Page 20 of Her Daddies' Everything

Someone slid into the stool next to her and she turned with a smile, thinking Dev was back. To her surprise, though, it wasn’t Dev sitting there but a frowning Isaiah.

“Isaiah? What are you doing here?” she asked.

“The question should be what are you doing here, Immy,” he said.

“I’m having a drink. Do you want one?”

“That better just be soda.”

“It is. Wait. Did you follow me here?”

“Didn’t follow you,” he countered. “I tracked you.”

“You’re tracking me?”

He turned to face her, his dark eyebrows rising. Isaiah had always been the quietest of them all. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t speak up when he had something to say.

“Not all the time. But when you leave the house on your own when you’re not scheduled to go anywhere, and without telling anyone, then, yeah, I track you. I was worried.”

“About what?” she asked.

“That you’d end up in some dodgy neighborhood with dodgy people around you. So glad I was wrong . . . oh, wait.” He glanced around.

“This place isn’t dodgy. I’ve been here before. Amos knows me well, don’t you, Amos?”

“Sure,” Amos said slowly.

“What’s her last name?” Isaiah asked him. “Age? Job? What is her favorite color?”

“Man, I’m a bartender. Know her first name and her drink.” Amos wandered away.

“Can’t believe you’ve come here before and I didn’t know,” Isaiah grumbled.

“It’s a good place to think,” she said. “I found it one night after Bob and I had been to the movies. He got grumpy about something and left, and I went for a walk and found this place.”

“He left you alone? In this area of town?”

“Uh, well.” Oops.

“Need to have a chat with Bob,” he said darkly.

“Leave it. Please. I haven’t seen him in six months,” she said. “And we were just friends, you know.”

That might have been the reason he got so upset with her. She had thought they were just friends . . . and he’d wanted something more.

“Is that what Bob thought?”

“Yes, well, he might have wanted more.”

“And you didn’t want that because you’re in love with Jenner,” Isaiah said.

“Oh God! Does everyone know?”

“Except Jenner.”

“This is just embarrassing,” she muttered.

“If he woke up and really looked at you, he’d notice the treasure he’s letting slip through his fingers.”

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