Country Club Living - Rafe Cameron

Chapter Twenty Nine - Reconciliation

Rafe and Ivy hadn't spoken in two weeks now, she hadn't seen much of him at all and as she wandered aimlessly through her quiet house she suddenly felt almost as empty as the house. It had taken her the two weeks to realise that she had in fact fallen in love with the boy she once despised and that their last night together had been one of the happiest she had felt before it all came tumbling around her, it was just like everything else good in her life. Sudden and fleeting, never to last.

Her parent's divorce was almost finalised, she hadn't seen her dad since the morning in her bedroom, she and her mother had spent the past two weeks boxing up things in the house in Kildare, ready to move to wherever they could afford. Ivy had begun to worry about the money situation, not sure what would happen now.

Alexis had not yet spoken to her daughter about what they would do but realised the conversation would have to come sooner or later, so as she sat at the kitchen counter, staring at the freshly prepared breakfast on the table she decided it should happen now as Ivy walked through the doors, sporting a casual look and a sad smile that hadn't seemed to be genuine since the last time she saw Rafe.

"Hi hon, I made waffles if you want some"

"Thanks, mom but I'm not that hungry" Ivy said pouring herself a cup of black coffee and taking a seat at the table

"So I wanted to talk to you about the move. I know you're going off to college and it doesn't really matter where I go but... I think I'm going to stay here"

"You can't afford here though?"

"Not here exactly but I'm going to stay in Kildare. There's a house up for sale near the Carreras, you remember them don't you? They own The Wreck?"

Ivy's jaw clenched at the thought of Kie "Isn't staying on figure eight a little too expensive mom?"

Alexis took a seat at the table beside her daughter "You know Ivy, I'm not just a pretty face. I've been saving for quite some time and investing in things, things your father didn't know about. I have money, quite a bit of it actually and that leads me to my next point" she said, her eyes suddenly looking at the stack of waffles on the table "With that money, I'm going to open up my own diner. Now of course I'll need to take some culinary classes, make sure I've got the right insurance and things, but I have plenty of contacts of people that can help me out with the business side of things. I want to do what I've always wanted to do, and I want to do it right"

"Do you still have that money grandpa gave you?"

The tired-looking woman glanced at her daughter, guilt across her face "Yes, I do, and since I took it I've doubled it, maybe even tripled it. But money isn't everything, so you and I? We're going to do some begging and pleading, come on. Put those waffles in a container"

Together, they cleaned up the kitchen and headed out, heading down to the direction of the cut, down to the direction of Alexis' old home. As they were leaving, Ivy spotted Rafe getting back from a run, her eyes fixed to him, her first glance in what felt like forever. He looked agitated and on edge, his jaw was clenched and his jawline prominent even from the distance Ivy was standing. His grey top was stained with perspiration and his cheeks flushed, when he noticed Ivy looking at him he felt his breath catch in his chest as everything he had been trying to avoid for the past two weeks came hurtling full force toward him. All he wanted to do was apologise, apologise for leaving her, for staying away, for betraying her trust. But he couldn't risk it, his father had given strict instructions for him to stay away and even made him block her on everything, watching him as he did so. He always did as Ward told him to, he was the one person that he didn't want to disappoint. That was until he started to fall in love with Ivy, now he had already hurt her and didn't want to risk doing so with his father too. Pulling his eyes away from the sour expression of the girl he put his head down and entered the gates to his home, feeling even more frustrated than before he had left for his run.