Page 19 of Raising Love
Ivy snickered. “But we worked so well together getting them back to the dorms.”
I nodded. “We did.”
“Couldn’t stand each other the whole time, but…” She tilted her head in my direction. “We did good.”
“We did great,” I added.
“Then there was that time we went hiking,” Ivy said, “and Kendra sprained her ankle. You and I figured out how to administer first aid, and then you went searching and found park rangers to help out.”
I pointed at her. “That shit was crazy, but we came through, for real.”
“And we do a great job on the air too,” she added. “Whenever I’m interviewing you?”
I nodded. “The fans love us. Love it even more when we annoy each other.”
“And we did the damn thing with the baby shower,” she said, pointing at me. “Because what the hell did we know about throwing a baby shower?”
“Not a damn thing,” I replied with a chuckle. “And that shit was an event to remember.”
“She absolutely loved it.” Ivy’s smile widened. “She thought we did so good.”
“Tyrell, too.”
“So, you know… maybe…” She folded her bottom lip into her mouth. “Maybe we could do this too.”
“It’s a baby, though, Ivy,” I said, my eyes locking on hers. “A real baby that breathes, cries, shits, and does all the other shit that makes me thank God every day that I never got a woman pregnant and pray that I never will.”
Ivy hollered a laugh. “I know.” Her smile softened as she met my gaze with her beautiful brown eyes. “I just feel like doing this, somehow, is going to make me feel better about all this.”
I blinked in response.
“Taking care of this baby is going to make me feel like I don’t have a hole in my heart where Kendra used to be, you know?”
This whole thing was scaring the shit out of me. As I sat there, visualizing what this would look like, I couldn’t see myself in the role of caring for someone so small and vulnerable.
I wasn’t the most responsible person—I’d never admit that, but it was true. I liked to party, travel on a whim, and have casual sex with women in random ass places for the thrill. I was not father material in the least.
But I couldn’t let Ivy do this alone.
Now her? She would be great at this. She didn’t think so, but that was an Ivy thing—worrying about everything because she was a perfectionist to the bone. She would excel at this, no question about it. And I would simply let her lead.
The least I could do was support her and help out wherever I could—which I knew wouldn’t be all that much.
“Aight, look,” I said, moving to the edge of my seat. “We both know I’m about to suck at this shit. Let’s just keep it real.”
“Leo—”
“But I want to do this with you because I know you won’t suck at it.”
She tilted her head to one side.
“You’re smart,” I started. “A fucking genius. The way your mind works fast, it amazes me sometimes—shit, a lot of the time.”
She blushed, dropping her head to hide it.
“So I’m confident we’ll be fine.”
“We?” she asked. “Does that mean you’ll do it with me?”
