Give Us a Chance (25 page)

She laughs and calls back, "Bye, guys. Love you."

"Love you too," we yell back, except for Bryce. He loves her differently than the rest of us, so he won't say it.

"I'll be back later," I say to Ivy. "Gotta help clean up."

"I can help." She scoots her chair back.

"Only the guys clean up," I tell her.

"It's a rule," Nash adds as he gathers up the plates.

"Come on," Callie says, motioning Ivy to get up. "Let's go in the living room and watch really bad reality TV. I love those shows."

The two of them take off, and Nash, Bryce, Austin, and I begin our clean-up work. Dad doesn't have to help because he helped make dinner, so he goes outside to take a smoke. I wish he didn't smoke. I keep trying to get him to quit, and he's cut back to just a few cigarettes a day, but still. He needs to quit completely. I already lost one parent. I'm not losing him too, because of some damn cigarettes. My mom smoked when she was younger, but quit when she got engaged to my dad and started taking care of Nash, who was just an infant at the time. Even though he wasn't hers, she raised him like he was, and she didn't want him around all that smoke. She wouldn't let my dad smoke in the house, and now, he still goes outside to smoke, as if he thinks she's watching.

"So you brought Ivy to family dinner," Austin says, smiling at me. "You finally settling down?"

"It doesn't mean anything." I open the dishwasher. "It's just dinner, so shut the hell up."

He shrugs. "I'm just saying. You got that same look Nash had when we went down to his house last summer."

Nash had only known Callie a few weeks back then, but we all knew he'd fallen hard for her.

"He's right," Bryce says. "You do have that same look."

"What look are we talking about here?" Nash asks as he rinses the plates in the sink. "I didn't have a look."

"Are you kidding?" Austin says. "You couldn't take your eyes off her. You practically had hearts floating around your head."

I laugh, imagining that. "So fucking true. You barely knew Callie and you were already in love with her. Must've been love at first sight."

"Probably was. I just didn't realize it at the time." He tosses a dish towel at me. "Just like you, dumbass. You got hearts floating around your head for Ivy and you don't even know it."

"You're fucking nuts." I toss the towel back at him. "I've been going out with her for a week."

"Yeah, but you've wanted her for months," Austin says. "And if she'd agreed to go out with you back then, she'd probably have a ring on her finger by now."

Bryce chuckles. "Yeah, that'll be the day. When hell freezes over."

"You're one to talk," I say. "You'll never commit to anyone, unless you ever get off your ass and finally tell Jen how you feel. But instead you let her date other guys."

He gets in my face. "Shut the fuck up. Like I need a damn reminder that she's dating that asshole?"

"What do you expect her to do?" Nash asks. "She's not going to wait around forever."

"Especially when you're dating other girls," I say to him. "I hear you had a date last night."

Bryce backs away from me. "It was nothing. Just some girl I met at a bar."

He's starting to remind me of myself, dating random girls who mean nothing to him. I don't want him to be like that. It was fine for me, but not for him, which sounds odd, but I didn't have any other options. Before Ivy came along, I didn't feel a connection with any of the girls I was with, and I wasn't looking for one. But Bryce has a girl, who I know he loves, so to see him wasting his time with girls he has no interest in, both annoys and frustrates me. But talking to him about it is like talking to a brick wall.

"You guys want to go out back and play some ball when we're done with this?" Nash asks, loading the dinner plates in the dishwasher.

"I'm up for that," I say, handing him the dessert plates. "I'm sure your girlfriend's talking Ivy's ear off. It'll be a while before we can break those two apart."

"Yeah, they really hit it off." He points at me. "You screw this up, Callie's going to kill you."

"Yeah, I already figured that out."

Nash adds the dessert plates to the dishwasher. "Let's hurry and finish this shit up so we can get outside. Austin, wipe the counters." He tosses a sponge at him, then one at Bryce. "Bryce, you get the stove." He shoves a dish towel at me. "And you dry the pans and the platters."

"He's like a damn drill sergeant," Austin says as he wipes down the counter.

"Do you want to play football or do this all night?" Nash asks.

