Fire, page 24
I fight back a grin as Julian swallows another dandelion puff.
“Hey!” he cries, holding up his hands. “Ineffective is a little harsh, don’t you think?”
“Get in the car, Julian,” Franklin says without sparing the man a glance.
“What?” He recoils, swallowing dandelion puff number three. If I didn’t loathe the men in front of me so much, I’d be handing out high fives. Watching this dick get put in his place is the best thing I’ve seen in a long time.
“I think the man told you to get in the car like a good little boy,” I say with a shrug.
Sputtering and stuttering, Julian gets into the car like a dog with his tail between his legs.
Ivy folds her arms across her chest and sighs. “What happened between me and Julian isn’t your business, Dad. Neither is what’s happening between me and Micah.”
“You’re my daughter. Everything you do is my business.” Franklin’s steel-colored eyes make me think of thunder and lightning, of dark clouds boiling in the distance.
Maybe there’s a reason Ivy doesn’t like storms.
She shakes her head. “My business is my business.”
“That’s simply not true. Everything you do affects me. I either pay for your decisions financially or through the simple inconveniences of finding solutions to problems you created.”
“Do you hear yourself?” I ask. “Who talks to their daughter that way? She’s a grown woman who doesn’t need her daddy looming over her, making her feel like crap all the time.”
Franklin’s calm composure cracks and he steps into my personal space. He’s a tall man, meeting me eye-to-eye, but he’s never been a big man and age hasn’t been kind to him in that department. “You have been bad for my daughter from the moment you two met,” he says, his upper lip curling. “She had the grades and the drive to get herself into a good college, to pursue that medical degree. She could have been anything she wanted, but because of you, she’s just a mother, unable to provide for herself, running from one man to the next.”
“Because of me?” I arch a brow. Someone derailed Ivy’s trajectory and it sure as hell wasn’t me.
The look on Franklin’s face says he thinks he has me. “Are you implying that child isn’t yours?”
“I’m implying I didn’t know she existed.”
“That’s rich.” Franklin lifts his chin, peering down his nose at me. “Even in this you can’t take responsibility for your actions.”
I scoff. “If I’d known, I would have been honored to take responsibility, and they would be so much better off for it. Ivy would be in school. Nell would have known her father. I’m a Hutton. We take care of our own.”
“Oh, Micah.” Franklin leans a hip on the hood of the Suburban. “You’re a Hutton in name only. Constantly in trouble. Constantly underperforming. And Nell is just like you, despite my efforts to the contrary. It’s bad enough Ivy turned out to be such a disappointment, but your daughter is a scourge on the Cole name. We will never down the humiliation of having a granddaughter like her.”
I’m lurching forward before I know what I’m doing. My hands grab Franklin by the collar without my permission. I yank him towards me, holding him nose-to-fucking-nose as he squeals in surprise. “Take that back.”
Ivy gasps, startled into motion. I release her father and step away before I do something I truly regret. That’s two men I’ve had by the shirt in twenty minutes. They push me much farther and someone will have a real reason to get lawyers involved.
“I’m not surprised you resorted to violence,” Franklin says with a self-satisfied sneer. “He’s beneath you, Ivy. You see that, right? Not worth his family name. The best thing I ever did was make sure you two disconnected.”
“The best thing you did?” Ivy cocks her head, her eyes narrowing. “What did you do?”
“I looked after you, Ivy.” A bead of sweat appears at Franklin’s hairline. “The way you needed me to. You’ve never been strong enough to do the hard stuff on your own.”
“What did you do?” Ivy asks again, biting off the words.
“I made sure he didn’t have a place in Nell’s life.” Franklin jabs a finger my way. “I made sure he stayed here, where he belonged and you stayed with us, where you still belong.”
And just like that it all comes into focus.
“You deleted my texts.” I shake my head, huffing a laugh. “How the hell didn’t I see it sooner? You took her phone and read every message I sent, then just deleted them.”
I think back to how utterly devastated I was back then. How I poured my heart out to the girl I loved, vulnerable, miserable, telling her how much I needed her and begging her to respond. And Franklin read it all, he knew I was teetering on the edge, and didn’t fucking care.
“Of course I deleted them,” he responds like I’m an idiot for thinking he wouldn’t. “And you would have done the same thing in my position. It was better for everyone that way.”
“It wasn’t better for me!” Tears sparkle in Ivy’s eyes and indignation colors the edges of her voice. “It wasn’t better for Micah. It wasn’t better for Nell. It wasn’t better for any of us!”
“But it was,” Franklin says. “Think of where you’d be if I hadn’t intervened.”
“Look at who I am now! You broke me, Dad. Thinking Micah abandoned me when I loved him with everything I was? That was the first chink in my confidence. Then listening to you tell me I’m worthless, watching you judge me and my daughter, more chinks. Then you making sure I had no way to support myself? Chink, chink, chink. No school. No college. No job! No friends! You made me completely dependent on you…”
“You made you dependent on me,” Franklin thunders. “You should be thankful I was able to support you through it.”
