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“Hello, Bruno, good to see you again.”
She gave his hand a firm shake.
“Good to see you. This is my guest, Marissa Liburd.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Ivy Johnson. Bruno, I don’t believe you’ve met my husband, Lucas.”
Lucas and Ivy had married after a scandal rocked the Johnson family when Lucas found out he was the biological father of her daughter. Since then, the news had died down about the couple. They settled into quieter, matrimonial bliss and had added a son to their family.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Lucas said.
“Only good things, I’m sure,” Bruno said.
Ivy laughed. “I try to be nice, but you’re the competition, although we’re not competing in the same categories this year.”
“Healthy competition is good, don’t you agree?”
“Mhmm.” A smile touched her lips.
“How are the kids?” Bruno asked.
She and Lucas laughed.
“A handful,” her husband said.
“As most kids are. Sometimes I wonder about the headaches we caused our own parents,” Ivy added.
“I have selective memory where that’s concerned,” Bruno said.
Marissa shot him a look, and he chuckled.
“Uh-oh, I know exactly where to get the truth about you,” Ivy said with a teasing laugh.
“We’ve all made mistakes when we were young and dumb,” Marissa said, smiling up at him.
“True, myself included,” Ivy admitted. “The kids are well. Katie—she’s my oldest,” she said by way of explanation to Marissa, “—won an equestrian competition last week. We’re excited and hope she’ll continue practicing and competing. Our son has decided he wants to be a firefighter and an astronaut.”
“Both?” Marissa asked.
Ivy nodded. “Both.”
They all laughed.
“Well, he’s thinking ahead. It’s not a bad idea to have diversified income, and this way he has something to fall back on. If the firefighting doesn’t work out, he can rely on the astronaut income, and vice versa.”
“That’s how we should think of it,” Lucas said, slipping an arm around Ivy’s waist.
“Marissa’s son is obsessed with Spiderman and what… a couple of months ago he ended up in the hospital leaping around like the superhero?”
She nodded. “You can imagine my panic.”
“Oh, I absolutely can,” Ivy said with a laugh.
“How is your mother?” Bruno asked.
“Mother is fine and busy spoiling her ever-expanding brood of grandchildren.”
“I believe my mother envies her.”
