"Ivy"-she couldn't hear him, but she felt her name whispered by him against her cheek. "Ivy." Then he was gone.
Ivy hung a long dangle earring on each ear, wiped away a smudge of mascara beneath one eye, then took a step back from the mirror, surveying herself.
"You look hot."
She glanced at Philip's reflection in the mirror and burst out laughing.
"You didn't pick up that” expression from Andrew. And how do you know what hot looks like, anyway?"
"I taught him."
Ivy spun around. Gregory stood in the entrance to her bedroom, leaning casually against the door frame.
Since Eric's death nearly a week before, Ivy had felt Gregory's presence following her like a dark angel.
"And you do look hot," he added, his eyes moving down her slowly.
Maybe I should have chosen a skirt that's not so short, Ivy thought, or a top that isn't scooped so low.
But she was determined to show the others at Suzanne's birthday party that she wasn't a depressed girl ready to choose the suicidal path everyone thought Eric had taken. Suzanne was still having her party, though it was the day after the funeral. Ivy had encouraged her, telling Suzanne it would be good for everyone-the kids from school needed to come together now.
"It's the colors. They make you hot," Philip said to Ivy, anxious to sound as if he knew what he was talking about.
Ivy glanced at Gregory. "Good job, teach."
Gregory laughed. "I did my best," he said, then he held up his car keys and rattled them.
Ivy grabbed her own keys and purse.
"Ivy, this is silly," Gregory said. "Why are we going to the same place and taking two cars?"
They had already argued about her decision during dinner. "I told you, I'll probably leave before you do."
She picked up a wrapped gift for Suzanne and turned out the lamp on her dressing table. "You're dating the hostess-everyone will probably leave before you do."
Gregory smiled slightly and shrugged. "Maybe, but if you want to leave, there will be lots of guys there glad to give you a ride home."
"Because you look hot," Philip said. "Because you-" "Thank you, Philip."
Gregory winked at her brother. Philip jumped off her bed, using her scarf as a parachute, and scooted through the bathroom that joined his room with hers.
Gregory continued to lean against Ivy's door. "Is my driving that bad?" he asked, stretching one arm across the doorway, blocking her exit "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were afraid to drive with me."
"I'm not," Ivy said firmly.
"Maybe you're afraid of being alone with me."
"Oh, come on," Ivy said, walking briskly toward him and pulling his arm down. She turned him around by the shoulders and gave him a push. "Let's get going or we'll be late. I hope your Beamer has gas."
Gregory reached back for her hand and pulled her close to him, too close.
Ivy's heart was beating fast as they moved down the stairs-she really didn't want to ride alone with him.
She wished he weren't so attentive when she got into his car. The constant small and needless touches jangled her nerves. He kept looking at her as he drove slowly down the driveway.
When they stopped at the bottom of the ridge, Gregory said, "Let's not go to Suzanne's."
"What?" Ivy exclaimed. She tried to cover her growing apprehension with a show of disbelief and amazement. "Suzanne and I have been friends since we were seven, and you think I'm skipping her seventeenth-birthday party?
Drive!" she commanded. "To Lantern Road. Or I'm getting out."
Gregory rested his hand on her leg and drove to Suzanne's house. Fifteen minutes later, when Suzanne answered the door, she did not appear overly delighted to see Gregory and Ivy together.
"He insisted on driving me," Ivy said. "He'll do anything to make you jealous, Suzanne."
Gregory shot her a look, but Suzanne laughed, her face brightening.
"You look gorgeous," Ivy told her friend, and gave her a hug. Ivy felt a moment of hesitation, then Suzanne hugged her back.
"Where do I stash this present?" Ivy asked as a large group of kids who had crammed themselves into a Jeep came in behind them.
"End of the hall," Suzanne said, pointing to a table with an impressive pile of boxes. Ivy headed quickly in that direction, glad to be away from Gregory. The Goldsteins' long center hallway led to a family room that ran along the back of the house, its floor-to-ceiling windows facing a porch and the back lawn, which sloped down gently to a pond. It was a warm September night, and the party had spread out from the large room to the porch and lawn below.
Walking out on the porch, Ivy saw Beth sitting in the swing at one end, deep in conversation with two cheerleaders. The two girls were talking excitedly at the same time, and Beth's head went back and forth as if she were watching a tennis match.
Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Will, sitting on the wide porch steps next to a girl with auburn hair, the girl he had been with six weeks ago when Ivy ran into him at the mall. Now, she was hot.
"Wish I could read minds," Gregory said, touching a cold glass to Ivy's arm.
It seemed impossible to move out from under his shadow.
"What are you doing-putting a hex on that girl?" he asked.
Ivy shook her head. "I was just thinking, thinking that when it comes to hot, that girl is it."
Gregory watched Will's companion for a moment, then shrugged. "Some girls look hot on the outside, but it's just a tease. Other girls, they put you off, play hard to get, act like ice queens"-he looked at her with laughing eyes-"but they're running hot." He moved closer to her. "Real hot," he whispered.
Ivy flashed him an innocent smile. "Like Philip, I can always learn something from you."
Gregory laughed. "Did you get a drink?" he asked, offering with his left hand a plastic cup.
"I'm not thirsty," Ivy said. "Thanks anyway."
"But I got this for you. I saw you standing over here, checking out Will-" "I wasn't checking out Will," she protested.
"Okay, checking out the redhead, then-her name's Samantha-and I thought you could use something to cool off."
"Thanks." Ivy reached for the cup in his right hand.
Was it her imagination, or did Gregory move it away from her? Ivy had remembered Lacey's warning and didn't want to drink from the cup he was offering. But he insisted that she take it, and she finally did.
"Thanks.
I'll be seeing you around," Ivy told him airily.
"Where are you going?"
"Cruising," she replied. "I didn't wear this short skirt for nothing."
"Can I come?"
"Of course not." She laughed up at him as if he had said something he knew was silly. Inside she was so tense, her stomach hurt when she breathed. "How can I check out guys with you around?"
To her relief, Gregory didn't follow her. Ivy dumped her soda in the garden as soon as he was out of sight.
Working her way around the party, she smiled and listened to any guy who looked as if he needed an audience, while always steering clear of Gregory. She circled around Will, too, and didn't see either of them again until Suzanne blew out the candles on her cake.
When everyone had gathered for the song and cake-cutting, Suzanne wanted Ivy to stand on one side of her and Gregory on the other. Mrs. Goldstein, who trusted Suzanne enough to watch the party from an upstairs window-without her glasses, she told them- made an entrance with the cake and took what seemed like a hundred pictures of Suzanne, Ivy, and Gregory.
"Now each with your arm around her," Mrs. Goldstein directed them.
Ivy slipped her arm around Suzanne's back.
"Beautiful! You're all beautiful!" Flash.
"Let me get another shot," Mrs Goldstein said, then shook the camera and muttered to it. "Don't move."