FIGHT FOR ME (9 page)

“Thank you so much.” She leaned over the flowers and kissed him quickly on the lips. “I’m going to go put these in water.”

She set the bouquet on the counter in a jar filled with tap water temporarily. She went on a hunt for a vase.

When she peeked her head into her Jess’s room, her sister looked away from the movie screen. “Who was at the door?”

“It was Lucas with some flowers. He’s in the living room with Emma now.”

Jess crinkled her nose.

“Why do you
always
do that every time he does something nice?”

Jess rolled her eyes. “You know how I feel about you guys. I’ll admit, it’s kind of sweet, though. What did you want from me?”

“Do you have any vases?”

“Um, let me think. Check under the bathroom sink.”

“’Kay.”

Ivy shut the door to her sister’s room and walked down the hall toward the bathroom. As she did, she caught a glimpse of Lucas sitting on the carpet playing horses with Emma. It made Ivy smile.

She suddenly realized that Lucas was impeccable father material –at least, if she knew more about him. But based on what she did know… he was perfect.

He was someone she could spend more than just a few months with. Hell, she would spend the rest of her life with him if she had the chance.

The realization almost brought tears to her eyes.

As she knelt down on the bathroom’s tile floor and looked in the cabinet under the bathroom sink, she foolishly imagined spending the rest of her life with Lucas. Was it even a possibility? She really had no idea.

She tried to choose between a tall, skinny vase and a low, wide vase.

She would have to face going home again in about a week. The year anniversary of Nikolai’s death was in a three or four days. Ivy and Jess’s mother was visiting and would stay a day or two after that.

But once her mother was gone and the anniversary had passed, she would have to make the choice again. Go back to the city and try to make some kind of long distance relationship work with Lucas, or… Well, she wasn’t quite sure what her other options were.

Choosing the wider vase so the flowers could spread out more, Ivy stood and took a refreshing breath. She would think about that choice when she was immediately forced to. She didn’t have to right now.

She walked back into the hallway and toward the living room. However, a question from Emma made Ivy stop before she was in view of the two in the living room.

“Are you going to marry Auntie Ivy?”

Ivy held onto the vase tightly while she waited for the answer. She knew it was really unfair to expect anything from his answer, but she still did.

“I don’t know,” he said with barely a pause. “Do you want me to?”

“Yes!”

Lucas laughed. “Why?”

“So you can teach me all the time.”

Ivy had to smile at that even though she was out of view in the hallway. When they didn’t keep talking, Ivy started to walk into the room again. But again she was stopped by a question, this time from Lucas. And this time it was a little more interesting.

“Do you miss your daddy?”

Why would he ask that? It was understandable that he would wonder how Emma was doing, but to actually ask her and risk an extremely negative reaction? That didn’t seem very responsible to Ivy. She had never even brought up Emma’s father with her out of caution.

“My daddy?” Emma asked, like she didn’t understand the question.

“Yeah.”

“My papa is dead,” Emma said in a matter of fact tone, like it was common knowledge and not that big of a deal.

“I know,” Lucas said softly. “And you’re okay not having a papa?”

Ivy almost wanted to come in and change the subject. She could almost hear Emma shrug the topic off. The next thing she heard Emma say was something like “oh no, your horsie is too close to the hot lava!”

Ivy finally walked into the living room, feeling a little guilty about eavesdropping but also glad she did. The exchange between Emma and Lucas had been… strange, to say the least.

She walked to the counter and put the flowers in the vase without saying anything to Lucas or Emma. She tipped a dash of baking soda into the water and walked into the living room to put the flowers on the coffee table.

“They look so nice,” she said half to herself.

“You like them?” Lucas stood up.

“I do. I really do.”

Ivy gave Lucas a hug. Emma jumped up and hugged the both of them. Ivy ruffled her hair.

Lucas gave her a soft kiss on the cheek and headed for the door. “You going to stay with me tonight?”

Ivy grinned. “Of course. I’ll text you after we have dinner so you can come get me.”

He nodded and left.

Later, while Jess was making dinner –warming up some instant food in the microwave –Ivy pulled a stool over to the kitchen counter partition and decided to bring up the conversation she had overhead with Jess.

