He Stood Me Up, so I Married His Brother novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: Ivey's Price
I set the pickle jar on the hood of my truck.
I kept one hand on it.
"What video?" I said.
"I was doing a family business series that year. Behind the scenes at Ashwood." Ivey wrapped her arms around herself. "I was filming at Riverside Bend that morning. Before. And during."
"During."
"Yes."
Up the street, somebody laughed. A table scraped on the asphalt.
"Show me," I said.
"No."
She took out her phone after all. She turned it so I could see the screen without touching it.
It was a paused frame from a video. A half-built house. A ladder against the eave. The time stamp in the corner said 8:52 a.m.
The date was three years ago, in May.
Then she put the phone away.
"It shows who told him to go up," she said.
"Who?"
"That's the part you don't get for free."
I stared at her.
"What do you want, Ivey?"
"Drop the bid."
"That's it?"
"And stay away from Crosby." Her voice wobbled. "He sent you roses. Twenty-seven roses. He's never sent me a single flower in my life."
"He's your stepbrother."
"He's not my brother." It came out of her fast and fierce. "Mama married his daddy when I was eleven. He was fifteen and he barely knew my name. He's not my brother. He's the only person who ever came when I called."
She was crying now. Real crying, ugly, with her mascara running.
There was no camera this time.
"I love him," she said. "I've loved him since I was twenty-one. And you had him, and you didn't even want him enough to wait."
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