Free A Broken Kind of Beautiful by Katie Ganshert Page A

between the road leading north and the one headed south. Even though he’d chosen a location far enough away to give Ivy her privacy, he couldn’t help but catch snatches of her end of the conversation.
    She tapped her foot against the ground, her hand and, thank goodness,her thumb safely tucked inside the pocket of her navy-blue shorts. A woman like her had no business hitchhiking. He dug the soles of his shoes into the grass and draped his elbows around his knees, wishing his father’s words would leave him alone.
    “I considered it an emergency!” Ivy’s raised voice interrupted a chorus of birds.
    Talking to Bruce, no doubt. Probably demanding the first flight back to New York as soon as Davis snapped the final picture of the editorial shoot. He wiped at the sweat beading along his temple and checked his watch. He needed to get them to Greenbrier in one piece, her to the boutique and his car to the shop, all before his grandparents’ anniversary dinner. And he’d have to suffer through a forty-minute car ride with Jordan Ludd, a kid who claimed to love Sara but left her the first minute something went wrong. A heavy weight settled in his stomach. He had no right to be angry with Jordan. Not when the blame for Sara’s heartbreak lay, ultimately, at his own feet.
    “And you’re convinced this is going to give me exposure?” Ivy toed the grass, her tan legs impossibly long. She turned her back to Davis, taking her voice with her. After a moment, she pulled the phone from her ear.
    He let go of his knees. “Everything okay?” he called.
    “Oh, just dandy.”
    “Want to talk about it?”
    She pivoted around. “You’re very into talking.”
    “You don’t want to stay, do you?”
    She closed the gap between them, cocked her hip, and placed her hand on her waist. She had gone and parked herself right in front of him. Davis kept his gaze trained on her face, even if it meant crooking his neck at an uncomfortable angle. “You remember me as a kid, right?”
    He nodded.
    “Did I look very happy to you?”
    No, she hadn’t. She’d looked sad. And lonely. The same way she looked at the funeral. He plucked a few clovers from the ground. “I think you should stay.”
    “Thirty minutes ago you couldn’t believe I’d taken the job. Now you expect me to stay?”
    “I don’t expect you to stay. I just think you should. It might be good for you.” He set his hands behind him, stretched his legs in front, and crossed one leg over the other, as if his relaxed position might detract from the inherent conflict of his statement. He had no doubt that Greenbrier could be good for Ivy, but he also knew her presence there would do nothing but blur the careful lines he’d drawn around his life. “I wasn’t challenging your motives, by the way. I was only curious about them. You admitted to running away last time you were here, and now you’ve come back for a job you don’t need.”
    Her expression twitched.
    Or did she? He knew better than most how quickly the tide could change for a model working in high fashion. Was it changing for Ivy? He tossed the clovers at the ground. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Your uncle is right about the exposure. Marilyn’s wedding dress line is going to take off. Brides already come to her boutique from across the Lowcountry.”
    “You’re an expert on wedding fashion?” She sat beside him. “That’s an odd hobby for a man like you.”
    For a man like him? Surely Ivy knew he’d been a photographer once.
    “Don’t look so worried, Dave. Bruce assured me that my time will be well spent.” She leaned close and tucked her next words into his ear. “Looks like I’ll be sticking around. For now, at least. Lucky you.”
    His Adam’s apple twitched. Yeah. Lucky him.

10

    During the funeral, Ivy hadn’t had the chance to take in much of Greenbrier. She’d been in town only one day, and given the circumstances, she’d been a little distracted. Something about seeing the man