Page 47 of Love Redesigned
Alex in jeans and a t-shirt. Hair all mussed and loose. Face unshaven.
The man was gorgeous. He froze when he saw me. “Dani.”
I smiled weakly. “Hi.”
“What are you doing here?”
Inwardly, I groaned. Could he sound any less excited? “Is Isaac home?”
“Alex, dude. Close the door. It’s cold.” I heard Isaac’s voice before I saw him appear over Alex’s shoulder. “Dandi? What are you doing here?”
Great. Warm welcome all around. “It’s a long story. And I’d love to tell you, but I’m sort of...” I looked back at the street. “Can I borrow twenty bucks?”
Isaac followed my gaze. “Are you seriously asking me to pay your cab fare?”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t have to. Please? I’ll explain everything, I promise, but he’s still running the meter and—” Before I could even finish my sentence, Isaac turned and stalked back into the house. “Seriously? Isaac!”
“Maybe he’s getting you the cash?” Alex said, his voice more hopeful than I felt.
“Probably not.”
Alex drew his eyebrows together in question. “Did you guys fight about something?”
“No,” I quickly answered. “Or, I don’t know. I might have offended him the last time we texted.”
“Right. When you asked him about his little charity thing. I remember.”
My cheeks flamed red. Were they that close? That I should start worrying about Alex readingallofmy texts to my brother?
“That’s not what I meant. I really did want to know how things were going. It just came out wrong.” A few weeks before everything had gone down with Sasha, I’d made a genuine attempt to reach out to Isaac and see how things were. But the tension between us. The sarcasm and the snark and the constant needling. It washardto undo all that history. Even when I tried, I still wasn’t great at filtering it all out.
I pressed my forehead into my palm. “This has been a very long day.”
Alex touched my elbow. “Hey. Go find your brother. I’ll take care of the cab.”
The tenderness took me by surprise and sent all kinds of feelings sparking through my chest. But no. This was Alex. The last thing I needed was charity fromhim.I shook my head no. “No, no. Don’t do that. I’ll go after Isaac and—”
“And if he gives you the money, you can pay me back. It’s not a problem.”
Before I could object again, he ducked into the rain and hurried toward the cab.
Reluctantly, I stepped into the house, following the sound of Isaac’s voice to the kitchen. He was on the phone, so I waited in the doorway while he finished his call. He pushed his phone into his pocket then folded his arms across his chest. “If you came all this way for Alex, you can’t have him back.”
Well,thatwasn’t what I’d expected. “Um, what?”
“I saw the way you two looked at each other when we were in New York. Clearly there’s still something going on between you, but you can’t have him. He’s happy here. He doesn’t need to move back to New York.”
“Isaac. I’m not here for Alex.”
“He’s the best thing that ever happened to me, Dani.” Isaac pressed on like he didn’t even hear me. “You can’t have him. Also he’s dating someone. And he likes her. A lot.”
“Likes who?” Alex stepped into the kitchen behind me, sliding my suitcases up against the wall.
I looked from Alex to Isaac, then back to Alex again. I didn’t even know where to start. Alex was dating someone? The thought settled in my stomach like a pile of river rock. Cold and hard and heavy. “Um,” I waved my hand in Alex’s general direction. “Isaac thinks we’re...” I paused. “He thinks I’m here to see you.”
Alex wiped raindrops off his forehead and the tip of his nose. “Oh. Are you?”
Had he seriously just asked me that? I scoffed. “Of course not.”