"The stove's already clean," Bryce says. "I think Callie already cleaned it."

Nash shakes his head. "She always does that. I tell her not to, but she always cleans half the kitchen so we have less work to do. She does it at home too, even though I'm in charge of cleaning up."

I dry the last pan and hand them all to Bryce. "Here. Put these away and I'll do the platters."

Nash closes the dishwasher. "Dishes are done."

"Counters too," Austin says.

Nash smiles. "Time for some Wheeler football. Get ready to get your asses kicked, boys."

Dad walks in from his smoke. "Done already?"

"Yeah, we're going out to play some ball," Nash says. "Want to join us?"

He laughs. "No. It's cold out there and you boys are too rough for me. I'm afraid you'd knock me unconscious."

"We'd go easy on you, Dad," I say, patting his shoulder on my way outside. "Tell Ivy I'm out back."

"Will do," he says.

We play for an hour in the crisp, late winter air. I love playing ball with my brothers. They get on my nerves and sometimes we fight, but I still love hanging out with them.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Ivy

"Sorry we took so long," Jake says as we're driving to my apartment. "You should've come out and got me."

"I wasn't ready to leave. Callie and I were watching TV and talking and I didn't even realize what time it was."

"Sounds like you and Callie are becoming good friends."

"Yeah, we made plans to go out next week. We're going to dinner on Wednesday." I pause. "I felt so bad when I asked Callie about Cat's name. She looked like she was about to cry."

Jake squeezes my hand, which he's been holding since we got in the car. "You just asked a question. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I know. I just felt really bad. I didn't want her thinking about her brother's death."

"She'll always think about it. He was a huge part of her life and most anything can trigger a memory of him. We both know what that's like, having lost our moms. Like tonight for some reason, watching my dad go take a smoke reminded me of my mom. She always made him go outside so us kids wouldn't have to be around the smoke. One time, when it was really freaking cold out, he tried to sneak a smoke in the house, and instead of yelling at him, my mom made him take all us boys to the arcade as punishment." He laughs. "And believe me, that was a punishment. Trying to keep track of the four of us by himself? Austin was only three. He threw a tantrum and Bryce broke one of the pinball machines. My dad thought the place was going to kick us out."

"Your poor dad," I say.

"It worked. He never smoked in the house again."

"I was thinking about my mom tonight when I saw Cat. My mom loved animals, and one day, Buttons showed up at our door. She was a stray, and just a kitten, so my mom took her in and fed her. My dad never wanted a pet, saying they were too much work, but my mom talked him into letting us keep Buttons." I smile. "My dad ended up loving that cat. He even cried when she died, and he almost never cries."

Jake and I continue to share memories of our moms until we reach my apartment building. It's cold and windy and drizzly outside, and I'm feeling like I don't want to spend the rest of the night alone in my apartment. Cuddling up with Jake sounds way more appealing.

As he parks his SUV, I say, "Is your invite still open?"

"What invite?"

"The one to stay with you tonight?"

He smiles. "Yeah. Why?"

"Because I want to stay with you. My apartment's cold and drafty and well...I don't want to say goodbye to you yet."

He leans over and reaches behind my head and brings me in for a kiss. "I don't want to say goodbye to you either. Let's go inside and get whatever you need and then we'll go back to my place."

I quickly pack an overnight bag, then we drive to Jake's apartment. As we walk up to the building entrance, a girl runs up to Jake. She's pretty, with bright blond hair, a gorgeous face, tall and thin, her body wrapped in a long black coat.

"Jake, I've been calling and texting you." The girl acts like I'm not even here, her attention only on Jake.
 

He sighs. "Yeah, and I texted you back that I'm not interested. You need to leave, Ash. And don't call me again. Or text me."

Jake opens the door to the building and she grabs his arm. "I need you tonight. We had a deal. You said if I ever—"

"I told you I'm not interested," he says, peeling her hand off his arm.

"I'm not accepting that. After all the times you stopped by my apartment for a quick—"

"Ash." He raises his voice, then lowers it back to normal. "Are you freaking blind? Can't you see that I'm with someone?"

