Page 66 of Lonely Heart
“So, let’s not do that,” I reasoned.
Ivy set her fork down, pushed her plate back, and took a sip of her juice. “So, you think Cooper will suddenly be fine with it?”
I shook my head, feeling frustrated. Not with Ivy, but with how this was impacting her. She’d barely touched her breakfast,and I hated that her worries about us were affecting her to such an extreme.
Seeing that, I was tempted to tell her what I knew she wanted to hear. But I refused to lie to her.
“I don’t think he’ll be fine with it. But I also don’t think it’s his decision to make, either. It’s up to us, to you and me. If this is what we want, then that’s all that matters. And I don’t want you to think I’m not aware of what your family means to you. I get it, Ivy. They mean the world to me, too. But this is about us figuring out what’s going to make us happy. Can you honestly sit there and tell me you can go back?”
“Go back?”
I dipped my chin. “Now that we’ve had just a taste of each other, and I’m not just talking about the sex, can you go back? Can you just walk away from me and pretend this never happened? Do you want to ignore how good it feels when we’re together, how much fun we have?”
Tears filled her eyes. “No. No, I don’t want to do that. I’d be more miserable than I was before we ever realized there was something here worth exploring.”
I lifted my hand from her thigh to the side of her face, brushing at the tear that had escaped. “Exactly. I’m not saying this is a great solution, a wise one, or even a long-term one, but maybe, for now, you and I can work on figuring us out. We can take some time to enjoy this before we add on other things that are going to cause us more stress.”
“Are you saying we should hide our relationship from everyone?”
There was a twinge of disappointment and sadness in her voice.
I sighed. “I’m saying I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make you happy, to see you happy. If you want to tell everyone today, it wouldn’t bother me. I’d be right by your side, doingit with you. But even if you weren’t there when I had that conversation with Cooper after he took you to the police station, you did witness how your brother reacted in that hotel room a month ago. I think you know he’s going to have something to say about this, too. I can’t imagine it’s going to be any better now than it was then.”
“It’s so upsetting to think he wouldn’t be happy for us, to think I could be deliriously happy, and he wouldn’t support that.”
“Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Deliriously happy?”
Ivy pressed her lips together and smiled at me, her eyes roaming over my face. “I am.”
Something hit me square in the chest at her admission. “That’s all I need. I want you to be deliriously happy all the time. So, like I said, I’ll do whatever you want here. If you want time to just be us for a while, I’m good with that. But if you want to tell the people who matter most to you that we’ve become something, I’m okay with that, too. I want whatever is going to make you happy.”
She bit her lip nervously. “I don’t know what to do.”
“So, take your time to think about it. I’m not going anywhere.”
“That’s good, because I’d probably tackle you to the ground if you thought you were going to walk away,” she teased.
Laughter spilled out of me, and I pulled her out of her chair and into my lap. I didn’t hesitate to kiss her gorgeous mouth, feeling beyond lucky to have her.
“Do you feel better now?”
She nodded. “A little bit.”
“Good. Now, can I make you a fresh plate of eggs?”
“What? Why?”
“Because Ivy, you didn’t eat nearly enough breakfast after all the calories you expended last night,” I pointed out. “Since I’m relatively certain you’re going to be burning more of them today, you’re going to need your energy.”
Ivy cuddled close, burying her face in my neck. “I love the way you look after me, Marco. It feels really good.”
My arms tightened around her, my throat so thick with emotion, I didn’t trust myself to speak and tell her how good it felt to be the man to give her that and get all of her in return.
So, I simply held on for a while and kissed the top of her head. And when she’d gotten enough cuddling in, I made her a fresh plate of eggs.