Chasing Ivy (Oak Hill 1)

I was completely distracted most of the evening, trying to focus on the numbers blending together in Emmett’s business account, but anytime Dawson would strike up a conversation with me, I would be totally consumed by it. Then, when he wasn’t talking to me, I was too busy squeezing my legs together to ease the dull throb that had made itself very, very known.

We talked about the past a lot, and about how our lives were when we were apart for those six years. It was never an unsettling conversation when we’d fill each other in on our past, but we always skidded right over the pain that had driven us apart.

I was happy not talking about it; I just wanted to move past it. If that was possible.

Taking a deep breath, I looked at myself in my rearview mirror, making sure that there wasn’t any smeared lipstick near my mouth, or that my hair didn’t look like I’d spent the day standing underneath a sprinkler.

My mocha-colored locks were falling out along my face from the topknot that I’d worn to work and there was a coffee stain on my light pink blouse, but there wasn’t much I could do about that now. It didn’t matter anyway, Dawson probably wasn’t even paying attention to how I looked.

Then again…my mind drifted to the last two nights when I’d caught him staring at my legs as I spread them out while propping myself against one of the walls, and how his eyes lingered a little too long on my lips.

I was quite possibly making all of this up in my head. Yes. That was it. I was so desperately attracted to him that I was imagining that he felt the same.

God, what I would do to hear that he still thought I was beautiful. He always told me I was beautiful when we were younger, and it always made my heart full.

Always. Even when I thought he was joking, it still made me happy.

Just as I was getting out of my car, his truck pulled up behind me.

I hadn’t even realized that he wasn’t already inside working. I slumped my shoulders. I could have totally run inside and at least spritzed some perfume on myself before he got here.

“Hey, you’re late tonight,” I said as he got out of his truck.

He pulled his dark sunglasses up and perched them on his head. He quickly glanced down to my outfit and then clenched his jaw.

“Yeah, I got… caught up.”

“Doing what?” I questioned.

“Fighting with Breanna.”

Oh.

I didn’t say anything because… what was that old adage? If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say it at all. Yes. That was going to be my new rule when I was around Dawson and he brought up Breanna, because I would never have anything nice to say. She could be the Queen of fucking England and I would still hate her.

The next hour flew by. Dawson and I barely spoke, and I could tell that his shoulders were tense anytime I glanced up at him. He was standing on a small ladder, putting up the last of the molding. The lights were dim in the living room, and as it was nearing October, the long light of summer was slowly disappearing and darkness was coming sooner and sooner every night.

Dawson was standing underneath a light that he’d hung up above his head and it literally looked as if he was in a spotlight, illuminating his handsome features that much more. I took in his every attribute, the shine of his golden-brown hair, the straightness of his nose, how

his lower cheeks had that edible little bit of scruff lining them.

Suddenly, Dawson turned his head and found me staring at him. I snapped my head down so quickly that it popped. It popped loud enough that he probably heard it from across the room. A flush started to creep up my neck and I basically wanted to die.

Does he know how attractive he is? Does he know how attracted I am to him? He’s grown into such a steely, handsome man that even straight men are probably in awe of him.

Breanna is a lucky, lucky girl. I hope she knows that.

I hurriedly put my attention back onto Emmett’s paperwork for the next few minutes.

“Aha!” I shouted.

I peered up at Dawson and a sly smile formed on my face.

“What?” he questioned.

“Come here, I’ll show you.”

I wanted to jump up and down all around the room as confetti fell from above, because I had put it all together. I found where they were losing money and I knew exactly who was taking it.