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IVY
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I KEEP RUBBING HIS chest, and I lean in to kiss him over his heart. Nothing he tells me will be new information. I know a fight is coming with what I will be telling him. This is 75% of the reason I refused to read about his Army time because I hate this.
He takes a shaky breath and pulls me closer as though he’s afraid I’m going to bolt.
“David, baby, look at me.” I wait for his eyes to meet mine. My chest squeezes at the sadness and fear I see there.
“I already know the basics of what happened, but I need your story, then I will tell you what is going to happen. But through all this, I’m not going anywhere. I love you, baby.”
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, and I see a tear run down his cheek. I lean in and kiss it away.
“My first few months in France, I tried to drink my loneliness away. The guys I was stationed with would have parties and hang out at bars. About four months in, one of the parties was at one of the guys' houses. Not anyone I was stationed with, but one of the guys who I’d been hanging out with knew him, so we went. It would be the first chance at homecooked food since we got there. That house was Anna’s parents’ house.”
He is trembling, so I pull the blanket over us both, and I reach up and start running my fingers in his hair to help calm him. He still has his eyes closed as though he can’t look at me.
“I drank a lot that night, but I remember everything. Anna was sixteen, bragging about turning seventeen soon. She knew who I was, and my music, and our designated driver said she was flirting pretty hard. I know she flirted a few times, but I blocked out a lot of what she said because I was thinking about you. I remember that I was thinking of our tour of Ivy Hill and how you would blush when you looked at the spots where I had made love to you, and it made me so damn hard. All I could think about was getting back to my barracks so I could have my nightly time with you, even if it was just with my hand. No matter how lonely I was, that was still how I ended every day, and I loved it.”
“I guess she noticed how hard I got and thought it was because of her. So after we left that night, she told her parents we had been flirting. Well, the following week, there was a company event, and Anna and her parents were there. She kept flirting, but I wasn’t drinking that night, so I know I firmly told her no, and I had someone back home I loved. She said it’s okay she never had to know, and that thought made me sick. She started showing up at different events and get-togethers and flirted every time. At one point, I started walking away from her. Then I just stopped going out for a while.”
As he’s talking, I see a stack of mail on his dresser. I know where this is going, but I just need him to get it out and be the one to tell me.
“Then two months ago, her dad got promoted and was officially my superior. He invited me over to dinner, and I couldn’t say no. From what Anna had told him, I had been inappropriate with his underage daughter, who now was eighteen, and he made it clear he expected me to follow through and make an honest woman of her. The whole time, Anna had this evil smirk on her face. I don’t know what she told her father, but it wasn’t good. I refused to go out any more or do anything until we left, so I didn’t chance running into her. I plan to get my manager on it and scare the crap out of him to make it stop. But I swear to you I never touched her, and I never flirted with her. Ivy, I swear it!” he says with tears in his eyes.
I lean down and kiss him. “I know you didn’t, baby.”
Then I get up to go through the mail. Finding the pink envelope is easy, but finding the second one I am looking for takes a minute.
I turn back and get back in bed with him still naked, but he is sitting up against the headboard and has pulled the blanket over his waist. I smirk and pull the blanket away. “Don’t you dare cover up what is mine. I haven’t seen you in two years. There is no way I’m done looking at you,” I say, and he forces a smile.
I hold up the two envelopes, and anger crosses his face.
“I already know what these letters say. This one,” I say, holding up the white one, “is from Anna’s parents threatening you and reminding you about what he said at dinner. And this one”—I hold up the pink one—“is from Anna. She admits to lying to her parents about what was really going on between you two. She basically confessed everything but begs for a chance with you. It’s everything you need to get her parents off your back.” I watch relief cross his face. I set the envelopes down and get on my knees next to him, bringing my face level to his.
“But you won’t. These letters don’t come out to the public until after your death.”
He grabs my hand. “Like hell, I won’t.”
“David, listen to me. You will marry this girl,” I say, and my eyes tear up.
He jumps out of bed and starts pacing and pulling at his hair. “No, there is no way I’m marrying anyone but you. I have never been unfaithful to you, and I won’t start now. You are the love of my life, my soul mate. How can you think I would marry someone else? Especially someone like that?!” he says, raising his voice.
