Wrapped Up in You Read online

  There were other volunteers as well, everyone working in sync to keep things moving. There were a lot of people and Ivy was able to keep herself busy with orders. She didn’t even look up until she heard the unbearably familiar voice.

  “I’d like to make a special request.”

  Ivy jerked and spilled gravy down the front of her apron. It was Kel, of course. No one else could evoke so many feelings within her without even trying.

  He was in a hoodie with a jacket over that, hood up against the chill. Dark sunglasses on his face. All she could see was his unsmiling mouth. Her mind stuttered, but the rest of her did not. Specifically, her mouth. “No special requests allowed.”

  “It’s just that I lost something,” he said quietly, removing his sunglasses and pushing off his hood. “Something, someone, who means a lot to me.” He shook his head. “Actually, she means everything to me.”

  Her heart took a good hard leap against her ribcage. “What are you doing here?”

  “Can we talk?”

  Her chest felt tight. Way too tight. “It’s hot in here,” she whispered. “Is it hot in here?” she asked all the people standing way too close.

  “Honey, that’s called a hot flash,” an elderly woman waiting in line said. “Are you going through the change?”

  “Edna, she’s like twelve,” the woman next to the first one said. “She’s not going through the change. And how much longer before you refill the mashed potatoes? I can’t stand on my feet too long, I get the veins.”

  Ivy was having a hard time processing and just stared at Kel.

  “I was wrong,” he said before she could speak. “About a lot of things, as it turns out. But mostly about how I reacted.”

  “The mashed potatoes?” the woman asked again, impatiently.

  “Hush, Amelia,” Edna said. “Can’t you see she’s in the middle of something? Hot Stuff here’s trying to apologize. A man apologizing, can you imagine such a thing?”

  Ivy’s heart was in her throat. She was trying to remember if anyone had ever apologized to her before, especially a male, but nothing was coming to mind. And that alone was boggling.

  Kel hated airing his feelings, she knew that. And yet here he stood, in front of a hundred homeless people and also her friends, who’d all stilled and were staring at them.

  “Maybe we should talk about this later,” she whispered, which didn’t matter since she could now hear a pin drop in the unbelievably crowded hall that only moments before had been at deafening levels. “After I’m done working here.”

  “You’d deprive an old woman of this Hallmark moment?” Edna asked in horror. “I haven’t been wooed since 1965. Don’t take this away from me, honey.”

  Kel drew a deep breath and took Ivy’s hands. “Later won’t work,” he said. “I was wrong to let you think I blamed you, for any of what happened. And I should never have let you run off without saying that to you.”

  “What did you do?” Amelia asked. “Cheat on her?”

  “No,” Kel said, still holding Ivy’s gaze in his own. “Worse. I let her think I didn’t trust her.”

  “Well that was dumb,” Edna said. “She’s serving the homeless on Christmas Eve. She’s trustable.”

  “She is.” This from Sadie, who gave Kel a hard look. “And she deserves better.”

  Ivy shook her head. “Sadie—”

  “No, it’s true,” Kel said. “I have this thing that I do. I don’t let people in past my guard.”

  “That’s a man thing,” one of the ladies said. “They’re chickenshits.”

  “That’s true too,” Kel said, still holding Ivy’s gaze. “I was the biggest chickenshit of all.”

  “You’ve got to speak up,” Amelia demanded. “I can’t hear very well, and since I’m not getting my mashed potatoes anytime soon, the least you can do is talk loud enough for us all to hear.”

  Kel’s lips twitched, but his eyes remained very serious as he spoke to Ivy. “In the past, a lack of communication and dishonesty has gotten in the way of my relationships. And I used that past to blow this—you and me—up.”

  Ivy bit her lower lip and grimaced. “Well, I did my fair share of meeting you halfway there,” she admitted.

  With a real smile this time, he stepped into her, apparently not caring that he was now hugging up to the gravy spill. “No, this is on me, Ivy. I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”

  “Wow,” Edna said. “He also admits when he’s wrong. That’s a rare breed.”

  “That’s true,” Sadie said.

  Ivy glanced over at her and Sadie lifted her shoulders, silently letting Ivy know she was at her back no matter what. The warm fuzzy that the gesture sent through her was new and very welcome. And maybe also made her far braver than she might have been if she’d still been alone. Braver, and more honest. “We’ve both been burned by our past, in a big way,” she said to Kel. “Maybe too burned.”

  “No,” he said. “I don’t believe that.” He slid a hand to her waist, the other skimming down her arm to gently and slowly remove the very sharp knife she still held. “Earlier you said you felt like I was looking for something, and you didn’t know what it was.”

  She nodded.

  “It’s you,” he said. “You’re what I’m looking for. I made mistakes, a lot of them. I should have believed in you, I should never have doubted your intentions. That was my . . .” He glanced at the ladies. “My chickenshit-ness doing the talking for me. It had nothing to do with you and everything to do with me and my own fears. You gave me your love and I burned that love to the ground. I’ll never do that again.” He bent a little at the knees so they were eye-to-eye. “Never,” he said with a seriousness she’d not seen from him before. “And I should admit, I’ve probably got a lot more mistakes yet to make.”

  She found a smile. “Ditto.”

  He smiled too. “Maybe we could learn and grow together.”

  She stared into his eyes. “Maybe. And maybe we could also . . .”

  “Anything,” he said. “Name it.”

  “Start over?”

  He stared at her and then smiled and held out a hand. “Hi. I’m Kel O’Donnell. I’m new to town, love spicy tacos, and the woman who makes them. Also . . .” He pulled an iPad from his inside jacket pocket and showed her a document. “I wanted to deliver this personally.”

  She stared down at what appeared to be a purchase agreement for her condo, the same exact deal as she’d had, only the down payment had been marked paid. “What’s this?”

  “Your deal went through today.”

  She stared up at him. “How? My deposit’s gone.”

  “It’s worked out,” he said.

  She eyed the paperwork again and realized he’d made the down payment for her. “Are you crazy, you can’t buy a woman you’re just sleeping with a condo.”

  “If it freaks you out, consider it a loan until PayPal reverses Brandon’s transaction. Caleb’s attorney said he could make it happen, things are just being held up because of the holiday. And,” he said, softer now. “We’re more than just sleeping together.” His mouth curved in amusement at the collective gasp in the room, though his eyes remained serious and on hers. “Much more.”

  “But why,” she said, still gaping. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I wanted to.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not your fault that I lost the down payment, Kel. It was mine. I trusted when I shouldn’t have.”

  “I know. And watching you start to trust me in spite of everything you’ve gone through and then losing that trust because I was an asshole, kills me.”

  “You can’t buy it back.”

  “I know that too. I intend to earn it.”

  “That’s going to be hard to do from Idaho.”

  He didn’t say anything, so she looked at him and found his expression softened. “At least you didn’t say impossible,” he said quietly. “And I know we could’ve made that work somehow. But I’m not going to be in Idaho. I’