She was so flawlessly beautiful, it hurt.
Ivy kept her gaze upward as her voice broke through the quiet sounds of night. “I had fun today.”
I genuinely smiled. “I did, too. It’s nice going down memory lane, isn’t it?”
She chuckled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been down memory lane.” Then she paused and I walked a little closer to her. I could smell her shampoo as she shook out her hair, letting it dangle behind her back. “I tried to stay away from anything that reminded me of what was.”
Me too.
“Well, what was, can now be,” I quipped, breaking my gaze from her features.
“Dawson,” she started, her voice no higher than a whisper in the wind.
I met her sparkling green eyes. “Yeah?”
A soft breath escaped her mouth. “Why have you settled?”
I crinkled my brow. “What do you mean?”
Ivy’s voice was still quiet, like the pages flipping between a book. “I mean, why are you settling with Breanna? Or why have you settled with her? It’s evident that she doesn’t make you happy…”
I gulped, feeling nerves close in on me. I knew the truth was about to fall off my lips. I could taste the bitterness of it. “Because she was safe.”
Nothing in her expression changed. Not even a flicker of her eyes.
I kept my sight locked onto her, feeling myself spill the dark truth. “I knew that if things went south with us, it wouldn’t hurt.” My chest rose up and down quickly, like I was gasping for air. “I know you don’t want to hear this, again, but when you left…” I clenched my eyes, wondering if I should continue on.
Then I heard her scooting closer to me, jeans rubbing along the hood of my Camaro. When I opened my eyes again, Ivy was only a few inches away, staring up at me with doe-like eyes. Like she was calling out to me, asking me to tell her what we both knew I wanted to say.
“When you left, you took something with you. I was empty. As if you took part of my soul…” I looked away, just for a second to gather myself. “I know how crazy that sounds. I mean, we were so young and we were the best of friends, so to say you were my soulmate…that sounds ludicrous, but the night of the fire and then every day after, I literally felt like part of my soul was missing.” I shrugged. “I knew that Breanna could never take away something like that from me, so I just… I guess you said it best, I settled.”
Ivy’s eyes were quickly filling with tears and all I wanted to do was backtrack and take away everything I’d just said. I didn’t tell her the truth to make her upset. What happened with us was inevitable. Some things that happen in life are simply out of our control. They happen for a reason. No one could have guessed that Ivy’s parents would have died in a house fire, all caused by a stupid faulty wire, and no one would have guessed what would happen after.
Ivy and Mia moving away.
Me ending up with Breanna.
Ivy coming back.
Her and I both still feeling the same strong pull we had over one another, the way our bodies called out to each other…the most intense attraction that I’d ever felt in my entire life.
My heart skipping a beat when I saw her standing in my father’s office after six years.
The way my heart thrummed in my chest when she was near.
“Ivy,” I whispered, inching my body in between her legs. She widened them to let me stand between. I peered down into her eyes, searching for any indication that this was right. That she was feeling what I was feeling. “What do you want?”
She didn’t dare move her eyes from mine.
“I want a lot of things, Dawson, but the thing is, you don’t always get what you want.”
Then her eyes moved down to my mouth and I knew right then that she was feeling what I felt.
Everything.
I answered quickly, “I do.”
Then I pressed my lips onto hers.