Give Us a Chance (24 page)

"Sure would," he says, coming up to her. "Makes me sound old, like Dad."

My dad ropes his arm around Nash's shoulder. "You turn 26 soon. You're not exactly young anymore." He pats him on the back. "I better get back to the kitchen before your girlfriend wonders where her helper went."

He leaves and Ivy says to Nash, "When's your birthday?"

"Not until March. Callie's was a few weeks ago. We celebrated down at my house, a couple hours south of here."

She raises her brows. "You have a house?"

"So does Callie," I tell her. "It's a long story. I'll tell you later."

"Hey, you made it!" Callie comes out of the kitchen in a navy dress, a white apron wrapped around her. Her hair is up in a ponytail with wispy strands hanging down, framing her face. She's really pretty, and so completely perfect for Nash. The two of them just go together. They even look right together.

"The food smells great," Ivy says, giving Callie a hug.

"It's pork chops with a balsamic glaze and roasted potatoes. Plus some other stuff that doesn't really go with the pork but I wanted to try some new recipes."

Nash comes up behind her, pulling her into him and kissing her cheek. "My little chef. I told her she needs to open a restaurant."

She smiles up at him and he kisses her again. "It's just a hobby."

"Let's go sit down," I say, not wanting to stand here and watch Nash and Callie make out. Once they start kissing, they forget people are around and keep kissing until someone tells them to stop.

Nash and Callie sit on the couch, leaving Ivy and me to take the loveseat. I'm sure that was intentional on Callie's part. She's playing matchmaker, doing whatever she can to make sure Ivy and I keep dating. Nash and Callie are worried I'm going to screw this up, and knowing me, I probably will. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I've never had a girlfriend before.

"I love your necklace," Callie says to Ivy. "Nash, look. It's a hammer."

"My dad gave it to me," she says. "I figured it was appropriate for wearing to a dinner with people who own a construction company."

Callie laughs. "Totally. It's perfect. You fit right in." She eyes me, like she's hoping I heard her comment about how Ivy fits in our family, but I already know she does. She gets along great with Nash, and she likes my dad, and I'm sure she'd get along well with Bryce and Austin too, once she gets to know them. And she's already friends with Jen and Callie.

"Hi, everyone." Jen comes walking in the front door.

"Hey." Callie waves her over. "Come sit down."

Jen takes her coat off and notices Ivy. "Ivy, I'm glad you came." She goes over and gives her a quick hug.

"What about me?" I ask, pretending to be hurt. "You're not glad
I
came?"

"I see you all the time," she says, plopping down on the couch next to Callie.

"So did you guys do anything fun last night?" Callie asks.

I smile to myself, because hell yeah, we had fun. I got Ivy naked and kissed, licked, and touched just about every part of her.

Ivy answers. "We went to dinner, then had a drink and went—" She stops and I follow her gaze to the hallway. Austin's standing there, his hair a mess, wearing workout shorts and nothing else. Fuck. Does he really need to parade around the house half naked? Like I really need my girlfriend checking him out. The guy works out constantly so his body is more toned than mine or Bryce's or Nash's. We get a workout just doing construction so we're in damn good shape, and I make it to the gym now and then, but not like Austin. He's a fitness fanatic.

Jen and Callie are also staring at Austin and I see the annoyance on Nash's face. I catch his eye and shake my head. He rolls his eyes.

Austin stumbles into the living room, rubbing his face. "Anyone seen my keys?"

"On the counter," Nash says. "You been sleeping?"

"Yeah. I was wiped out from last night. We didn't get out of there until after three."
 

"You guys sounded really good," Callie says to him.

"Thanks. We've been practicing a lot." He yawns and stretches his arms up over his head, causing his shorts to drop even lower.

I look over and see Ivy staring at him. What the hell? She can't look at my brother that way!

"Austin," I bark at him.

"What?" he yawns again.

"Put some damn clothes on. We got company."

I hear Jen and Callie snickering. They think this is hilarious. Me being jealous of my brother. But I'm not jealous of him. I just don't want Ivy looking at him like that.

