Page 74 of Crocodile Tears
“I mean, yeah. Like, the first media storm is scary, but she would’ve gotten through it.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I grumbled. “This is too much to ask someone to take on.”
“I don’t know about that. With a little time and coaching . . .” Ivy shrugged. “She handled me and I’m awful.”
“Youreallyare,” I said, and she grinned. “But Dove told me she doesn’t want to be in the spotlight. She said it’s all too much for her and her family.”
“So she freaked out for a second,” Ivy countered. “Who hasn’t? If anything, her family business will thrive with you attached to it. Look at those Australian people, the Mulligans?—”
“Madigans,” I said tightly. “And I would caution you that making that comparison could lead to being public enemy number one with the Lachlan family.”
“Whatever,” Ivy continued, unbothered. “What I’m saying is, don’t take no for an answer. Go after her.”
“I can’t,” I said. “Not if she asked me not to. Not if this isn’t what she really wants.”
“What do any of us know about what we really want,” she groused, taking another sip of her martini.
“I’m doing what’s best for her.”
“Ugh. How chivalrous of you to leave her alone to navigate all of this notoriety without the teams or protection that you have,” she snarked, and that hit me like a sucker punch. “If you actually wanted to respect her wishes, you would’ve helped her disentangle her life from yours.”
“I have.”
“Oh really?” Ivy asked, cocking her head. “Then who is the current director of your new charity, hm?” I glared at her. “That’s what I thought. You’re too chicken to win her back and too chicken to let her go.”
I wanted to drop my face in my hands and rub my eyes in frustration, but I knew that someone would grab a photo and it would all be twisted in some unfavorable way. “You’re right. Maybe I should dissolve the trust. Make it so Dove isn’t tied to me in any way anymore.”
Ivy frowned. “That’s not what I was?—”
“I need to give her the choice,” I carried on. “A real choice, not one sprung on her by the tabloids.”
Ivy’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I don’t understand what you’re saying now.”
“Does it matter?”
“No, I suppose it doesn’t,” she said, eating the olive from the dregs of her glass. “I’m just miserable and wish at least one of us had a chance at a happily ever after.”
“I think both of us do.”
“Don’t hold your breath. Where am I going to find a hot gay girl who has her own busy work life so she can understand mine, who is okay with being in the limelight,andhas a job that would let her jet around the world with me when I’m working?”
I grinned, leaning back in my chair. “You know, Ivy, I think I should introduce you to my sister.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Dove
“Thank you for all your help with this paperwork,” Mom said, tapping the manila folder on the kitchen table once before putting it back in her bag. “It’s been a lot lately. I feel bad making you work through lunch though.”
“I volunteered, Mom. It’s fine.”
“I don’t think the zoo has ever been so up-to-date on its admin,” Mom replied with a chuckle.
I was determined to keep myself busy but was running out of tasks. I’d helped Crane construct a new gibbon viewing platform and now he had locked the tool shed because I kept stealing his construction tasks. Aya had practically banned me from the prep kitchens upon her return from Greece because she’d discovered I’d kept rearranging the stock at night. Wren had even attempted to teach me how to knit but had given up on me after I’d used three skeins of yarn to make a lumpy, unwearablesweater. I tried to support Hannah—folding laundry, washing dishes, changing diapers—but now even she was starting to tell me to go home and that she didn’t need more help.
In a job and family where there wasalwaysmore to do, I was beginning to think the tasks of running the place weren’t infinite after all. And soon Lark and Logan would be arriving for the summer, and Lark would inevitably be just as anal and hardworking as I was, which meant even less for me to keep busy with.
Mom’s hand covered mine, and I knew before she even spoke that she was going to say something that I didn’t want to hear. “Honey?—”
