For the Love of Ivy - Cindy Kirk Page 0,47
were in town getting supplies,” Seth said, surprisingly serious. “Apparently Adam is convinced you and he will be a perfect match.”
Lauren resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “If I was a betting woman, I’d say he’ll match with Kim.”
“Why would he think it could be you and him?” Seth’s brows pulled together. “You never completed a survey.”
“Actually, I did,” Lauren admitted. “Adam suggested experiencing the survey process firsthand would round out my dissertation experience. Although obviously that wasn’t the reason he urged me to participate.”
“Why now?” Seth’s voice reflected the confusion on his face.
“Doing it earlier wouldn’t have been proper protocol.” Lauren took a sip of orange juice. “Since my research is complete, I can do it just for fun.”
“I like fun.” Ivy looked up from her book. She’d been so quiet Lauren had forgotten she was there. “What are you doing that’s for fun?”
“A survey,” Lauren said.
Ivy frowned. “What’s that?”
Lauren looked at Seth, but he’d picked up the iPad and was pretending to read the news.
“It’s a bunch of questions,” Lauren explained. “The answers tell me who in this area could be my good friend.”
It was a simplistic explanation, hopefully easy for a seven-year-old to understand.
Ivy smiled. “It’ll say me.”
“Me?” Now Lauren was the one confused.
“No, silly.” Ivy giggled, pointing with her cast to her chest. “It will say I’m your good friend, ’cause you and me are bestest friends.”
The sincerity in the little girl’s tone threaded a ribbon of love around Lauren’s heart. Over the past few weeks she and Ivy had grown close. Now to discover the child considered Lauren to be her “bestest” friend brought a lump to her throat.
She cast a sideways glance at Seth to see if he’d heard the touching words, but his eyes were still on the screen.
“If you could take the survey,” Lauren said to Ivy, “I’m sure it would show we are meant to be best friends. But this particular survey matches men and women. It matched your aunt Anna with your uncle Mitch. And Stacie and Josh.”
Ivy’s lips pursed together for a moment then she smiled. “And you and Daddy.”
Seth choked on his sip of coffee, telling Lauren he wasn’t as engrossed in the news as he’d appeared.
“You and Daddy are bestest friends, too.” Ivy’s smile was triumphant, as if she’d put the answer in a box, tied it with a bow and presented it to Lauren.
“You’re right, princess.” Seth set the iPad on the table. “But there are other men in town who could be Miss Lauren’s good friend, too. Like Mr. Nordstrom. He and Miss Lauren have a lot in common. They both—”
“Seth.” Lauren softened her interruption with a smile. She could see by the distress on Ivy’s face that the talk of other men was upsetting her. And for no good reason.
She might not match anyone. Look at Seth. He’d never been matched. For all his talk about her supposed compatibility with Adam, as far as she was concerned the professor’s boorish behavior on the trip they’d taken to Bozeman for the psychology lecture had disproved that assumption.
He hadn’t been interested in the speaker at all. In fact, he’d read e-mail on his phone during the presentation. Talking about her father all the way there and back hadn’t been much fun, either. But the way he’d slammed Sweet River every chance he got had been the last straw.
“Did Mrs. Barbee also tell you Adam is doing a lecture next week at your alma mater?” Lauren asked, more than ready for a subject change.
“What about?”
Lauren shrugged. “I heard the words cluster species and algorithms and tuned him out.”
Seth raised both eyebrows. “Sounds interesting.”
“Yeah, right.” Lauren laughed. “Only if you’re a math geek.”
“Are you going?”
Lauren didn’t even have to think about her answer. “You couldn’t pay me enough.”
Seth gazed into the crackling fire. His chores were all done. Ivy had been in bed for hours. He assumed Lauren was asleep by now, too. She’d gone to her bedroom after dinner to work on her dissertation...and because she probably sensed he needed some time alone.
He’d been distracted all evening, but instead of badgering him to tell her what was wrong, she’d let him be.
Even if she’d asked and he’d wanted to tell her, he wasn’t sure what he’d have said. All Seth knew was that ever since his conversation with Mitch several days earlier, he’d felt unsettled.
He looked up at the sound of footsteps on the stairs and his heart flip-flopped in his chest. He hadn’t expected to