Austin finally notices Ivy. "Oh. Hi." He smiles and comes over to her. "I think we've met before. At the opening for the Victorian. I'm Austin." He extends his hand and they shake before I can stop them. I didn't want Ivy shaking his hand. I know what my little shit brother does with that hand, and I know he does it almost every time he wakes up. The walls in this house are way too thin.

I take Ivy's hand and hold it in mine so she doesn't touch him again.

"I'm Ivy," she says. "I work for Nash at the library."

Austin smiles. "Yeah. I know. That's why Jake always goes there for lunch."

"Shut up," I tell him. "And pull up your damn shorts."

He yanks them up and says to Ivy, "Sorry. I don't usually wear much to bed."

He glances at me and I almost punch him. The little shithead. He'd never try to take my girl, but he loves getting under my skin.

"It's okay," Ivy says, trying not to look at his eight-pack abs. "I don't mind."

Callie and Jen are snickering again, then Callie says, "I have to get back to the kitchen." She stands up. "Dinner should be ready in a half hour."

She leaves and Nash follows, but stops next to Austin and says, "Go clean up. You're not showing up to dinner like that."

"Yeah, I'm going." He makes his way back down the hall.

"I'll go see if Callie needs help with dinner," Jen says, getting up and leaving Ivy and me alone in the living room.

"So that's my family," I say, putting my arm up behind her on the back of the couch. "But I guess you've already met them before. I don't know where Bryce is. Probably out in the garage. He's fixing up a car."

"Does he live here?"

"No. He has an apartment, but he uses the garage to work on his car. It's a junk car that he's trying to fix up so he can sell it. If he makes enough, he might try to fix up another one."

"I didn't know he could fix cars. Why didn't he fix Jen's? She said she took it in for repairs last week."

"She wouldn't let him do it. She likes to be independent and take care of stuff herself. It drives Bryce crazy. The guy would do anything for her, except date her. If he'd date her, maybe she'd let him fix her car." I shake my head. "Those two are such a mess."

"So Austin still lives at home?"

"Yeah, but he's hardly ever here. He's either at work or with his band. I'm guessing he'll move out in a year or two, especially if he gets a girlfriend. He won't want to hang out here with his girlfriend. He needs his own place."

"He must work out a lot." She smiles a little.

I turn to her. "Yeah, about that. What the hell were you doing checking out my brother?"

"I wasn't checking him out," she insists.

"Oh, please, you couldn't stop staring at him. It's like you forgot I was in the room."

She rubs her hand over my chest, still smiling. "Are you jealous?"

"I'm not jealous of that little shit. I have better things to do with my time than spend hours at the gym. And it's not like I don't go to the gym. I just don't go every day."

She laughs. "You're totally jealous. But just so you know, I like your body." She reaches up and kisses me.

"Oh, yeah?" I kiss her back.

"I love it." She whispers in my ear. "It totally turns me on."

I'm instantly hard from her words and the feel of her breath in my ear. "Shit, don't do that here. Wait until we get home."

Home.
I said it as though we have a home. Together. That's not what I meant.

"To my apartment," I say, correcting myself.

"I thought you were taking me back to my place after this." She kisses my cheek, bringing things back to a more innocent level of flirting.

"Do you need to go back there? Because I was thinking you could stay with me again."

I just asked her to spend the night, making it two nights in a row she'd be at my place. What am I doing? I don't invite girls to spend the night, especially girls I'm not sleeping with. It's too intimate. Like last night. Having Ivy wrapped in my arms all night was causing all kinds of feelings to emerge. Feelings I'm not supposed to be having for her. I'm supposed to like her and that's it. I can't let myself get anywhere near that other L word.

"Um, I don't know," she says. "I think I should just stay at my place tonight."

So she doesn't want this getting too serious either. She always says her priority right now is her career, which means she's not interested in getting serious with a guy. She just wants someone to date, which works out well because that's all I'm looking for too. And yet, I feel a twinge of disappointment that she won't be with me tonight.

A half hour later, we're having dinner around the dining room table that has two leaves in it in order to fit us all. The food is amazing as always. Nash is right. Callie should open a restaurant. But instead she's going to college, studying math. She wants to be a high school math teacher.

