Page 26 of Branded

I watch her throat bob up and down and she looks down at her plate. “Uh, he was six years younger than me. He passed away five years ago.”

“I’m sorry. I… I didn’t know.”

Her eyes sweep up to mine with a tender smile on her face. “It’s okay, you couldn’t have known. It’s hard, but I manage.”

“I can’t even imagine. What about your parents? They live in Tennessee?”

“Mmm hmm. In the Nashville area. I’ve tried to get them to move closer to me, but they are retired now and really enjoy being in their hometown. I can’t say that I blame them.”

“What did they do before retiring?”

“My dad was an OB/GYN and my mom was a nurse. They ran a practice together, actually.” Her eyes light up when she talks about them. It makes my chest tighten at the thought of my parents.

“Wow. That’s incredible, and impressive.”

“What about your parents?” She takes another small sip of wine.

I lean back in my seat, taking my drink with me. “I never knew my parents. My mom had me young, and I guess just decided she didn’t want to be a parent. Same for my dad. Grams stepped up, they stepped out.” I shrug it off. “And here I am.”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“Why? We are getting to know one another. It was a fair question. No harm, no foul.”

I don’t make a habit of talking about my parents, mainly because there isn’t much to say. I know they are still alive and they live somewhere in Nevada, but other than that, I know nothing. It was just Grams, my grandfather, and me until I was sixteen, then once he died, I became the man of the house. It’s just been Grams and me ever since.

“So you help take care of your Grams, then?” she asks.

“I do. It’s the least I can do after she put up with my teenage shit,” I laugh. “I always tried to be on my best behavior, but boys tend to be assholes from time to time.”

“You can say that again. I deal with teenagers every day. All hormones and attitude.” She rolls her eyes.

“I imagine it’s much worse when they have a teacher that’s easy on the eyes too,” I joke.

She groans in response and I just laugh.

“That was a good line. I have to admit it.”

“Happy to be of service.”

The sun has long since set and the streets are growing emptier as we take a slow walk back to her car.

“I think I’m ninety percent fish at this point,” she pats her belly.

“I will say, if you start growing gills, I’ll have to gracefully bow out,” I chuckle, and she does as well. It’s a sound I want to hear as often as possible.

“This is me.” She points to a small, red compact car and pulls a set of keys from her bag. “I had a really great time, Isaac.”

“So did I.”

She leans back against the driver’s side door and smiles. “What do you have planned for date number two?”

“Is that your way of saying you want to do this again?”Please say yes. Please say yes.I try to play it cool on the outside, even though I’m clearly way too excited on the inside.

“Well, I did agree to five dates because some guy was awfully pushy.”

I lean forward and place my hand on her car by her head, and her breathing accelerates just enough to be noticeable.

“Sawyer, I don’t want you to agree to a second date because of a deal we made in jest. I want you to say yes because you want to. I’d never make you go out with me if you truly didn’t want to.”

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