“Did you move in alright? Is he accepting your excuses yet?” A deep male voice, thick with a Russian accent, demanded answers over the telephone line. The deep voice didn’t allow for any resistance. He wanted answers now, not excuses.“He was eating out of my hand before this, but not anymore. Now he’s turned on me and doesn’t want to hear anything I have to say. I don’t know where to go from here.” Monica griped, wanting to be told what she was doing wrong so she could correct it. She’d spent so many years gathering money and wait for Ivan. First for him to arrive in this country and then get out of jail. He’d been lucky that the authorities hadn’t sent him back to Russia. Now all Monica did was play her husband and in-laws for money these days. She couldn’t enjoy herself, because she was too busy trying to scrape together money to make the love of her life happy. She’d been so desperate to keep him happy that a year ago Monica started dating other foolish rich men to ge
Ivy sat at the dining table stunned as she tried to figure out how Heath manipulated Geoff into backing her into a corner. How could she not allow this without looking like a monster to her son? Geoff wanted his father here. Heath must be here to see if he could find her failing as a parent to use it against her in the court of law. It’s the only thing she could see logically being the explanation. It would be a pipe dream, a very slight pipe dream he wanted her as well. He’d believed until a few days ago that she’d cheated on him. There must be ground rules. She needed to set some sort of boundary. Or better yet, a series of boundaries. But she didn’t know where to start with it. Bills, they’d never spoke about bills before. How do you talk to a trust fund kid about bills without sounding like you’re a gold digger or begging for their money? He better not expect her to socialize with him again. Ivy wasn’t interested in being his date for anything, and he better
“I think he’s finally asleep.” Ivy walked into the living room. “Though what you said about him knowing things from conversations with my friend, then I can’t be sure he’s not listening.” “Is he often like that?” Heath asked Ivy. “I mean ready to gather and use any information he can to get his own way.” They sat face each other across the living room with coffee. “If you’re asking if he’s driven like you? I’m afraid I see more of you in him with every passing day. His ankle was from not watching where he was walking, and he went over on a transition between solid pavement and rubber chips. Sound familiar to anyone you know?” “It distracted me and didn’t realize I was so far out on the patio at the ski resort.” “Yes, I know. You were on your phone talking to Monica.” Ivy could see Heath hadn’t remembered that part or that she knew why he’d walked away from her so quickly. “Ivy, I told you it was work. How did you know i
“They sent him by ambulance because I couldn’t get to the school fast enough.” Ivy countered and Heath read into her words she blamed him for delaying her from leaving the museum.“I’m not blaming you for that. The school should have enough people in the yard watching all the students.” Heath wasn’t interested in letting the school off the hook. He’d be looking into other reported incidents like this at the school. Heath suspected this wasn’t the first or the last.“Heath, there are twenty thousand students in that school. It’s the best in the area and they are doing the best with what they have.” Ivy saw what she wanted to see in the school system, but he’d heard horror stories and knew any positions in Geoff’s chosen profession would select candidates from better schools than any in this area. He dealt in facts, not privilege.“Good God. How is Geoff supposed to learn in a crowd like that? They’re herded like cattle. A number in the system that gives us them money to misspend.” That
“Love, I understand. I won’t say it’s not tempting as hell not to pick up the challenge and see if you’ve changed or developed any new interests. But I’m not ready to put you or Geoff in a position where Monica can claim she deserves something because I cheated on her with you. That’s the last thing I want. However, I pose we see how this goes and when Monica is finally gone and can do nothing, we revisit this idea of a second chance.” Heath had no intention of holding back. After this conversation and his divorce was final, he’d consider there was no holds barred between them. But there’s nothing that said he couldn’t flirt and tease her. Warm her up to the idea before then. “Heath, it’s late and I hate it when you and Geoff have your mind set on something and expect everyone, including me, to go along with your plan with no questions asked or objections made.” Heath smiled at that; there she went, calling him out before he said anything about what he thought of this, or
Ivy worked in her room on her bed rather than in her office space. Memories of doing hours of homework like this flooded her memory. After about twenty minutes like this, she remembered why she put the desk out there in the small dining room. Her muscles and joints weren’t pleased with this position for working. But she had to get the budget finished. She could see the end of it. Right now, she’d finished plugging in the numbers and started cross referencing the numbers for accuracy. Then the mathematical review. Several hours into this, her eyes were going cross-eyed, and she could feel her body stiffening up. But trying to keep her mind off what Heath said and knowing he slept right now, near to her. He’d said a lot and done things she wasn’t sure she should have let slide as she had. Now she couldn’t forget his kiss. She cursed herself out for falling back into old habits that ended up in failure. Ivy prided herself on not repeating the same t
“Remember what you promised.” It surprised ivy when Geoff gathered his crutches. His words stopped her from protesting that Heath took liberties with how he ordered her son around. She didn’t expect Geoff to… Ivy wasn’t sure if he warned or threatened his father. Now she didn’t know who to scold first. “Don’t worry, I remember. I’m just frustrated. Remember what I said about how grownups sometimes say angry words and argue? Well, this is one of those times. Your mom’s scared other people will say mean things about her. She’s pointing out it’s not fair because even though I’m involved. They won’t do this to me because I’m their boss and a man. They’ll be too scared to say this about me because I can take their job away for this.” Heath patiently spoke to Geoff, explaining everything is such a calm voice Ivy didn’t recognize him at first. “Why is there a difference?” Of course, her son would go into full interview mode to learn everything and more
Ivy snorted as she raised her cup of tea to her lips before she finally responded. “Monica thinks she’s smart, but she’s slow sometimes. She acts impulsively, often as well. I’m not sure what it is with her, but it’s like she is reading off a script or something sometimes. I swear there are times when she sounds like she hasn’t got the emotions to relate to the situation or the people with. Life is like a game and she’s out to take everything she can get.” “That’s pretty much a very good summation of Monica. Did you know she speaks Hungarian and Russian fluently? When I asked her about when she learned it, she tried to tell me she learned it from a phone app. Ivy, we were eating with a client who spoke both languages and he told me she spoke with a local dialect. I forget which region it was, but he could identify it.” Ivy took did a double take when Heath didn’t argue. Again, she wondered about whether she’d been wrong, and he’d changed while she was gone. Gone? What mad