Sitting on the bed, I remain resting on my knees but turn to face him. “Baby, we can’t be legally married, and we can’t change history. It’s imperative that we don’t! Now listen to me. Okay?” He stops pacing and faces me but stays on the other side of the room.
I have been dreading this conversation, and it’s been keeping me up at night. Brian and I have talked at length about what I need to tell him and what I can’t. I chickened out twice coming here, but I missed him so much, and that pushed me on.
“You will marry her, you will bed her, and she will give you a son. He has to be born. He is alive in my time, and he does some amazing things in your memory and gives you two grandkids. You will stay with Anna until she files for divorce when your son is three. As soon as she is pregnant, you go live in California away from her and knock out one movie after another. The papers will say you are having an affair with pretty much every one of your co-stars, and Anna will have an affair.”
His eyes are wide. “That’s four years!! You want me to be married to another woman for four years?! No, I can’t do it. The thought of even kissing someone else makes me sick to my stomach.”
I take a deep breath and fight the burning at the back of my throat. I’ve been trying not to think about this and the detail behind it. The thought of him in bed with someone else kills me, but I knew from the start that he’d be married to her one day, and I couldn’t change it. It was easier not to think about it until I had to, but now it’s tearing me apart.
“David, your son has to be born.”
“Okay, I get that, but what about us? How will you find me in California?”
I take a deep breath. “I won’t. During this time, I won’t interfere in your marriage because it’s vital she is the one who has an affair and files for divorce. We can’t risk it,” I say with tears running down my face.
He falls to his knees and buries his face in his hands and starts crying. He folds himself over until his face is in the carpet, and his sobs are wracking his whole body. Getting up, I grab his shirt and pull it over my head before I kneel beside him and pull him into my arms.
Tears are running down my face, but at my touch, he just starts to sob harder. We stay that way for a good half hour. I will stay there and hold him as long as he needs it.
Eventually, he rolls over on his back and lies down and just looks up at me. His eyes are red from all the crying. His face is still wet, and he just looks broken.
Then it’s like a spark goes off. He gets up on one knee and frames my face in his hands. “Marry me.”
“Baby, we can’t in either my time or yours.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t care about the marriage certificate. It’s just a piece of paper. Marry me and be my wife in all the ways that matter, in my heart, body, and soul. I will love you until the day I die, Ivy, but I’m going to fight like hell to make sure that is fifty years from now and not eight. Marry me. We can bring Brian and my parents and have my dad marry us. Please, beautiful, I need to bind you to me in every way possible.”
He’s offering me everything I want, and the fact that he mentioned bringing Brian here shows he knows me better than anyone. “I love you, David. Yes, I will marry you.” The second I say yes, his lips are on mine, and he has me on my back on the floor. He pulls his shirt off me, and before it even hits the floor, his cock is inside me and filling me up.
He’s not in a hurry. He’s lazily thrusting in and out of me just like that day in my bed. Again, he’s pouring his heart out to me, telling me how much he loves me. How he doesn’t know what he did to deserve me and how it will only ever be me.
His sweet words wash over me, and before I know it, we are both coming at the same time, and it’s just magical. This is what they truly mean by making love.
When we are done, he pulls out and scoops me up and lays me back down in bed before walking over to his bag and pulling something out. He comes back to bed and takes my left hand and places a ring on my finger. It’s a simple ring with diamonds in a swirl pattern.
“I saw this when I was overseas and bought it for you. The swirl makes me think of the time passing when we move from now to your time. I knew then I wanted to marry you, and I wanted this to be your ring.” I burst into tears, and he holds me tight as we both fall asleep.
***
THE NEXT MORNING, HIS parents pull me aside and say they want to do a little something for his birthday since it was a few weeks ago. They ask if I can get him out of the house for a bit, and I agree.
I find David in the piano room sitting on the bench but not playing. I sit on his lap, and he wraps his arms around me.
“So, you promised me a real date when you got home. I’d like to cash that in now.” I smile at him.
