“Sure.” She pulled it out and handed it to me. There was a passcode on it. “Do you know the code?”
“No.”
“What’s her birthday?”
“March 16.”
I tried 0-3-1-6. It worked. “Tell her to change her passcode. That was way too easy.” Then I had a random thought. “How old is Isabel?”
“She’s twenty-one.”
I had honestly thought she was younger than that. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe because she seemed young. Fresh. Innocent. “She’ll be twenty-two in March?” That was only two and a half years younger than me, which seemed hard to believe. Clearly, her childhood had been a little more buffered than my own, lucky her.
“Yes.” Kim anxiously ran her fingers through her hair and peered over at the phone. “Do you see anything?”
“Just a bunch of texts with someone named Brandy, and a guy named Juan Carlos.”
Kim made a face. “Juan is bad news. I can’t stand him. He’s a liar and a user, but Isabel doesn’t see it. She wants to give everyone a fair chance. But me? One date and if there are any red flags I move on. Next!”
That did not explain how she had ended up married to my father, but I kept my mouth shut.
“Brandy is her best friend. She’s a nice girl.”
“It looks like she was supposed to meet Juan tonight at Lincoln Road.” I felt my gut tighten. There was nothing out of the ordinary as I scanned the texts, other than the fact that it was clear Isabel and Juan were dating. They were flirty and… what the fuck? He had sent her a dick pic. What a tool. I closed it quickly before I threw up or before Isabel’s mother saw it.
It wasn’t even a good dick. I mean, if I was going to send a shot of my junk to someone, I’d make sure I looked huge and hard as a rock. This guy was semi-erect and hairier than a gorilla. I leaned over and lifted my beer up. I needed to force that bile back down my throat.
“Well, I’m not calling him,” Kim said. “Let him think she stood him up.” She flipped her hair back. “Maybe that’s wrong, but I don’t care. My daughter deserves better than a weasel like him.”
I would agree with that. By all accounts, Isabel was a nice girl.
“We should probably talk to him. See if he knew what Isabel was doing, or if he knows anything about anyone who might want to hurt her.” Hell, maybe he wanted to hurt her. Though I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want that. Isabel just seemed so sweet. Normally.
“Can you handle that? I don’t think I want to talk to him.”
“Sure. No problem. Can I keep the phone?”
Kim nodded and then she rubbed her temples. “Lord, I need a martini. I’m so stressed out.”
“Well, if anyone knows how to get you drunk, it’s my dad.” I didn’t mean it to be funny, but Kim suddenly laughed.
“That is true. He’s always a lot of fun.”
Yeah. Just a barrel of laughs. That was Pops. “Don’t worry, Kim. I’ll take care of everything.”
I got a text from Wester that he was outside my apartment. I let him in. “Hey, man, thanks.” I gestured to Kim. “This is Kim, my dad’s ex-wife. Can you take her to my dad’s place in Sunny Isles? It’s right on Collins.”
“Sure, no problem.” Wester was a good-looking guy. The kind of guy that women immediately noticed, straightened their backs, and smiled for. It was those damn blue eyes. He always noticed, but he never cared. He was even more allergic to commitment than me and that was saying a whole hell of a lot. “Ma’am.” He reached out and shook Kim’s hand. “You ready?”
“Yes, thanks.”
Kim’s voice had changed. Even at twenty years older than Wester, she had instinctively reacted to him. It was what all women did and most of the time it amused me, and I didn’t really care if my dad’s ex-wife thought Wester was hot. He apparently was. But at that moment as Kim walked out the front door of my apartment, Wester’s eyes lit up with interest as he glanced back into my apartment. He was looking over my shoulder.
“I see how it is,” he said, nodding with his chin towards my bedroom.
Crap. I spun around and yep. There was Isabel. Totally naked. Again.
“You don’t know anything,” I said, shoving him out the door and pulling it ninety percent closed behind me. “And no looking.”