I reached into the bush and pulled it free just as she looked up.
“Connor!” she startled.
“Ivy.”
We stared at each other for what seemed like forever and yet a blink. God, I’d missed her. Missed her laugh, her smile, her taste on my tongue. Missed everything.
I missed her love most of all.
“That’s my phone,” she said softly.
“Seems like it.” I slipped it into my back pocket, taking a page out of Pepper’s book.
“Um. Why are you putting it in your pocket?”
“It seemed more civil than trapping us naked in a sauna,” I answered.
“What?”
“Maybe that’s a had-to-be-there kind of thing,” I mumbled. “Because everyone who loves us conspired to get us here, so I’m just making sure you don’t jet before I say what needs to be said.”
Her chest trembled as she exhaled. “Okay, and what is that?”
“That I love you.”
Her lips parted, but she didn’t come any closer, so I took a step in her direction. “I love you. And I’m sorry I didn’t listen. I’m sorry I let my past and my fears fuck with our future. I’m sorry that at the first test of your faith, I failed.”
Her entire posture softened. “Oh, Connor. That’s all I’ve been waiting to hear.” Her teeth bit into her lower lip.
“But you don’t look happy.”
“Because what do we do the next time this happens?” She shook her head. “This has almost killed me. I know I screwed up by saving that stupid little venting article, but you wouldn’t even listen to me.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” I took another step.
“And I tried to explain and you shut me out.” Her beautiful blue eyes took on a sparkly sheen that warned tears were imminent.
“I know. I’m sorry,” I said as I moved forward again.
“And you took Hannah. And I couldn’t see her. Couldn’t get through to you. You broke up our family without even talking to me!”
“I know.” One more step.
“And I know we’re not a family, family, you know. But we are. Or we were! And you just threw it away!”
“I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.” I shot a quick glance at where the puppy had decided to lay down in the cool grass.
“And I still love you! That hurts the most! I have all this love, and you’re standing there all perfect, and gorgeous, and Connor-like, and I have no idea what you want.” She hugged herself, and I died a little inside, seeing what I’d done to her. What we’d done to each other.
“First, I’d really like you to make your phone stop pinging, because my butt keeps vibrating and that’s just super awkward at a moment like this.”
She laughed and wiped away two tears, then hit a button on her watch and the phone stopped, thank God. “And?”
“And I want you,” I told her.
“How?”
“Anyway you’ll have me. I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give, because I’m miserable without you.”
“Say that again.”
“I’ll take whatever—”
“Nope,” she said with a small smile. “The other part.”
“I’m miserable?”
“Yeah, more of that.” She grinned.
“God, Ivy. I’m wretched. Sad, and lonely, and just destroyed. Pathetic, even.” With each word I took a small step, until we were only inches apart. “There’s a ghost in my bed and it’s you, because you’re fucking haunting me.”
A corner of her mouth lifted, no doubt remembering that first conversation we’d had about ghosts in our beds.
“You haunt me, too,” she admitted.
“So maybe we should stop missing each other and just be together,” I suggested. “Because I love you, and there’s not changing that. Ever. And the next time something stupid happens, we’ll remember how this feels, and we’ll hold on tighter. Fight harder. Because we’re too stubborn to let go. That’s why we’ll make it.”
I took her face in my hands, and almost closed my eyes at how soft her skin was, how much I had missed it. “I promise I will never walk out of an argument before you tell me that you’ve had your say.”
She smiled up at me. “I promise I’ll keep my vent sessions verbal.”
“That would be good, too,” I laughed. “Come on, Ivy. Don’t you want to see what happens when two of the most stubborn people on the planet decide to hold on to each other instead of their anger?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I do.”
“Me, too.”
“Connor? Kiss me.”
She asked.
So I gave.
Our mouths met in a sweet caress of apology that quickly morphed into a hotter kiss of reunion. Holy shit, I’d missed this. Missed the connection we had with a simple touch of our lips.
Then her arms were around my neck, and I wasn’t thinking about missing anything, because I was focused on taking everything. Our tongues dueled, twisting around each other with the ease of well-known lovers.
“Conn—what the?” Ivy broke away, staring down at the small lump of fur who had planted herself between my feet, obviously not cool with being tossed over for the human.
“Ivy, meet Princess Sparkle Snort,” I nearly choked over the name Ivy had chosen a long time ago.
“You bought a puppy! A bulldog puppy!” She dropped to the ground, hitting her knees right in front of the puppy and scooping her up. “Oh my God, she’s so soft!”
“Yeah, she is,” I said with a grin. “She’s ours, yours, too.”
“Wait. A dog? We don’t even live together. You can’t buy a dog.”
“Just did,” I said with a shrug. “Move in. Problem solved.”
Her jaw dropped. “What? Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack, or a puppy, whichever is more destructive.”
She stood. “You can’t just buy a puppy and say move in.”
“Why not?”
“Because that’s not what people do!”
“That’s what we can do. When’s the last time you gave a shit about what people thought, Ivy?”
She cocked her head to the side. “You really are serious.”
“I am. You’ve already picked out half the furniture in the house. Hell, you helped pick out the house. Come live in it with me. With us,” I reached over to pet the puppy I would refer to as Snort—never Princess Sparkle Snort.
“She really is cute.”
“She’s part of the package.”
“Are you really bribing me with a puppy?” she feigned a look of shock.
“Is it working?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
“Then, yes. I’ll fight dirty when it comes to you.” I had no shame when it came to her, period. And now that she was here, I wasn’t letting her go.
She rose up on her toes and kissed me. “As long as you do other things dirty, too, I’m in. You and me forever.”
“Ivy! In front of our practice baby?”
She laughed, worry free and happy. It was right up there with the best sounds I’d ever heard.
“You and me and Hannah?” I asked, wrapping my arms around her.
“You and me and Hannah and Princess Sparkle Snort,” she reminded me as she wiggled her way between us.
“Man, it’s true what they say. Babies really are little cock-blockers!”
“I love you, Connor.”
Scratch the previous, that was still the best sound ever.
Until later when we facetimed Hannah.
And then the four days later when she said it again after we won the Stanley Cup Finals.
And again later that night.
Epilogue
Ivy
August
“How is it that I’m always the one carrying in the ice?” Connor asked, hefting the two bags in question into our kitchen.