by L. L. Ash
Penelope Hayes stood on the stoop with a grin on her face and her eyes lit up when she saw me standing behind Dad.
Right behind her was the one person in the world that I hated more than my mom.
Hunter Hayes.
He didn’t look any happier about being on my doorstep than I was to see him there.
“Ivory!” Penelope called, moving forward to pull me into a tight hug.
It had been something like eight years since I’d seen her. Rather, since Hunter turned into a total asshole and I stopped talking to him.
The familiar, warm sunshine and wildflower smell that always followed her around made me choke up a little. I never realized just how much I’d missed her.
“Oh, sweetie! Look at you! You’ve turned into such a beauty.”
She pressed her cold fingers to my cheeks and it brought back so many memories of childhood. She did the same thing back then, and I’d always wished so hard that she was my mom instead of the one who had borne me.
“Hunter,” I heard Dad say over our shoulders.
He knew a little about why we had stopped being friends, but he didn’t know why my feelings had turned from hurt to hate in high school.
Hunter bobbed his chin toward Dad, not bothering with a greeting while Penelope moved toward dad and—
Kissed him.
Oh GOD.
Pen.
Penelope.
Dad was dating Penelope Hayes.
Hunter’s lip curled in disgust when Penelope and Dad kissed, and he turned away, looking down the street with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
I couldn’t blame him though. I was feeling a little nauseous over the sight, myself.
“We have something to tell you,” Penelope said after a second.
Her fingers threaded through Dad’s as she took a steadying breath and turned her face up to Dad. He motioned us to all go into the living room, so I followed with a grumbling Hunter right behind me.
His scent enveloped me and I could feel his heat at my back. Salt and motor oil, just like he smelled three years ago when ‘The Big Mistake’ happened.
I sat on my favorite couch and Hunter took the chair across the room, putting as much space between us as possible while Dad and Penelope stood in front of the silent TV while it flashed a CapriSun commercial on the screen.
“I know it’s sudden,” Dad said, squeezing her hand in his, “but you guys know that we’ve known each other a long time. We didn’t see the point in waiting, especially while you two are at school and we’re both just sitting here alone.”
Penelope grinned and dug into her pocket where she retrieved a—ring?
“We drove to Vegas and got married,” she blurted, beaming up at Dad while he slipped the sparkling wedding band on her finger.
- 4 -
Ivory
Eleven Years Ago
“Is Brett Porter still picking on you?” Hunter demanded while I crawled in through his window.
Mom was on a rampage and Dad was just trying to keep her from spending our mortgage on a new handbag.
I shrugged after flopping to the floor.
“He always picks on me,” I admitted. “Don’t figure he’ll stop just ‘cause you asked him to.”
Hunter lifted his blanket and I crawled into his bed.
His dad was gone, as was usual, and the faint drone of his mom watching TV in the living room echoed through his closed bedroom door.
“That’s dumb. He’s dumb.”
“He’s a boy, so...” I drawled, which just made him shove me.
I stumbled right out of the bed, since I was only perched on the edge because he took too much room on the little twin mattress.
Footsteps flew up the hallway and I quickly rolled underneath the bed.
His mom didn’t know that we both snuck into each other’s rooms sometimes, when things got too suffocating around our own houses.
“Are you ok?” Penelope Hayes asked, peeking the door open, which let in a thread of bright yellow light.
Holding my breath, I stayed as still and quiet as I could while Hunter answered.
“Yeah. Just forgot my Leo. I’ve got him now.”
Penelope let out a little chuckle and said in a happy voice, tainted with weary sadness, “Ok. Goodnight, sweetie.”
“Night, Mom,” Hunter called after her and she left, closing the door slowly before it clicked shut.
I waited for a solid minute before Hunter called down to me, “C’mon. She’s gone.”
Gingerly, I got back up and crawled back into the bed, rubbing at the elbow that I’d landed on which would be sporting a bruise tomorrow.
“You almost got us caught,” I whisper-yelled at him. “Seriously! And you hurt my elbow!”
Hunter’s grinning smile turned into a deep frown.
“Which one?” he asked in a matching whisper to mine.
I held up my arm to show him my smarting elbow and he stared at it.
Taking my arm in his hands, he moved closer, ever so slowly, and pressed his lips to my elbow.
I couldn’t even feel it throbbing anymore, but now, all of a sudden I felt hot and my heart was pounding a thousand miles a minute.
Hunter looked back into my eyes, my elbow still an inch from his lips.
“Better?” he asked.
It was that very moment that I absolutely knew that we would end up getting married one day. Hunter Hayes was my best friend, and he was the one person in this world besides my own dad that I trusted. Hunter was everything that I couldn’t be, and we fit together like peas in a pod. I wanted him to kiss away all my boo-boos, even the ones in my heart.
“Better,” I agreed, which made him burst into a radiant smile.
“Good. Now tell me about dumb Brett so I can beat him up tomorrow.”
