Page 118 of An Investigator For Ivy

“You don’t even know what I was going to say,” she argued.

“I can guess,” he said.

“Don’t or it will tick me off.” She didn’t get mad often. Actually, he wasn’t sure he’d seen it once.

“What were you going to say?”

“It’s a good reminder that we all have bad traits and should look at ourselves from someone else’s point of view. I try to do it. I think you do too.”

“Really? Not in Sophie’s opinion,” he said.

“She didn’t deserve you or the better side of you I get to see,” she said. “It’s as simple as that.”

“And you think you deserve me?” he asked. He was grinning.

“Yes, I do,” she said. “The question is if you want me to feel that way. Only you know the answer to it.”

She was right. Only he did.

And though he wanted to say yes, he wouldn’t. That would be too close to making a promise for a guy that still wasn’t sure he could give Ivy what she wanted, needed or even deserved.

34

Control Your Heart

“Why do you seem so nervous?” Jasmine asked the following Sunday. Easter.

“Would you be surprised to know this is the first holiday I’ve had a man meet my family for dinner?”

“Considering you lived with Grandma and Grandpa and they said they never met any of the men you dated, then no,” Jasmine said. Her sister was checking on the prime rib that was in the oven. It smelled great in the house.

“What’s the big deal?” Dahlia asked. “We’ve all met him before. Well, except Mona. Cori doesn’t count.”

Dahlia was cutting vegetables to put with some dips. Ivy was hollowing out bread for the dill dip. There was another board with meats and cheeses too. More than enough snacks in her eyes. Mona, Jasmine’s mother-in-law, was going to bring the dessert that she had made at her restaurant.

“This means more,” Ivy said. “Not just that it’s the first holiday dinner.”

“Are you in love with Brooks?” Jasmine asked her.

“I think so. I’m so stupid. Tell me I am.”

She was waiting for the lecture to come. It didn’t.

“You’re not stupid,” Jasmine said. “You can’t control your heart.”

“But she has to know she might be setting herself up to be hurt,” Dahlia said.

“I don’t need you to hold my hand if that happens,” she said. “I get it. I knew what I was getting into. But Brooks also said he didn’t date and yet we are.”

“You’ve got a point,” Dahlia said.

“Wow. You’re not arguing with me?”

She watched as her sisters eyed each other. “No,” Dahlia said. “You’re a big girl. You know what you want and what can happen if it doesn’t work out.”

“Thank you for that,” Ivy said.

“No argument back?” Dahlia asked.

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