Chasing Ivy (Oak Hill 1)

Ivy

“Hello, my dearest sister,” I said into the phone, slipping on my black pencil skirt.

Mia grumbled. “Why are you calling me so flippin’ early?”

I laughed, shimmying the pencil skirt up and over my hips. “It’s 8. Don’t you have class soon?”

A loud, muffling sound hit my ear and I pulled the phone away from my face. Mia groaned and then I laughed again.

“I give myself exactly ten minutes to throw clothes on and rush to class in the morning. I should still be sleeping for another fifteen minutes. Don’t you know anything about being a college student?”

Not really.

“Okay, fine. I’ll let you go back to sleep, sleeping beauty.”

I walked over to the mirror and ran my hand through my curled hair. Today was my first day at the bank, and I was more than ready. It wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, but it was a really good job until I could score enough private businesses as clients.

I loved being an accountant. I loved working with numbers, which most people find extremely odd, but numbers never change. They’re a constant thing and I found that very comforting for some reason. But really, what I truly wanted to do, was be an accountant for small businesses. I didn’t necessarily enjoy working for bigger financial groups but right now, it was a steady income, and I needed that.

“No, no! I’m up now. I want to talk.”

I smiled. “Okay, so how was the first week of school?”

I heard Mia sigh. “Boring and tiring. How many pies have you gotten?”

“What? None.”

“Liar.”

A smirk crept onto my face. “Fine. Four.”

“YES!” I laughed out loud at my sister’s sudden burst of excitement. “I freaking knew I would win the bet.”

My sister bet me that I would get at least three pies when people got word that I’d moved back to town. I told her I’d get one, maybe two if I was lucky, but she only rolled her eyes. In a small town like Oak Hill, it wouldn’t be long before people learned the Collins girls had moved back home; I just wasn’t sure what they would say. Did they care? My parents hadn’t had a plethora of friends or anything, but my father had run one of the biggest car dealerships in town, so our name was known…as was our history.

“You were right, whatever,” I mumbled, slipping on my heels.

“So, hav

e you been down… you know.” A frog lodged its way into my throat as soon as the words left Mia’s mouth. I knew exactly what she was getting at.

She was wondering if I’d gone past our old house (or lack thereof). I wanted to. I wanted to put on a brave face and walk over there and see my childhood street, but I just wasn’t ready yet. I knew someone had bought the lot that my parents had also purchased, long before Mia and I were even born. It was where they had built their dream house, their house for life. Which was why I hadn’t gone to look yet. I knew that as soon as I rounded the wide, green bushes on the corner, I would be flooded with a lot of awful memories and I just wasn’t really ready for that.

It had been six years since our parents had died and although it still stung, I had grieved and moved on. I no longer thought about what could have been, but more like, what was. I only reflected back on the happier memories of my parents now and that was much healthier than avoiding any thought of them whatsoever.

But, still, I was well aware that when I saw where our house used to be, what my life used to be, it would rip off the band-aid.

“I’ll go soon,” I answered, beelining to the kitchen to grab some coffee before I headed into the bank. Thankfully Dawson had cleared up some of the wreckage from my failed DYI wall knock-down until the crew could come over and start working on all the things that needed fixed.

“I saw Dawson,” I said into the phone, while inhaling the aroma of warm coffee.

“SCREEEECHHHHH.” I pulled the phone away from my ear and yelped.

“Mia! I am now deaf. What the hell was that?”

She laughed. “That was me putting the brakes on. Why didn’t you say something earlier? What happened? He was fine, right? I knew he wouldn’t be upset with you after leaving.”

I forced out a laugh. “Ha, yeah. He wasn’t upset…”