With a quiet chuckle at his joke, I cuddled closer and turned my back to his front. He curled around me and stuck his nose in my hair before I told him the atrocities that Brett Porter had managed during the day, including calling my threadbare jeans ugly.
“You don’t need new jeans,” he said eventually, once I was done telling him all about it.
I’d been picked on because my clothes were old and holey, but Hunter never seemed to care about it.
“You know, you’re a classic,” he added. “And classics never go out of style.”
- 5 -
Hunter
The fuckity fuck?
“Married?” I demanded, back on my feet in a second.
I wasn’t the only one, Ivy was stumbling up from her spot in slack-jawed shock.
“Yes,” Richard Bell, my apparent new step-father said with a stern look in my direction. “And we’re really happy about it. We were hoping you two would be happy for us, too, despite your feelings toward each other.”
A pained look crossed Mom’s face and my guts twisted in regret.
I hated seeing her hurt, and here I was, doing more hurt to a woman I loved.
I swallowed down my adamant objections while Ivy stammered. “B-but, you just started dating!”
A good point.
“We’ve known each other long enough,” Mom answered. “And we just didn’t want to wait. We’ve done enough waiting.”
What the fuck did that mean?
“What do you mea—” I started, but Ivy talked right over me.
“Of course we’re happy for you,” she ground out, giving me an evil eye across the room until I shut my fat mouth.
“Hunter?” Mom asked, her fingers fussing with the diamond on her finger with nervous tension.
Hell, even Dad never gave Mom a diamond. All she ever got from that sad sack of a bastard was a little silver band that wasn’t worth a six pack of beers.
“I’m happy for you,” I managed, only feeling a little guilty for lying to her.
A giant smile bloomed across her pink-painted lips and she moved toward me to give me a big hug.
Funny how even after all these years, and me being a goo
d foot taller than her now, Mom’s hugs never lost their comfort and love.
I squeezed her back.
Maybe it wasn’t really a lie.
I was happy she was happy, even if it was with fucking Ivy Bell’s dad.
Mom went over to hug Ivy too, then she was all googoo over Richard again and I was fighting back gagging.
My eyes dragged over to Ivy like magnets and hers did the same, a look of trepidation on her face like mine, though she didn’t look disgusted. I stared into her pretty baby blues and felt that awful flutter in my belly like I always did, so I forced my eyes away and folded my arms across my chest again. The whole situation was one big clusterfuck and I was so uncomfortable I wanted to crawl out of my own skin.
There was way too much history floating around in the air inside that living room, and I wanted away from it.
Immediately.
“There’s one more thing,” Richard added, and I wanted to roll my eyes.
What now? Were they having a baby?
“We obviously couldn’t tell you about it until we told you about the wedding...”
Oh FUCK! They weren’t pregnant. Were they?
“We’re going to Hawaii!” Mom blurted again.
I’d never seen her so happy before that she just word-vommed all over the place.
“Hawaii?” Ivy repeated, blinking and blinking at Mom like a malfunctioning camera shutter.
“You two are going on our honeymoon with us,” Mom said, grinning ear to ear. “We leave tonight!”
“Oh hell no,” I let out my own word vomit and it made Mom frown. “You two go have fun, and I’ll stay at our house, and Ivy will stay here. No biggie.”
Mom gulped.
Aw shit.
“Actually, I sold the house,” she said. “We’ve already invested into updating this place a little. The contractors will be working on it while we’re in Hawaii.”
If big, tough, motorcycle riding dudes fainted, I totally would’ve done that shit right there on the Bells’ living room floor.
“You what?” I yelled. “How the fuck long have you two been fucking dating?”
“Language,” Richard cut, and I growled.
I was twenty-one years old, and they were the two acting like lovesick teens, doing devastatingly stupid things while I was away at college.
Ivy collapsed on the couch, her head in her hands as she shook it in disbelief.
Yeah, somehow we’d turned into the grown-ups and our parents were telling us they were in love and had run away to get married.
Smacking a palm against my forehead, I groaned.
“Where am I supposed to stay?” I asked Mom. “I subleased my place all summer! I can’t go back there, and all my friends are at home.”
“You’ll stay here!” she answered with a smile, but it was tighter now.
Fake.
I groaned louder.
“You mean you want us to live here?” Ivy asked slowly. “Together?”
“We’re a family now,” Mom said. “It will be just like it used to be. You two used to be inseparable.”
Yeah, that was before Ivy broke my fucking heart and I fucked her in a closet in Hillary’s basement senior year then ditched her like a dirty condom.
“That was a decade ago,” Ivy insisted, unable to resist taking the opportunity to send me a glare across the room.
She was good at those. It would probably give her premature wrinkles, though.
“We will legit ruin your honeymoon,” I agreed. “And every one of our lives will be a living hell if you make us share the same air.”
“What the hell happened?” Richard asked, putting a fist on his hip while Mom looked like she might just cry.
Dammit.
For the first time in...forever, Ivy and I both agreed on something—not living together. We also agreed that we wouldn’t tell them the real reasons why we hated each other’s guts these days.
