"So...I'm embarrassed."

"And why would that be? I'm the one in my boxers, here."

"Did you not hear my stepmother calling us downstairs to—wait.  Why are you half naked though?"

I cringed as I realized that yes he was, in fact, only in his underwear.

Fuck, I really tried not to look, but—

Those were his sculpted abs on display, mere inches away from me. My mouth practically watered at the sight as he finger combed through his sleep addled dark brown hair and set warm brown eyes upon me, though they didn't wrinkle in disgust at the state of me.

"Do you not remember tearing my clothes off of me last night?"

What. The. Fuck?!

"Um. No...?"

He must've taken the panic on my face for something else, because even though he was half naked, I was still very much fully clothed, so I was half positive we hadn't done anything last night.

Maybe.

Flashes of flushed silhouetted skin in the moonlight streaming through my windows.

I could've sworn my lips tingled at the memory that I'd carry around in my pocket for the rest of my days.

"Shit. No, don't worry, I wasn't that drunk. I remember everything. We didn't do anything."

"But clearly I wanted to do something."

Embarrassment colored my cheeks bright pink in the balmy morning sunlight slanting through my curtains and bouncing across the pale pink walls of my room.

Kade looked entirely too pleased with himself.

He was grinning like a fool, and I hated that I didn't want to smack that smile off his face.

"Nice room, Ives. Very...girly."

The death glare I threw him was not hard to conjure, and the pillow that I threw at him made a satisfying smack against his face.

"Ivy! Your father is here now!"

Catalina's tinny voice interrupted the playful repertoire of the morning, and Kade noticed my change in attitude immediately, reaching down on the ground to grab his clothes that I apparently tore off of him in my ravenous desire.

Yep, that blush definitely wasn't going away anytime soon.

"I should probably—"

"Yeah."

And then Kade slid out of my sheets, the motion making a sleek hiss as he finally dropped his feet to the ground.

I watched in what I hoped was mild disinterest as he slipped his shirt over his head and pulled both legs into his jeans, but in all honesty, it was a wonder my mouth wasn't hanging wide open with drool spilling out of it at what I was watching.

"Uh—I have an extra toothbrush in my bathroom."

The smile that he flashed me as he turned around to thank me was heart-stopping.

Maybe my Isaac crush was dissipating, and a brand new one was forming.

Shit.

I couldn't develop a crush on Kade—not one any bigger than the one I already had on him. The emotional crush—the one born from being able to heal from my past from his music.

"Ivy?"

There was a short, curt knock at my door.

"I'm coming in, so please make sure everything is covered!"

I rolled my eyes at Catalina and motioned for Kade to head into my ensuite bathroom and just as he did, my stepmother came waltzing through my bedroom door.

"Can I help you Catalina?"

Her hawk eyes noted the room with pert clarity, as if she was hoping she'd find Kade naked in my bed with me so she could chastise me for it instead of what she really wanted to punish me for—the stunt I'd pulled at my dad's campaign party.

I wondered if my act had raised more funds or tanked them.

Judging from the look on her face, they'd definitely lost money. Probably from Caleb's father, too, considering I'd abandoned him when, according to Catalina, I was supposed to 'entertain' him for the entire time.

Fuck that.

And fuck the judgmental look she was giving me, too.

As filtered sun rays hit the pale pallor of her dewy skin, she cleared her throat and straightened out her pleated skirt and matching blazer.

She was practicing her first lady outfits already, it seemed.

"Where's your friend?"

There was thinly veiled accusation in her tone as she pointed her straight nose upward into the air.

"Using the bathroom."

And probably thinking of an escape route.

I would have been, too, had I been in his shoes. He was in a stranger's house, with her parents ordering them downstairs for breakfast.

How embarrassing.

"And will he be joining us for breakfast?"

I sat upright in my bed, eyeing the things my mom had bought for me that I would be taking with me to the apartment I planned on renting out by myself.

