Page 92 of Finding Fate

Tucker leaned towards her, his arm resting against the back of the seat as he flashed her a playful grin. “’Cause I’d know exactly what to do in that situation. Certified professional, remember?” he said, tapping a finger against his chest.

Her answering grin was playful in return. “And what exactly would you do?”

“This,” he replied as he moved in to catch her lips with his.

After the kiss, Izzy sat back against the seat and frowned thoughtfully up at him.

“What?”

“Just wondering how worried I should be.”

“Elaborate?”

“I was always under the impression that the kind of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation you were trained for involved a lot less tongue,” she said, a cheeky grin appearing on her lips.

Tucker grinned back. “Oh, didn’t I tell you? That’s how I’ve been keeping the lines of obsessive ladies down at the bare minimum the past few months. Now that I’m off the market, you know. You see, the girls just pretend to have a drowning episode, and then I swim out,”

“Oh, shut up,” Izzy cut him off, laughing, her crooked grin spreading even wider across her face. “I was just kidding.”

“I know. But I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were, you jerk,” she retorted, still laughing. “It’s not even beach season. Come on, our parents are inside waiting to see these pictures.”

“Alright,” he replied, laughing, too.

He reached into the backseat of the cab and grabbed his Letterman while Izzy pulled on her red and black dance team jacket.

“I think I’m going to have to buy a new coat soon,” she commented, attempting the impossible feat of pulling the jacket closed around her belly.

“You still look cute, though,” he mused.

She sighed and gave up. “Yeah, okay, but this one doesn’t really work too well anymore. And more cool fronts are starting to come in.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed and opened his door, letting a gush of cold air fill the cab. Wishing he could help, he added, “I’d let you wear mine, but I think it would just swallow you.”

“It really would,” Isabel agreed, reaching for her own door when her phone went off in her pocket. Pulling it out, she read the text Annie had sent, “We did it ‘cause we love you!”

She stared at the screen in confusion. “Huh… That’s weird.”

“What is?”

Isabel leaned over the cab’s seat and showed Tucker the message.

“Huh,” he muttered. “That is weird.”

“Right?”

“Yeah, but can we not worry about it yet? It’s cold, and as you just pointed out, we’ve still got to tell the parents.”

She realized she was shivering a little then and nodded her agreement. They hurried inside where it would be warm and found their moms sitting at the table with cups of coffee in hand. They could hear the sports channel in the den where they suspected Chuck was watching a game.

“Hi,” Isabel greeted them. Tucker waved before he went to dig through the refrigerator. He handed her a snack size bag of baby carrots, his mouth full of leftover rolls. She seemed to be hungry all the time now, a fact that her boyfriend was overtly aware of.

Jenna motioned for them to come to the table and went to grab Chuck from the den. Tucker was pulling out a chair for Isabel as his parents reentered the room.

“Where’re the girls?” Isabel asked when she realized she couldn’t hear Chelsea or Victoria anywhere. She missed her hugs.

“The kids are all at Jet’s house with Helen and Stefano. We wanted to make sure we could talk without being interrupted,” Jenna explained.

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