Page 25 of Decked Out with Ivy

What the hell kind of Christmas magic was she working?

Chapter 9

Ivy pulled the last box out of the attic and handed it to Cody. “That’s it,” she exclaimed as she descended the ladder. Cody lingered, his hand angled behind her back, moving with her as she backed down the rickety wood steps. It was sweet, but she’d managed these foldout stairs many times. She could almost feel the heat radiating off him, reminding her of the way it did when he wrapped his arm around her to shield her from the aggressive paparazzo.

She was trying not to think about it, but it was hard to ignore that protective instinct he had. Though for all she knew, it was just another way for him to play it up in front of the cameras.

Once she was on solid ground, Cody glanced toward the boxes piled against the wall. “You sure you don’t have another ten boxes up there? Maybe a storage unit? I don’t think you have enough.” He picked up one of the boxes. “Didn’t you say the decorations were from you and your sister’s travels? How much have you traveled?”

“Well technically yes, but we’ve also been gifted ornaments by our mom and our aunt. We have some of our grandma’s old ornaments. She was very serious about Christmas. In her will, she divided the ornaments amongst the family. She even made a spreadsheet on a piece of graph paper. Each sheet was placed in a protective covering with a color-coded binding. Mine was green. Ivy. My sister was red because that was Gran’s favorite color—poppy.”

“You’re joking?”

“There are two things I never joke about—Christmas and my Gran.”

Cody held his hands up in surrender. “Noted.” He placed a box in the living room and came back for more. “You were close to your Gran?”

“We all were. When she passed, we all were kind of lost. We’d lost our grandpa a decade earlier, but Gran was there to be the backbone of the family. She held us together—kept us close, you know? When she passed, my sister and my cousins promised each other to keep the family tight. It’s been two years, and I see my cousins more than anyone. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

“I wouldn’t know what that’s like. I only have Ronnie, and she has her own family, so I know my place.”

“You told me about your dad. What about your mom?”

He shrugged, a flash of pain darkening his green gaze. “Not much to tell.” He about-faced it out of the living room to grab another box.

She couldn’t ignore the hurt in his eyes. When he returned, she took the box decorated with a snowman from his hands and placed it on top of the other Santa box. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“You didn’t. I just don’t like to talk about the past. No good can come of it.”

“I beg to differ.”

“You have a past filled with a family who obviously loves you. I’m sure your grandma baked you cookies on the weekend and showed up for your school concerts.”

Ivy laughed. “Gran was a terrible baker. She once burned those break and bakes you get at the supermarket so badly the fire department showed up. Another time, she mistook the salt for sugar. Do you know how a brownie tastes with a cup of salt? Like jumping in the ocean with your mouth open.”

Cody’s lips parted into a gorgeous smile, flashing those beautiful white teeth. “She sounds like she went to the same culinary school as my mom.”

“Your mom couldn’t bake, either?”

“Couldn't bake. Couldn't cook. That woman could set water on fire, and she did once. She forgot she was boiling water for mac and cheese and all the water eventually evaporated before the pan caught fire. I was eight and discovered it. I grabbed the sprayer off the sink and hosed it down. Then got in trouble for getting everything wet.”

“But you put the fire out?”

“I did. Didn’t matter. My mom didn’t see things that way. She only saw the negatives. She lived her life from one negative thought to the next. I guess I couldn’t blame her. She was a single mom who worked twelve-hour shifts. She was tired. Smoked like a chimney. It eventually killed her.”

“How old were you?”

“Nineteen. I’d already moved out, starred in my first film. I was on set when I got the call. My whole life I thought if I could just take care of her, maybe she’d like me. But after that first check, I paid her rent for the year, and she never said thank you. I paid for the funeral but didn’t go. I don’t know if anyone went.”

Ivy’s breath caught in her throat as Cody’s shoulders hunched and his eyes cast downward. The weight of his pain seemed to fill the space between them, and something inside her tightened painfully. Her chest ached with the helplessness of it all—she wanted to reach out, to take the hurt away, but all she could do was stand there, feeling her heart crack for him. For the upbringing he had to endure. For the life lessons he was forced to learn at such a young age, lessons that no child should have to face. And for the tragedy of never truly knowing what it felt like to have people who loved him unconditionally.

“That’s really sad,” she managed, but her voice wavered.

“It’s the past,” he said and opened a box. “Mine isn’t worth revisiting, but yours is. Tell me about this ornament.”

Ivy smiled at the pewter oval that was inscribed beneath a castle. “Castle in the Clouds. It’s right here in New Hampshire. I didn’t have to travel far. It’s a historic mansion built by a shoemaker. It's at the top of a mountain and has stunning views. I love to go up there in the fall. I imagine your house in LA is bigger, but you won’t have those views.”

“Maybe I’ll check it out one day.”

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