Wrong Flirt, Right Trouble: His Uncle Pulls Me Close

After briefly discussing Yara Scott’s situation, Nina Scott also asked, ”Ivy, do you remember Pudgy Sawyer?”

”Pudgy Sawyer? You mean Christian Sawyer? The one who used to follow you around, wanting to call you his ’boss’?”

Ivy had a vague impression. It seemed they’d gone to middle school together, but then he transferred with his family a year or two into high school. After that, she’d lost touch with him.

”Well, he’s not ’Pudgy’ anymore. He’s grown into a total hunk. I saw him today and we chatted for a while. We even exchanged contact info. Let me show you his social media.”

As Miles Mercer carried the dishes out from the kitchen, he saw Ivy Sherwood and Nina Scott huddled together, their heads bowed as if they were looking at something.

”This is Pudgy Sawyer?” Ivy was in disbelief.

She remembered him being really, really fat in middle school.

”Right? Didn’t he get handsome? If it were you, would you even have recognized him?”

Miles knew. They were discussing that man.

Ivy shook her head. ”Definitely not.”

”See? He also told me about some of our other classmates. Like Lily, for example. I heard she got plastic surgery,” Nina started to chatter on.

”AHEM!” Miles cleared his throat. ”Time to eat.”

”Come on, let’s eat first,” said Ivy.

”Okay, wait a second.” Nina walked over, grabbed something, and went into the kitchen. She quickly came out with a cup and placed it in front of Miles.

”You have a cold, don’t you? Hurry and drink this. If you need to see a doctor, you should go. All that coughing isn’t a good sign.”

Nina had made him a cup of instant cold medicine.

Ivy was surprised. ”Miles, you have a cold?”

”Of course not.” Miles didn’t have a cold at all. He had coughed to get Nina’s attention.

’This woman, how could she not get the hint?’

But even though he wasn’t sick, he figured prevention couldn’t hurt. So Miles drank the entire cup of medicine Nina had made for him.

After lunch, Miles quietly sidled up to Ivy and asked, ”That Christian Sawyer, you know him too?”

”Yeah, he was our classmate. Why are you asking about him, Miles?”

”No reason. I just saw him today and thought he was pretty average. Not nearly as handsome as Nina made him out to be. She has terrible taste. Just awful.”

Ivy chuckled, giving Miles a teasing look. ”Is that so? Miles, you seem to care a lot about what she thinks. Don’t tell me you’re starting to fall for Nina?”

”No way! If anything, she’s the one who likes me, okay? She’s always trying to get handsy and take advantage of me for no reason. It’s so annoying!”

Nina, who was nearby, happened to overhear him. ”What? Who likes you? Who’s been getting handsy and taking advantage of you? Don’t make things up! We just have an agreement. When the contract is up, we go our separate ways, you get it?”

Nina’s denial was swift. She had no such feelings for Miles.

Miles’s face darkened. ”You don’t have to remind me. I’m more eager for this agreement to end than you are. Can’t you be a little gentler? Stop acting like a tigress all the time.”

”So what if I’m not gentle? So what if I’m a tigress? Go find someone who is! Ivy, you have no idea. This guy saw some women today and was like a little lamb in a wolf’s den. He was too scared to even move! It was hilarious. You should have seen it. I can’t believe someone could be that afraid of women.”

”You’re exaggerating! I wasn’t afraid of them at all. They were the ones with ulterior motives toward me!”

”In your dreams. You really think they were interested in you? They were just interested in your fancy clothes and your money. After I told them you were broke, did a single one of them still bother with you?”

Miles really couldn’t win an argument with this woman. A fierce, unreasonable woman like her? ’No one could possibly like her.’

’Once he divorced Nina, he was going to find someone gentle, someone who spoke in a soft, quiet voice!’

”Why do you two start fighting the second you see each other? You’re a married couple. You should be more tolerant of one another,” Ivy said, trying to play peacemaker.

”Who’s married to him? It’s all fake!”

Miles shot back, ”You think I wanted this?”

The two of them stomped off, grumbling. Ivy pressed a hand to her forehead. She wasn’t going to get involved anymore.

After the meal, Nina had her own things to do, so she left with Miles.

Ivy and Quentin Blackwood were at home. In the afternoon, Quentin took Ivy out for a stroll.

The weather was gradually getting warmer. Summer came especially early in Lustre.

The two of them wandered around the neighborhood. Ivy kept the brim of her hat pulled down low as they walked together inconspicuously.

It was still a little chilly in the evening. Quentin draped his jacket over Ivy’s shoulders. ”Wear more. Be careful not to catch a cold.”

Ivy obediently put on the jacket and let Quentin lead her by the hand.

”This area used to be a park when I was a kid. Then it was bought out, but the developer never did anything, so it all just became a bunch of abandoned buildings,” Ivy said, looking at the area.

She remembered a lot of people protesting back then. The location was pretty good and the apartments were sold at a high price, but in the end, a whole lot of people got scammed.

Quentin also had a faint impression of the place. He had passed by it in a hurry with his mother once. It wasn’t much of a park, just a spot where many elderly people came to exercise.

The cost to redevelop the properties here would be extremely high, with no guarantee of profit, so no one had ever taken on the project.

”Did you come here often when you were little?” Quentin asked.

”Mhm,” Ivy nodded. ”My mom used to bring me here. That’s actually one of the reasons I bought a house in this neighborhood.”

Because when she was a child, her mother often brought her here. There used to be a small playground with a slide, but it was long gone now.

”So what was this place like when you were a child?” Quentin asked.

Ivy tried to recall, but her memory wasn’t that clear anymore. She only remembered the general gist of it.

What Ivy didn’t know was that Quentin was committing her every word to memory.

Just as they were about to head back, Quentin said, ”After your next prenatal check-up, I might have to go on a business trip for a while.”

”Back to Aethelgard?”

Quentin said, ”No, there are some problems with an overseas project that I need to handle in person.”

Ivy nodded. ”Work is important.”

”Why don’t you come with me? You can relax and unwind abroad.”

”I’d better not. You’re going for work, not for fun. Besides, I have work too. There will be plenty of opportunities to travel abroad later.”

Ivy was worried that if she went along, Quentin might be too busy taking care of her to focus on his work. And if she had trouble adjusting to the new environment, plus the jet lag, it might just be more trouble.

”Then wait for me to come back.”

”Okay.”

She nodded. She would stay here in Lustre and wait for Quentin to return.