Chapter 11
See You Around
Tara
Isaacwaspaleinthe driver’s seat, my cell phone pressed to his ear. A word escaped between his tight lips, impossible to make out over the pounding rain on the hood of the truck.
“How did you get this number?”
Whatever Jay said, it brought the blood back to Isaac’s face in an angry flush. I’d never seen him like this before. The set of his angular jaw was familiar somehow, his expression mean in a way that made me shiver.
“If you think Saul is going to—"
What did Isaac’s brother have to do with this?
My breath came shallow and rapid. Did they know each other?
No. No, that wasn’t possible. Isaac was a walking red flag but for an entirely different reason. He wouldn’t hang out with Jay, or any of the strange men that seemed to flock to him.
Isaac pulled the phone away from his ear, staring at the darkening screen.
“What did he say?” Nothing good.
“He—" Isaac cleared his throat, setting the phone in the drink holder too carefully and flexing his fingers. His shoulders wereup to his ears, eyes downcast. “He said he’s an asshole. He said he doesn’t deserve you. That you should move on.”
The words sounded like Isaac, but the playful tone was gone. Now his voice was sharper, reverberating deep from his throat. Something in that sound raised goosebumps along my arms.
The air shifted rapidly inside the truck, like the storm was seeping in through the cracks in the door and filling the small space with cold.
Isaac wasn’t telling me the truth. What could Jay have said to him to rattle him this much?
“How long—" He made a choked noise, scratching at the hollow of his throat. “How long were you seeing him?”
“Six months. I had just moved in with him when—"
“He’s right.” I startled, tugging my seatbelt across my chest as Isaac jerked the truck into drive. “You should move on.”
“I have.”With you. And for a second there, I thought…
That maybe this was something more.
That Isaac might actually be different.
He didn’t say anything else, driving mechanically back to my rental. He pulled the truck under the house, idling there with a faraway look on his face.
My first instinct was to apologize. Clearly, he was upset and that was my fault. I shouldn’t have let him answer the phone. Shouldn’t have made this afternoon about me—
No. This wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do anything wrong.
Isaac wasn’t Jay. He wasn’t going to go snarling through the house, punishing me for having an opinion by slamming doors—or worse.
“Thank you for today. It was enlightening.”
“Good,” Isaac answered, unsticking his hands from the steering wheel to rub the back of his neck. “That’s good.”
I waited, tension coiling in my middle. He didn’t say anything else. The shadows under the house moved over his face,sharpening the angles of his cheeks. It was hard to look at him, that harsh cut of his features making him unnaturally vicious.
When he finally glanced my way, I saw the faint yellow light from the porch catch his eye, glittering gold and bright.