Give Us a Chance (11 page)

I leave work at five and race over to my dad's house to check on him because Liza's been at class all day and then has to go straight to work. I could just call my dad, but I stop over instead because he's been stuck in the house all day by himself and needs some human interaction.

"Dad, it's me," I yell as I go in the house. I hear the TV on in the living room and find him sleeping in his chair. He normally doesn't sleep during the day like this. That new med is really knocking him out, which isn't good because he's supposed to be up walking throughout the day. It gets the blood flowing and keeps his back muscles from stiffening up.

"Dad." I nudge his shoulder.

He opens his eyes. "Hi, honey. Did you just get here?"

"Yeah. It's after five. How long have you been asleep?"

"About an hour." He shuts the TV off.

"You should probably walk around a little. Need some help?"

"No. I'm fine." He slowly gets up from his chair, cringing in pain as he does.

I hold his arm. "Dad, you okay?"

"My back's just a little stiff from sleeping in that chair."

It's not the chair. It's his back. It's getting worse but he won't tell Liza and me because he doesn't want us to worry. But all I do is worry. I've worried ever since it happened, and now I'm even more worried because his pain is getting worse.

"You want to walk outside?" I ask. "It's not as cold as it's been and the sidewalk is clear."

 
He hasn't been able to walk outside for weeks because the sidewalks were covered in snow and ice, and the last thing he needed was to fall and hurt his back even more.

"I suppose I could use some fresh air."

I help him with his coat and we go out to the sidewalk.

"I can't stay for dinner," I tell him. "I have something to do tonight."

"You going out with friends?"

"Kind of. I mean, yeah, he's a friend. Never mind."

My dad grins at me. "Is this friend of yours a boy named Jake Wheeler?"

"Liza told you?" I huff and shake my head. "That girl can't keep a secret to save her life. Well, I guess I didn't tell her it was a secret, but still. She wasn't supposed to tell you."

"I know you just started seeing him, but don't rush into anything."

Oh, God, here we go. He's going to give me his dad lecture about taking things slow, being friends first. I've heard it a million times. He thinks if Liza and I start out being only friends with a guy, it'll delay the physical part of the relationship, which he tries to pretend we've never had. He prefers to think we're both virgins, even when I was living with Ryker.

"So Jake is the oldest?" he asks. Even before I started working for the Wheelers, my dad knew who they were because of their company. After years of working as a carpenter, my dad knows most everyone in the construction business.

"No, Nash is the oldest," I say. "He's 25. Jake is 23. He's the guy I worked for last fall on the Victorian." Shit. I shouldn't have told him that. When I was working for Jake, I know my dad overheard Liza and me talking about Jake and his reputation.

"The one who sleeps around?" My dad stops and turns to face me. "Ivy, I don't want you dating that boy. Guys like him will break your heart."

"We've been on one date. It's nothing serious. He's not going to break my heart. And besides,
any
guy could break my heart."

"Yes, but this one could decide not to hire you if this thing between you two doesn't work out. And you know how hard it is to get a job in this industry."

"Not for men," I mutter. "Just women." I put my arm around his and pull on him to continue walking. "Jake would still hire me even if we did break up. Not that we're going to break up because we're not even dating."

"But you're going out with him tonight. Isn't that considered a date?"

"I guess it kind of is, but this isn't going to lead anywhere. We'll go out a few times and that'll be it."

"Then why are you going out with him at all?" He stops suddenly, his brows drawn together. "Ivy, if you're only dating this young man for one thing, then—"

"Dad! No. I have no intention of doing that. I just..." I take a breath. "I only went on a date with him because he keeps asking me out and I thought if I went out with him and he found out he couldn't get what he wanted from me, he'd leave me alone."

"You're dating him so that he'll stop asking you out? Honey, that's crazy. Just tell him you're not interested."

I sigh. "It's not that easy. He's very persistent. And besides, last night turned out to be not so bad. We ended having fun on the date so we decided to try it again. And before you ask, no, he's not getting...THAT tonight either. Or any other night. In fact, tonight is more like two friends hanging out than a date."

