Ivy opened her eyes. She’d pretended to be asleep when her grandma checked in on her. Her grandma. She’d wanted one of those her entire life, had dreamed about what it might be like to have someone at her back no matter what. Someone warm, and maybe sweet and even silly, someone who’d always be there for her.
Even if she’d tried, she could never have dreamed up a grandma as great as Suzie Campbell.
Or uncles like Mace and Zeke.
Or friends like Harper and Shay, who’d welcomed her, pulled her into their circle, and wanted nothing but the best for her.
And then there’d been Bodie, who’d treated her like a member of the family far before she’d let him in on the truth.
Sitting up in the childhood bedroom he’d once shared with Zeke, she hugged the pillow to her chest and looked around. There was a scarred old desk with stickers all over it. Some posters on the wall. An old snowboard leaning in a corner. A pic on the desk of him and his brothers, including Austin.
And this world had been kept from her.
Next to the bed, beneath the nightstand, was a thick photo album. She pulled it up and, sitting cross-legged, set it in her lap. It was filled to overbrimming with family pictures, from when her dad had been a kid growing up on the lake: jet skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing, mountain biking. All the things she’d missed out on because her mom had lied.
All the things she was going to miss out on because, like her mom, she’d messed everything up. She was so stupid. She’d found something here, something more valuable than money. This was where she wanted to start over, not some nameless place she’d never been, where she wouldn’t know a soul and would be so scared. She buried her face in her pillow, devastation sitting like a weight on her chest. She was really effing tired of ruining everything that was good in her life.
She startled at a knock on the door, and then it opened. Bodie looked as he always did, perfectly calm and at ease . . . except today there was a new tightness to his features, and though his eyes were warm and he was clearly happy to see her, he wasn’t smiling.
Because you stole from him . . .
“Can I come in?” he asked.
Heart pounding because she had no idea how he would deal with her stupidity, she did her best to give a careless shrug. “It’s your room.”
“It’s okay to say no if you’re not ready to talk.”
“I don’t know what I am,” she whispered, and heard the tears in her own voice.
He came in and sat next to her. Like her, he leaned back against the wall and then . . . didn’t say a word.
Since this was the opposite of anything her mom had ever done, she wasn’t sure what to do with that. She braced herself for him to call her out on what she’d done and ask her to leave.
Instead, he nudged his chin in the direction to the opened photo album. “That picture on the left was taken before we went snowboarding one day. I ate shit—” He caught himself. “Er, I wiped out. Spectacularly, I should add. Like a real garage sale, which means I lost my board, my gloves, my helmet, everything—” He broke off when a helpless giggle escaped at the image he’d painted. “Yeah,” he said on a smile. “It was probably something to see. I was going way faster than I should’ve been. Broke my leg.”
Her amusement faded. “Oh no!”
“It was a fracture really, nothing too bad.” He shook his head. “But Mace has never let me forget it.”
“You mean you weren’t always perfect at everything?”
He snorted. “Trust me, I’m not perfect. Not even in the ballpark. If there’s one thing you can take away from this time we’ve had, it’s that.”
This time we’ve had. Past tense. “Is that the way this family works? They never let you forget your mistakes?”
He turned to fully face her and put his hand on hers. “Do we like to give each other a hard time? Yes. One hundred percent. But Zeke carried me down that hill. Stayed with me in the ambulance, even faking his own injury to do so. He felt really bad that I got hurt because I was on his watch. Austin and Mace attempted to do my schoolwork that first week when I was in a lot of pain. They turned my A in algebra to a C, but they tried. So no, family isn’t about rubbing our faces in our mistakes. It’s also not sneaking out the window and running away in thirty-degree weather without a jacket and without telling anyone where you’re going either. It’s about being at each other’s back no matter what, even if you’ve forgotten that you’re not alone. That’s how this family works.”
She nodded, but then remembered her new no-lies pact to herself and shook her head. “I don’t know that kind of family.”
“I know. And I’m sorry I didn’t understand the depth of that.” He paused and put a hand to his chest. “You left without talking to me, but what nearly killed me was that you took only what you’d shown up with, which was almost nothing. I was scared for you.”
Her chest was so tight she could scarcely breathe. The emotion in his voice . . . it told her just how much she’d hurt him. And still she did what was habit—went on the defensive. “You lied to me too.”
He shook his head. “I’ve never lied to you.”
She was too mad to even touch that one. No, wait. She wasn’t mad. She was hurt, which was even worse. “Look, I’m sorry about last night, okay? But I don’t want to be here if you don’t want me.” Her words literally burst out of her, and she wouldn’t take them back. “I know you’re too busy for me, I get it.”
