Page 75 of The Holiday Honeymoon Switch
“No,” he says. “Don’t be. I was pushing you. I was being judgmental. I don’t know what I was doing, trying to make it seem like I wanted you to decide on something. You’retwenty-nine. Your life can be what you want it to be. We can just take things easy.”
She reaches up to touch his cheek, his hair. “You’re here,” she repeats. She steps closer. “Did you get your waterfall shot?”
He smiles down at her. “Yeah. I got the perfect one. I submitted it toNational Geographicjust before I left.”
“I’m so glad.” Her face is close to his, so close their lips are practically touching. “You came,” she says again.
“Of course I did,” he says. “I don’t know what our future holds, Ivy, but I do know this: I couldn’t let you walk out of my life. I want to see where this could go.”
“Me, too,” she says. “I haven’t been able to think of anything but you since I left. I’ve missed you so much.”
His lips brush against hers. “I was thinking, I can hang out in New York for a while. I was going to anyway—as much as I hate winter, I had planned to come for a few weeks because my agent wanted me to meet with a few galleries. I’ll go back to Hawaii a few times. Maybe you can take some vacation from work and come with me?” He smiles, touches his lips to hers. “But no pressure. We’ll figure it out.”
“We will,” Ivy says softly. “Now, please—can you just kiss me? And then I want to see your waterfall photo!”
He does, and it’s like it was at the waterfall, the first time—perfect, all-encompassing, yet another best kiss of Ivy’s life, to go with all the other kisses she has had with him.
“So,” Oliver says when he pulls away to catch his breath. “I guess getting on a plane was the right move?”
Ivy laughs. “Absolutely the right move.” It’s as if the distance between them never happened. And she knows with sharp clarity that they are going to figure it out—that distance between them is never going to matter. That she has been swept away by her feelings for him—like the waves he finds so endlessly, beautifully fascinating. And that she has never felt more grounded, even though her future has suddenly opened up wide. “Now show me your perfect waterfall photo. And then, let’s go to bed.”
24
Holly
December 31
New York City
Holly opens Ivy’s bedroom door and freezes at the sight of her wedding dress—at least the train of it—stuck between Ivy’s closet door and the wall.
Ivy is behind her. “Oops. Should I have hidden that?”
“No. Not at all.”
Holly walks to the closet door and opens it—and there is the dress that once felt like it came straight out of her dreams. Now it feels like it comes from another era, another lifetime. “Itisa nice dress, though,” she says, touching the impossibly soft silk.
“You looked like a Disney princess in it. In the best way possible.”
Holly’s smile is a little sad now. “I know.” She turns to her friend. “Tell me again about how you said, ‘Hold my mai tai,’ and then tried to drop a bombshell on Abby about her being on my honeymoon and not knowing it—only she already knew and…what did she say?”
“ ‘It just makes good financial sense,’ ” they both say at the same time, then fall back on Ivy’s bed, laughing so hard tears leak out of the corners of their eyes.
“I’m really grateful,” Holly says. “For everything that happened. Even the hard parts.”
“Me, too,” Ivy says. “Remember the last time we were here, in this apartment?”
“I do. I thought it was the worst night of my life. But it was leading me somewhere great. And you, too. That’s the best part—that we’re both so happy. Remember how I told you the guy for you was out there somewhere—”
“Maybe on a dude ranch in Montana, you said.”
“And then, along came the Hot Bartender. He reallyishot,” Holly says, and Ivy rolls over, staring at her friend with wide eyes.
“Isn’t he? I mean, oh my God. He is so hot. And I resisted having sex with him forever. How did I do that?”
Holly laughs. “Well, wasn’t it just, like, a few days? But still. Very virtuous.” She laughs again, then peeks over Ivy’s shoulder at her bedside clock. “We’d better start getting ready. Our reservation is in an hour.”
They hop from the bed and share space at Ivy’s bathroommirror as they put on makeup, then get dressed, Holly in a low-cut champagne silk sheath, and Ivy in a tight black cocktail dress with a hint of glitter woven into the fabric.
