Page 81 of Start With A Slap

Did that smile look paternal or predatory? She couldn’t tell anymore. Hoping to god it read paternal to Jason — and that their hug would read platonic, Ivy went to Sever. Her heart clomped in her throat. Their cheekbones collided, she didn’t know where to put her hands, he rubbed her lower back, one of the roses dropped to the ground...

He retrieved it for her and held it up like a suitor, eyes sparkling. “Let’s do this again sometime, shall we?”

At a loss for words, she took it from his hand.

He walked away, and Jason snorted. “Wow.”

Ivy braced herself.

“That might bethemost awkward hug I’ve ever witnessed.”

Relieved, she smiled at him. “Shut up.”

“You shut up.” He wrapped an arm around her, touched her lips. “You’re gonna hurt your voice.”

He reallydidwant to believe she was faithful.

Maybe, if she tried, she could believe it, too.

Denial wasawesome.

Ivy thought it would be hard to be with Jason now, but all she had to do was push Sever and Paris out of her mind, and it was like nothing had ever changed.

It helped, of course, that she wasn’t allowed to speak.

Granted, the fact that she was capable of such deceit proved perturbing, but a part of her almost felt shedeservedsympathy for all she’d endured. Not from Jason, per se, but since he was offering...

Swaddled in blankets and pampered with soup and menthol rub to cure her phony ailment, i.e., the best excuse she could conjure for postponing reunion sex, Ivy made the most of it.

Each time a memory hit, she reframed it as a dream, then filed it away with her actual dreams in a skyscraping tower of file cabinets marked INNOCENT. It was an architectural marvel: sleek, impenetrable and secure.

Until Jason came at it with a giant wrecking ball marked GUILTY.

“So,” he prefaced with a sideways smile, “I have a surprise for you.”

“Another one? Honey, you’ve been so sweet?—”

“Shhh. Don’t strain your voice. Just close your eyes and perk your ears.”

With no idea what to expect, she did as he asked, and heard him pick up his guitar.

He strummed a pretty melody she wasn’t familiar with, then began to sing a beautiful song about feeling safe and loved and truly understood.

By the second verse, Ivy realized it was a song abouther.

After she’d mentioned the song he’d written about Kara, Jason had spent the weekend writing a song abouther.

He didn’t notice that she was sobbing until he’d put down his guitar.

CHAPTER 25

Checklist

Ivy rechecked and refolded her listand marched purposefully across 6th Street.

Lists had become her saving grace in the days following her trip. Breaking down each moment to a checkbox left little room for anything else — such as talking directly to one’s husband, or considering becoming a monk.

Go to Bank of America to order new checks for Jason. Stop at Coffee Bean, pick up caramel latte and sandwich for Jason.

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