Wrapped Up in You - Jill Shalvis Page 0,27

been a whimper for more. But that could’ve been wishful thinking on his part. It’d been a hell of a kiss, and he’d have liked to take it much further, except that the rest of the gang was coming; he could hear their footsteps crunching through the fallen foliage and leaves, maybe a hundred yards back.

He’d have liked to have more time, a lot more time. Seemed as if maybe she felt the same. Her pulse was beating frantically at the base of her throat, but she shrugged casually.

“Not bad,” she said.

He laughed.

And she smiled. “Okay, better than not bad.”

“I know. And now I get to ask a question.”

“Okay,” she said slowly, not sounding exactly enthusiastic.

“Your friends love and adore you. Why lie to them about your brother at all? They’d understand.”

Her smile faded. Mood killed. But that was okay, because his mind had wrestled the controls back from his body.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ivy said.

“Unfortunately, I do. You’re good at compartmentalizing your life. Work in one box. Friends in another. You’ve built walls, not allowing anything to get all the way through.” He paused. “How am I doing?”

She turned and started to walk off.

Guess he was doing pretty good then. “Ivy.”

She kept going.

He caught up with her and gently turned her to face him.

“You’re a hypocrite,” she said.

“What?” he asked, surprised. “How’s that?”

“When I asked you what you were in town for, you said you were here on a break from work, helping out Caleb.”

“Yeah, and that’s true,” he said.

“You didn’t mention your mom, or that you were here to see your family.”

No, he hadn’t mentioned either of those things. But Caleb had, right in front of her, clearly making her feel like he was hiding things.

“It’s a small thing,” she said. “I know this. And we’re . . . strangers. So why would you tell me?” She shook her head, talking to herself. “Of course you wouldn’t tell me. I’m no one to you.”

Shit. The last thing he’d meant to do was make her feel unimportant. “Ivy—”

“No, it’s fine. It just felt like for a guy who hates liars, you weren’t honest with me about why you were here. And I get it, I really do. It’s none of my business. It’s just that I have some issues, and—”

“It’s not fine, I did lie by omission,” he said gently. “And I’m sorry. It’s just that sometimes it’s easier to avoid a topic than bring up old painful memories and family issues.”

She stared at him and gave a barely perceptible nod.

“I am here to help out Caleb. But yeah, there’s another reason too, and it’s one I haven’t wanted to face, much less talk about it. My family is . . . complicated. And it’s a little bit ugly. I’ve been pretending to myself that it was okay to ignore it all and just hope it goes away. I’m sorry if I came off like a jerk.”

She looked up into his eyes and he did his best to project the fact that he was being as honest as he could be.

After a few seconds, she nodded again. “I understand. A whole bunch, actually. I do a lot of pretending to myself too.” She grimaced. “And much of it is about Brandon, who isn’t the stand-up guy I like to pretend he is.”

His chest tightened, his heart aching for her. For the both of them as they stared at each other for a long beat. He wasn’t sure where they stood exactly. He wasn’t sure of anything, except that he wanted his mouth on hers again.

But with everyone else catching up with them, the moment was gone.

Chapter 9

It’s not nap time

A few days later, Ivy took a kick to the back of her knee and went down.

“Oh my God,” Tae said, sounding utterly pleased with herself. “That actually worked!”

“Told you,” Tina said from above Ivy.

Ivy blew her hair from her face and pushed herself to her knees. “No, really, I’m alright, thanks for asking.”

Tae offered her a hand up. “I’m surprised I was able to catch you by surprise.”

So was Ivy. Once again, she was at the gym with the girls in kickboxing class with Tina, the gorgeous barking tyrant.

“Get up, ladies, it’s not nap time.”

Tina moved them to a row of hanging bags, which they had to kick-kick-punch in tune to one of Tina’s favorite songs—“Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa. It was a show to watch Tina sing and boogie as she moved through the room yelling