Ivory

by Hadley Quinn

  I groaned again, jokingly stating another one was being added to the list. It may have been true, but Luke didn’t find the humor in it. He also ended up reading the tabloid article as he came upstairs with me. He was laughing in the elevator and made me read some of it too. Ivory also read it, and whereas her humor was based more on how she felt sorry for the woman, we were still making jokes about it for the next hour.

  Thankfully the article turned out sounding silly and farfetched, but I had no thoughts on it other than that. I really was still a bit spooked over it all, but the bottom line was that this woman must have known Ivory’s name and had somehow managed to use every bit of flair to back up her claim. Either that, or the coincidence was just creepy as hell.

  “Why’d you even go downstairs, man?” Luke asked as he was leaving that night. He’d joked about rushing home to continue his Valentine’s Day with his pooch, Thunder. The guy cracked me up. “Never give them that, Jude. You know better.”

  By “them” I knew he meant “the crazies.” And no, normally security would just throw out anyone trying to get into the building that didn’t belong, and if it persisted, they’d call the police. I felt pretty safe in my apartment and usually never dealt with it personally unless I was already out in public.

  “She got to me the first time we talked to her,” I admitted. “I’m ashamed to say it, but she did.”

  “You know she recognized you, though. She’s a con artist and she’s good at it. Getting arrested probably wasn’t so smart, but she was hoping her name was in that tabloid so she could get some extra business.”

  “Yeah, remind me to never listen to Hayes and his stupid ideas again. And who knows, she’s probably going to stir this up as much as she can so she does get some money out of it.”

  “You’re right, so you need to take the proper measures so she stays away from you.”

  I agreed, but it still didn’t feel right. If this woman truly was a fraud, then she was a damn good one because she had me convinced that I’d ruined her entire purpose in life.

  That feeling lasted for only two days before I changed my mind. Luke did some more digging and found out that Gretta had given Hayes her card one night we were at the sports bar. That’s how Hayes had “heard about it.” I must have been elsewhere because I never remembered seeing her. It happened to be a week before we’d actually gone in her psycho store, but I had no doubt she’d been stalking her prey throughout the local businesses nearby.

  It was just bad luck that we happened to give her our time. It also meant she’d had her eye on me elsewhere, possibly The Urchin. If she knew Ree’s name was Ivory… Or maybe she really had been talking piano keys and it was all just a big fluke…

  Yeah, I was tired of thinking about it. I was glad I didn’t have to deal with her, but the whole situation pissed me off. There were people everywhere trying to take advantage of someone and I’d been around it my whole life.

  Every now and then you just want to believe good intentions still exist.

  Throughout the rest of February, I took a break from performing. Ree came with Wes and I to Los Angeles to do some recording, and since she’d never been there, we spent a couple of extra days at the beach. She absolutely loved it, but I was glad to hear her say she never wanted to live there. My roots were in Chicago, and I was glad she felt the same.

  Mid-March, Ivory came down with what we thought was just a bad cold, but after two weeks of her symptoms worsening, it turned into pneumonia. It was scary as hell and she even had to spend three days in the hospital. The doctors assured me that she would be fine because it was a mild case, but there was no way I was going to take a minute with her for granted. I even stayed in the hospital all three days because I didn’t want to leave her side. She had the best care possible, but I was still a wreck.

  It made me take a good look at my life and ask myself if it was exactly the way I wanted it. Ree was already living in my apartment full time, and even with Wes still there because I had plenty of room and we barely saw him anyway, I was happy with our situation. The Urchin was running perfectly, Ben had me scheduled to my liking, and I rarely offered up my time for anything that took me away from my girl. If I did set up something that was out of town, I always took her with me.

  It reminded me of my early days with Lily; how excited she was just to be with me, no matter what we did. She did enjoy some of that high life—being VIP guests at shows, clubs, or events—but things changed a bit after Anna was born. Lily felt less secure with her body in public, and it didn’t matter how much help I offered, she struggled with depression. When she seemed to be doing a lot better I started getting myself back to work and such, but I didn’t realize I was only making things worse.