She glances at me and huffs. "Fine. But I'm getting you tomorrow."

"No. You're not." He ushers me past him into the building, then whispers, "Wait inside. I'll be there in a minute."

He remains outside, talking to that girl. She starts throwing her hands in the air and yelling, but all I catch are a few curse words. Jake says one last thing and then she storms back to her car.

Jake comes into the building. "I'm really sorry about that. I can't believe she showed up here. I texted her that I have a girlfriend, but apparently she didn't care."

"Is she your, um..." How do I say it? Sure thing? Booty call? I don't even want to say it. Or think it.
 

"She was," he mumbles. "Not anymore."

We ride up the elevator to his apartment in silence, except for the sound of his phone going off. It's on vibrate but I could hear it buzzing all day, and I know it's girls calling him. He'll be getting a lot of attention after being voted most eligible bachelor.

As if I wasn't worried enough about other girls trying to date him. Now all the women of Chicago will be texting and calling him. This is exactly what I didn't want. I didn't want to have to compete with other girls just to be with him.

When we get inside his loft, he takes our coats and hangs them on the rack, then leads me to the couch to sit down.

"We need to talk about this whole eligible bachelor thing. Why didn't you say anything when I picked you up tonight? You obviously knew about it, and I know it bothered you, so why didn't you talk to me about it?"

"Because I didn't want to fight."

"There's nothing to fight about. I had no idea they were doing that contest. No freaking clue. And I only found out about it after some girl sent me a link to the article. I couldn't figure out why so many girls were calling and texting me."

"How many did you get? How many calls and texts?"

"I don't know. Hundreds? Maybe a thousand by now. They keep coming, from girls I don't even know. I don't know how they got my number."

"Maybe you should get a new number."

"I would, but this is my business number. I'd have to call every business contact I have and give them the new number and that would take forever." He rubs my arm. "This will calm down. I promise. A week from now, people will have forgotten all about it."

"I doubt that. A lot of girls want you, Jake. And now they'll want you even more."

"But I don't want
them
. So it doesn't matter."

I nod, like I'm agreeing with him but I'm really not. Because it DOES matter. It matters because girls will keep showing up at his door, and what if he has a weak moment and lets one of them in? Or what if we have a fight and he has sex with another girl out of anger? Or what if he just gets bored with me and wants someone new? All of these were reasons why guys cheated on me in the past so it's not like I'm making this up. They're all possibilities.

"You don't believe me," he says, sitting back on the couch. "Ivy, what do I need to do to prove to you that I won't cheat on you?"

"I just need more time. I haven't had the best luck with guys in the past. At least half the guys I've dated have cheated on me."

"I'm not them. So stop making me pay for what they did."

"Jake, you can't expect me to think you'll change overnight. I know you say you've never cheated on a girl, but you do have a history of being with a lot of women and I'm not sure that I trust that you can be with just one."

He pauses, then says, "Okay. That's fair. I don't agree with it, but I understand why you might think that."

"I want to trust you, Jake. I do. But like I said, I just need more time."

"We've got plenty of time." He smiles. "Now get over here."

I climb into his waiting arms and we snuggle on the couch and watch TV. After seeing that girl just now, I don't feel like making out with him, and he gets that. He doesn't even try to make a move. He knows that now is not the time, and he respects that, unlike the other guys I've been with who wouldn't care about how I was feeling and would be trying to rip my clothes off right now.

We watch a movie, and at eleven, my eyes are drifting shut, but I don't want to fall asleep on the couch. It's too small, and this morning I woke up with a stiff neck from sleeping without a pillow.

"I need to go to sleep," I tell Jake. "But I don't want to sleep here. There's not enough room. Can we go to your bed?"

He hesitates, then says, "Yeah, of course. Let's go."

After we've changed clothes and brushed our teeth, we get into bed. He has a king size bed with really soft sheets and a big down comforter in a dark gray color. I lay on my side and he pulls me against him, his warm chest pressed into my back. He's shirtless, but wearing pajama pants. I'm in pajama shorts and a t-shirt.

"Jake," I say.

"Yeah?"