Page 7 of Isolated
“Oh my gosh, Landen. Look at you. Where are you going?”
I stood, frozen for just a moment, as my mom’s shock and disbelief settled in. She hadn’t quite pulled herself together as I stepped forward into the house. After she closed the door behind me, I revealed, “I’m on my way to a wedding.”
She blinked in surprise. “You should have told me, and I would have stopped over to pick up the doughnuts. I didn’t mean to trouble you and make you come out here to deliver them.”
I waved my hand in the air dismissively and moved toward the kitchen. Dumping the boxes of doughnuts from The Early Bird on the counter, I insisted, “It wasn’t a problem, because your place is on the way.”
My mom had called me late yesterday afternoon and asked if I’d be able to stop and pick up a couple dozendoughnuts for her at The Early Bird, the coffee and doughnut shop owned by my boss’s wife.
Jerking her chin toward the boxes on the counter, she replied, “I appreciate you doing this for me. I’ve been working on organizing a bunch of items for this week’s upcoming events, so this was a huge help.”
For as long as I could remember, my mother had always been moved by the spirit of generosity. But after my dad died in a horrible car accident ten years ago, Lucy Fox dedicated her life to our church community. It gave her a purpose, something meaningful to do, and I was merely glad she had found something to occupy her mind and time. The work she did for the church had pulled her out of the darkness she’d lived in those first few weeks after the accident. No doubt my dad would be proud to see her happy again.
“Any time you need my help, all you’ve got to do is ask,” I offered. “I’ll do whatever I can, even if it’s just picking up a couple of boxes of doughnuts.”
“I know. And I’ll be sure to let all the ladies at brunch know that you delivered these looking so handsome.” She bounced slightly on her toes as her eyes widened. “Oh, I know. I’ll take a picture of you with my phone to show them.”
“Mom, that’s really unnecessary.”
She ignored my protest, running off in search of her phone. All I could do was roll my eyes and laugh.
“Landen, come in here and stand in front of the fireplace,” she called out. “It’ll be such a nice picture.”
I shook my head but exited the kitchen to find her. “Mom, I’m not going to the prom. This is ridiculous.”
“No, but you’re going to a wedding.”
“Not my own, though.”
She held her phone up in front of her. “Smile.”
I smiled.
After she took the picture and lowered her phone, she smiled at me. “It might not be your wedding, but maybe once I show this picture to everyone, they’ll help me find you a lovely girl that’ll make you interested in making that happen someday soon.”
There was a lot I was content to do to make my mom happy these days, but allowing her to set me up on a date with a random girl I hadn’t ever met was not at the top of my list. “I’m not sure that’s such a great idea.”
“It’ll be fine. But don’t worry about that right now. Who’s getting married today?”
“Greyson and Cierra.”
I’d worked with Greyson for years at Harper Security Ops. While I was a private investigator, he worked in our self-defense and tactical training unit. Cierra was the librarian at Steel Ridge Elementary School. Greyson had inadvertently met her one afternoon when he’d needed to pick his nephew up from school. That happened to be one day before Cierra showed up at Harper Security Ops, looking for self-defense lessons. Naturally, Greyson took on that task. And while it hadn’t all been smooth sailing for them at the start—Cierra caught up in someone’s revenge plot—it was safe to say things were great for them now.
“Oh, she’s the teacher, isn’t she?”
“Close. She’s the librarian at the school.”
“Right. I remember that.” She smiled at me. “Well, it should be a good time for you tonight. I only wish you would have picked up your date on the way here.”
I cocked a brow. “My date?”
“You have a date for the wedding, don’t you?”
Laughter spilled out of me. “I do not.”
Something that looked a lot like disappointment washed over her expression. “Why not?”
I shrugged, doing my best to appear nonchalant. “I didn’t ask anyone.”
