Ivy's Twisted Vine Redux by Latrivia Nelson (books to read for beginners .TXT) 📕

“Should I call him and have him come out to the car?” Ivy asked looking back at the children.

“No, we can take them to him,” he said listening to the wipers graze over his windshield. “You grab Adamo, and I’ll grab Madison,” he said taking a deep breath. He never held Adam although he couldn’t figure out why and was constantly thankful that no one had noticed.

As they got to the door, Nicola opened it attentively and turned on the porch light. Greeting Ivy with his usual school boy smile, he took Adam in his covered car seat and invited them into his home as a couple for the first time.

“How are you, man?” Nicola asked extending his hand to Grey although he still felt the residue of old opposition.

Grey shook Nicola’s hand hesitantly. “Hi, fine. You’ve got a nice place here,” he said noticing Nicola had company. “I didn’t know you had a guest.” Grey smiled inwardly as he watched Ivy’s reaction.

“Yeah, Rachel this is Ivy Winters and Grey Henderson. They’ll actually will be Mr. and Mrs. Henderson in a what…a few short weeks?”

“Hi,” Rachel said standing up and walking over to shake Ivy’s hand first. She made her way over gracefully giving everyone time to admire her in a pair of low rider distressed jeans and a pink cotton low cut cotton tee. Her ensemble complimented her fair, milky white skin and bouncing red mane. She smiled brightly with her deep blue eyes sparkling bright. Her presence was absolutely breathtaking.

“Hi.” Ivy’s voice was high pitched. “Nice to meet you,” Ivy said so shocked that she could barely smile.

“It most certainly is,” Grey said shaking her hand. God had answered his prayers with one of his own angels. Rachel was top drawer. “Nicola, the kids won’t put you out too much will they?” Grey lightly brushed Ivy to bring her back from dreamland.

“If not, we can just take them with us,” Ivy said absently.

“No, we’re just going to relax and watch a couple of movies with the boys. I didn’t have a chance to change my plans on such short notice,” Nicola said putting the babies in the play pin.

“Well, their almost ready for their bedtime,” Ivy said avoiding Nicola’s eyes.

“And I won’t be here long,” Rachel said sensing Ivy’s jealousy. She turned and looked at Nicola trying to avoid Ivy’s burning stare.

“Nonsense,” Grey said ready to explode in laughter. “The boys are no trouble. They’ll be sleep in less than a hour like clockwork, and you two will have the entire night to have fun.” He could see Ivy cringing in his peripheral vision. “Besides, we all need a little adult time.”

“You’ve got that right,” Nicola said glad that Grey seemed so personable now.

“Well, call us if you have any trouble,” Ivy said ready to leave immediately.

“Really, we’ll be fine,” Nicola said sensing the discomfort in Ivy’s voice.

“Well on that note, we’re going to head out of here. We’re already running really late,” Grey said as they walked back out into the rain. “And thanks again.”

“Bye.” Rachel waved flicking her beautiful red locks that lay invitingly on her sculptured shoulders.

“She’s pretty,” Grey said looking at Ivy before he opened up the umbrella to cover her pouting face from the storm.

“I noticed.” Ivy finally swallowed.

Pretty or not, Rachel had no place at Nicola’s house as far as Ivy was concerned. How is he going to entertain her and watch the kids? Why couldn’t he just cancel? She dropped down in the seat and slammed the door unknowingly as she went over and over in her head what Nicola and his little bimbo would be doing while she was gone. So engulfed in her own selfishness, she barely noticed that Grey was watching her every move, taking mental notes to retract at a later time.

“For someone whose getting married in a few weeks, you sure are jealous of another woman’s man?” He started the car and pulled out of the driveway. He could drag this on just as long as she would let him.

“It’s not that,” she said realizing her behavior. “I just don’t want a strange woman around my children. I could care less about his little date, but he could have moved it to another time.” She tried hard to change her disposition for Grey’s sake.

“Well, do you want to go back in there and get them?” He tried hard to repress his smile. Rachel was fine as hell, and she was wearing those damned jeans. “I’m sure that we’re imposing on him a lot more than Rachel is imposing on you.” He adjusted his rearview mirror and snickered. “I could see why you would be jealous. She’s…definitely an attention getter.”

“I’m not jealous,” Ivy snapped. “This is not about Nicola. I could care less about him.”

“You’ve already said that,” Grey reminded her.

“So, you know that it’s the truth,” she breathed heavily through her nose and sank deeper down in the seat. “I just want to go and have a good time with the family.”

“Well act like it then. We’ve got a full night to have as much fun as we want.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. Maybe we should just wait until our wedding night? We’ve waited all this time. The six weeks will be up only days before the wedding.”

“Why do you want to wait?”

“Just the excitement of it, really. It’ll only make it better.” She lied.

“Well, we’ve waiting all this time. I don’t see how a few more weeks will matter,” he said unconcerned. He had been getting it from somewhere all this time. Why should he stop now?

***

Rachel sat beside Nicola as he held Madison in his arms. He was totally different than he appeared. She thought a single cop with great looks and no real ties had to be a completely self-indulged, but Nicola was just the opposite. He hadn’t gotten intimate with her about anything really. His conversation was light and playful and his eyes