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“If you’re worried I admitted you’re the one who told me he was setting me up, then no. Your secret is safe with me.”
And there it is. The truth of Ivy and me. In high school, I tipped her off to what Gabe was doing so she would convince Emily to give us another chance. Both of us managed to keep that secret since the deal happened, and I’m happy to hear it will stay that way.
I also find it convenient that she’s around for another deal right when we both need it.
“So what’s the plan with Emily? What should I do?”
Ivy glances at me, the sweet smile on her face a little disturbing. With her, it means evil.
“You’re going to romance the shit out of her. All the way, too. I know her favorite restaurant, and you’re going to have candles and wine and music.”
Cocking a brow at that, I’m not so sure it will work.
“That fixes none of our problems, though. Damon will still be angry and hurt. She’ll still be engaged to Mason-“
“Those are details to be worried about later,” she says, brushing it off with a wiggle of her fingers. “The point is Emily loves you. You know it. I know it. Emily knows it. So you need to make a grand gesture, andapologize,” she says, eyeing me, “for being such a jerk lately.”
“I already did that.”
“Do it again. In fact, do it a hundred times. On your knees.”
I roll my eyes, and she laughs.
“Yes, I know. It’s hard for the big, macho stubborn guy to admit when he’s wrong. But I know Emily. She won’t give you another chance if you don’t face what you’ve done.”
We pull up to Gabe’s house, and I hide the Jeep in back.
Twisting in my seat to look at Ivy, I ignore the clucking chickens and admit what worries me.
“I feel like I’ve run out of chances with her. That the fight with Damon was the final straw.”
Sympathy floods Ivy’s expression.
“She loves you.”
“So?”
“So that’s all that matters. But you need to take a damn good look at the entire picture and figure out what went wrong. A lot of this is on you. The stuff with Damon and Mason is an issue, but not what ran her off.”
“She doesn’t want to hurt Damon-“
“Okay fine, that’s a bigger issue, but it’s not insurmountable. Maybe you should talk to Damon and make him understand that this is just how it turned out. If he loves her, he’ll want her to be happy. And if you make her happy, he won’t get in the way of that.”
She’s right, but, “I’m not good at talking. I’m much more of the type to just beat him down and tell him to accept it.”
“And look how far that’s gotten you.”
Fucking hell.
“Sorry, Ezra. But violence isn’t always the answer. I suggest you take a look in the mirror, and figure out how to fix this without it. And the first thing you need to fix is you.”
She hops out of the Jeep before I can argue. Hefting the bag of feathers up over a shoulder, she angles her chin at the cages.
“Bring the chickens. We need to get this set up before they get back.”
Huffing out a breath, I climb out and grab the first cage.
How the hell will a grand gesture fix anything?