"So it's platonic?"

"Yeah," I quickly answer as I pull on him to keep walking. "We should turn around. I need to get home and get ready for my date—I mean, my night out."

When we're almost back to the house, he says, "Could you get the mail?"

"Sure." I walk around him to the box and take out the mail, flipping through it.

"Anything good?" he asks kiddingly because we never get anything good. It's always either junk mail or bills.

Today it's just bills; one for my dad's last doctor visit and two for his last couple physical therapy appointments. All three bills are overdue and my dad doesn't have the money to pay for them. Neither do I. Just last week I had to pay his electric bill along with my apartment rent, which wiped me out.

"What's wrong, Ivy?"

"Nothing. Let's go." I take his arm and we continue to the house. We go inside and I tuck the bills inside my coat.

"Ivy, give me the mail."

"It's just some bills. I'll take care of them."

"That's not your responsibility." He holds his hand out. "Now give them to me."

He doesn't need the stress of seeing the overdue bills so I keep them hidden in my coat. "I have to go."

"Ivy." He stands by the door, his brows raised.

"Dad, I told you, I'll take care of it."

"Stealing someone's mail is a federal offense. Now hand it over."

I sigh and hand him the bills. He quickly flips through them.

"What are you going to do?" I ask.

"I'm going to stop going to physical therapy." He drops the bills on the small table by the door. "It's not helping, so there's no use going."

"But the doctor said you had to go."

He huffs. "What do doctors know?"

"Dad, you can't stop going. I'll find a way to pay for it. I'll—"

"Stop it. You're not paying for it." He opens the door. "Now go get ready for your date."

"It's not a date."

"Well, whatever it is, you need to get going. But will you do me a favor?"

"What?"

"If this guy doesn't treat you well or isn't respectful of you, then you kick his ass to the curb. I'd do it myself if my back were in better shape."

I smile. "Okay. If he steps out of line, I'll be sure to kick his ass." I hug him. "I'll see you later. Love you, Dad."

"Love you too, honey. Have fun tonight." He lets me go. "But not too much fun."

"Got it." I go out to my car and call Liza as I'm driving back to my apartment.

"Hey, Ivy," she says when she picks up. "I can't really talk. I'm heading into the library. What do you need?"

"I was just over at the house and Dad got three more medical bills. All overdue. I don't have the money to pay them. Do you?"

She sighs. "No. But I could see if I could pick up some extra shifts this weekend. That might be enough to pay for at least one of the bills."

"If you could, that'd be great. I just paid rent and it cleared out my account. Did Dad tell you he's quitting physical therapy?"

"No, but I figured he would. He keeps telling me it isn't working."

"Liza, you've got to talk to him. He needs to keep going."

"He won't listen to me. You know how stubborn he is, almost as stubborn as you. Hey, I gotta go. I'll call you later."

"Yeah, okay. Bye."

Back at my apartment, I hurry to get ready because it's getting late and Jake will be here soon. I shower and put on dark skinny jeans and a soft cream-colored sweater Liza gave me last Christmas. Tall black boots complete the look. I dry my hair, deciding to wear it down, then put on my makeup, finishing up just as Jake arrives. I hit the buzzer to let him in the building and moments later he's at my door.

"Hi," I say, smiling when I see him there. Tonight he's wearing a dark wool coat, dark jeans, and a thin black sweater. He looks hot, but also nice. Sophisticated. Last fall, I'd sometimes see him change into clothes like this at work before heading out to pick up a girl.

I try not to think about that and instead focus on the here and now. And right now? I'm really happy to see him, those butterflies dancing around my stomach and telling me to yank him into my apartment and kiss him.

But before I can, he reaches behind my neck and pulls me to his mouth and kisses me with an intensity that causes sensations to shoot down my middle, all the way down to my toes, lingering between my legs. He walks forward, so I walk back, our mouths still connected. He kicks the door closed and puts both hands along the sides of my face and softens the kiss.

"Hi," he whispers, his lips touching mine as he speaks. "I forgot to say that earlier."

"Yeah, you did," I whisper back, loosening my grip on his sweater, which I had clenched in my hand.