“Ivy.”
She was staring at her hands clasped in her lap. She was white-knuckling it in a way she hadn’t in a long time, not even last night.
“Kit Kat, look at me. Please?”
Dammit, the “please” got her every time. She looked up, telling herself if she let even one tear fall, she was never going to forgive herself.
“My life will never be too busy for you,” he said with quiet intensity.
And there went a few tears. “Please don’t say that unless you mean it,” she managed.
He opened his mouth, but she rushed to say the rest before she couldn’t. “Do you know how many times in my life I’ve heard it? Well, probably not as many as you might think, but no one’s meant it. Ever. Everyone always goes back on their word.” She tossed up her hands. “Why do you think I risked crossing the country to a place I’ve never been to hunt down a dad I never met?”
“Is that really why you came?” he asked. “To forge a relationship with me?”
She felt the heat of her truth scald her face.
“How about this?” he said quietly. “We try again with that deal of ours about no lying. I’ll start. I know you think that when I was talking to your mom this morning I alluded to not wanting you here, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I was following Serena’s advice to be agreeable so the conversation didn’t turn hostile.”
Ivy let that soak in. “But Mom’s always hostile. And even though I know she doesn’t always want me around, she doesn’t want to look like a bad mom either. She’s never going to let me live here.”
“Ivy, where do you want to live?”
She drew a deep breath. “Here. With you.”
He nodded. “I’d like that too. But we’ve got to go through the process. You have a say in this. If she digs in, wanting something you don’t want, I believe a judge will take your age and your opinion into consideration, both of which will matter to them.”
“I stole money from you last night,” she said quickly, needing him to know everything before he said anything else. “A lot of it.”
“I know.”
Her gaze flew to his, which were warm and calm. Hers filled. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I was stupid. I should’ve gone to you or Harper, I know that.”
“It’s okay. I forgive you. And you can trust me. Always, Kit Kat. And the rest of the Campbells. Harper too. Can you believe that?”
“I used Mace’s code number,” she said in a very small voice. “Without asking. I used Harper. What if neither of them forgives me?”
“You plan to be big enough to apologize?”
She nodded.
“Then they’ll forgive you. I hope you can believe that too.”
She nodded, because it was actually starting to sink in. “So . . . what now?”
“You come home with me.”
She wanted that. Badly. “You still want me to live with you? Really?”
“Really.”
She had no idea how she’d gotten so lucky when she didn’t deserve it. “Can Harper live with us too? I know she loves her bakery so much, but she’s always working. I think it’d be nice for her to live somewhere other than work, but I don’t think she can afford it yet. And since you two are sorta together . . .” She tapered off at the quick flash of . . . something on his face. Regret? No, it was grief. “What?”
“I don’t know about Harper,” he said quietly. “You weren’t the only one who ran away.”
“She ran away from you?” Ivy asked in disbelief. “Why? I mean she’s always giving you the moon eyes, so . . .”
“It wasn’t her who ran. It was me.”
Stunned he’d admit such a thing, she blinked. “You could apologize. Isn’t that what you just told me family does when they love each other? Forgive?”
He stared at her and then let out a rough laugh. “Yeah. Although I didn’t actually realize it until right this very moment.”
She felt a small smile on her face, which felt good because a few minutes ago she hadn’t known if she’d ever have something to smile about again. “You mean I know something you don’t?”
His lips quirked. “I’m sure there’s a lot you know that I don’t.”
“You knew better than to trust my friends.” Her smile faded. “People suck.”
“Not everyone sucks.”
Hope was a painful knot in her chest. “I was so stupid.”
He let out another rough laugh. “Do you have any idea how many incredibly stupid things I did as a teenager alone? I hope you never find out about half of them, though I’m sure your uncles will be happy to embarrass me any time.”
“Do you miss Austin?” The question popped out before she could bite it back, though she wanted to kick herself when his face went serious again.
“Every single day.” He looked at her. “I want to say one last thing about last night, okay? You could’ve called me. You can always call me. Even if you’re afraid you can’t, you can. I’ll come for you, no matter what. Please, if you believe nothing else, believe that.”
She couldn’t have stopped the tears now if her life had depended on it. But he’d laid it all out for her and she needed to do the same. “Even if I came to get money from you?” she whispered.
“Even then.” He held her gaze. “Fresh start, yeah?”
She nodded, and the hope expanded, making her heart feel too big for her chest. “Yeah,” she breathed. “Fresh start.” And when they hugged on it, she held on super tight.
And so did he.