Page 66 of Leave It to Us
“If we’re alive to replace it,” Yvonne said.
Lana groaned. “Please, let’s not talk dying into the atmosphere.”
Then they heard footsteps—quick, approaching footsteps—and they stopped. Lana had turned off the lights in the kitchen and the part of the foyer closest to the back of the house when they’d finished dinner. She hated wasting electricity, especially since the three of them were each currently paying two utility bills—their own in the city and part of the one here at the summerhouse. So when a dark, shadowy figure stepped out of the kitchen and turned, heading directly toward them, they all screamed.
Then they charged, weapons held high, as they were hell-bent on taking down the intruder if it was the last thing they did.
“Wait! Hold the hell up!” the intruder—a man—yelled. “Wait a damn minute! Lana!”
She’d already swung her stick, hitting the man in the shoulder or somewhere—she just knew it had connected. And Tami had jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his waist as she smacked him on the head with the spatula. Yvonne had gone for his legs, swinging the wood plank until he groaned.
“Dammit! Lana! Get your sisters!”
Lana stopped midstrike, her arms still held high, as she’d been about to swing on the intruder again when she heard her name. Had he said it before? Wait a minute, was that ... “Isaac?”
“Where?” Yvonne asked.
“Get off me!” he yelled before something else crashed to the floor.
Yvonne found the light switch, and the end of the foyer was illuminated.
Lana gasped. “Isaac.”
He had his hands around Tami’s wrists now, holding them both tightly as he pushed her back to the wall. “Stop hitting me with that thing!” he yelled into Tami’s face.
Isaac’s eyes were wild, face pulled into a grimace. Tami’s mouth formed a big O as she pulled her hand back slowly and let her legs fall to the floor.
When she was standing on her own, Isaac backed away from her. “Fuck!” he yelled, and then dragged a hand down his face. “What the hell is wrong with you three? I thought something had happened to you.” He glanced toward Lana. “Hell, all of you.”
“Us?” Yvonne asked. “What’s wrong with you, breaking into people’s houses in the dark of night? We’re the ones who belong here, not you.”
“Yeah, you know, we could’ve shot your ass if we’d been packin’ some real heat,” Tami chimed in.
“What are you doing here?” Lana asked, watching her husband carefully. He didn’t look like himself. Beads of sweat lined his forehead, and he was heaving like he’d either run a marathon or he really was afraid something had happened to her.
He wore dark jeans, a black hoodie, and black tennis shoes. Definitely not an outfit one should wear when they were planning to break into someone’s house. But surely Isaac hadn’t planned to break inhere. Why would he do that? She didn’t have any answers; her thoughts were too scrambled.
“You ever heard of a front door?” Yvonne asked when neither Lana nor Isaac had said anything else.
“I tried the front door,” he said with a sigh. “I pressed that bell like twenty times before it dawned on me that it must not be working. Then I knocked on the door, but when I didn’t see any lights on downstairs, I figured y’all were probably upstairs in bed. But then I could hear music, so I came around to see if you were out back on the deck. Then, when I didn’t see any of you, I got worried.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. “I wanted to see my wife.”
He said those last words as if they’d needed to be strongly pronounced. But it wasn’t like everybody didn’t already know who he was.
“Why didn’t you just call me?” Lana asked him.
“I did,” he told her. “Where’s your phone?” He looked her up and down, probably surveying her pajamas and the lack of any place to carry her phone.
It was her turn to say, “Oh. It’s upstairs on the charger.”
He nodded and attempted a weak smile. “So you couldn’t hear that ringing either.”
“Still doesn’t make breaking and entering the best idea,” Tami said. “Sorry about that bruise you’re gonna have on your forehead tomorrow.”
Isaac reached up and rubbed his forehead where Tami had smacked him with the spatula. He shook his head. “It’s nice to see you too, Tami.”
“Oh, don’t be like that, brother-in-law,” Tami said, waving a hand at Isaac. “You’re partially responsible for the welcome you received.”
“She’s right about that,” Yvonne said as she finally propped her wood plank against a wall.
