“Hey, hey!” Ivy called out when she saw me. She set the bags down on the table. “Some toys and coloring books in there. Beau doesn’t have much out here besides a big yard and couple of empty barns.”
I nodded, smiling and silently observing all the ways in which Ivy Mason was all grown up. I’d been too shell-shocked the day before to really take it all in. Her once-round face had slimmed down a bit, and the smattering of freckles that once bridged her nose had faded.
“What do you do these days, Ivy?” I asked.
“I’m a nurse’s aid at Shady Grove,” she said, referencing one of the retirement homes in town. She held two fingers in the air and crossed them tight. “Hoping they’ll promote me to shift leader once Janet retires next year.”
“You like your new car?” I hated making small talk, but I couldn’t shake the way she was just standing there, staring at me all funny. “It looks really nice. Sometimes I really miss driving. Only get to do it when I travel.”
Ivy’s eyes snapped toward the window, where the two of us kept a close watch on Beau and the kids as if it entertained us both for entirely different reasons.
“Beau didn’t need to go buying me a car,” she huffed. “Thinks he needs to go taking care of everyone all the time, like he’s trying to make up for ten years of disappearing.”
“Disappearing?”
“Yeah,” Ivy shrugged. “Once he hit the road, he never came back but once or twice a year. He was a completely different person once fame hit him. It’s nice having him back.”
Maybe he didn’t come home that Thanksgiving when I’d called and spoke to his mother? Maybe he really never got the message?
“You know why he’s doing this, don’t you?” she said, her voice thick like honeycomb but not nearly as sweet.
“Beg your pardon?” I lifted my gaze in her direction.
“He lured you out here like some fish on a line because he’s still in love with you. He thinks there’s a chance.” Ivy shook her head. “I told him you moved on a long time ago. I mean, look at you. There’s not a shred of the old you left. You don’t even go by Dakota anymore. He’s fighting a lost cause, but he’s too stubborn to see that.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just stood there, marinating in the awkward silence and trying to determine whether she was just being honest with me or taking an extremely un-Ivy-like dig at me.
She glanced down at her watch and sighed. “I better get to work. We still going out tonight?”
I nodded.
“Good. I think we could all use a drink and a good time.” She flashed a quick smile like everything was suddenly cool before floating out the door on a breeze and kissing the foreheads of her little ones. A second later she was climbing back into her ride and rumbling down the gravel drive.
“Dakota,” Beau called for me from outside. I slipped my shoes on and ran out to the front porch. “Get in the truck. We’re going fishing.”
“Give me a sec.”
Ten minutes later I re-emerged, freshened up and dressed for a morning spent down by the old fishing hole we used to frequent. Miles and Gracie squeezed in between us in the truck, with Gracie unable to stop staring at me. Beau grabbed Miles’ hand and placed it over the gear shifter, letting him think he was shifting the truck as we putted and bounced down an old dirt road behind the house.
“Uncle Beau,” Gracie called out when she grew tired of staring my way.
“Yes, Gracie Lou,” he twanged.
“What did the big bucket say to the little bucket?” she asked, stifling a premature giggle.
“I don’t know. What did he say?”
“You look a little pail,” Gracie stuck her tongue out and scrunched her face as she laughed. A mess of blonde curls framed her freckled face, making her the spitting image of her mama. Miles was a little bigger, making him appear to be the older one. He was more serious with dark eyes and dark hair. I could only imagine how hard it was for Ivy to look into the eyes of her beautiful boy and see the face of her late husband looking back at her. “Get it, Uncle Beau?”
“That’s a good one, Gracie Lou. Give me a second, and I’ll think of one for you,” he said with a chuckle before pulling down a grassy stretch of dirty road. Up ahead was the old fishing hole with the ancient oak that held an old tire swing from its mighty branches. We used to swing off that tire and catapult ourselves into the water, though we stopped the day Beau came out covered in leeches all over his legs.
Beau jerked the shifter into park just shy of the old tree and climbed out, reaching in as Miles and Gracie slid across the seat toward his waiting arms. He plunked them on the ground and grabbed some poles out of the back of his truck.