Page 38 of When Ivy Met Mr. Holiday
She made sure to look directly at me. Her eyes dared me to disagree.
Oh, did I ever disagree.Iknew Jack better than anyone, even if he kept some of his past hidden from me. Regardless, if Sienna knew Jack so well, she would know that after her public stunts, there was no hope of reconciling with him.
“And I would hate to see anything happen to his career,” Sienna added, her veiled threat landing like a thud in my heart.
It was clear that she was out to ruin his career. Or at the very least, his reputation.
If that realization hadn’t hit hard enough, I caught sight of my siblings and my parents, who had obviously overheard Sienna and her cronies. Through furrowed brows and squinted eyes, they silently begged me to tell them it wasn’t so.
The thought of admitting to my family that I’d lied to them about my relationship with Jack made my stomach roil, especially now that they might actually think it was all to promote Jack’s upcoming film. That was cheap and icky.
Our fake relationship was for noble purposes—like proving Sienna wrong. But really, it was to save Jack’s career.
Where was Jack? I needed him to fix this immediately.
Especially when Paige skated up to me, wrapped an arm around me, and whispered, “Ivy, is this all true? Now that I think about it, you don’t seem like yourself. Something is definitely off. Normally, you’re sucking the faces off your boyfriends any chance you get. I haven’t even seen you kiss Jack.”
“What? I don’t suck my boyfriends’ faces off.”
Okay, I probablydid. I loved to kiss.
“Oh, please.” Paige rolled her eyes. “You are the queen of PDA. Or at least you were. You hardly touch Jack.”
“Uh. How do you know? Maybe Jack’s just shy, and you heard the bunk bed squeak.”
Oh, jeez. What was I even saying? Where was freaking Jack?
Paige gave me a good once-over as if to check if I was feeling okay.
The answer was no.
“Jack is the least shy person I’ve ever met,” Paige pointed out. “And I thought you said that was just you rolling over and that you were sleeping on the top and he was on the bottom. Which is also kind of weird. I mean, we’re talking about Jack Holiday here.” She sounded like a star struck teen girl. “Come on, Ivy. You’re telling me you’re sharing a room with him and you’re not . . . you know?”
Oh, I knew. Believe me, I knew. “Well . . . um . . . yeah . . . we’re waiting.”
Oh, jingle hell. There was nothing wrong with waiting to have sex. Nothing at all. But it was obvious that Jack wasn’t a celibate kind of guy.
Paige tilted her head, scrutiny in her eyes. And it wasn’t only her.
Suddenly, it was as if everyone at the rink was closing in.
Judging.
Watching.
Their looks pressing against my skin, heavy and suffocating.
I had visions ofA Christmas Story. That montage where everyone tells Ralphie, “You’ll shoot your eye out.”
For me, though, the refrain was different. It was sharper and colder. An indictment even. And only one word—
Liar.
Jack finally appeared.
I knew him so well I could see in his eyes that his career was going up in flames, but most importantly, there was a rare vulnerability in his expression that said,You’re more important to me.
He was giving me permission to drop our act. He would sacrifice his career for me.
