Chapter 0249

“Hey, Fay,” lvan says, smirking at me as I cross the parking lot to him. His eyes sweep over me, as they usually do, as they didn’t

yesterday. “I like your boots.”

“Thanks,” I say breezily, stepping close to him and unable to keep myself from grinning up into his face. “So glad you could make

time for me today, Ivan.” I murmur. “Considering you were so busy last night.”

“Ahhh,” he says, the corner of his mouth pulling up into that smile that makes my stomach twist as he looks down into my face.

“But it worked, didn’t it?”

I laugh, shaking my head at him. “So that’s what it was?” I ask, a little miffed but pleased to hear that he wasn’t just disinterested.

“A tactic to get me to reach out to you?”

“Well,” Ivan says, turning his head a little to the side, “if you didn’t text me afterwards, it was me holding on to my pride and

moving on with a very pretty brunette.” His smile deepens as I glare at him, unable to hide my jealousy. “But,” he continues,

“since it did...”

Ivan lets his sentence trail off there, smiling down at me, shifting his weight to move even closer. And honestly, I forget to breathe

as I look up into his eyes —

“Ahem,” Jerome says, not even pretending to clear his throat and just saying the word. I jump a little bit but Ivan stays very cool,

keeping his body close to mine as we both turn our heads to look at Jerome standing there, his arms folded, shaking his head at

us.

“Oh, hey Jerome,” Ivan says after a second, leaning away from me and giving Jerome a charming smile. “How are you, man?”

I blink in surprise and see Jerome frown for a second. Honestly, I don’t think either of us thought that Ivan knew who Jerome

was.

Jerome opens his mouth to answer, but I interrupt, grabbing lvan’s hand.

“Come on,” I say, tugging him inward towards the stalls. “Come meet Heathcliff.”

Ivan grins at me and lets himself be lead along. When we arrive at Heathcliff’s stall I drop lvan’s hand to unlock the bolt, but

when I turn to invite Ivan to come in I am surprised to see him standing right where I left him — about five feet away, in the middle

of the aisle.

“Come inside,” I say, gesturing for him to come forward.

“I'm good,” Ivan says, grinning at me and holding up a hand. “I am...close enough out here.”

“What?” I breathe, and then I laugh as I figure out that Ivan is afraid. My eyes flick to Jerome, who stops about ten feet behind

Ivan and he realizes it at the same moment that I do. “Oh my god,” I laugh, coming out of the stall towards Ivan. “You —*

“Um,” Ivan says, taking a step back and watching the dark stall warily. “Do you want to shut that door —*

“Ivan!” I laugh, grabbing his hand. “It’s fine! He’s a big softie —“

Ivan shifts his weight back into his heels and grimaces, actively resisting my pull. “Seriously, Fay,” he says, all pretense dropping.

“lam amazing out there — I can see him, he’s so pretty! But I am...good, admiring from afar.”

“Oh my god,” I laugh, rolling my eyes

and tugging harder until lvan gives in

and stumbles forward dewSieps

“Bi fia Boss! murmur, looking at

him with a little vicious glee as I lead

him to the entrance to the stall door,

“afraid of the world’s nicest horse.”

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.

And then I drop his hand as I go in to

pet Heathcliff, who nickers and

nudges me eagerly with his nose

knowing I've g sygarbibeSit ny

porken Eb e in,” I say to lvan,

rubbing a hand up and down

Heathcliff's nose to give him a little

scratch and then moving to stand at

his side, idly stroking his soft neck.

“Seriously, he’s very gentle.” Please

read the original content at

.

Ivan sighs and then warily steps into

the stall, looking at Heathcliff like he’s

a bomb about to explo @, “He's jistla

very I inva ey van mutters,

Dinciatig I

crossing his arms and looking

intensely uncomfortable. “The

biggest animals I'm used to

are...cats. Maybe squirrels.

Chipmunks.” Please read the original

content at .

“Brunettes,” I murmur, my eyes a little cruel as I smirk at him. His eyes flash from the horse to me, and I see a smirk come back

on his face a little bit.