Page 9 of First Moon

Ivy wrapped her arms around my neck, warm and light in my arms. “Did you think I wasn’t coming?”

“No, it never crossed my mind, actually,” I said.

That made her laugh. “Good, because I couldn’t text you, because my phone was dead. Totally forgot to charge it so I couldn’t call, and I was worried you’d be worried.”

“I guess I should’ve been.”

“No, no. I always do what I say I’m going to do,” Ivy said. “It’s just that I’m not the most organized person in the world. My assistant has the week off, and I’ve been completely lost without her. I already told Marcus this story, but I locked myself out of my condo this afternoon. When I got home after my appointments, I found a bird flying around my living room. I’d left a window open, which was not smart, and he got in there. The little guy was absolutely terrified. Kept flying all around, knocking things over. Broke a lamp, I’m afraid. I opened the French doors that lead to my patio—I live on the eighth floor—and coaxed him out there, but then the patio doors slammed shut. There was this big wind, I guess, and, combined with the other open window, it must have made one of those drafts that slam doors, you know, and scare a person half to death. Anyway, I’m out there on my balcony. No phone, because of course I’d left that in my bag while I was doing all this bird chasing. I had no idea what to do. By this time it was nearing half past five, and I had to shower and, oh my goodness, it was hotter than hades on the patio. While I was thinking about what to do, my next door neighbor came out to her patio. Thank God. But keep in mind, she’s eighty years old and an absolute peach, but she can’t hear a thing. I was out there pantomiming that I was locked out, making the mistake of adding the detail about the bird, which confused her. Anyway, she finally understood and said she’d call the building manager. He came and rescued me. But then I had trouble getting rid of him. He told me this sad story about his sister who was hoping for tickets to my show in Chicago but she couldn’t get them because of those awful bots that buy up all the tickets. We need do something about that, by the way. The sister has cancer, so of course I had to call my assistant and make arrangements for all that. Meanwhile, fifteen more minutes had passed, and I still needed to get ready.” She pulled her shoulders closer to her ears, then let out a long breath. “So sweet Marcus here had to wait downstairs for twenty minutes for me.” She turned to him. “Marcus, you’re an absolute doll.”

Marcus flushed, dipping his chin. “Ma’am, it was my honor to wait.”

“Thanks, Marcus,” she said. “Doesn’t he talk so cute? I just love an English accent.”

“Thank you, Miss James. I like the way you talk as well,” Marcus said.

“Oh, aren’t you as sweet as iced tea on a hot day?” Ivy asked.

“Will you need me to take Miss James home later?” Marcus’s ears were bright red. He wasn’t used to attention from a gorgeous woman.

“Oh my gosh, I didn’t even think of that,” Ivy said. “I’ll just call an Uber. We don’t know how long we’ll be, right, Jack?”

“That’s right. We could talk all night,” I said. Yes, please! “Marcus, consider yourself off-duty for the night. We’ll take care of ourselves.”

“Thank you, Mr. Wilder. Miss James.” Marcus nodded at us in turn, then got back into the car and headed into the garage.

I offered my hand to Ivy. “Shall we? Chicken and dumplings await.”

4

IVY

Itook Jack Wilder’s hand and let him walk me up the brick path toward the prettiest house I’d ever seen. The porch had two rocking chairs angled toward each other like they were waiting for a couple to grow old in them. Through the front windows I could see clear to the back of the place where the ceilings went up and up to a point, the kind of ceiling that’s just begging for a Christmas tree too tall for its own good. A man didn’t buy a house like that, way out here at the end of a long, dark drive, forty-five minutes from town, for just himself. He bought it for the family he was planning to have. This was a house for a whole mess of people.

My heart beat real fast, thinking about how much I wanted it to be me, then dismissed it as impulsive, since I’d just met the man.

“This is a gorgeous house you have here, Jack Wilder.”

“Thanks. I’m proud of it. Never thought I’d own anything this nice.”

“I actually thought it would be bigger.”

He laughed. “Are you disappointed?”

“Not at all. I just had imagined more like one of those with the big ol’ columns.”

“Oh, well, that’s not really my taste. I always wanted a farmhouse. This is a modern take on it. It was the house I always imagined when I was a boy growing up in the trailer park.”

“Well, you did it. You made that dream come true. Isn’t that something?”

“Come on in. Dumplings are ready. I think.”

“You made them for real?” I asked.

“It was a bigger project than I thought,” he said. “And I’m not sure they turned out.”

“I should’ve had you call Mama to walk you through it.”

“There were like a thousand different methods,” Jack said. “All of them contradictory.”