FIGHT FOR ME Read Free Page B

imagine it? Maybe it was just a shadow.
    Lucas stood and his shirt settled into place again. He looked entirely innocent once again.
    Ivy stopped the recording on her camera and clapped, hard.
    * * * *
    Ivy, Emma, and Jess spent that evening watching the recording.
    When the recording ended, Jess gave her daughter a big hug. “I’m super proud of you, honey. You’ve definitely got a future in acting.”
    Emma jumped up and down a few times, clearly excited by this idea.
    Jess laughed. “Settle down. It’s time to go to bed.” Jess turned to Ivy. “I’m going to put her down. When she’s asleep do you want to watch a movie or something?”
    “Sure.”
    “But I wanna watch a movie!” Emma pouted.
    “You can watch cartoons tomorrow.” Jess picked up Emma and kissed her on the forehead. “C’mon.”
    They left Jess’s room, where they had been watching the recording on Jess’s desktop.
    Ivy stood, yawned, and got ready for bed herself.
    When Jess came back, the house was quiet. She poured them each a glass of red wine. “This week was exhausting but really productive. I really can’t thank you enough for coming out here, Ivy.”
    Ivy smiled and sipped her wine, getting comfortable on the couch. “No problem. I was thinking of going out this weekend. Would you be all right with that?”
    “Yep, sure. I can stay at home with Em. I barely got to see her all week.”
    “Is there actually anything to do around here?”
    Jess rolled her eyes. “Yes, there is. There’s a great little downtown with boutiques and classy restaurants and a few clubs. Well, just two. There’s also a gorgeous park a few minutes away. Oh, and the library is great. You probably noticed the big gothic stone building on your way in? That’s the library. What were you thinking of doing?”
    “I don’t know, I just don’t want to stay inside.”
    “I get that.” Jess put in a movie, some chick flick with a ridiculous plot that Ivy wasn’t too into.
    She focused more on drinking wine. Eventually she ended up with the bottle next to her on the coffee table. She was a little buzzed.
    She got to thinking about Lucas.
    The main actor in the chick flick looked a little like him, but a bit older and not as smoldering. When the main characters finally fell into bed together, cheesy indie music playing over their PG-13 moans and sighs, Ivy couldn’t help but imagine Lucas.
    He affected her so strongly. She needed to do something about this. More like he needed to do something about it. Something with her. Except… he didn’t seem as interested as she had initially thought. Fuck him.
    Ivy set down her –empty –glass and considered asking Jess about it. Would Jess be okay with Ivy crushing hard on her daughter’s teacher? It didn’t seem too bad on one hand, but on the other Jess was a tiny bit unpredictable and might get really pissed off.
    Maybe there was another way to bring this up, and get two questions answered at once.
    “Hey Jess?”
    Jess looked away from the screen, where the protagonists of the movie were now fighting over something unimportant. “Yeah?”
    “Do you think Lucas is into you?”
    “Mr. Fray? What?” Jess raised an eyebrow and laughed a little. “No way. What brought that up?”
    “He just keeps asking about you.”
    “Like I said, no way. He’s honestly just a caring guy. Lucas is… extremely single. Ever since he moved here, like half a year ago, I’ve never seen him in town with anyone really. It’s like he spends all his time working his ass off or at home.”
    “You sure?”
    “Hell yes. Also, I’m pretty sure he’s not a complete idiot. Not stupid enough to go after a widow.”
    Ivy put a hand on Jess’s and nodded. “Okay. That makes sense.”
    Jess smiled grimly and turned down the TV. She could tell there was something to talk about.
    “Why do you ask? Really? I mean, why do you care?”
    Ivy shrugged. Great. “I... Well…” Curse good red wine. “I guess I’m