Page 59 of The Holiday Honeymoon Switch
“Doesn’t have to mean we’re what?” he prompts.
“I don’t know, falling for each other or anything.”
He takes a step closer. “Right. Falling for each other,” he repeats. “Or anything. Who says?”
“Exactly. No one.”
He reaches for her hips, pulls her closer, stares down into her eyes. “So, who says that the second I saw you standingunder the tree near my bar, I got déjà vu, like I had met you before, not just in passing—but a thousand times before. That I felt not just like I knew you, but like Iwouldknow you.” Ivy’s lips part as she stares up at him, mesmerized by his words, his voice, his touch. “Who says that the first time you touched me, it sent electricity through the rest of my body. I…” He stops.
“You what?” Ivy asks, practically breathless.
“Look, I know I said I wouldn’t do this. But I have to let you know.” His voice is a beacon, his whispers landing on her lips, making their way through her body, to her heart. “Ivy, you, with your artistic soul and your incredible talent, your strength, your heart, your casual sexiness, your beauty that comes from inside you, too…I feel like you’re exactly the person I’ve been looking for.” Now he kisses her, slowly, gently. “So, who says we’re falling for each other? Well, I’m falling for you. Hard. And I had to say that to you.”
He holds her hand against his heart. She feels it beating under the firmness of his chest, and her mind fills with things she wants to say. About how she felt the same when she first saw him, despite the bleakness of her situation. How, as much as she has tried to deny it, she has thought of almost nothingbutOliver since the moment they met. How when she sits down to draw, even when she’s surrounded by more beauty than she’s ever seen, she still returns to his face, his eyes, has to force herself to draw anything but him. The way she feels like she’s falling, too. How hungry she isto know everything about him. But as he keeps gazing into her eyes, she becomes aware that she doesn’t have to say any of this to him, not right now. She just has to allow herself to feel it.
“Give me your phone!” Larry shouts over the music.
“Why?” Ivy asks her.
“You two are adorable. Look at you, dancing and kissing.Finally.There needs to be photographic evidence of how completely enamored with each other you are, and the fact that you’ve finally admitted it!” She takes Ivy’s phone and snaps a few photos, then hands it back. Oliver swings Ivy around playfully, and as he does, she catches a glimpse of another couple dancing behind them.
Matt and Abby. Ivy freezes. Oliver looks down at her. “Hey, you okay?”
Then he sees who she’s looking at. “Oh.Hey, want to dance into them and fake accidentally spill your drink on his shirt? Wait…I already did that.” His face is close to hers. “Do I need to hide you? I can really kiss you this time.” His lips are almost on hers again, and as much as she wants another kiss, all at once she also needs this game of cat and mouse with Matt to be over.
“I’m not hiding from him anymore,” Ivy says. “I’m done. I’m going to talk to him.”
“I’m right here if you need backup,” Oliver says.
Matt has left Abby on the sand and is heading to the bar. Ivy follows behind him, then stands waiting as he orders his drinks. He turns to walk back to the beach and does a double take when he sees her, puts down his drinks, rubs his eyes. “What the…”
“Matt.” Ivy’s greeting is as flat and devoid of emotion as she can make it—but inside, she’s a boiling cauldron of rage.
“What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“It’s my—”
“Please, don’t.Do notsay, ‘It’s my honeymoon.’ What the hell, Matt? You brought your new girlfriend on your honeymoon? This is over the top, even for you.”
“Hey! Don’t insult me on my—”
“Honeymoon?” Ivy rolls her eyes. “You’re the worst, Matt—and I guess the one good thing about the way you hurt Holly is that I finally get to say that to your face.”
“But why areyouhere?”
“Because Holly, in her infinite kindness and generosity, insisted I go in her place. Logically, she never imagined you’d be here with someone else.”
Matt looks genuinely stricken. “I asked her if she wanted to use the honeymoon, and she said no way. I didn’t want it to go to waste, either!”
“Well, good for you, Matt!” The anger in her voice is drawing looks from some of the other patrons, so Ivy tries to dialit down. “How could you do this to her?” she says, her voice now an angry shout-whisper. “She doesn’t deserve it, and you know it.”
“I know that, okay? You’re right. I feel horrible about hurting her this way—but don’t you think it would have hurt her more in the long run if we had gotten married when we weren’t really in love? I know she thinks she wanted to marry me, but we were just ticking off boxes. It wasn’t the real thing. What I have with Abby is—”
Ivy holds up her hand again. “Stop. I do not want to hear about what you have with Abby being the real thing. Holly is mybest friend. I am on Team Holly always and forever. And you? You’re just a…” She can’t think of an insult that would be low enough. Calling him a rat or a snake would be an insult to both those animals. “Nothing,” she says. “You’re just a nothing.”
He looks agonized, and she doesn’t feel a shred of empathy. “Please don’t tell Holly,” he says. “I’m begging you. Not yet. Not now. I know I hurt her, and it’s Christmas, and she’s alone.” He shakes his head. “Where is she, by the way? With her parents?”