"You look gorgeous," he says, then tilts his head slightly and brings my mouth back to his and kisses me again, slowly, gently coaxing my lips open so his tongue can slip past.

We keep this up for at least several minutes, and if we keep it going a minute longer, I'll be dragging him off to my bedroom, breaking the no-sex rule I made. Now I'm wondering why I made that rule. I haven't done it forever, and I can tell from the way Jake kisses that the sex would be amazing. The way he moves his lips, where he puts his hands, tells me he knows what women like.

But I promised myself we wouldn't have sex. If we do, this is over. I'll be just another notch on his bedpost.

That wasn't the plan. The plan is to prove to him this will never work so that he'll stop asking me out and leave me alone. Except now I feel like I have to prove to
myself
this won't work out. Because at this moment? Kissing him? It feels like we're made for each other.

CHAPTER NINE

Jake

The moment I saw her at the door I had to kiss her, and now I can't stop. So I wait for Ivy to end it, which she eventually does, but it doesn't seem like she wants to.

She slowly pulls away. "We should probably get going."

"Yeah." I step back, my eyes trailing over her. She's wearing a cream-colored sweater and black boots that come up to her knees. It reminds me of the girl who sat across from me at lunch with her cream-colored scarf and those boots. I kept imagining Ivy in those boots, wearing nothing else, and I haven't been able to get that image out of my head. It's the reason I took an extra long shower before I came over here. So seeing her dressed like this is nearly torture. But I can't think about that. This isn't about sex. I'm dating her to get to know her, not have sex with her, but shit, if we ever do have sex, I have a feeling it'll be the best damn sex I've ever had.

"I like that outfit," I say casually.

"It's just jeans and a sweater."

"It looks good on you." I run my hand down her arm. "You look beautiful."

"Thanks."

"Need anything before we leave? Where's your coat?"

"In the closet." She walks over to it and I meet her there and help her with her coat.

"I changed my mind about dinner and a movie," I say. "I know it's what people do on dates but it sounded boring. And being in a dark theater for two hours means I wouldn't be able to look at you, and that would suck."

She smiles. "So what are we doing?

"I'm taking you to a nice restaurant downtown and then we'll take it from there."

"A nice restaurant? Does that mean a place like Rodeo Freddy's?"

I chuckle. "No. Rodeo Freddy's is not a nice restaurant. We went there to dance, not for the food."

"But I told you I didn't dance so why'd you take me there?"

"Because it was something to do. And you had fun, right?"

"Yeah." She pauses. "Maybe we could um...go there again sometime."

She's agreeing to another date? Before this one's even started? I can't help but grin like an idiot over that. Over the years, I've had literally hundreds of girls agree to go out with me and didn't really care that they said yes. But then Ivy says she wants to go out again and I get all excited like some freaking kid who got the hot cheerleader to agree to go to prom with him. I did that, by the way. Senior year, I went to prom with the hottest girl in my school. Head cheerleader for the football team. We had sex that night, multiple times, and then I moved on to someone else and so did she. But even back then, when she agreed to go to prom with me, I wasn't excited about it. I knew she'd say yes. We were both popular and it was almost expected that we'd go together.

"Maybe we'll go there this weekend." I open the door for Ivy and we go out in the hall and down the elevator to the parking lot. Before she gets in my SUV, I stop her and kiss those beautiful lips again. Then I slide my hand over her smooth silky hair and say, "It's kind of a rule."

"What's a rule?"

"You kiss me before you get in the car."

She smiles. "And why is that a rule?"

"It's for good luck. It ensures we'll have a safe drive. I'm very superstitious."

"You didn't do it last night."

"Yeah. And thank God we didn't get in an accident. But tonight, I'm not risking it. You need to kiss me before you get in."

"Every time? That's too much."

"It's for our safety. People drive like maniacs around here."

"Fine. I'll go along with it but only because your kisses are..." She glances to the side. "Not completely horrible."

I laugh. "What the hell? Not completely horrible? That's how you describe my kisses?"

"What did you want me to say?"