Chasing Ivy (Oak Hill 1)

“Who?” I asked, following him back to the bathroom.

The floor was the worst in there. Soaked wasn’t even an adjective I could use to describe it. The entire thing was up in shambles before, and now… it looked unsalvageable.

“I had the guys come over here to get some measurements for the pipe… this one right here.” Dawson’s bare foot stepped into the no-longer-there shower and then he pointed to the pipe that had water droplets slowly dripping off it. “They must have hit it or something on accident and it burst, causing your house to look like a fucking lake.”

I pursed my lips as I looked around my destroyed bathroom.

“It’s fine. I’ll just use the other bathroom until we can fix it. How much will it cost? Do you have a ballpark figure?”

Dawson’s head snapped over to mine, his eyes blazing right into me. “What? You’re not paying for this! Are you crazy?”

I shot back a little. “Huh?”

His eyes crinkled. “Ivy, you’re not paying for this. I wouldn’t let you pay for this even if I didn’t own the company. But standard protocol calls for us to pay for the damages and repairs since it was something we did.”

That was a sudden relief. The only thing I could think when I had first seen the water gushing through my house was how I would have to do some serious skimping to afford it and Mia’s next tuition bill.

“Oh.”

I glanced over to the right when I saw Mia walking down the hallway. “I managed to save these, where do you want them?”

Ugh. The stupid flowers with the stupid note tucked inside (that I still hadn’t opened). “I don’t care,” I answered, backing out of the bathroom and toward her. I needed to be worrying about how the hell I was going to get my house dry so I could walk around it without my toes shriveling up like raisins, not about flowers. “Give them to the bees if you want.”

“Who are those from?” Dawson asked from behind me.

I knew who they were from, Eric, duh, but I suddenly felt awkward telling him and with my sister’s cocked eyebrow, I really didn’t want to answer.

I lied. “I don’t know.”

“Well then let’s just open up the note. Oh, and hi, Dawson. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you,” Mia called back as she walked to my somewhat dry kitchen.

“I know, kiddo. How ya been? You’re going to St. Joseph’s, right?”

She smiled when she turned around. “Yeah, I love it. I just came from there… I was gonna stay with my sister tonight, but…” she gestured toward the living room, “I think I’ll head back and let you two deal with this…” Then she laughed.

Before I could say anything, she started to rip open the small card that was tucked into the flowers, which were lying on the counter looking much more wilted than earlier. I hurriedly walked over to her to snatch the card out of her hand, but she lifted it high above her head, out of my reach.

Mia got my father’s tall genes, whereas I got my mother’s short ones. She was much taller than me and she was totally using that against me right now.

“Stop, just throw it out.”

She squinted her eyes. “Why don’t you read it? We both know who it’s from.”

Because suddenly, since moving back, I couldn’t care less about Eric.

“Who is it from?” Dawson asked, leaning his still-naked torso against the wall. His arms were crossed over his chest, making his pectorals look that much more delicious.

“Give it to me!” I shouted, jumping up on the balls of my feet and reaching my hand to snatch the card out of her hand. My sore groin muscle protested, but I kept at it.

Mia formed her I-can-get-anything-I-want smile and then jolted around me, past Dawson and out to the front porch. While running, even on the slippery floor, she pulled open the card and started to read it.

I was only a few steps behind her, and I noticed that Dawson had also followed us, as if he really cared what the stupid note said.

“Ivy-cakes,” Mia had started. There goes my face, fifty shades of freaking red. “Please forgive me and call me back. I want to talk to you and I’m sorry for my hasty reaction to you moving away. I love you.”

Ugh! I ripped the card out of her hand, fuming not only from her reading it aloud in front of Dawson (why do I even care? I don’t know), but also pissy because Eric was becoming more annoying with each passing day.

Did I miss him? A little, but only after Dawson had told me we couldn’t be friends.