“I need a minute,” Mom breathed, then hurried from the room to get some air on the back porch.
Richard frowned at both of us, then went to follow Mom.
“Why do you have to be such an asshole?” Ivy demanded, turning her scorn on me.
“What the fuck did I do?” I bit back. “I wasn’t the one who ran to Vegas to get married and sold my fucking house! I’m not any happier about this than you are!”
Her lip lifted in disgust before she plopped back into what I remembered was her all-time favorite seat on the living room couch. Even as a kid she loved that stupid spot.
Ivy rubbed her temples for a minute.
“It doesn’t have to be that bad,” she said eventually. “I mean, you can surf there, and spread your manwhore charms while I soak up some sun and do a few tours. We’ll just have to survive some meals together. We can manage that, right?”
Well, she had a point there. Hawaii’s beaches were world class, and I would get some really amazing surfing in.
“I’m not just talking about the honeymoon or Hawaii. This means for the whole summer. Three months until next semester starts. Three months with each other, tripping all over that ugly-ass frown on your face and avoiding all topics of us.”
Her scowl retreated into a cold expression and dead eyes.
“I hate you.”
“Yeah, feeling’s mutual,” I agreed. “How could they do this to us?”
“This isn’t about you, idiot. This is about Dad and your mom and them being happy. I’m willing to sacrifice just about anything for Dad’s happiness. What are you willing to do for hers?”
Double dammit.
I moaned into my palms, then shoved both my hands through my hair.
“Fine. I can play nice until summer is over.”
With grim determination, Ivy sat back in her chair and proceeded to ignore my very presence.
Fine by me.
Every time I had to look at her face, my heart panged just a little more and I remembered every single reason why I had her, and why I gave her up.
This summer was going to royally suck.
- 6 -
Ivory
We were going to kill each other before the trip was over.
No joke.
Like, I was already planning how I was going to do it, and what I needed to do in order to get away with it.
Dish gloves, tarp, bleach, rope. Probably some towels so, you know, room service didn't see his blood stains all over their pure white ones. Pretty sure that would be suspicious.
“See you at dinner!” Penelope called as she walked out of the suite holding Dad’s hand.
Dad said he got the suite on discount last minute and that it was cheaper than three separate rooms. I called bullshit on that, but it didn’t matter. The money was spent, and none of us had the kind of funds to get a separate room.
We had arrived last night, and I was ready to strangle the turdsicle’s stupid neck.
Hey, that was an idea. No blood to clean up that way.
“Enjoy your porn books and fake wine coolers. I’m out,” Hunter called as he wandered toward the suite door in nothing but his board shorts and flip flops.
“It’s not porn!” I yelled. “It’s romance, and they know more about relationships and romance than you ever will!”
He scoffed out a laugh before turning to me with a brutal smile.
“And yet, I know more about both those things now than you ever will. Hey, maybe they can teach you to have a nice relationship with your cats when you’re an old spinster cat lady.”
My jaw hit the floor at the sheer audacity that stupid man had.
“I bet you my firstborn that I’ll have a better, longer relationship than you ever will, Hunter Hayes.”
His smile somehow got wider.
“I’m sure you will. With your vibrator.”
He slipped out the door before I could even respond.
Gathering my book, I stuffed my feet into my sandals and galloped after him.
“You don’t get to walk away, numbnuts!
” I called after him while he stepped into the elevator.
He just winked at me as the elevator doors closed.
We were only on the third floor.
Beating it downstairs, I managed to get to the lobby just in time for the doors to open and for a particularly proud looking Hunter to stroll off, looking like he’d won.
He didn’t.
I’d give as good as I got.
“You’re going to die alone and be buried with your Fleshlight!” I hollered at him, then happened to notice the three families with young kids staring at me from the chairs in the foyer.
“Classy,” Hunter chided.
I ground my molars together so hard I could hear them creaking in my skull.
“Sorry,” I muttered to the families as I walked past, my face turning bright red with embarrassment.
“How could you do that?” I growled at Hunter as I followed him out.
“What are you talking about?” he scoffed, not slowing down his long-legged stride. “I’m not the one talking about sex parafinelia around a bunch of kids. And you’re the one who’s following me around like a stalker.”
“You’re infuriating!”
“And you’re acting like I give a fuck what you think,” he clipped.
He didn’t go very far, though. He went to a little stand on the beach and talked to the big man inside to rent a surfboard.
“You going to follow me into the water too?” he called as I slowed and dragged behind. “Should I get two?”
I just lifted my fist and stuck out my middle finger.
“You should really learn to control that temper of yours,” was his only response before he turned his back on me and headed down the beach.
I followed at a distance, savoring the feeling of the sand between my toes as my sandals sank into the sugary beach.
Hunter was wading into the water, and I couldn’t help but watch the curve of his back as he went, bending and sticking his fingers into the foamy waves with each push and pull of the tide.
He was beautiful. I couldn’t ever deny that. If only his character matched in allure. It used to, when we were kids. Before he got older and turned his back on me before turning into a world class prick.