“I overheard Lucas asking about Nikolai when he stopped by earlier,” she said. “Asking Emma if she was okay not having a dad.”

Jess looked away from the microwave. “That’s a little weird.”

“I thought so.”

“What did she say?”

“Nothing, really. She kind of deflected the subject.”

“That’s what she does with me.” Jess leaned on the counter. “Ivy, I told you there was something weird about him. Something off.”

“Jess—”

“I’m not saying he’s a bad guy! I’m just saying… You know what I’m saying. I’ve said it enough.” Jess paused. “He was probably just being concerned. Asking Emma, I mean. He’s been really sensitive and concerned about… it… since he met us.”

Ivy nodded. “Yeah. I just wasn’t sure what to think. He’s been really nice lately. These last few weeks have been nothing but kisses behind doorways, sweet words, and, um, amazing sex.”

“I can imagine,” Jess laughed. “He looks like he’s in great shape.”

“He is!” Ivy blushed a little. “It’s intense, but I can’t get enough of him.”

“Is he still not talking about his past?”

Ivy looked down. Her mood instantly started to drift downwards. “No. He really won’t tell me anything, except what I told you. Some barebones stuff in his childhood. He won’t talk about what happened between high school and now.”

“Red flag,” Jess said.

“I know.”

“It sounds like he’s trying to prove to you that he’s not a bad guy even though he won’t talk about his past.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He’s trying to win you over.”

Ivy stretched her arms up and yawned. “He’ll be here soon,” she said. “I should go get ready for some winning over.”

The sisters laughed.

Chapter Thirteen

On the drive over to his house, Lucas got a call on his cell phone.

“Huh, I don’t recognize the number.” He answered it as he pulled into his driveway. “Hello?”

Ivy opened her car door and walked up the driveway, thinking little of the phone call. It was probably a wrong number or someone trying to sell him something. However, when Lucas lowered his voice and seemed to shrink back into the driver’s seat, Ivy started to pay attention.

“How did you get my number?” Lucas hissed, using a tight and barely controlled voice Ivy had never heard from him before.

“Who is it?” she called.

“No one,” he said, leaning out of the car. “You can go on inside without me.”

Ivy gave him a long look, waiting for him to say something else on the phone, but he didn’t begin to speak again until she opened his door –he had given her a key three weeks ago –and stepped inside. She only heard a fraction of his next sentence.

“Do you know … I am?”

As the door swung shut, Ivy felt a little scared. Like something was happening that she didn’t fully understand and probably didn’t want to understand.

She let Kimbo in from the backyard. The dog ran in happy circles around her. She sat on Lucas’s couch and cuddled with Kimbo. She could hear his voice outside, but couldn’t make out any words.

After a few moments he walked inside, his expression tight. He shut and locked the door behind him. Ivy was shocked to see that his hands were shaking, just the tiniest bit. She wondered if he even knew himself.

“Who was that?” she asked again.

He paced back and forth in the living room. Kimbo jumped off the couch and chased at his heels. He stopped walking and looked at Ivy, like he was noticing her there for the first time.

“I have to go,” he said. He took his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. “You can stay here. Watch Kimbo. I’ll be… back.”

“What? When?” Ivy stood from the couch, shocked.

“No later than the morning.” He started to leave, then turned and looked at her. “If I’m not back by then…” He trailed off. His expression started to relax. “Never mind. I’ll be back. Don’t worry about me. It’s an… emergency.”

“Okay. Let me know what’s going on as soon as you can,” Ivy said, trying to figure out what could possibly be happening.

Lucas nodded and left, locking the door behind him from the outside.

Kimbo sat by the door and barked lazily a few times. Then, he wandered over to Ivy and pawed at her foot, wagging his tail.

Ivy knelt down and scratched him behind the ears. “What was that, Kimbo?” she asked no one. “What the hell was that?”

Kimbo made a pleased sound as she scratched his tummy.

If only she could be as forgiving and easygoing as the dog when it came to Lucas.

