into nice clothes. Laura thought he looked like a mini version of Ethan, which was accurate, as Ethan wore a black button-down and slacks.
A faint inkling of an idea began to form at the back of Laura’s mind, but by then, the children were upon her and the distraction got the better of her.
“Hi, Mom, Dad, Frankie.” Ethan’s voice was quiet compared to the kids’ yelling, but Laura couldn’t miss the soft smile he gave to Ivy, who returned it tenfold.
One of the long, white-belled sleeves of Ivy’s dress tangled in Laura’s purse as the two women embraced, and that hint of an idea shifted further forward in Laura’s mind. Holding Ivy at arm’s length, Laura took in the white dress and flowers braided into Ivy’s hair. Ethan and Jase’s nice shirts and Janna’s dress.
“Is this—" Laura began, but Ivy couldn’t contain herself any longer.
“We’re getting married!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Ethan and smiling sweetly at him.
For a moment, all the secret planning and private Pinterest boards Laura had made flashed through her mind. Then she reminded herself she had only recently gotten her son back after so many years, and she wouldnotinterfere.
Still standing beside her, Jimmy threw his arm over her shoulder.
