Get a Grip (Hollywood Nights) (8 page)

She heard the shower turn on. She fished the phone out of the pocket on the dress and attempted again to figure out how to access her e-mail. Mathis, bless him, had e-mailed her the directions. As if that helped!

She was ready to throw it across the room by the time he emerged fully dressed. She had seen the closet when she took her own shower once he fell asleep. It was massive, the size of her bedroom and nowhere near full. The entire house seemed like it was more than he wanted, though it was more than anyone ever needed. He could have easily filled it up, but he chose not to. It was like he was waiting for a good reason to downsize.

“Let me see it,” he said and held out his hand. She handed him the phone and he asked, “What do you want to do with it?”

“Set up my e-mail.”

“Okay, let me see. Well here’s the problem, sweetheart. You already have your e-mail set up. Let me show you.” She watched the steps but couldn’t get past the thump in her chest when he called her sweetheart. “Okay?”

She nodded.

“Anything else?”

“I’d like to access my music. I have five songs on this thing and I’m not really sure how they got there.” She hated feeling technologically incompetent, but she had avoided the constant contact until she could avoid it no more.

He showed her in a few easy steps.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” He winked.

“Thank you.” She could feel her cheeks warm.

“Anything else?”
This close she could smell his soap, the aftershave, and she relished the scents.

“I uh…don’t have your number.” It was such an odd thing to say to a man when married to him.

He took her phone and then leaned in and kissed her cheek. He snapped the picture of them. Then he put in his information and attached that picture to it. She held out her hand and said, “Now yours.”

He handed her his phone. When she turned to kiss him on the cheek, he turned to kiss her lips. The picture said more than either of th
em verbalized. She looked at it. “My eyes are closed.”

“So are mine.”

“You look really happy in this picture.”

“So do you.”

She looked at him and admitted, “I am happy.”

“So am I.” He leaned in and kissed her again. He wrapped her in his arms and groaned. “We need to go now or I won’t want to leave.”

She laughed. She really loved the way he made her feel.

She almost tripped over her own feet as her brain processed the word love.

Chapter 4

Bo walked into the house and was in love with it instantly. He couldn’t help r
emark, “This place is perfect, sweetheart. How did you find it?”

“Mathis, my assistant. He is amazing. He’s been working in Hollywood since he was seventeen.  He could have a lot of different jobs if he wanted them, but he likes the flexibility of assisting. Apparently there are also perks. Though he hasn’t told me what
all of those are.” Ivy turned and said, “Do you want the tour?”

“Yeah.” He really did. He was already trying to figure out how to convince her to go back to plan A and stay in her home instead of his. “Do you love it here?”

She stalled, “I can love any house as long as I’m welcome in it.”

“Yeah, but you would rather be in your house, right?” He followed her through the halls and looked into rooms as they went. It wasn’t a mansion. It was just a large house. It wasn’t creepy and museum like. It was warm and welcoming.
“Did you decorate it all yourself?”

“Most of it. Mathis helped with that too,” she said as she led him to the back yard and the pool.

“I’m starting to get a bit jealous of this Mathis person.” He looked at the pool and thought how much more he liked the long square design over his intricate system.

A man’s voice sounded from behind them and said, “You should be. I’m fabulous.”

Bo turned to see a slight man, short, perky, and obviously gay. Either that or he was color blind, because the combination of his outfit was something else. He strolled over and extended a hand. Bo accepted it and said, “Hello.”

“Lord, Ivy. You said you were going hunting, but I didn’t expect you to bring home this buck.” Mathis made no attempt to hide his approval or his perusal.
He had a feeling it was a test and Bo laughed. “And you’re not afraid of me? Well. I like.”

“Afraid of you?” Bo quirked a brow.

“Well, not every burly straight man can handle a little ogling or teasing from a diva like me.” Mathis looked from Bo to Ivy. “Now darling, I have put three outfits on the bed for you. I like the second one the best, but that only means you will chose something else. When do you want me to return from this vacation you are insisting I take?”

Ivy was obviously not ready to talk about it in front of Mathis, but thankfully he wouldn’t let her get out of it. A few cryptic comments back and forth and Ivy broke down and said what she needed to say, “I don’t know where I live right now. How can I tell you to come to work? Just give me a week or two to figure it out okay?”

Mathis turned to look at him expectantly. Bo seized the opportunity, “I don’t mind living here. It’s cozier than my place. You decorated it. I had someone come in and put that thing together. You like living here. I could care less about living there.”

Mathis smiled warmly and nodded. “You just went from like to love. Now where is your place? I’ll get a moving crew prepped to make the transition.”

Ivy started to say something, but Bo cut her off and told Mathis where he lived, got the number and dropped him the contact information immediately. They set a date to have the movers walk through to know what to bring and what to leave. He had an ally in Mathis and that was essential if he was going to keep Ivy.  Finally, Bo said, “I’d like to sell it, but I’m not sure…”

“Oh, I’ll get it sold for you. I know just the person to buy it.
I know that house, well not intimately, but I remember when it was up for sale a few years ago. You have to be positively certain that you want to because the person I have in mind will be difficult if I tell him and it doesn’t happen. Let’s discuss it next week when the movers come.” Mathis turned to Ivy and said, “You enjoy my vacation, darling! When I come back to work, it will be back to work for you too. I can’t very well keep assisting someone who retired now can I?”

Bo looked to Ivy as Mathis made his exit. “You retired?”