* * * *

She didn’t want to stay at Lucas’s on her own and worry about him all night, so she took Kimbo and walked him to Jess’s apartment.

When she explained what had happened to her sister, Jess tried to convince her to call the police right away.

“He said it was an emergency. Someone could be in real trouble!”

“I’m sure that he’s taking care of it. That’s why he left in such a hurry.”

Jess stared at Kimbo. “Is this dog going to pee on our carpet?”

“No! Jess, no. He’s housetrained. I’ll take him out often enough that he won’t pee on anything.”

“Okay,” Jess said. “Have I mentioned that I don’t approve of this pairing? This guy is bad news. He has some kind of terrible emergency that is so bad he leaves you at his house with his dog and no explanation—and he might need police assistance if he’s not back in the morning? I don’t know, Ivy, please just think about this. Are you ready to deal with whatever he’s hiding from you?”
      Ivy swallowed. “Yeah. But Jess, it’s probably a death in the family or something. I’m sure it’s not anything so out of the ordinary.” She remembered what he had said as soon as whoever was on the other line started talking. “
How did you get this number?
”

Emma wandered in from her room.

“What’s going on?” She was holding her favorite stuffed animal, a floppy white unicorn about as big as she was. “Why is there a puppy?”

“This is Mr. Fray’s dog,” Jess said simply. “We’re taking care of him for the night. Go back to your bed. I’ll be there in a minute to read you a story.”

Ivy made her pull out couch bed for the first time in a long time and lay down. She kept her phone by her hand and checked it every few moments even though it was set to vibrate.

What was Lucas doing? Why wouldn’t he tell her what it was?

Though she was worried about Lucas’s honesty, mostly she was just worried about him.

She hoped desperately that he would give her a call and let her know that things were all right and he’d be back within the hour.

This night wasn’t turning out at all like she had thought it would.

* * * *

Ivy had just drifted off to sleep when she heard someone walk into the living room. This wasn’t a rare occurrence. Usually it was just Jess or Emma getting a snack or something similarly ordinary. Ivy rolled onto her side, facing the couch, and tried to go back to sleep.

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Ivy, can you please wake up?”

She rolled onto her back and opened her eyes. “I’m awake,” she said. Her sister stood before her, her face very white in the pale blue illumination of the moon.

“What’s wrong?” She sat up and motioned for Jess to set next to her. Her sister did, and curled up beside her.

It was unusual for Jess to do anything like this. She wasn’t exactly reserved, but she usually didn’t go out of her way to show when she was really upset. And she definitely was extremely upset.

“I can’t sleep,” Jess said. It didn’t sound like the whole story. Ivy stayed quiet, waiting for further explanation. “I’m worried.”

Ivy suddenly remembered what had happened earlier that night. Lucas had disappeared.

“Why are you worried?”

“I’m really, really worried. Because, well, this is just like… like the night Nikolai died.”

Ivy looked at her sister, eyes wide. Her sister had never told her any details about Nikolai’s death. She had not expected this at all. She stayed quiet. The refrigerator made soft noises in the shadows of the kitchen.

It was a night for secrets.

“I never told you this,” Jess started, “but Nikolai didn’t just die… he was murdered. They found him beaten to death in a warehouse a few miles out of the city.”

“Oh my God,” Ivy said, taking Jess’s hand in hers.

“They think it was one guy who did it, probably someone he knew. But they have no idea who it was. I think they’ve given up, they stopped giving me updates on the search months ago.”

“And you said tonight reminds you of… that night?”

“He got a phone call, wouldn’t explain it, and then…” Jess choked up and looked down. “Then he never came back.” She put her arms around Ivy and buried her face against her. “This is just bringing back so many memories,” she sobbed into Ivy’s shoulder. “Like how he said goodbye and how he gave Emma a kiss on the forehead before leaving and… and… it was like he knew that he might die.”

Ivy held her sister for a few more minutes, thinking about what she had just learned. It made her heart go cold. The similarities were few, but for all she knew Lucas could be in a similarly dangerous situation. When Jess finally pulled away, collapsing against the back of the couch and drying her eyes with the back of her hand, Ivy checked her phone.