“Support.” She shakes her head, so angry she’s trembling. “You saw how hurt I was when I thought Micah didn’t love me and you just let it happen. I knew you were difficult but never thought you’d be cruel. You saw I was drowning and held my head under the water.”
Franklin brushes her words away like they’re little more than gnats. “I did no such thing. I facilitated the meeting with Julian. I sat down with his father and suggested you two would be a good match, even though you had an illegitimate child. He talked to his son and made sure your relationship ran smoothly despite your obvious inadequacies.”
I open my mouth, ready to put Franklin fucking Cole in his place but Ivy beats me to it. Gone is the meek woman who stepped into The Pact looking like a deer in the headlights. In her place is the spitfire I fell in love with.
“What century do you live in?” she asks, gesturing wildly. “You facilitated the relationship? Illegitimate child?” Laughing, she runs her hands into her hair. “Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am?”
“I’m your father and you’re my only daughter. I’ve only ever done what’s best for you.”
“You ruined my life.”
“You did that on your own. I’m the one who stepped in and put the damn pieces together. It’s time to come home, where you belong. Your mother’s beside herself. She won’t come out of her room. She cries herself to sleep and I’ve had enough of her nonsense. You don’t belong here. You belong with us.”
“Nell and I are happier here than we’ve ever been. If Mom’s miserable, maybe you should look in the mirror for the reason why.”
“Ivy Maria Cole. You will not speak to me that way. This is the kind of influence he’s always had on you, making you forget your place.”
“Her place?” My eyebrows hit my hairline and my fists clench. “I don’t make her forget; I help her see. She’s not a damned pet, Franklin!”
“You know what, Dad? I think you see the worst in everybody because that’s all you are inside. You assume their motivations are horrible because yours are even worse. I’m not leaving with you, and I’m done letting you make me feel like everything I do is a mistake. It’s time for you to leave.” Ivy points over Franklin’s shoulder, towards the road, then leans against me. I wrap an arm around her, so fucking proud I could burst.
Her dad tugs on his shirtsleeves and sighs. “If this is the choice you’re making, fine. Just know that you’ll have to live with it. You can’t come crawling back to me when it all blows up in your face.”
“I would never come back to you.” Ivy lifts her chin and squares her shoulders, standing straight and strong. “I’d be letting myself down if I ever let you back into my life. And for the record, this won’t blow up in my face. This? With Micah? This is the real deal. A once in a lifetime thing. I couldn’t stop loving him any more than I could ask my heart to stop beating. And the way he loves me back? The way he loves our daughter? It’s the most beautiful thing in the world. So, get in that car, get out of this driveway, and never, ever think you can talk like that to me, or Micah, or Nell ever again. I will no longer tolerate your abuse.”
Ivy’s nostrils are flared. Her head held high. Whatever shred of control the people in Seattle still held over her, she just tore it to threads and dropped it at her father’s feet.
With a shake of his head and a haughty sneer, Franklin climbs into the passenger seat Suburban and Julian backs out of the driveway, cutting off a big ass truck as he turns onto the road.
I pull Ivy into my arms and hold her close. “Thank you for saying all those things about me.”
“No, Micah. Thank you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for taking care of me. Thank you for keeping your promise.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Micah
The holidays come and go. Ivy settles. No…she blooms. Watching her come into her own is like watching a rose blossom, petals opening, colors growing rich and true. She smiles more. She laughs a lot. She starts looking into colleges and stops worrying about whether or not she’s taking advantage of me.
When I was sixteen, I promised to love Ivy forever. When I was seventeen, I thought I lost her. But even though it took years to see her again, I never broke that promise. I’ve loved her from the moment we met and will love her until all the stars in the sky stop shining.
“What’re you thinking about?” Ivy asks, wrapping her hands around a coffee mug and blowing off the steam. It’s early. I have to work. Nell’s still asleep. But Ivy gets up with me, sits with me, and hugs me every day before I leave.
“You,” I reply. “Always you.”
“Now I know you’re fibbing.” Her smile is warm and bright and says she’s sure I’m full of shit. “You can’t always be thinking of me.”
“But I can.” I heft my mug to my lips and take a sip. “I do.”
“Prove it.”
Her hair is piled on the top of her head. Her face is clean and fresh and her body swims in one of my old T-shirts from the fire station. She’s fucking beautiful.
“When I’m at work and Carson cracks a joke that isn’t funny, I think of how hard you’d roll your eyes. When I cook dinner for the guys, I wish it was for you. When I go out on a call, I think about how you looked the night your grandma’s house caught on fire. When I’m shaving, I think about your hands on my face. When I’m showering, I think about your hands on my…” I grin as she giggles. “Well, you know. When I leave the house, I think about coming home. When I think about my past, you’re all I ever see. And the same is true for my future. It’s you, Ivy. It’s always, always been you.”
Her eyes mist and a smile lights her face. She’s back up to her natural weight now and her cheeks are full instead of gaunt. Her hips curve the way I remember, she’s soft and supple and so fucking perfect.
She’s perfect.
And so is the moment.
This isn’t the way I planned to propose, but maybe that makes it better.
“Stay right there,” I say, sliding back my chair. “Just like that. Don’t move a muscle.”