“I don’t know what I’m doing.” Ivy shrugged. Her hair had highlights when she stood directly in the sun as she did now. “What are
you
doing? I thought you wanted to live in your house. It is like the size of three of mine.”

“And there is
like
two of us.” Bo pointed out the obvious. “I bought that house for the wrong reason. I don’t have any emotional attachment to it. You obviously enjoy this place. I like it too. I could see myself here.”

“You could?” She laughed. “How long?”

“Maybe forever.”

“That’s a long time.” She fidgeted with her shirt hem.

“You’re closer to the beach which means closer to the waves.” He tried to put her at ease any way he could.

“So the surfing is what you really want?” She tried to kid back but it wasn’t quite genuine. He needed to let her know he was serious.

“Come here.” He held out his arm and she moved to stand with him. “Look at that porch. You already have a swing hanging from it. Now all we need are a few grandkids running around and we’d be happy old people.”

“Grandkids?” She laughed again. “I think you may be missing a few steps along the way.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that you don’t love me, and we would need kids to have…”

“Wait, back up. What did you say?” He turned to face her. He looked down and she looked up.

“You don’t love me.”
Her eyes showed a hint of fear mixed with hope.

“Says who?” Bo could feel his heart thumping in his chest. His pulse ran wild, his fingers itched to tremble. His mouth was on autopilot and he couldn’t seem to stop it.

“Says…”

“What is love, Ivy?” he asked. “Isn’t it just the feeling of acceptance? It’s held together with forgiveness, threaded with doubt and worry, sewn into our minds by the feelings we get.
It’s chemistry, and we have that. If I don’t love you, then I guess I don’t know how I feel.”

“You love me?”
Her eyes widened.

“Either that or I am bat-shit crazy.” Bo was wondering if he had stumbled upon a bit of both
the emotion and a loss of sanity.

She tiptoed up to kiss him. He wrapped his arms around her and admitted to himself that he was in fact in love with Ivy. He had been for years. The real question remained, did she
or would she love him?

***

Ivy was happy that Bo loved her. She was sure she could love him too. She hadn’t been in love before so she didn’t know when it would hit her and she would know for sure. She knew for sure she was in lust with him, that she wanted to rip the hair out of that assistant’s head when she touched his arm that day. She had never felt violent before. Bo stirred something in her that made her both excited by and afraid of it.

She craved his touch more than she needed oxygen. She didn’t think that emotions in bed were enough to say she loved him. She wanted to know more about him first. She wanted some surge of emotion to possess her and shake her through and through with undeniable proof of love. She wanted to feel it the way she had imagined it in her roles in the movies.

Bo followed her to the bedroom and looked at what Mathis had prepared for her. “That’s surprising.”

“What is?” she asked.

“Well, Dale is pretty consistent. He’s loud. His clothes are loud, even when he is not dressed as Barbie. He buys loud gifts for everyone else. For my birthday last year he sent me a pink polo shirt and a note that read, real men wear pink.” Bo laughed.

“Did you wear it?”

“I am a real man.” He winked at her. “I could hardly focus on that little dude because he was so bright against the sun outside. I half expected to find a similar outfit for you.”

Ivy laughed. “No, he doesn’t push his fashion on anyone else. Though I will say sometimes we do borrow from one another
. He is like family to me. Except, unlike the rest of my family, my nephews and nieces excluded, Mathis actually does work to earn what I give him.”

She looked at Bo and asked, “Which do you like best?”

“You could put on a paper bag and I’d think you were beautiful.”

“Nice try.” She winked at him. “Tell me.”

“I think the second one would be the most comfortable for the barbeque.” Bo shrugged.

“Me too.” She did agree with Mathis this time. She would not tell him though.

“Do you need any help?” he asked and looked at her longingly.

“With a shirt and jeans?” Ivy looked him over from head to toe. He was one fine piece of man. Neatly put together even in jeans and a t-shirt with a sweater overtop.
The winter months were rolling in and the evenings could get pretty chilly if not cold.

“I’m just saying.” He looked at the outfit and added, “There are a lot of buttons on that blouse.”

“I think it’s best if I struggle with it now and let you help me out of it later. We’re running a little bit behind as it is.”  She said it, but didn’t mean it. She wanted to pull all of his clothes off of him and show him just how happy she was that he wanted to live in her house and not his creepy old mansion.

“Even if I just…took care of you?”
His expression melted her on the spot.

“Um, how would you do that?” she asked breathlessly.

“Let me show you.”

***

Later…

Bo sat with his arm draped across the back of her chair while his little brother, Dale entertained as usual. She was more relaxed than he was, but that was because he had taken time to rock her world before they came here. He was torturing himself, but when it came to Ivy, he apparently liked to do that. He tried not to think about it. His brother made it easy when he started the next joke. He pleaded, “No. Not that one.”

             
“Hush,” Dale shushed him. “Ivy, I knew I was going to be the gay one in this family. Do you know how?”

             
Gabe, Dale’s partner shook his head and went to refresh his drink. Everyone in the family had heard Dale’s act a million times. Ivy was like a fresh audience. He could pull out old material and she still laughed because she didn’t know it was old. Not yet anyways. Bo said, “Don’t let him bait you.”

             
“Hush.” Dale shushed him again and looked at Ivy.

             
“How?” she asked.

             
“Because my oldest brother is such a dick he can’t even figure out where his nuts are, and my other brother would die if he ever put some in his mouth!” Dale cracked up laughing. Ivy shook her head and tried not to laugh.