Page 59 of An Investigator For Ivy

“No,” he said.

“Brooks,” his mother said. “You looked like you were rude. You saw something and jumped up. Like it was a bully picking on the skinny kid and you had to go to the rescue.”

“Yep,” River said. “Didn’t look like the woman liked it though.”

“She’s fine,” he said.

“Who is it?” Emma asked. “Don’t be shy on our account.”

There was some laughter to that. “Just someone I know,” he said.

“We figured you knew her,” his mother said. “Now we want to know how well you know her.”

“Just a month or so,” he said.

He wanted them to drop this and wasn’t sure if they would.

“Did you go on a date with her?” Raine asked.

“I slept with her,” he said. “Twice. That’s it.”

There was silence to that statement.

What an asshole thing to say just now. Ivy was going to be pissed, but he couldn’t take it back.

“Brooks,” his mother said. “I raised you better than to do that.”

“Looks like maybe she blew him off,” Raine said. “At least I hope it was that way and not the other way around. Though to be honest, the way you raced to the bar let us believe you aren’t quite done with her either way.”

“No,” he said. “I’m not. And I shouldn’t have said that. It’s not what you think. She’s not like that.”

“And now Brooks is defending her. This is getting serious. Can you at least give us a name? Something tells me that might not be the last we see her.”

He wanted to tell them all to leave him the hell alone, but he started this, as Ivy had said. At least he did tonight.

“Ivy Greene. She’s in the back at a Christmas party.”

“Tell us about her?” his mother said.

He was about ready to growl again, but he wouldn’t snap at his mother like he would have his father or brother. They understood him more.

“She works at Blossoms. Her apartment was burglarized about a month ago. We’ve had some contact after.”

“I hope you’re not doing anything you shouldn’t with your job,” his father said.

“No,” he said. “It’s fine. Has nothing to do with it. Only how we met and that was it. Can we drop it? I made an ass of myself to her and apologized just now.”

“You apologized?” Raine asked.

There was more than one stunned look around the table. He was saved by the dessert coming and couldn’t have been more thrilled.

Thankfully the holiday was coming up this weekend and it would give him time and an excuse to figure out the next step with Ivy. He sure the hell wouldn’t make the same mistake he’d made and ignore her. But he wasn’t going to reach out too soon either.

17

Honorable Gift

“Merry Christmas,” Ivy said as she walked into Jasmine’s house on Christmas morning. “Where is Cori?”

---