Page 159 of Square Deal

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m gonna have to get garment racks for the guest room, aren’t I?”

“Might be a good idea.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “What would you have done if I told you I never wanted to see you again?”

Isaac pressed a kiss into the top of my hair. “I would’ve set up camp on your front porch and scared away any potential suitors who came to ask for your hand.”

I leaned back in his arms and laughed, staring at the sea of brown moving boxes piled up in front of my door. I’d have to go out the back door to make it to my car in the morning. “You’re incorrigible.” He turned my hips, and I looked up at him. “But I love you, Isaac Lawson. As is.”

My weekendfull of weddings went off without a hitch. Every night Isaac had a bottle of champagne waiting for me in my office. Good champagne at that.

Monday rolled around, and I had never been so thankful for a day off. Coming off my Fruity Pebbles bender and Isaac’s impromptu moving in, I needed a minute to catch my breath.

We spent the day organizing our things. I finally conceded and gave him a little closet space and a lot of my home office. It was the least I could do. I’d be taking up most of his closet space at his apartment when I unpacked the things I shipped to New York.

Maddie and Luca were already planning for the four of us to spend the holidays together in the city. Maddie had a mile-long list of all the places she would take me to in New York.

Of course, Nonna called Isaac to make sure we were back together. He told her the good news and accepted her invitation for dinner at the DeRossis whenever we were in New York.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Luca said from behind the bar in his man cave. “Last call for drinks before Pelham deals.”

Everyone helped clear the mountain of empty boxes of five-dollar pizza, plastic cups, and paper plates. We were a classy bunch.

“You want a drink?” I asked Isaac as he tied up a garbage bag.

He shook his head. “I’m good.”

I helped clean up and watched as he took the trash outside. Isaac told me what happened when he got home from London.

He had always been one to enjoy a drink without hesitation, but after Luca, Steve, and Chase pulled his sloppy drunk self out of a strip club, he decided to cut back. Way back.

He immediately fell in love with Cheerwine and was sold on most all things ‘North Carolina’ after that.

We crowded around the poker table as Steve dealt the cards. Aly fussed the minute Erica got off the couch. I held my hands out. “Take a break. I’ll hold her.”

“You wanna watch us play poker?” I asked Aly in a gentle voice as I propped her up on my lap. “Might as well learn early.”

Aly perked up when everyone’s attention was on her. She eyed Isaac suspiciously. Apparently, eight-month-old babies had strong opinions on who they sat beside.

The wariness didn’t last long because she reached her chunky baby arms out. Shehumphedwhen Isaac didn’t immediately pick her up and tell her she was the prettiest girl in the whole wide world.

He raised his eyebrows. “They didn’t teach us how to speak ‘baby’ when I was in boarding school.”

I giggled. “She wants you to hold her.”

His eyes widened.

“You don’t have to,” I said quickly. He wasn’t a baby person. Some people weren’t, and that was just fine.

To my surprise, he set his cards face down and picked her up. Aly let out a raucous belly giggle, and then a room-clearing fart.

“Gee, thanks, kid.” Isaac grimaced, trying not to breathe in the noxious fumes. “What are you feeding this thing, Pelham?”

Steve looked up from his hand with a death glare. “Her name’s Aly, and you either treat her like a friggin’ lady, or you and me are gonna step outside.”

Lord, help Aly when she was of dating age.

Isaac held Aly out in front of him. “Alright, Miss Aly. No giving away my cards. Understood?”

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