Page 7 of Raising Love
I snorted a laugh, which turned into a bellyful chuckle. “Yeah, aight. I assure you that fucking ain’t happening with Ivy and me. At all.”
“Well, the way you talk to her sure makes it seem like you want to.”
“Ha!”
“And the way she loves talking to you,” Vanessa continued, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she wants to, too.”
“Aight, enough.” I clapped my hands once. “Like I told you, Vanessa, I gotta go, baby.” I approached her, bending my knees to be at her level. “While I would love to go back and forth with you—because you look so damn beautiful when you’re pissed at me…”
She tried to fight her smile but couldn’t resist, rolling her eyes and looking away instead.
“As you heard, I have to go.” I pressed a kiss against her forehead before turning away and heading to my bathroom. “I gotta hop in the shower.” I glanced at her over my shoulder. “You’re more than welcome to join me.”
Her face lit up.
“But we gotta make it quick,” I informed her. “I’m not trying to have Ivy waiting.”
Vanessa’s smile melted right off her face. “No thank you, then.”
My smile faded too, but I didn’t let myself stay in that feeling.
It’s like I said: Ivy was a punctual and by-the-book kind of woman. She was cool, but she didn’t play with the things she was responsible for. I respected that, and I respected her.
And despite Vanessa’s feelings about my relationship with Ivy, she and I were never—and could never be—what Vanessa suggested we were.
I shook my head while snickering. “Just trippin’,” I said as I turned the knob on my shower’s stall, watching as water spilled out overhead. “As if Ivy and I could ever.”
THREE
ivy
The sudden, loud chime of my phone on the night table beside my bed jolted me out of sleep. While the call woke me, it took a minute to register that my phone was ringing.
My eyes scanned the ceiling as the chiming continued—until it stopped. Less than a second later, the device started chiming again.
Something about the call coming in twice had me sitting up instantly, reaching for my phone and answering before even checking who it was.
Before I could say anything, Leo spoke.
“Ivy.”
I moved the phone away from my ear and glanced at the screen, searching for the time. It was two in the morning. No good calls came in at two in the morning.
Aside from that, it was the way my friend said my name—slowly, weighted with something my tired brain couldn’t quite decipher. But I knew it wasn’t good.
“Leo?”
“There’s been an accident,” he revealed.
“Huh?”
“I’m… I’m at Brooklyn Bay Medical Center.”
I blinked erratically, the words not fully registering. “What? Are you okay?”
“It’s Kenni and Rell, man,” he said low, inhaling a deep breath after.
My heart felt like it stopped in my chest. My stomach knotted less than a second later.