“But what if—”
I hold out a hand. “Ah! Not a muscle, Ives!”
Smiling, I hurry to the bedroom and dig through my closet to the tiny bag hidden in the back. Inside the bag is a little black box and a piece of paper. Inside the box is a diamond ring and on the paper is the pact we made to each other—a promise to love each other no matter what surprises life handed us. I grab both and head back into the kitchen where Ivy is dramatically holding the pose she was in when I left.
With the ring behind my back, I place the paper in front of her. “I made a promise to you, Ivy. Back before I understood what it meant to find the love of my life when I was too young to appreciate her. And I was going to do this differently. I was going to take you to dinner and get down on one knee and make a big fucking deal, but this is the moment. The timing is finally perfect.” I bring the box out from behind my back. “It’s time to make good on my promise. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life proving that you will always be taken care of, no matter what. Not the kind of support that makes you dependent, but the kind that makes you stronger than you are on your own. I want you to be my wife and I want to be your husband and I want Nell to have the kind of family she always wanted. Will you marry me?”
Ivy stares. Unblinking. No smiles. She doesn’t reach for the ring. She doesn’t react in even the slightest way. My heart sinks.
Oh, shit.
Is she going to say no?
Did I push her too fast?
Was I wrong to assume this was the right time?
“Ivy?”
“Can I move?” she asks, through clenched teeth.
Relief has me laughing. This is the Ivy I know, confident enough to bust my balls during a proposal. “Yes. Please. Put me out of my misery.”
Before I finish speaking, she’s out of her chair, jumping into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist. “Yes, Micah. Yes! I can’t think of anything I want more.”
EPILOGUE
Ivy
Mom puts her hands on my shoulder and meets my eyes through the mirror in a dressing room at the Hutton Hotel. Her blonde hair is swept back in a French twist. Her makeup is on point, highlighting a pair of sky-blue eyes just like mine. And for the first time in my life, her smile looks real. “I can’t believe my little girl’s getting married!”
“And I can’t believe mine’s finally getting a divorce.” Grandma stands behind my other shoulder, beaming at us through the mirror. “The choices I made with my husband affected you, Sheila, which led to your choices affecting Ivy. I’ve carried so much guilt about that over the years. But here we all are. Together. Free.”
“And strong,” Mom says, her eyes misting.
“And capable,” Grandma adds.
“And loved.” I place a hand on my heart, pleased beyond measure to have these women with me. “It feels so good to be loved.”
Not long after my engagement, my mother called, sobbing so hard I couldn’t always understand her. She’d been mulling over everything I said on the phone when my relationship with Micah was new and slowly but surely, she’d seen the truth of her marriage for herself. How Dad twisted her thoughts until she genuinely thought she was losing her mind. How he made her believe she was so broken that every idea she had was wrong, so all she dared do was agree with him. The more time passed with me here in the Keys, she saw how happy and strong I was becoming. She reconnected with Grandma and the two of them had several difficult but honest conversations, and Mom finally decided she wanted out of her marriage.
It took some time, and a whole lot of bravery, but my mother finally left Dad right after the New Year. It was the contrast between the sterile evening she spent with her husband and the pictures of Micah, Nell, Grandma, and me at a Hutton party—all of us laughing and smiling and wearing ridiculous hats—that finally did it. Mom’s been living with Grandma for the last couple months, trying to remember herself. They come to dinner every Friday, and Mom spends time with Nell in a way she never has. Watching her come out of her shell has been one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
Though I guess that could be said for all of us.
Mom pins my veil into place, smoothing the lace down my back. “You look beautiful, my darling.” She turns to Nell, who’s sitting cross-legged in a chair beside me, reading. “Doesn’t your mom look beautiful?”
Nell glances up from her comic book and nods. “She looks like a princess, and not in a bad way.”
Mom fiddles with my veil even though it’s perfectly smooth. Her smile is warm and her eyes glitter with pride and unshed tears. “Is there a bad way to look like a princess?”
Nell closes her book and climbs onto her knees, crushing the royal blue dress she picked out for herself. “Remember when I told you about the girl in the dress in Aunt Cat’s pool? She looked like a princess and it was bad. Real bad. But we haven’t seen her in a long time.”
A soft knock sounds at the door and Micah’s mom pokes her head in. “It’s time!” she squeals, then dabs her eyes. “Oh, Ivy. I can’t believe we’re finally welcoming you to the family. You’ve always been an honorary Hutton, but I’m so happy to finally make it real! I always knew you’d end up one of us.”
My mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and daughter all hug me and tears wobble in my vision. I pull back, waving my hands at my eyes to dry them. “Five strong women in this room,” I manage. “I love you all to pieces.”
After another round of hugs and a few more tears, we shuffle out of the dressing room and wait for our cue. As the bridal march sounds, I step forward. Micah smiles, his hand on his heart like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
I elected not to have my father give me away. I’m not his to give. The choice to marry Micah is mine and mine alone and each step down the aisle is symbolic. Me, strong on my own, walking towards my future, my husband, a man who knows the difference between support and control. A man who will help me grow into my best self, a man who swears I’ll return the favor.
