A sob escaped her throat and her shoulders fell as her head dropped. I pulled her body into mine and wrapped my arms around her slim torso. Her entire body relaxed into mine, her wet cheek resting along my bare chest, and I knew, right then, that I’d been chasing Ivy since the day she’d left.
I’d thought I’d been chasing away the memory of her, my feelings for her, but I wasn’t. I was just chasing her.
And now she was back.
And I was in over my head.
Finally, after what seemed like an hour of me holding her on my porch, the sun had started to set and reality came crashing over our bodies.
She pulled back slightly and angled her head up to mine. Her eyes were puffy, but there was a ghost of a smile along her lips.
“I’m sorry I just cried for that long on your shoulder.” She laughed and turned her head away, hiding the little blush that spread along her cheeks.
I laughed, too. “Some things never change…”
She pulled back even further. “What! I’ve never cried on your shoulder before…” Then she looked away, the wheels turning behind her eyes. “Okay, fine. Maybe a couple of a times I cried on your shoulder, but I’m still embarrassed that I just did it again.”
A chuckle escaped my mouth. “It’s okay. I felt like it was kind of a breaking point for us, don’t ya think?”
She smiled brightly this time. “Yeah, but…uh…should we talk about the fact that the last time we talked, you told me we couldn’t be friends? Or…”
Ah, right. Back to reality.
Breanna.
I stood and walked over to the front door, opening it and looking back at Ivy, standing awkwardly, alone, still in the spot I left her. Her black bag that she’d packed earlier was still by her feet.
“I spent six years without you… I’m not spending another six in that same boat because my kind-of girlfriend wants to dictate my life.”
Her eyes flicked to mine, as if she wasn’t sure if I truly meant what I’d just said.
I meant every last word. Ivy and I were friends long before Breanna was even a thought in my head. I felt bad realizing that, but the truth was, I couldn’t seem to care. I cared about Ivy too much to let her go. I was losing the battle between my heart and my head, and unfortunately, I was pretty sure that Breanna was going to be the casualty.
Ivy’s face faltered as she bent down for her bag. “Okay… but seriously, what about your ‘kind-of girlfriend,’ whatever the hell that means? Because I’m going to go out on a limb and say that she’s not going to be okay with me staying here, ever.”
I sighed. “Like I said, let me worry about Breanna, okay?”
Ivy looked skeptical, but she walked toward me anyway.
The little voice in the back of my head told me what I was going to have to do.
I was going to make room in my life for Ivy, regardless of what Breanna said…and that, my friends, was the biggest issue of all.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ivy
What am I doing in Dawson’s house?
What am I doing in Dawson’s bathroom, changing out of very uncomfortable, damp clothes and into my pajamas? Three weeks ago, I would have doubled over and laughed my ass off if someone told me this was where I would be right now.
My face shined brightly in the mirror above his sink. I tried not to notice the glimmer in my eye and the small smile creeping along my lips, but I couldn’t deny it. The last time I’d talked to Dawson, he’d looked me right in the face and told me we couldn’t be friends.
It felt like someone had carved my heart right out of my chest and then stomped all over it.
But now, here I was, a week later, standing in his bathroom, feeling my hidden fifteen-year-old self emerge like I’d traveled back to the past to relive my favorite night all over again.
I couldn’t wrap my head around his reason for building this house. I mean, honestly, people should just start calling me Allie. He could go by Noah and I could go by Allie. Except that I looked nothing like Allie from The Notebook, but Dawson…he and Noah were both exceptionally attractive.