  Ree knew my concerns when it came to this type of thing. She knew I wanted her to be completely honest with me if she wasn’t happy or if there was something we needed to talk about. I guess I didn’t handle it very well the first time around with Lily, so I wanted to make sure I had learned from my mistakes.

  At the beginning of May, I’d gotten word from Aaron that a very small-scale tour could be scheduled according to my liking—just six major cities and within a time span in the fall that I was comfortable with. I agreed to think about giving Aaron my business again. I really liked what he’d worked up for me and I got to pick who my opening talent would be.

  I discussed it with Ivory before I gave him my answer, and because she’d been supportive of my stress-free calendar so far, I assumed she’d be okay with this as well. When her response was somewhat neutral, I was a bit surprised.

  At last she said, “That sounds amazing, Jude. And I like that they’re supporting your recent work and not just the band hits.”

  I agreed. “I think it will be a really successful experience. We can do two shows a month and take our time spreading it out, or just get it all done within six weeks…” She was smiling, so I paused. “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing,” she chuckled as she sat down at the table with me to eat. “You just keep saying ‘we.’ You make me sound like part of your band.”

  I thanked her for the pot roast she set in front of me but laughed. “Because you are. You’re my right hand, babe.”

  “I thought that was Wes,” she joked.

  “Well,” I teetered my head from side to side. “I suppose that’s true in a professional sense. I couldn’t exactly do what I do for a bigger show without him. But you’re my legitimate right hand in life, Ivory. I wouldn’t want to do any of it without you by my side.”

  She took a bite of potato, and there was something about the way she was avoiding eye contact right now that clued me in that there was a potential issue going on. I waited patiently for her to tell me, but ultimately she just asked if she could look at the schedule to see which cities were involved.

  I showed her the email that Aaron had sent—two different options for me to choose from—and she nodded.

  “Wow, that looks great. And I would love to go to Las Vegas with you, but that’s my dad’s birthday weekend. I’ll pass on that one. It’s the big six-oh.”

  “Then we’ll just take that one off,” I waved with my fork before I took a bite of roast. When she didn’t respond, I glanced up. She was watching me carefully, deep in thought. “What’s up?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, just… You’re going to cut out a show, just like that?”

  “It’s not scheduled yet, so it doesn’t really matter. Now it’s a five-city tour. And I want you to be there if it’s something you want to do.”

  “Of course I do,” she replied, almost too sharply.

  I set down my fork and folded my arms on the table. “Do I need to spank the attitude out of you right now?”

  She tried to fight a smile but lost. “No,” she lightly laughed. “But you’re more than welcome to spank me just for fun.”

  The lock rattled at the front door and Wes entered two seconds later, sniffing the air. “Oh sweet, my barefoot and pregna
nt wife made me a fabulous dinner to come home to! Oh wait, I don’t have a woman period let alone one that would actually bear my child.”

  I shook my head at him but Ree seemed less than humored. Her mood was a bit shifty tonight, especially when she looked like she was giving Wes the stare down.

  He ducked into the hallway for his room.

  Suddenly about twenty-four subtle hints formed together at once. All I could do was sit in silence as reality assembled in an orderly fashion, gently pushing aside all of my carefully organized plans. One…by…one.

  She had to be pregnant.

  As the possibility took root even deeper, I wondered how in the hell that could have happened. We were very careful, and I knew Ree especially was very vigilant about taking a pill every day. Sometimes I joked that she must be very adamant about not carrying around my spawn, but we’d talked about having kids someday. Maybe not so soon but…someday.

  If it were true, I wondered why she didn’t tell me. Maybe she was planning some sort of elaborate surprise, but I hated surprises. I figured she had a good reason, but since I didn’t want to spoil anything she might have planned, I decided not to confront her about it. And then there was the possibility that she was acting weird for some other reason, so maybe I was just being hypersensitive to her mood.

