“I forgot.” Ivy rubbed her forehead and tilted her head down to hide her scowl. “We can’t pull out now. My mother will have a fit.”
“Since your mother is still angry about us investigating Felicity when Zelda died, I would prefer not extending my stay on her bad side,” Jack acknowledged. “If you really feel like you can’t see people, though, I’ll make the call. She can blame it on me.”
Ivy immediately started shaking her head. “We can’t do that. My mother will melt down. I want her to get over herself, and that’s not going to happen if we miss dinner. We have to go.”
“I would agree. I just ... you’re so tired.” He moved his hands to her shoulders and started rubbing at the tension there. “I promise to massage you for as long as you can stand it when we get back. Just ... look forward to that.”
“Oh, I will.” Ivy’s eyes flashed with impish charm. “I’m going to make you my love slave when we get back here. You’ve been warned.”
“That is not punishment in my book.”
“Good to know.”
IVY TOOK A LONG SHOWER, her skin pink when she exited the stall. She was convinced she’d scrubbed a full layer of skin from her body. Still, it felt good to dress in normal clothes and she was feeling markedly better when she and Jack landed in the parking lot of the local diner.
“How do I look?” Suddenly, she was nervous as she checked her reflection in the visor mirror.
“You look beautiful,” Jack answered earnestly. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world.” Confused, he snagged her hand before she could start running it through her hair. She’d let it air dry so a mass of loose waves fell around her shoulders, giving her a wild look that appealed to Jack. “Why are you nervous?”
She shrugged, noncommittal. “I don’t know. I just don’t want to look like a criminal, if that makes any sense.”
“You don’t look like a criminal. You look like Ivy, a woman who is paying a terrible price for doing the right thing.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “That’s laying it on a bit thick. I appreciate the sentiment, though.”
“It’s true. This should never have happened.”
“Well, it did. We have to deal with it. There’s nothing else we can do. I would appreciate it, though, if you didn’t tell my parents how bad things are. I don’t want them worrying.”
Jack worked his jaw. On the surface, he understood the sentiment. He wasn’t certain he could refrain from making his distaste over the entire situation public, though. “They would sympathize with your predicament,” he said after a beat.
“They would, and then my mother would call the magistrate to demand I be switched to a different team and my father would start spending all his time at Max’s lumberyard so he could watch with binoculars and run to my rescue at the first hint of an argument.”
Honestly, that possibility appealed to Jack. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
She extended a warning finger in his direction. “I don't want to give them anxiety. Can’t you understand that? I don’t want you living under the constant cloud of anxiety either, but you have easier access to information. Just ... please.”
She rarely asked him for anything. She was independent to a fault, something he was hoping to break her of eventually. Because he understood how hard it was for her, though, he nodded. “They won’t hear it from me.”
“I really appreciate it.”
He grabbed her hand and pressed the palm to his lips, an intimate exchange that made Ivy’s heart flutter. “You can repay me later, after I massage you until you’re nothing more than a limp noodle.”
Her grin was lightning quick. “I think that sounds like a fabulous idea.”
“Good. All I want tonight is to take care of you. Let me.”
“I think the flowers and the chocolate were a nice start.”
“Just wait until you see the chocolate cake I bought. It’s in the refrigerator.”
Her eyes widened in a comical manner. “Pulling out all the stops, huh?”
“You have no idea.”
THE REST OF THEIR PARTY WAS ALREADY settled around the huge table at the back of the diner when Jack and Ivy entered. Even though she wasn’t really feeling it, Ivy plastered a bright smile on her face and waved at JJ, Max’s girlfriend’s son. He was squirming on his seat he was so excited to see them.
“It’s about time,” JJ snapped when Ivy closed the distance, his arms wrapping around her waist. “I thought you were shanked.”
Ivy frowned, confused. “I ... who ... .” Her gaze was dark when it landed on a sheepish Max. “What did you tell him?”
Max’s cheeks reddened under his sister’s heated glare. “I might — and I do stress might — have been talking to Amy and JJ overheard,” he admitted. “I thought he was doing his homework.”
“I don’t want you to get shanked,” JJ insisted.
Frustrated, Ivy ran her hand over the boy’s soft hair. “How do you even know what that is?”
“Max let him watch Orange is the New Black,” Amy volunteered, shooting her boyfriend a dark look. She clearly wasn’t happy. “Apparently the women on the show were talking about it.”
“I thought it was a comedy,” Max argued. “It won awards in comedy categories.”
“Yes, well, there’s a new rule in the house,” Amy said primly. “Now I get to okay any television shows before Max and JJ can start binge sessions.”
“There were naked women, too,” JJ said on a whisper, his eyes wide. “It was so gross.”
Jack chuckled at the boy’s reaction while steering him back toward the table. “You’ll think differently at some point in your life.”
“Says you,” Michael Morgan shot back, his eyes trained on Ivy’s wan face. She was his only daughter and he was ridiculously protective of her. Right now, his father radar was pinging