As we're having dessert, Ivy jumps in her seat and grabs my arm.

"What's wrong?" I ask her.

"Something furry just touched my leg under the table," she whispers, but everyone heard.

"It's Cat," I tell her.

"Sorry about that," Callie says. "He likes to come over and say hi to new people. You aren't allergic are you?"

"No." She peeks under the table at the black cat. "I didn't know you had a cat. What's his name?"

"Cat."

We all try to keep a straight face because it's funny when people first hear his name. We can see Ivy's confused. We all were too when we found out his name. Now we think nothing of it, until someone new comes along.

"So um...what's his name?" Ivy asks.

"Cat," we all say at once, except for Dad. He's just shaking his head at us, not approving of us teasing Ivy.

Austin bursts out laughing. Then the rest of us do.

Ivy's looking more confused than ever. My dad explains, "The cat's name is Cat. He lives with Nash and Callie, but he's part of the family so he always comes to family dinner. And as Callie said, he likes to say hello to new people. Sorry if he scared you."

"He didn't scare me. I was just surprised. I love cats. I had one when I was little, but his name was Buttons because he had spots down his chest that looked like buttons." She smiles at Callie. "So why'd you name him Cat?"

"My little brother named him. He was just a toddler at the time so he didn't know many words." Callie looks down at the table and Nash puts his arm around her. Callie still gets really sad when she talks about her little brother. He was only five when he died.

Ivy looks devastated for bringing it up, but it's not her fault. She didn't know. I hold her hand under the table and whisper in her ear, "It's okay. She'll be fine."

"Awesome cheesecake, Callie," Austin says, breaking the awkward silence. We can always count on Austin to get the conversation going again.

"Thanks." Callie perks up, smiling again. "The recipe's from a local chef. I found it on her website. She does cooking segments for one of the morning news programs. I can't remember her name."

"It's really good," I tell her. "Thanks for making it, and for making dinner."

"You're welcome."

I thank her every time she does this for us. I know she likes cooking, but still, it's a lot of work and I don't want her ever thinking we take it for granted.

Nash kisses her cheek, his arm still around her. "He's right. It's a great meal, as always."

"Speaking of the news," Austin says, looking at me. "I got a text from one of my friends saying you were in today's paper. Something about a contest? What's that about?"

Shit. I was hoping this wouldn't come up. I had no idea there even
was
a contest, and I sure as hell didn't know I'd won it until my phone started blowing up this morning with texts and calls from the women I've been with, and some that I don't even know. I wanted to tell Ivy about this later, when we were alone, but I guess that's not going to happen.

Ivy lets go of my hand and forces out a smile. "Apparently the women of Chicago have voted Jake to be Chicago's most eligible bachelor."

So she already knows, and from her tone and that fake smile, she's not happy about it.

"I just found out about it," I say. "I had nothing to do with it."

"Most eligible bachelor?" Austin laughs. "Why you? What about me? I'm the single one here. You have Ivy. Nash has Callie. Bryce has Je—" He stops before saying her name.

Bryce is glaring at him and Jen is fidgeting with her napkin.

"I mean, Bryce has limited appeal with all that ink," Austin says, trying to fix his mistake. "I have broader appeal. Muscles. No tats. And I play in a band."

"Can we not talk about this?" I say. "It was just a stupid contest. They shouldn't have done it, especially without letting me know."

Ivy seems less tense now that she knows I had no part in this. At least she believed me. I know she's still hesitant to trust me, but I'm not lying. I really had no clue this was going on.

Jen scoots her chair back and stands up. "I hate to go, but I have to meet with my group in a half hour and they get really annoyed when I'm late."

"Is this for statistics?" Callie asks.

"Yeah, I hate that class. Can't wait until it's over." She gets up, setting her napkin on the table.

"Be careful driving out there," my dad says. "That rain we had earlier could've frozen up by now."

"I know. I'll be careful." She goes around the table, giving a quick wave to Ivy. "Bye, Ivy. Good seeing you again. Callie, I'll call you later." She walks off.

"What about your brothers?" Austin yells. "We don't get a goodbye?"