  I needed answers.

  Thirty minutes later, I surprised her with a bubble bath—complete with candles and soft music. It wasn’t too out of the ordinary for me to do, but I almost felt guilty that I was trying to get her out of the way for a few minutes.

  When she was all cozy and relaxed in our tub, I trekked down the other hall to Wes’s room and barely knocked before I let myself in.

  “Hey, I could be jerking the meat, you know,” he huffed at me. Good thing he wasn’t, but he was just in his underwear watching baseball on TV. And at some point he’d slipped into the kitchen to help himself to dinner because he had an empty plate next to him.

  “Is Ree pregnant?” I asked straight out.

  27

  Wes stared at me for several seconds before he sat up. “If it wasn’t you it wasn’t me, pal,” he replied defensively.

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m not accusing you, dumbass.”

  He exhaled like he seriously thought I had been. “Are you asking me because you don’t believe her or something? And why the hell are you asking me about it? I don’t want to be in the middle of this.”

  “So it’s true?” I asked, shutting the door behind me. “Why do you know before me?”

  He was thoroughly confused. “So she didn’t tell you herself?”

  “No, I figured it out on my own. And I want you to tell me why she told you before she told me.”

  Sighing, he shook his head. “It’s not like that, Jude. I saw prenatal vitamins in her grocery bag yesterday. I don’t think she knows I saw, though.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “So what was your ‘barefoot and pregnant’ comment for as you came through the door?”

  “Oh my God, it was just a joke. Last week she was talking about gaining weight any time Missy came to visit, and I facetiously told her she was probably going to be huge if she ever got pregnant. I swear it was just a random comment, I didn’t even think about the vitamin thing.”

  “So how long has she known?”

  “I don’t know, man! I didn’t ask about it. Not my business so I didn’t bring it up to either of you…”

  I barely heard the rest of the sentence. A certain conversation with Ivory was coming back to me very clear right now. She knew I had only married Lily because of the circumstances. I also felt like a huge asshole because it had always been my intention to marry Ree, but I was afraid she would say no.

  Yep, I was a huge fucking pussy and worried she wasn’t ready, and now I’d just created a bigger issue for myself.

  Wes looked pretty uncomfortable, so I said, “It’s okay, man. Sorry I seemed upset. I just messed up my timing, that’s all.”

  Sighing, he gave me a genuine smile and said, “I know you want to marry her, Jude.”

  He didn’t have to say anything further because it was true. I was completely prepared for it, too. I’d had the ring since her pneumonia scare and was just waiting for the right time. I was just trying not to rush things; I wanted it to be perfect.

  “Do it,” Wes advised me. “That’s all I’m saying. Maybe sometime this weekend you can—”

  I left his room without warning. My mind was focused on one thing, so I went straight to the kitchen, grabbed the prettiest fucking strawberry out of the refrigerator, cut the stem off of it, dipped the end in some whipped cream, set it on a little dessert plate, and took it back to my room. I removed the engagement ring from my computer desk and held it between my fingers for a few seconds. I was really winging it at this point and decided to just stick it into the strawberry, stone up.

  Admiring my handiwork, I shrugged to myself. Not bad. It actually looked pretty damn awesome.

  I set the plate on the desk and glanced in the dresser mirror. I straightened my hair with my fingers, paused to stare at myself for a few seconds, and ultimately decided there was nothing I could do to better myself for her. I suppose I could throw on one of my adorable button up shirts, but I decided on sticking with the t-shirt I had on. You can’t beat a guitar telling a ukulele, “Uke, I am your father.”

  Okay, maybe the tank top that I once got Ree was pretty awesome. It was a piano keyboard that said, “Finger me.” Funny, I know, but you can bet your ass I won’t let her wear it out of the house.

