Page 16 of Timeless Pages
“I don’t want to be rude,” Isa replied.
“It isn’t rude. We crashed your lunch. Please eat,” I replied.
Isa sighed and finally took her first bite, and the moan that left her lips as she savored it instantly made my dick hard as steel. Fuck I wanted to be the reason she made that sound. Evan and Nate shifted in their seats, and I grinned at them. Clearly, we were on the same page.
“Is there anything you’ve always wanted to do but never got the chance?” Evan asked.
Isa thought about it, and I saw when she had come up with something, but instead of telling us, she shook her head no.
“I can see you thought of something,” Nate said, “we’d love to hear what it is.”
“It’s stupid,” Isa replied.
“I doubt that,” he replied, “and even if it is, so what?”
“Growing up, my bedroom window overlooked the park across the street. I would watch families come on the weekends and have picnics. I’d pretend that I was there with them.”
“So you want to have a picnic in the park?” I clarified.
Isa nodded as she took another bite of her food. “I told you it was stupid,” she said after she swallowed.
“I don’t think it’s stupid,” I said.
Isa gave me a small, genuine smile. It didn’t quite warm her eyes, but I was counting it anyway. It was a start.
After lunch, we went our separate ways. I didn’t get much work done because I spent the remainder of the afternoonshopping for picnic supplies, which led me to outdoor and camping gear. Maybe we should take Isa camping and make a whole weekend of it. That could be fun. I wasn’t sure if she was interested in camping, but by the end of the day, I had ordered everything we might need for a weekend in the woods, including a portable bathroom tent, so that Isa would have privacy when she needed to use the bathroom.
When I finally went to the penthouse that night, I felt rather good about the possibility of a weekend trip with Isa. It might take time to get us there, but I was willing to wait as long as it took. I was digging around in the fridge for something to cook for dinner when the elevator doors opened, and Evan rushed out.
“There you are! Come on. We need to get to Timeless Pages. Dave just called me and said we needed to get over there immediately. Nate is downstairs getting the car.”
I shut the fridge and hurried to the elevator. “Do we know what’s going on?”
“All I know is that Dave said it was bad, and the cops were on their way.”
Fuck.
Chapter thirteen
Isa
If having lunch with Brandy had been a surprise, turning it into lunch with Nate, Dom, and Evan was a complete shock. To compound that shock, I had enjoyed myself once we got past the awkwardness. It helped that nobody brought up the bookstore or my father.
I learned they had been friends since grade school and had been starting small businesses together their entire lives. Growing up, I had never had that closeness with anyone, so watching them now as adults was fascinating. My favorite part of lunch was watching Evan eat his eggplant parm. From the first bite, I could tell he didn’t like it, but he powered through because he had already told me it was his favorite. It must have been a lie to have something in common with me. A lie Evan wasn’t willing to admit to because he finished his entire plate and then boasted that he would eat another one if he weren’t so full.
I walked the short distance back to the bookstore. I didn’t own a car, and Uncle Jay had always used a car service. MaybeI will buy one when all this is settled with my father. I don’t need anything fancy, but it would be nice not to have to walk everywhere.
Dave was behind the counter when I walked through the door. “Has it been busy?” I asked.
“About normal for a Thursday,” Dave replied. “How did it go at the lawyers?”
“Good, I think,” I said. “Thanks for watching the shop.”
“You know I am always willing to help you, Belle.”
I smiled fondly at his nickname for me. While a variation of my name, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where it came from, given that I lived in a bookstore. Unfortunately, my story wasn’t a fairy tale; the Beast was the villain.
“And I appreciate it,” I told him sincerely. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Dave.”