The handmade porcelain plate she'd painted herself on my birthday when I turned ten. The blue and black checkered scarf hanging on my desk chair. The complete vinyl collection of Aerosmith.

Everything else...

Everything else was just decoration. A coat of paint representing the girl Catalina and my father wanted me to be covering up the person I actually was on the inside.

My father had glimpsed her a few times while I was growing up in his house in the times that I actually pushed back for what I wanted.

It was only recently that I realized he'd never choose me.

It was time to choose myself.

"I'm not sure, I haven't asked yet. Is that all? I'd like to clean up if you're so adamant on us having breakfast together. I've got something I'd like to discuss with you and my father anyway."

She seemed slightly taken aback by my cold and detached tone, but nodded nevertheless.

"That's fine. I was just checking up on you to make sure you're alright. Your friend's...guest is downstairs drinking up all the coffee, so if you'd like some, I suggest you hurry."

"Wait. His guest?"

"I believe the term he used was 'bodyguard'. He's actually pretty conversational. Apparently, you two got up to some drinking at the karaoke bar in town?"

I refused to balk from her obvious disapproval, but it was hard not to when she was pinning me with her 'judgy' eyes.

"Yeah. I had a bad day yesterday, needed to take my mind off it."

Her eyes sharpened into thin slits and I could practically feel her comeback before it fell from her lips.

"Oh really? You know, your father and I had a pretty bad day after your little performance as well."

I shrugged my shoulders and inspected my nail beds instead of having to look at her face.

"Oh? Sorry to hear that."

"You act like you had nothing to do with that."

"I mean, you were the one who practically forced me to play the damn song. Not my fault I forgot which song was from your wedding or my mom's. Guess it just slipped my mind."

The tension radiating off of her was enough to cool the room by at least ten degrees.

"I mean, really Ivy, we've given you so many chances, and yet you keep throwing them away like they're nothing. What's been going on with you lately? You never used to act like this."

"I have to get dressed."

Her eyes were full of some kind of pity that I didn't want to look at anymore.

"Maybe I can get your father to agree to letting your mother see you. Would that help you and your behavior?"

Catalina had taken a hammer and a nail and struck it underneath my fingernails. She had pried up my skin and bones with that one statement and flayed it from my skin.

"Yes. That would help my behavior. Thank you so much for suggesting that Catalina. Please let him know I'd appreciate a visit to see her."

The words were like frothy poison as they dripped from my mouth.

A pleasant smile lit up her features as if she couldn't see the pure wrath dancing behind my features.

"I'll let your father know to set two place settings for you and your friend. We already have an extra set out for his guest."

She turned and closed the door with a 'click'.

I fell onto my bed and smashed my face into the pillow.

It blocked the scream that ripped from my throat from reaching anyone else's ears but my own.

"You wanna talk about it?"

I tore the pillow away from my face to see that Kade had reentered my bedroom from the ensuite, his hair damp and freshly combed, his eyes alert and his face holding a modicum of concern for me.

"Not really."

He nodded as if that was the answer he had been expecting, his dark brown eyes washing over my form.

"I get it. I've got some family drama too. Do I...do you want me to leave?"

"Only if you want to leave, too. My step-mother is setting a place for you at the table as we speak, and apparently Hollin's been helping himself to heaps of our coffee."

He must've noticed something was off about me, but chose to let it go, which I was more thankful for than he ever would've known.

"So...place settings. Sounds like a pretty fancy breakfast."

"You have no idea."

I swung myself off the bed and turned to my dresser to pick out new underwear before rummaging around in my closet for an appropriate weekend outfit in Catalina's eyes, which, of course, was a dress.

A floral, knee length, figure hugging satin dress.

I threw it over my shoulder and was about to head into the bathroom to change quickly and do something with my hair and face when I felt Kade's eyes on my back.

Turning to face him, I realized that he'd been watching me the entire time.

"You know...I hadn't expected your room to look like this. Not after seeing your side of the dorm room, I mean."

I huffed out a laugh.