  All right, I was getting distracted. Mainly I was just nervous, trying to find things to amuse myself until my heart stopped thundering in my chest. That was probably a lost cause, so I made my way to the bathroom while she was still trapped in one spot—ehhh I mean, still comfortable.

  When I entered the room, it was dark enough to where I couldn’t tell if her eyes were opened or closed. She looked peaceful enough to be asleep, but then her head turned toward me.

  “Hey, baby,” she spoke softly. “Thank you for this. I’m in heaven.”

  I was happy to hear that. Maybe that meant she was in a good enough mood and wouldn’t drown me with a “hell no” answer. I sat on the edge of the garden tub, the little dessert plate still in my hand to the side of me but she didn’t seem to notice it.

  “Can I get you anything?” I asked.

  “Mmm, nah. I’m fine. Do you want to join me?”

  Her voice had turned a bit sultry and it made me smile. I probably would have been hard just from the thought, but I was still too nervous.

  “Maybe in a bit,” I answered. I took a silent breath of air and thought I’d subtly let it out, but the flickering of the candle at the edge of the tub gave me away.

  “What’s the matter, Jude?”

  “Absolutely nothing,” I replied instantly. Guilty again. I think my voice even squeaked in a very unmanly way. “Um, I just have something to ask you, Ree…”

  I set the dish on the edge of the tub in front of her. She studied it for a few seconds, but I was pretty sure the second she shot upright and sent the water swishing back and forth was the second she noticed the ring.

  “Jude—” she gasped, closing her hand over her mouth.

  “I know it’s not a song or an elaborate proposal, but I love you Ree, and I want us to share the rest of our lives together. I love everything that we already have, but I look forward to more. Marriage, kids, grandkids…whatever it is we share together is everything that I want.”

  “Jude…”

  She sighed, and I’ll admit my heart dropped into my stomach automatically. I couldn’t tell what kind of emotion was in my name when she said it and I was literally holding my breath.

  But she had a hopeful smile, so I pulled the ring out of the strawberry and stuck it in my mouth to lick it clean. It made her eyes come alive in the candlelight as she watched me.

  I held my hand out and she instantly placed hers in mine, so I took the ring from betw
een my lips and held it between us. “Will you marry me, Ivory Miller? Will you put up with me for the rest of your life? Put me in my place when I need it, be by my side when I need you, and let me hump you like crazy whenever I—”

  She splashed a tidal wave of water at me, and even though I was aware I’d totally fucked up the moment on purpose, I knew she loved me for it anyway because of the way she laughed.

  “You’re incorrigible, Jude Collins!”

  “And…that is a yes,” I decided, even though I waited for her to say it anyway.

  She leaned toward me and whispered, “That’s a hell yes.”

  They say a lot can happen during the length of your engagement. I don’t doubt that one bit, but that forewarning was for people that weren’t meant to be together. I didn’t believe in rushing something that was important, but then again, I had a past that made me worry about that sometimes.

  I don’t think I would have ever married Lily had she not been pregnant, but I guess things work out in ways that I would have never chosen for myself. I got Annalise from it and she was the greatest treasure in my life. I loved Lily as a person and everything she did for me, but she and I were not meant to be lifelong partners. To this day I still feel bad for saying that, but I can’t bear all of that guilt for much longer. The accident was just that, an accident—a terrible one at that, and not possible to forget—but God had other plans and there was no way I had control over that.

  It had been almost a week and Ivory still hadn’t told me she was pregnant. I wasn’t sure what her hold up was, but I was beginning to think Wes had just played a big ass trick on me. I truly didn’t want to spoil my girl’s surprise if she had one planned for me, so I still refrained from bringing it up.

  I’d told Aaron to hold off on the mini tour and he was slightly pissed. I didn’t tell him why, but just said the timing wasn’t right. He thought I was still dragging my heels, but the truth was that I wasn’t about to pull Ree through all of that unnecessarily. I wasn’t sure how she was going to be feeling in the next few months and I was afraid to add more to the mix.