Chapter 0202

“Yours, actually,” he relies,

slipping his hands into his pockets and staring at the house.

I frown at him. “What?”

“This is your dad’s place,” Ivan explains, turning to me with a smile. “He loaned it to me for the night. Told me to take you up

here, enjoy ourselves.”

“Oh,” I say, shrinking away from him a little, surprised. “I thought that you...”

Ivan turns his head a little, waiting

for me to continue.

“Well...” I hesitate, “my dad and I, the last time we met, we didn’t... end things on very good terms. And he was mad that I was

seeing you. And I kind of thought that you brought me up here because you wanted to see me...”

“Fay,” lvan says gently, taking my hand. “Nothing’s changed. I’m still on your side. Your dad loaned me the house because I

flipped out on him — I heard what he said to you

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My mouth drops open, wanting to

ask how, but he just smirks at me and puts a hand up, asking me to

let him finish.

“I have my sources, Fay,” he continues, “and I went to your dad’s house, demanding that he apologize to you. This,” Ivan says,

shrugging and looking towards the house again, “is his apology. As well as his blessing, I guess. For us to see each other.” He

turns to look me in the eye then. “Though none of that matters to me,

though. I’d have come for you tonight whether he’d loaned me.

this house or not.”

“Oh really?” I ask, finding myself drawing closer to him unconsciously. “And without this house, where would you have

taken me?”

“Cheap motel on the boardwalk,” he says, shrugging with a smirk. “I would have treated you to the

finest fries that a five dollar bill could buy — taken you fishing on the pier with nothing but a piece of corn as bait-”

I find myself laughing, suddenly, charmed by him again. He wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me close, and I let him.

“Seriously,