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Ford had still been in the office when Dallas and Nolan had come in from feeding the animals their evening meal, and things had gotten pretty tense pretty fast when I’d told them who Ford was. But Newt, who’d been clueless about the situation, had been so excited to show off his helmet that it’d given Dallas and Nolan a few moments to process Ford’s presence and the bruises on his face. I knew next to nothing about Ford Cornell, other than he was a good five years younger than Jimmy and had ended up getting into some pretty serious trouble shortly after high school. My plan was to ask Alex if he knew anything about what exactly it was that Ford had done and if he thought the young man was a bad seed like his brother.
After Newt had finished telling Nolan and Dallas about his present and shown them the microphone that Ford had added on his own and which I thought had been a pretty clever idea, Ford had sputtered an awkward apology and promised he’d never bother any of us again before he’d hightailed it out of the office. Nolan had actually tried to stop him, but Ford had been out the door too fast to even try to get any more information out of him.
I hadn’t had time to talk to Dallas about any of it, but I definitely wanted to see how he was feeling about the whole thing when I saw him the following day, since I’d been the one who’d brought a member of the Cornell family back into his life, inadvertent as it was. I also wanted to talk to Alex about Jimmy’s attack on Isaac, though I knew I’d need to talk to Isaac first, because I still had no idea what he and Newt were running from and as much as I liked Alex, I couldn’t risk exposing Isaac in any way.
Not until he told me the truth.
But the truth was a long ways off. At this point, I couldn’t even get Isaac to spend more than a few minutes in my company unless I was in the midst of a raging panic attack.
I should have been more embarrassed by the fact that Isaac had seen me yet again at my weakest, but in truth, it didn’t bother me. I’d accepted that even though I saw myself as weak for not being able to just get over my fears, Isaac didn’t see me that way.
He wouldn’t.
He just wasn’t that kind of person.
I sighed as Snotrod stretched again before getting up and snuggling right up against my neck. “Okay, Snot, I’m calling it,” I said. “Bedtime.”
It wasn’t particularly late, but it’d been a long day and for once, I wasn’t interested in losing myself in half a bottle of alcohol.
I was in the process of getting to my feet when the doorbell rang. With Snotrod tucked against my chest, I went to answer it, assuming it was Alex stopping by to say hi. But when I saw who it was on the other side of the door, my breath caught in my throat.
“I come bearing gifts,” Isaac said loudly.
A little too loudly.
He held up what looked like a litter box, a bag of cat food, a plastic bag that had something in it I couldn’t see, and a plush cat bed with a mouse embroidered on the cushion.
“Newt and I went to the pet store after you left. You really should have let us drive you,” he said.
Since I’d figured I’d pushed the limits of my mental health with the one car ride already that day, I’d ended up declining the offer to be driven home, choosing instead to just tuck Snotrod into my coat and hold him against my chest for the walk home. The kitten had slept the entire time.
“And don’t worry, I didn’t pay for any of this myself. I used the money you kept telling Dallas to give me, so you paid for it. Not that I would have minded paying for it after what you did for Newt, which was awesome by the way. He wanted to sleep with the helmet on. I finally told Dallas and Nolan just to let him. They’re babysitting. Did I say that already? Because they are. Just until I get back. Dallas let me borrow his truck again and told me how to get here. I mean, I know it could have waited until tomorrow but I wanted Snotrod to be comfortable—”
“Isaac,” I cut in, since I knew he was so nervous he’d ramble on all night if I let him.
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to come in?”
Isaac looked past me as if expecting the house to be some kind of doomsday lair. He finally nodded. “Yeah, okay, thanks.”
Butterflies danced in my belly as he moved past me. He smelled really good and he’d swapped out the pink sweater for a teal and black top and was wearing purple skinny jeans instead of his typical black ones. There wasn’t enough light in the hallway to see his makeup, but I could see the tempting sheen on his lips, which told me he was wearing the gloss. I just didn’t know if it was the regular clear gloss or the one with the tint.