"Welcome to my world. I didn't pick the paint color, clearly, and most of my things that are valuable to me are in my dorm except for some things I didn't want Constance to think were fair game for her to borrow."

Like the scarf thrown over my desk chair. Like my first ever band tee with KISS on the front. Like the Rolling Stones shirt I slept in most nights when I stayed at my father's house.

My mother's music had greatly influenced my own tastes, but as I got older, I found that I was veering into more acoustic folk territory, but that didn't mean that I'd ever give up the rock roots she'd planted inside of me.

Roots that my father and Catalina would like nothing more than to rip right out of me, apparently.

Maybe I can get your father to agree to letting your mother see you?

I couldn't hold back the shiver that rocked my entire body.

"Go ahead and go down the stairs. I'm sure Hollin's waiting on you."

Acting normal around Kade was hard to get used to.

At one point, we'd been at each other's throats, tossing insults like throwing knives at a target.

Then we had a mutual peace agreement between us, but now?

Now, I wasn't really sure what we were.

Friends?

Except, when I closed my eyes I pictured his skin beneath mine and a dream that consisted of my lips cresting over his chest.

I hoped to whatever god there was above that it was only a dream, though from what Kade had said when we woke up together, I had been the one to tear his clothes off, and I was still fully clothed.

Clearly, he'd been the gentleman and I'd been ravenous.

"Alright. I guess I'll see you down there."

Except he didn't move, and neither did I.

Standing there, feet apart but miles away, there were so many unsaid things hanging in the air between us.

Words that I wanted to say but were stuck in my throat.

Questions that I was too terrified to ask.

So when his deep coffee brown eyes slid over the exposed skin of my legs and traveled upwards, resting on my own widened eyes, I loosed a shaky breath and tried out a tentative smile on my lips.

His tongue darted out to wet his own and my knees almost went weak beneath me.

My core was molten and his face was pure desire illustrated on a picture perfect canvas.

He cleared his throat gruffly before finally responding to me.

"Alright. I'll um...I'll see you down there. Any tips for meeting your family?"

"Don't show fear. They can sniff out weakness a mile away."

He cracked a blinding smile and then we were back on even footing again, a friendly alliance between two songwriters and nothing more.

Something cracked inside me right along with that smile.

My hands opened the door to my bathroom on autopilot, and when I turned around to glimpse him one more time, he was already out the door.

I dressed and brushed my hair in a numb state, brushing my teeth for what felt like seconds but I knew was actually probably minutes longer than I should have.

My mind refused to shut off.

Maybe I can get your father to agree to letting your mother see you?

Somehow, I looked up and my makeup was completed.

When had I done that?

My hair was then half pinned up and half flowing down my back, the red locks curling in a wavy pattern that tumbled down my skin like my heart when Catalina had spoken to me about my mother.

I slipped on some flat sandals and a loose knit cardigan before finding my phone which had somehow been charging all night, though I couldn't remember putting it on the cable the night before.

My feet slapped against the marble tile in the hallway with a distinctive thud and then I was descending the staircase that I had on the day of my father's campaign, when my father had looked at me and given me a genuine smile.

Something knotted inside my chest at that memory that I had carried around in my pocket like a piece of priceless treasure.

My fingers slipped into the pockets of the cardigan and crushed the memory like it was nothing more than an old gas station receipt.

"Oh, there she is. Ivy, we saved you a seat. Look who made it just in time for their round of golf with your father?"

Seated directly beside Hollin was Kade, my stepmother on his other side. My father was at the head of the table, with Caleb's lecherous father at the other end, looking for all they were worth like two kings at opposing ends of the royal dining hall, considering just how massive our dining table was.

And on the other side of Hollin was my ex-boyfriend, looking for all he was worth like he wished to be anywhere else but here.

The feeling was mutual.

He met my eyes and winked.

***

Author's Note:

What did you think of this chapter?

Theories? What's going on with her mom?

What's going to happen at golf with Caleb, Kade and her dad??

What do you think will happen next?

What do you want to happen next?

Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)