The Truest Thing (Hart's Boardwalk 4)

After four rings, she picked up, sounding a little groggy. “Hullo.”

“Did I wake you?” That surprised me. It wasn’t too early in the morning. I closed the store every second Monday morning to volunteer at a therapy center, Balance, in Millton, but the children’s group didn’t come together until ten o’clock.

“Uh, yeah. Give me a second.”

I could hear a shuffling around. A second turned out to be a few minutes.

“Sorry, sorry.” Ivy came back on the line. “I had to switch on my coffee machine. Useless without it.”

“No problem. Are you okay?”

“Oh God, Em, I suck.” She groaned, sounding exhausted.

“What happened?”

“Jeff spent the entire day here yesterday. He was pissed at me—coffee’s ready, one second.”

“Is this a writer thing … building my anticipation?”

I heard her chuckle down the line followed a few seconds later by the slurp of her drinking.

“That’s better. Okay. He was pissed at me for running out on him. Apparently, what I thought was a one-night stand was not a one-night stand. I tried to tell him it needed to be a one-nighter, but he kind of ignored me. It was bizarre. The next thing I know, he’s making lunch and we’re sitting out on the porch, chatting. Then lunch turned into me making dinner. We talked. All day. And then we … oh my God, Emery.” She groaned. “God, we had sex all night. Like … the best sex of my life.”

I smirked. “And that’s a bad thing?”

“I … I just … I don’t have a great track record with men. I just—I’m not ready for anything serious and it is now clear to me that Jeff is that guy. You know, Mr. Monogamy Guy. He pretty much said that outright.”

“Well, evidence suggests he’s telling the truth.” It was true. I’d never seen the sheriff serial date. At all. Dahlia was the second woman he dated after his wife died. They dated awhile, and he was definitely more into her than she was into him. Since Dahlia, he’d attempted a few relationships, but they never lasted. Having talked to Dahlia about her relationship with Jeff, however, I knew it had started pretty normally. She said she knew he was serious because they went on seven dates before they had sex.

I remembered the look on Jeff’s face when he saw Ivy at the wedding.

It was an intense look.

“I shouldn’t have slept with him again. Multiple times.” She sighed. “He woke up early to leave for work and whispered in my ear that … that what happened between us meant the world to him and this was just the beginning for us. Who says that?”

A romantic.

“He doesn’t even know me, Emery. If he knew the truth, God, he’d run away and never come back. He has no idea that he is way too good for me.”

My breath caught. “Ivy, don’t say that. It’s not true.”

“It is, Em.” She sounded defeated. “I let a rotten guy do awful things to me for a long time.” Her breath hitched. “Anyway, I gotta get ready for my day of avoiding the sheriff. You okay?”

“I’m fine—”

“Okay, good. Bye.”

My heart raced. This was the closest I think anyone might have gotten to Ivy opening up about her dead fiancé. Shit. “Call Balance.”

Ahmad, the young receptionist, answered.

“Hey, it’s Emery. I am so sorry, but I can’t make it this morning. I’m sorry for the last-minute call, but something just came up. Are the other volunteers on their way?”

“They’re already here. It’s good. The kids will miss you, though.”

Guilt suffused me. I’d never missed a group. But my friend needed me. “I’m so sorry.”

“Not at all. I hope everything’s okay.”