“Oh yeah, what did you have in mind?” His eyes rake over my face as though he is trying to memorize every detail.
“I was thinking of lunch at one of my favorite spots.”
“Where might that be?”
“How about you drive, and I’ll give you directions.”
He smiles. “Deal.”
We get in the car and head west out of Nashville to Loveless Café. It’s much smaller now, but it will grow over the next fifty years.
David parks the car and gets out and opens my door. He takes my hand, and we walk in. I brace myself for what I know is coming.
We step inside the door, and everyone recognizes him, asking for an autograph. He looks at me with a strained look on his face, and I just laugh. “You can do what you do because of the fans, so you better sign those autographs, buddy.”
He signs twelve autographs, and I take two photos of him with fans before we can be seated. He pulls out my chair for me and everything. Once we are seated, he just looks at me.
“What?” I ask.
“You are amazing, that’s what. I haven’t dated much, but any time I did, a situation like that didn’t end well.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, one girl wanted people to pay attention to her, and when they didn’t, she told them she was my fiancée. I corrected her real quick and left her there alone. The other girl got so mad at me for signing autographs on a date. But you get me. You were perfectly content to help them take photos and form a bit of a line so I didn’t miss anyone.”
“I guess I just see things differently. Your fans are everything. The moment they go away, you become irrelevant. I know this is your dream, so I’m going to do everything to support you in it.”
“You are amazing. I love you, beautiful.” He takes my hand with the ring he put on it last night and kisses the palm, then kisses the ring.
“I love you, baby. You have no idea how much.”
After lunch, we stop by a jewelry store to find a ring for him. Something simple but a little more than just a plain gold band. It has to be fate because we find the perfect one that kind of matches mine with the swirl design, and it’s his size so we can take it home tonight.
“I also want you to have the dream wedding dress, so I’m going to have my mom take you shopping for one, but I’ll handle everything else, okay?” he says on the way home, and I agree.
When we get home, both his parents are waiting for us by the front door, and they wish him a happy birthday. They take us out to the backyard where they have a table with gifts from family and friends and a small table with a guitar cake. They have him sit down, and they sing “Happy Birthday.”
When his mom asks me to take his photo since I’m the photographer in the bunch, I instantly know what this photo is going to look like. I’ve stared at it several times over the past two years, trying to figure out when and where it came from, but no one seemed to know. He sits down beside the cake, and I get the camera ready. He takes two fingers and tries to sneak some icing, but I catch him with his finger in his mouth, and he’s giving me my look. The one filled with love, lust, and passion. I snap what is to become an iconic photo before handing the camera to his mom and going over to sit on his lap.
I shoot up a little prayer of thanks that my grandfather taught me how to use his old cameras growing up. He instilled a love of photography in me but always preferred his old cameras to the new point and shoot ones.
“I’ve stared at the photo I just took at least a hundred times in the past two years trying to figure out when it was taken. Baby, it’s going next to my bed, and I want it blown up and on the wall in our room,” I whisper into his ear.
“Okay, beautiful, anything you want,” he says and kisses me.
A little bit later, she is off to the side, talking to his parents, and I’m just staring off to where the memorial garden will eventually be. Thinking how hard those two years were and whether I could do fifty or more with that kind of pain. How does a person put one foot in front of the other, knowing they will never see the love of their life again? At least I knew he’d be there in my arms, in my bed, in me still, at the end of the two years.
I’m pulled from my thoughts when I hear his mom give a happy squeal and hug him. When I look over at them, I see her rushing over to me, and she pulls me into a hug. “I can’t wait to take you dress shopping. I knew when I saw you that day that you were it for my David. He looks at you the same way his dad looks at me,” his mom says.
Then she pulls away and looks at my ring. “Oh, it so beautiful,” she says with tears in her eyes.
David and his dad walk over to me and hug me.
“Tomorrow, we are heading out for a few days and bringing back her family, then you can go shopping,” David says.
“Oh, I can’t wait to meet them. Please let us work on the details while you are gone!” his mom says. “Any special requests?”
“No, I just can’t wait to be married.” I smile up at David.
